Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Guest Post: Skeleton Wreath

I'm so lucky to have my dear, dear blog friend Meg here today to share a very creepy tutorial with you.  She's crazy for Halloween and always has creative ideas for all kinds of Halloween decor, treats and more!  Enjoy her skeleton wreath tutorial, then head over to her blog for more spooky stuff!

Hi there, I'm Meg from Mega•Spooky (and Mega•Crafty). I am really excited that Joanne asked me to guest post here are Ready, Set, Craft! Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. I love decorating for it and I also love crafting, so anytime I get to combine the two I'm wildly happy.

Today the project I'm going to share is a skeleton wreath. It's made from a styrofoam skeleton that came in a bag with all the bones separate (This exact product or something like it seems to be readily available in the Halloween decoration section of most chain home stores.)

I started by laying out the bones and evaluating all the pieces, dry stacking them a few times to get a feel for the shape and size of the wreath.

For me the shape worked best if I used the flatter pieces- hips, hands, feet- to make my base. Each piece overlapped the other so that I could glue them to each other.


I found this glue in the craft store and it worked perfectly.

I wanted the skull to greet all my guests face to face so I gave it a prominent spot at the top, then worked my way around the wreath building the second layers of bones using mostly the leg and arm pieces (boy doesn't that sound strange in a wreath tutorial).

Once I had two solid layers I was left with some of the skinnier flat bones and some smaller little ones (I'm not a doctor and I'm really not sure which bones these are so I'll stick with my highly technical term of "the rest".)

I took "the rest" and stuck them in wherever I thought it felt a little bare.

The last piece of the skeleton I added to the wreath was the jaw (and in my opinion it was the best piece- I think it really makes the whole thing).



This was the only piece that needed to be propped up until the glue dried, everything else stayed in place on it's own.
I let the wreath dry flat overnight and the next day it was ready to hang. Since the skeleton is foam it's very light and only needed to sit on a small nail to hang it (but you could attach some floral wire and use a small hook it needed).

It's a little creepy (my husband shakes his head every time he looks at it and says how wrong it is) but I love the unexpected for Halloween! (Besides I think he secretly likes it.)

Thanks for checking out my project I hope you have a Happy Halloween.

6 comments:

Lina Thomlinson said...

Um, yeah. I definitely need one of these STAT! Awesome! I think I saw a bag of bones like that at WalMart a few weeks back, which means they're probably all gone now. :( Maybe I can keep this in mind for next year.

Regina said...

OMGOSH..what a unique idea. Thank you for sharing. I will be watching the sale on Halloween items so I can make this handsome fella for next year. I'm thinking maybe a black and orange bow tie under his chin..LOL!!

Hugs,
Regi

Maiden Jane said...

Fantastic Meg! Absolutely love this. I may even break out of my Boo Humbug mode to make one. Heading off to the craft stores in a bit, so I'll let you know.

Meg@MegaCrafty said...

Thanks for the comments ladies. If anyone makes one (this year or next) I'd love to see pictures! It was a lot of fun to make... even more fun to hang up and see peoples reactions!

Deepa said...

I came to visit by way of Dollar Store Crafts. This wreath is AWESOME. Incredibly creative, creepy, bloody brilliant. I will have to go looking for a bag of bones to give this a try. Thanks for the inspiration and tutorial!

Kristin said...

Super Creepy! I love it! Thanks for sharing.