Spooky Poseable Skeletons
It’s October! I made a Halloween House last month, and I’m going to show it piece by piece this week and next so you can make your own or just make parts of it. This is the first project for Spooky Poseable Spun Cotton Skeletons. You can also use the heads to make some great Skull and Crossbones cupcake decorations. The skeletons are based on some vintage spun cotton picks from Japan I came across this year.
1. Buy some watte “spun cotton” shapes from D. Blumchen & Company. I used the Pear 1″ shapes, item #WW055. You can get 12 pieces for $3.50 so they are very reasonably priced.
2. Carve a face stamp for your cotton shapes. I just used a small scrap of material I had leftover from other projects. Alternately, you could just draw your face directly on the shapes but use a pen that won’t bleed into the absorbent cotton material of the face shapes.
3. Stamp your face and insert a wooden stick or toothpick into the hole in the bottom of the shape.
4. Create a simple body shape using two pipe cleaners. I use one pipe cleaner folded in half to make the legs so each leg is a double thickness of pipe cleaner. The arms are from another segment of pipe cleaner that is about 3/4 the length of a full-sized pipe cleaner so the arms are slightly shorter than the legs. Wrap the wires together once around the middle so they are connected.
5. Wrap all limbs with self-adhesive Ace bandages. The bandage tape I had was 1.5″ thick so I cut it into narrower strips that are about .5″ thick for use when wrapping the body.
6. Continue wrapping until the entire body is wrapped.
7. Take your skeleton head and place it in the middle of the body and use another piece of tape and wrap it around the stick and the top 1″ of the legs to create a torso and to secure the head to the body.
8. The body is done! Now you can add a small plastic top hat to the skeleton, if you like.
Here are the skeletons around the Halloween House I made. The one on the left shows the vintage skeleton cupcake pick I based the design for the heads on along with the body and knife I made for it and a small Halloween bag. The one on the right shows a wacky dancing skeleton with a bowtie.
Alternately, you can use the faces you stamped to create these great skull and crossbones cupcake picks. To make them, you make the face as directed, insert a longer stick or toothpick in the bottom and then make the crossbones using pipe cleaner pieces.
Take two short segments that are the same size and trim the middle of each pipe cleaner all the way around the pipe cleaner using scissors. This will make the narrow middle section of each crossbone.
This shows one side having been trimmed on the right. Continue all the way around. Think of it like trimming hair down to the wire base.
Entry Filed under: step-by-step, craft, holiday
17 Comments Add your own
1. suzanne | October 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 am
spectacular! looking foward to more, sarah!
2. Lisa M | October 2nd, 2008 at 8:08 am
How cute! My son would love to make this with me! Thanks! I also love the camera strap too! Very cool :)
Cheers,
Lisa
3. IamSusie | October 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 am
I LOVE this project! I just ordered those cotton shapes and I can’t wait until they arrive and I can make these with my kids.
4. autismtymz2 | October 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 am
Once again, you have inspired me. The same way we make lil’ dollies, wrapping the pipe cleaners that is.
Thank you, and Happy Halloween to you :)
5. Nancy Cook | October 2nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
very cool
love this idea
6. Liesel | October 2nd, 2008 at 10:31 am
I just ordered the spun cotton shape from D. Blumchen & Co. on line. They also sell the pipe cleaners! The website is www.blumchen.com.
They also sell darling mushrooms!
7. heidi | October 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
oh good gracious you are so amazing, I am going to try and make these next week!!
8. Rachel | October 2nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Oh, these are AMAZING! Love these! I’ll be linking to this project.
9. Kristi | October 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Aaaaak!!! This is the cutest little project ever! I will definitely have to make some.
10. Sonya | October 2nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
These are brilliant. Love the personalities, especially the crazy dancing one!
11. Regina | October 2nd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Someone just gave me a bag a pipe cleaners and NOW i know what to do with them!! These are quite clever and I love them!!
12. miss money | October 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm
the dancing man is my favorite. i would love to see a small object book.
13. Nancy Ward | October 5th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hi Sarah!
Today I posted an entry on my blog with a link to this tutorial. Would you let me know if that’s OK?
Thanks,
Nancy
14. Tina | October 7th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Too cute! Will have to get out the fancy glue and find some appropriate scraps. Cutting template for larger sandwich wrap right now. Husband is now curiously interested in having his own!
15. mandy | October 9th, 2008 at 7:01 am
These guys are sooo cuteeee! I can’t wait to make one with my grandson! Keep creating! You are awesome!
16. Joey Ramone | October 10th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
These are fantastic! I love the bandaging wrapped around, like a mummy. Fantastic idea! :D
17. Joyce Moore | October 16th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I love these skeletons! Where can I find some top hats to use?
I'm curious about your two cents. You smart cookie!
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