Painted Skeleton Skull Mask Tutorial

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Yesterday I shared my boys’ skeleton Halloween costumes and today I am sharing how we made the masks. This tutorial is for my mask, but theirs were made the same way using different color paints and less embellishment. This year our family of four has decided to dress up as skeletons for Halloween. I like the thought of a handmade costume, but sometimes they can take a lot of work and money, so when I came across these paper mache skeleton faces at Michael’s I knew they would make the perfect Halloween skeleton mask! Not only would it be a quick and easy project, but they would be a large part of the costume for a small price. Materials:

Paper Mache Skeleton Face (found mine at Michael’s Craft Store)
White, Black, and Purple Acrylic Paints
Paintbrushes
Skinny Elastic (found in any notions section)
Hole Punch
Pencil
Black Feathers (optional)
Hot Glue Gun

First I applied two coats of white paint to the entire mask. I let the paint dry for about 15 minutes in between coats. Then I used my purple accent paint to paint around the eyes and nose openings. I also used it to add some swirls and circles to the design. Using a pencil I lightly sketched areas I wanted to paint using the black paint. Using a thin paint brush I went over the pencil lines in black paint and also used it outline the purple areas around the nose and eyes. For the next part you are going to use a hole punch to put a hole on either side of the mask and then tie your elastic through the holes. I held the mask up to my face to determine where the holes should go. I placed mine so that the elastic would run across my head right above my ears. For my boys they needed the holes to be a little lower on the mask. I also held the mask up to measure how long to cut the skinny piece of elastic. Since this mask is for me and I wanted to add a little bit of a feminine touch I used my hot glue gun to apply three black feathers to the top. If you wanted to get really fancy you could also add rhinestones! I’m going to get a skeleton shirt and then I will be all set to take the boys trick-or-treating!