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Saturday, August 24, 2013

Milk Jug Skeleton Halloween Craft

Milk Jug Skeleton 
Halloween is once again right around the corner! Here's a craft I made after seeing a version of it on the web.
I came across this nifty DIY Halloween craft on another site and thought " How cool! That looks easy!" (eye rolling). However, I can make anything more complicated without much effort. When I gathered my milk jugs, thinking this was going to be a quickie, it didn't occur to me to document the process with pictures or video, so I'll try to remember and describe the steps as best I can.

I gathered six milk jugs, which is oddly easy for me.
First, I was prowling the web and came across the idea on two different sites, HERE and HERE The diagrams on the second one were of great help to me. 
I rinse out our milk jugs as soon as they are empty so I have a stash. A side note here: I have an old Ajax dish soap bottle that I refill with Avon Bubble Bath (a little diluted) to use for some cleaning. I have found that if you squirt a little of the bubble bath into the newly empty jug, add some water, replace the cap and shake the jug vigorously for a moment, then dump it out and rinse out the bubbles. The jug is clean with no milk odor.
Ok so I gathered my milk jugs. I didn't have a grease pencil so I grabbed what was handy - a Crayola thin marker. I first looked at the parts that required the handles of the jugs - the hands, feet and shoulders. Using the marker, I just drew out the shapes free-hand. Whenever I wasn't happy with the shape I drew or made a mistake, I used a wet rag to wipe it off so I could do it again. My hands got some of this marker on them in this process, but I was able to scrub it off fairly easy
Once I had those parts cut out I began using the jugs to cut out the head, chest and hips from those same jugs, since these three body parts didn't need the handles. I then drew and cut out the bones and knees from the remaining two jugs.
I noticed that on the page that had the diagrams for cutting, the skeleton had been painted with glow-in-the-dark paint and I loved that! I knew I was going to do something like that on mine. I am a bit OCD and a perfectionist when it comes to art and crafting. I got carried away and every part of my skeleton has designs on them. I painted all the parts before assembling the skeleton. I used both Tulip Glow In the Dark in Natural Glow and Glo-It by DecoArt. Since the Glo-It is such a small bottle, I mixed them together. The only complaint I have is neither of these glow bright enough for my taste. I wanted this thing to glow BRIGHT and outside, it doesn't. I am thinking of making another if I can find a way to really make it G-L-O-W.
I used my Dremel tool to make the holes in the locations shown on the diagrams (on the other site) and then used fishing line to tie parts together. It may have been the way I attached the shoulders, but mine moved way to much and would not stay on the sides so I used a spot of E6000 to glue the shoulders to the top of the chest jug. Worked great!




So there is my Skeleton! It was a lot of fun to make and I already have ideas running through my head for making some different ones! :)

19 comments:

Unknown said...

wow, that's taking Halloween crafting up a level! Very cool!

Birdie Skolfield said...

Im gonna try to do this you've motivated we recycle milk jugs so se gotta a bunch in the recycle can Ill save a few for making some spooky skeletons thx 4 the idea

Anonymous said...

This is the coolest Halloween thingy I have ever seen - and I am old. You are such an artist. You could sell these on ETSY. I am a fan doing a Rafflecopter. Paulie strouth



Unknown said...

OMG I love this!! We go through so much milk in this house, what a great idea for using the jugs!! Me & the kids will have so much fun making one for Halloween! Thank you so much for sharing :)

ms cox said...

Thanks for sharing, this will be great for Halloween & homeschool, hope we can do one this week

The Happy Clown With A Frown said...

I would love to see some photos if you make one! I had a lot of fun doing this one. Post me some pics on the fan page when you finish!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Happy-Clown-With-A-Frown/205864932810847

:)

Chelsey said...

Wow, this is so creative! I love it! I really hope to try it this month, it would be a great Halloween decoration.

Unknown said...

This is definitely one of the coolest decorations I've ever seen! I'm obsessed with skulls and skeletons, so I'm really loving this! I'm going to make these with my cousin's kids this weekend.

Lorna H said...

This is a great idea, I can't wait to make one this weekend with my daughter!

neoh42f said...

I've never seen anything like this! You did an outstanding job :)

Laura S Reading said...

Nice way to make it even spookier!

Janet W. said...

What a neat idea! This is so creative and very impressive that you made this!

Victoria said...

This is such a awesome idea. I wish I had the patience to do something like this, lol. Thanks for posting.

The Happy Clown With A Frown said...

Victoria, the skeleton itself, goes pretty quickly. I just used a Crayola marker to free hand the shapes of the parts and then cut them out... the painting DID take awhile but it too was free handed. You could use regular acrylics for a colorful skeleton and you wouldn't have to get quite as OCD with detail as I did! :)

Krystal W. said...

This is really neat. It might look more difficult then it is though, I going to have my daughter look at it to see if we can do it. Thanks for sharing I'm pinning it.

Rebekah Miyata said...

This is fabulous! You did an amazing job with the glow-in-the-dark paint, such beautiful designs.

Unknown said...

These are so cute and I love that its also recycling my daughter will have fun doing these

Dawn Schall said...

LOVE this milk jug skeleton. Going to make this with my daughter. Thanks!

babypics said...

What a great idea for using up those milk jugs. My granddaughters are afraid of skeletons but I bet if they helped to build one they wouldn't be anymore. I love this idea, you did a great job.