Thread: Talking Skull and Bones Wreath

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Greetings all!

After my 'scene setter' plastic Grim Reaper sheet got ripped up for the last time last October, I had an epiphany of making a wreath completely out of plastic bones and skulls to hang on the front door (this idea later evolved as you'll see from the pics). Here's what you'll need:

1 - Gemmy Talking Skull (or use a static skull 5-6" of your choice, I ripped the one pictured off of a candy bowl)
1 - Metal Wreath Ring (get at Michaels or some other craft place
1 - Metal (or wood) door wreath hanger
2 - Bags of Green Moss @ Dollar Tree
1 - Skeleton Garland @ Dollar Tree
1 - Bag of Skeleton Hands @ Dollar Tree
Glue Gun and Sticks
Floral Wire
Ribbon (wired is easier to work with)
Polyurethane Spray (optional)

~$10 spent

Begin making a mess! Place your 'centerpiece' skull where you want it. I clipped the two center wires of the wreath only where the skull was such that the back of the skull (with the battery door) would lay flat onto the frame. Wrap some floral wire around the base of the skull and wreath. For extra security, dab some hot glue on the back to make sure it stays on good.

Hot glue the green moss onto the wire frame. It's best to do this in sections of 3-4 inches. Drip a liberal amount of glue along the wires and hold the moss to the wire until it dries. Try not to burn yourself. Leave some spare moss for the very end -- don't worry if you have some patchy spots we'll patch these later.

Take your ribbon (or dead florals if that's your thing) and wrap it around the moss.

Take your garland skeletons and ditch the twine that comes with it. You may now 'pose' the skeletons how you'd like by touching the glue gun tip to the respective joints and SLOWLY move the body part to whatever position you'd like. IF you don't get carried away it will look awesome, if you break a skeleton go buy 4 more for a $1. Once your skellies are posed how you want, place them about your wreath by both gluing the body parts which come in contact with the wreath wire AND using floral wire around the joints to make sure they stay on.

Embellish your wreath! Take the skeleton hands, heads, spiders, snakes or whatever else you have laying around and glue them on. Where possible, drip a liberal amount of glue and push down firmly to make sure the glue makes contact with the wreath wire.

It's at this step that I chose to scale back the stuff I was gluing on as I liked seeing some of the moss and having a bit of 'white space'. If you feel so inclined, skip the moss entirely and just glue on skeleton parts but I will not be held responsible for such nonsense.

Go back with your spare moss and glue it in with any patchy spots. It also looks good to overlay some of it with your hands, heads or whatever else you stuck on. Finally, spray a couple coats of polyurethane on the wreath. Not only will this help the moss stick better but it will also somewhat weather proof your creation. Make sure you have a decent light source as the Gemmy skull won't trigger otherwise.

Have fun!

I really like the look of it. How long do you figure it took you to assemble it once you had everything in front of you?

I like it. I've been wondering what I was going to do with the left over skeletons, hands, & skulls that I got from the Dollar Tree, now I know. Thanks...

Originally Posted by Ghost of Spookie

I really like the look of it. How long do you figure it took you to assemble it once you had everything in front of you?

Not long at all. I'd say 2 hours tops.