Halloween Glitter Scene
I regularly receive emails from Michael’s Craft Store, and I adapted this project from a Halloween scene they shared this month. I changed many of the materials to suit a younger age-group. For example, the original project involved lots of fine-detail painting for the faces, so we used Sculpey color clay instead; it’s more fun to work with and more suitable to the creativity and motor skills of amateur designers. I substituted Styrofoam parts for wooden parts because they are cheap, available, and very easy to assemble (just connect the pieces with some slim wooden dowels). We amped up the glitter usage, covering almost everything in sparkles. Really, who doesn’t love a great glitter project? We only avoid it because of the mess. This project is a great excuse to overdose on glitter with an easy clean-up.
I grew up on Michael’s Craft Supply; I can smell it – buckets of fabric flowers, shelves of wicker baskets, and, the more lightly scented aisles of scrap booking papers. In Atlanta, the store seemed an acre at least. Now in New York, I do occasionally visit the Michael’s in Queens (always greeted by that familiar smell) but my favorite go-to art store is the original Pearl Paint on Canal Street. It’s a little ramshackle, a lot creaky, and a bit grumpy. It offers endless specialized materials along with plenty of odds and ends, and each floor has a distinct personality. It’s a treasure. Last weekend, Livvy Grace (7) trotted along with me to pick out supplies. I remember introducing my older daughter to the wonders of Pearl Paint, and now it was her sister’s turn. We found our basic supplies along with a few fun bonus items, and we scavenged some crafty bits from our home art bins. Michael’s, AC Moore or any local craft store will carry everything you need. Enjoy!
SUPPLIES
• Assortment of Styrofoam balls (1 – 2.5 inches), cut in half
• Styrofoam disc for the base (about 12-in diameter, 1-in thick)
• Lots of glitter
• Mod Podge (or white school glue) and cheap foam brushes
• Sculpey! (oven-bake clay) in a variety of colors
• Slim wooden dowels (or bamboo skewers from the grocery store)
• Black Sharpie markers
• Any other odds and ends or crafty bits (like shimmery fabric scraps or the miniature glitter sunglasses and top hats we found in the dollar bin)
• Hot glue gun (handy but not essential)
PROJECT STEPS
Use the foam brushes to generously cover the top and edge of the Styrofoam disk with Mod Podge. Sprinkle liberally with glitter. Do the same with each half of the Styrofoam balls. A toothpick inserted in the bottom makes it easy to hold and turn, and a plastic dish is handy for catching the glitter so you can re-use it.
Use the Sculpey to shape your characters’ heads. Before baking, make sure to make a small hole in the bottom, with a wooden dowel or skewer, so that you can attach it to the body after baking. If you are adding accessories (here, mini glitter glasses and top hats) press them into the soft Sculpey to make a ‘place holder’ but don’t bake them with the Sculpey. Add them after with a spot of hot glue.
Once the heads are baked and cooled, insert a piece (about 1-in) of wooden dowel into the bottom and add a spot of hot glue. Insert the other end into the Styrofoam body. Use 2- to 3-in pieces of the dowel to make legs. Color them with permanent black marker (or paint them), and insert one end in the underside of the bodies and the other end into the Styrofoam base.
For a simple variation, use a longer piece of dowel (about 5-in) under a scrap of fabric and, again, tack into the hole in the underside of the head with a bit of hot glue. Stick the other end of the dowel directly into the base.
You can use Sculpey for a variety of other items to fill your scene. We made tombstones, prize pumpkins, trick-or-treating baskets and low-flying bats. We used some old armature wire to twist a tree growing from a glittery mound, and our scene was complete!
