Skull & Cross bones

Good Morning everyone

Today im sharing a fun Halloween project made for a crafty friend who loves the season. I do love letting my imagination run wild, its such a therapeutic treat from all the normal themes we do month after month which i do enjoy but its nice to sometimes just throw the rule book out and create something totally different.

This started out as an idea for a cardboard skull ive had for years, to make it more realistic i added texture paste and paint and then while deciding on where to go next i was also making my witches shadow box and found these big plastic bones which were the perfect size for this skull - they were always too big for my other projects so to find a use for them is another bonus - keep anything long enough and it comes in perfect😂

Approx size:8x6.5"

See below for how i did the skull.  I die cut white card for the base of my plaque and matted a smaller oval die cut from orange mirri card, to soften the mirri so not so in your face i die cut an oval the same size from this lovely holey handmade paper and then tore the edge in places to make it less perfect, this I adhered over the orange mirri.  The mirri shines nicely through all the holes in the paper and the paper gives a softer feel than full on mirri card.

I added plastic eyes behind the skull and adhered the skull into place using pinflair glue gel.  I then added the 2 bones below.

To finish i used lots of tim holtz halloween chat stickers.  Ive had this book for at least 10yrs and only use one or two a year so wanted to use several here. The one at the top of the plaque reads 'days and nights has thirty one' and the one under the bones reads 'skull and cross-bones' and all the other ones are kind of random

I first added grit texture paste to the cardboard skull (left pic), the paste is blue but i knew it would be covered with paint, in places i just added dabs of normal texture paste, filling in some of the teeth so his smile isn't so perfect.  Once dry I got dabbing on matt acrylic paints in off whites, grey and beige, randomly stippling the colours. I forgot to take a photo of it before, but it was just flat white card so im chuffed with the outcome, its amazing what a bit of texture paste and paint can do.

Items Used:

Skull - that's crafty

plastic bones - ebay

plastic eyes - the works

handmade paper

orange mirri card - hunkydory

CraftUK white card

XL oval dies

Tim Holtz ideology halloween chat stickers

Rich Vintage texture paste #5110 'Mavi-egean blue'

White texture paste

FolkArt matte acrylic #420 'linen' #515 'vintage white'

Andy Skinner matt chalk paint 'cool mint' & 'ice blue'

Id love to enter the following:

https://crafterscafeblogchallenge.blogspot.com/2026/10/335-anything-goes-optional-no-cards.html

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https://halloweencraftsallyearround.blogspot.com/2026/10/spooktacular-october-challenge-1.html

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https://twooldbatshalloweenchallenge.blogspot.com/2026/10/october-2026-mid-month-reminder.html

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https://craftrocketchallenges.blogspot.com/2026/10/challenge-141-autumn-andor-halloween.html

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https://neglectedstuff.blogspot.com/2026/10/neglected-stuff-october-2026-challenge.html - skull, bones and chat stickers are all 5+ years old

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