Materials: (All of the materials can be found at any craft store.)
- (3) 30' x 40" standard black foam core board
- Gray paint
- Paintbrush
- Wood Graining Tool
- Halloween Decorative Skeleton
- Tape (optional)
Instructions:
- Measure your black foam core board against the window or door that you will be covering with your Zombie decoration. Larger windows or doors may need more than one foam core board conjoined with tape. Cut or join the boards with tape to size and set it aside.
- Take another piece of black foam core board and cut it into strips. Don't worry about making the wood slats perfect "boards." The wonkier and more uneven the better. It'll look aged and scary.
- Cut out 10 or so slats total, four of which make longer to frame the window or door with. You don't have to make the ends meet. Some can overlap. Again, this asymmetry will make it look like you boarded up the window in a hurry and will add to the creepy factor.
- Make the slats look like wood boards with a clever painting technique and a tool called a "Wood Graining Tool."
- Give the slats a good coat of gray paint. Then, run the Wood Graining Tool along the length of the slat. Rock the tool back and forth as you glide it down the slat to create varying patterns. Your "wood" will look more natural that way. Set it aside to dry.
- From here, it's all about assembling the pieces. With a hot glue gun, attach the slats to the black foam core board. Start by attaching the four slats you set aside to frame the foam core. Next, attach the rest of the slats. Vary the direction of the slats to create character.
- You can buy skeleton arms and hands from the Halloween section of your local grocery or big box store. Spray paint them different colors if you like or just leave them plain.
- Place the zombie parts in between the slats as though the arms are reaching through the window. We then apply a generous amount of hot glue around the part to affix it to the board. If you want to spray paint a little black where the bone meets the board, you can disguise the hot glue.
- To hang it up, you can use Velcro tabs or hang a picture wire across the top back of the decoration and hang it up on suction cup hooks, covering your existing window, door, or as a wall decoration. It's light enough to be supported by the Velcro or hooks alone.
- Storage is easy. It's pretty flat, so it stores pretty easily. You may need to reattach zombie parts from time to time. You don't have to do skeleton parts. You can even change up the creature and have a different monster from year to year! You can make this be any monster you like.
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