Zombies!!

OK, I know I said I wasn't going to dec out the yard this year for Halloween, but I am working on something new now. One of my son's Professors is getting a Zombie Walk set up this year to raise funds for the Food Pantry. I sent her an email and told her I would be happy to advertise the event in my yard haunt. She is going to let me know all the info once she gets everything going on it.

I've started making a zombie that will be holding a sign for the event. So far I have a hand and the head started. I had to get some "teeth" to finish the head. I got the idea for the hands from this website, Zombie Hand How-to

Here is how I made my hand and head. If you decide to try making your own zombie using this technique, you do so at your own risk. Be sure to wear rubber gloves while glueing on the cotton and napkins and use a drop cloth under your work area. :-)

The Head-
First I started with styrofoam wig heads..


Then I gave them a green undercoating...


After that, I cut out holes to put eyes into. I have ping pong balls with eyes painted on them..


Then I decided to cut out a section of the mouth to add teeth to later..


Then I used brown paper napkins and Elmer's White Glue to add some skin to the zombie head..


I soaked the napkins in the glue and spread it around the head to look like wrinkled, rotting skin..


After a day of drying, my blue-eyed zombie looks pretty good...


Now I have to glue in his teeth, hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to do that. I'll be using fake fingernails for the teeth...


The hand-

I used coat hangers, Elmer's Glue, brown napkins, masking tape and cotton balls on the hand. First I cut the bottoms off a couple hangers and bent them to make the fingers...


Then I used a section of hanger to make the thumb..


I taped all the pieces together with masking tape...


Then I used tape to make knuckles..


I decided to make something on the hand to make it easier to hang to dry and to have something to connect the hand to the arm later when I put it all together. I took the top part of one of the hangers I cut to make the fingers and used a pliers to bend the ends around until they fit in the "palm" of the hand...


Then I covered that part with tape also..


It was too messy to take pics while adding the cotton and napkins, but first I stretched out cotton balls and wrapped them around the fingers and palm area of the hand. Then I soaked napkins in the glue and wrapped that around the cotton...


I hung it on the clothes line for a day and it darkened up like the head did when it was dry.