HALLOWEEN SKELETON - PLYWOOD

The Winfield Collection specializes in do-it-yourself project patterns and has a large selection of paper transfer templates specifically designed for Halloween, including skeletons. Their "Rising Skeletons #2" package comes with five different skeleton design patterns that look great as lawn decorations.

Tools & Materials
Sheet of Plywood
Skeleton Patterns
Transfer Paper
Ballpoint Pen or Stylus
Sand Paper
Masking Tape
Water-based Paint
Paint Brushes
Scroll and Jig Saw
Electric Drill
 

Transferring the Pattern
Making a plywood Halloween skeleton is very straight forward and begins by placing a sheet of the special pattern transfer paper onto the size and thickness of plywood as indicated in the skeleton pattern instructions.

Next the pattern you want to use is laid on top of the transfer sheet face down close to the edge of the plywood. Lastly, you transfer the full-size pattern lines for all of the skeletons onto the plywood by tracing the pattern using a pen, pencil or stylus.

Cutting out the Pattern
The next step is to cut out all the wood pieces along the traced lines using the saw appropriate for the project, typically this will be a coping saw, scroll saw or jigsaw.

These Halloween skeleton patterns are fairly complex designs. They do take some time to cut out and require you to be precise, but the finished Halloween props are worth it. After cutting all the pieces off you can drill any holes required and lightly sand the wood if necessary.

Painting the Skeletons
To finish the project paint the skeletons with the colors as indicated in the instructions or to suite your taste. Using the areas and lines created by the template makes painting as easy as “paint by number” and ensures your project will look great when you’re finished.

For the base color we bought a gallon of semi-gloss off white exterior latex paint and sprayed all of the skeletons at once. Optionally, you could paint them with glow-in-the-dark paint and illuminate them with black lights.

Securing the Skeletons
For our plywood Halloween skeletons, we just nailed a twelve inch long survey stake to the back of each skeleton and pushed them into the ground.

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