How To Make A Skeleton For Halloween From Milk Jugs

Years ago before the my two oldest kids were small, someone shared an ingenious  pattern of making a skeleton out of 4 litre milk jugs and we spent a Saturday building it for halloween.

We still pull that skeleton out every year and he still looks great. Recently, someone mentioned that they were looking for that pattern, so I dug it out again and my two youngest are now saying that they want to build one too!

You will need:

•  6  or more large (4 litre) milk jugs depending on how careful you are with cutting.

• string or yarn to tie the pieces together

• scissors

• hole punch

• glow-in-the-dark paint and brush

First cut out the parts that need the handles from the milk jugs.

You will need 2 hands, 2 feet and 2 shoulder bones. Punch holes at the ends of the hands and feet. Punch a hole in each end of the shoulders.

After you have removed all the part that require the handles, cut out your face from one of the jugs. Punch a hole in each side of the neck.

Use one jug to cut out your ribcage. Cut a slit in the bottom of the jug that is your rib cage and then punch a hole on either side of the slit. (You will be attaching your head and shoulder bones here.) Punch 2 more holes in the neck of the jug on each side. (You will be attaching your hips here.)

Use another jug to cut out your hips. Punch 2 holes on each side of the neck of this jug (which will attach to the neck of your ribcage jug) and a hole on each side of the bottom of the hips. (The leg bones will attach here.)

The 8 bones will take 2 jugs and the knees will come out of the 6th one.

Punch holes in the top and bottom of each bone and each knee.

After you have everything cut out, you can make the parts interesting by painting designs on all the bones in glow in the dark paint, or lightly using glow-in-the dark spray paint on the edges of your bones for a cool effect. Make sure you let the paint dry thoroughly before trying to tie all the parts together or you make smudge it. If you want, you can also use a black felt pen to outline the holes that you’ve cut for ribs and the face to make them stand out.

Put all the parts together using the string or yarn. Poke two holes in the top of the head and tie a loop that you can hang your skeleton from.

Have a safe and happy halloween!