Zombie Head DIY Halloween Decoration

If you’re looking for a fun and spooky DIY Halloween decoration, then this zombie head tutorial is for you!

Last time I worked with cheesecloth and fabric stiffener for Halloween, I really loved the way it turned out! I made a “severed head” DIY Halloween decoration.

You can get the full tutorial for that project here: DIY Halloween Severed Head.

This time around, I made a floating zombie head!

There was a little bit of trial and error with this DIY Halloween decoration, but I figured out all the bugs, and I am ready to show you how to make your own zombie face!

Supplies needed to make your own DIY Halloween decoration zombie:

• Unfinished Decorative Wooden 8×10 Frame
• Cheese Cloth
• Black Chalkboard Paint
• Aleene’s Fabric Stiffener
• Doll Head (I got mine at a thrift store. Just make sure it will fit inside your frame, and has fairly prominent facial features.)
• Disposable Bowl & Disposable Gloves
• Foam Brush
• Embossing Heat Tool
• Hot Glue Gun/Glue Sticks

For decorating frame with bookplate and bats – optional:

• Gold Metallic Paper
• Black Cardstock
• Bookplate and Bat Shapes (templates, die cuts or electronic cutting files)

The first thing I did was paint my frame. I kept things really simple. I liked the shape of this particular wooden frame. I thought it looked a little Halloween/Gothic. I painted my frame with a flat black chalk paint. You can choose to paint your frame any way you like!

Allow the frame to dry.

Meanwhile, prepare your doll head. Remove any wigs or eyelashes- anything that will stick to the cheesecloth when it is saturated with fabric stiffener. Choose a NON STICK surface that you can work on. I used a piece of foam core. Make sure your surface is flat and will allow the hardened stiffener to peel back up once it has hardened. You could use a large non-stick cookie sheet! I was really glad I didn’t use my initial idea of newspapers. That would have been a disaster!

Drape your cheese cloth over the doll head. I used three layers of cheese cloth. Trim if needed.

Place your cheese cloth into a disposable bowl. Glove up! I am normally not a glove person, but you need them for this. It gets messy!

Pour Aleene’s Fabric Stiffener over the cheese cloth in the bowl.

Mix it around, and get the cheese cloth saturated with product. Really dig in there with your gloves. You want all of the fabric covered. When you lift the cheese cloth out of the bowl, it should feel sort of like mashed potatoes. Make sure the middle of the cloth pile is saturated.

Then open the cheese cloth, and begin draping it over your doll head.

Stretch the cloth to make sure that it will extend past the sides of your frame. Try to make the ends as flat as you can. This will fit into your frame better when it has hardened. I used whatever I had laying around to weight the ends of the cheese cloth down to make the face appear to be pushing out of the fabric.

Use a foam brush to really get the details of the doll face.

You may need to add additional fabric stiffener to really make the face detail stick. Make sure you bring the cheese cloth against the doll face on the sides. DO NOT wrap the cheese cloth underneath the doll head. You will never get it out. 🙂 Trust me on that one.

Allow the entire project to dry overnight. The fabric stiffener takes a while to harden.

Here is where I thought I had lost this project! The next morning the cheese cloth had hardened onto the doll head like CEMENT. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get it out, or if I would be able to!

Panic Mode.

I figured I may as well try to see if I can loosen things up with a heat tool?

I took my heat embossing gun to the project to see if it would work. It totally did!

I aimed the hot air on the sides of the doll head. The fabric stiffener became slightly flexible with the heat.

I slowly peeled the flexible cheese cloth away from the face.

Keep applying heat, and slowly peeling. (I am sorry about the less than helpful photos here, I really thought at this point the project was going into the trash.)

Once the doll head is free of the cheese cloth- you can heat the cheese cloth, and pop out any of the areas that were slightly flattened when removing the doll head. The cheese cloth will take the exact shape that it was when it initially hardened. (Insert happy dance!)

Lay the stiffened face into the frame, flip the frame over, and trim any excess cheese cloth that overhangs the frame. Use good scissors here!

If there are areas along the frame perimeter that are uneven and stick up, use a heat tool to smooth the high spots down.

Working one side at a time, apply hot glue to the frame perimeter and adhere the cheese cloth to the frame.

You will need to hold the glue in place- the hardened cheese cloth is pretty bulky.

Once the hot glue is dry, your basic DIY Halloween decoration project is finished.

You can further embellish your DIY Halloween decoration frame with whatever you like.

I chose to add a bookplate and some black cardstock bats.

However you decide to finish your zombie head frame- it will quickly become a DIY Halloween decoration favorite!

About Shaunte

Shaunte is a 30-something, chocolate-loving, SAHM from Utah. She has been scrapbooking since 1997, the dreaded era of photos cropped with deco scissors. Since then, her work has evolved into a clean, linear, photo-focused style. Her favorite subjects to scrap are her husband and five kids (never a lack for subject material there).

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