Customizable Skull Frames

I’m all over the board when it comes to decorating the house for Halloween. Cutesy, gory, scary, funny…I have and love it all! The thing I like the most about the Customizable Skull Frames is that, depending on your mood, you can change out the backgrounds to fit with any and all of your decorating multiple personalities.

Check out the end of the tutorial to see a few of the options I came up with. I’d love to see what you do with your skulls. Keeping it minimal or adding some crazy paper in the back? The possibilities are endless!

This post on Customizable Skull Frames contains affiliate links.  The small percentage I may earn off your purchase comes at no extra cost to you and helps T&T continue to offer free printables and tutorials!

Customizable Skull Frames

Materials:
– Adhesive Stencil Film
– Black Glass Paint
– Basic Brush Set
– Downloadable Skull Image
– sharp hobby knife
– 5×7 Shadow Boxes
– Decorative Paper (optional)

Instructions:

1. Download and print Skull Image. I have mine sized for a 5×7 frame but feel free to adjust the image size for a different sized frame.

2. Tape a 5×7 piece of Martha Stewart Crafts™ Adhesive Stencil Film over the skull image. Use your hobby knife to slowly cut out image. In an effort to preserve time and sanity, I cut out every other tooth, alternating teeth on the bottom jaw. This step is somewhat tedious but take your time and go slow. You’ll be using the positive and negative parts of this stencil so nothing can be wasted!

3. After first cleaning the inside of your glass with rubbing alcohol, apply the carefully removed skull stencil to the center of the frame.

4. Repeat with opposite section of the stencil. Applying the negative skull stencil (left frame) is drastically more difficult than the positive skull cutout (right frame). If you look closely, you can see that I cheated a bit and cut the right corner of the stencil to help it lay flat. Just make sure to trim any pieces that stick out into the jaw line.

5. Begin by adding a thin coat of Martha Stewart Crafts™ Glass Paint Metallic. Allow to dry completely before adding another coat.

6. After the first coat is dry, add another…and another…and another! It doesn’t take much time at all to add each coat but you’ve got to wait around an hour to make sure it’s fully dry or else the next coat will peel up the previous. Major bummer. So, add a coat and then go cook dinner. Add a coat and eat. Add a coat, clean the dishes. Add a coat and start a movie…you getting the idea?

7. You’ll be done with painting when you can’t see any light coming through. I believe it took 5 or 6 coats for me to get full coverage. I suggest you add coats until it looks completely covered and then add another coat for safe keeping.

8. Because of the crazy amount of paint you’ve added, you’re going to have to score the edges if you want the film to come off cleanly. I know, I know. More with the tedious but you’ve worked so hard up until this point. I’d hate to have you peel off the film and the whole freaking face come off with it!

9. Carefully remove the film. Clean up any residual film adhesive with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol.

10. Repeat the film removal stage with the other frame. Clean up the edges of both frames by scraping off excess paint with a hobby knife. Now, you can leave them like this (I actually really like this clean minimal look) or you can go crazy with an unlimited amount of customization options!

Whether it’s trendy florescent, gothic scrapbooking or translucent paper (with a flameless tealight), you’re sure to find a combination that fits any Halloween decor! Don’t forget to come back and share your ideas!