Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time knows I have an affinity for things that are strange and creepy. Not pretend creepy things like fake spiders. I mean genuinely creepy things like old medical textbooks and cheese that sprays out of a can.
This year’s Halloween DIY is a reflection of that side of me. I’ve been preparing for this one particular Halloween craft for 2 years now. And when it was finally completed I texted a picture of it to my niece.
Unlike myself, my niece is not a fan of all things creepy.
Before we continue on, and I reveal what may be the creepiest Halloween decoration ever made, I would like to share with you the text message exchange between myself and my niece.
Curious as to what would prompt such a reaction?
I have been saving chicken and turkey bones from meals for the past 2 years.
I even enlisted the help of various turkey and chicken eating friends. To clean the bones, I just boiled them and scraped them clean. Then I let them air dry for a week or two. I’ve been keeping a box of bones in my basement for 2 years now. Any repairman who may have got snoopy down there would have been in for a bit of a shock.
My original idea was to make a wreath out of the bones, but I’m still so happy with my original Halloween wreath, that I wasn’t ready to get rid of it.
So I changed direction slightly and turned the bones into a picture frame.
Being a lover of all things creepy, when I was a garage sale addict I scored a box of antique photographs and tin types. I went into my creepy basement to look for my creepy pictures and found the perfect one for this project.
I scanned the picture, enlarged it, and to increase the fright factor, I photoshopped her eyes out.
Then it was just a matter of squishing the Dollar Store wreath into an oval shape and hot gluing the bones onto it in a pleasing, yet creepy manner. Oh! And adding the skull on top.
All of the supplies, aside from the bones, came from the Dollar Store. The wreath, the hot glue, and the skull topper.
The total cost:
$3.
The other thing that adds a sense of authenticity to the wreath are the cobwebs.
Which are in fact, actual cobwebs. From my house. Yes. I’m so proud. I gathered most of them from the dining room walls.
Extra bones got placed in a bowl beneath the frame.
Wondering how that text exchange between my niece and I ended?
wow, this is so creepy! I love it!
Dang! I just threw out a carcass!
Totally creepy but amazingly awesome! Perfect Halloween craft…. this is just for Halloween right?
Love this – wish I could make one! (DAMN! I knew the whole vegetarian thing would blow up in my face one day!)
So fabulous & cool! WANT!!
I love it!!! I am way to lazy, I mean busy, to get anything done before halloween, including the costume that I’ve been dreaming up for the last two years, so I’ll be lucky if I carve a pumpkin. But as usual, your projects are amazing!!! you can make me one if you want to… or give me your niece’s.
Awesome. Super creepy. I wish I’d been saving my poultry bones all year.
Glad you gave that dollar store scarecrow wreath a make over. That thing was scary in a pathetic kind of way. ;)
That is the creepiest dang wreath I have EVER seen. Karen, you are so cool!
That. Is. GLORIOUS!! I will admit, though, to being just a little creeped out that you’ve been saving poultry bones for this project. And I’m also relieved to know that other people have cobwebs on their walls.
At first I thought this was Emily Dickinson! Anyway, I love it! Pure genious to save your bones for two years. Pure. Genious.
I LOVE THIS. I’m not sure which concerns me more. That I’m thinking about the 2 deer carcasses we have hanging at the butcher shop waiting to be cut up and maybe i should call them and have them save as many of the bones as possible……or that I’ve got to keep you and my daughter separated…cause this kinda stuff is right up her alley and she’ll be out skinning little rodents to get this made in time for halloween. maybe i could hang this on the garage door…..never hurts to decorate the garage for halloween, right. and the feather boa on can go on the front door. oh, the possibilities.
Someone at another blog stole your boa wreath idea with skull!! Yes, I tattled. Don’t worry though, yours looks better. :) I think the web address is: 2littlesuperheroes.com. She probably just had the same brilliant idea separate from you. There are many of us creatives out there.
Wait…I didn’t tattle, I informed.
Okay master of Hallowe’en, we need adult costume ideas. Not adult-y, but those that fit adults, and won’t horrify young children. When I say young children, I mean Brownie age…..need a costume to wear to the Brownie Hallowe’en party. My mind is blank.
Oh my giddy aunt that is amazing!!!!!
*starts saving chicken bones for next year*
Well, aside from making fun of my great great aunt, I think it’s a brilliant creation.
But you just can’t get away without some homage to candy corn and black and orange jelly beans – can you? Or little white marshmallow ghost “peeps”? I mean, halloween is all about how scary it is to eat all that junky candy, isn’t it?
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Karen should clean her basement… so she can keep on creating little gems like this one…. or depending on your opinion is why she should not clean her basement.
I hate it. It creeps me the eff out. It’s the eyes. Or lackthereof. I’m totally having nightmare tonight. I should have known better than to look.
All that being said, I have friends who would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. I may need to start saving bones now. I’ll make them add the eyeless photo, though. I couldn’t have that creepy ass thing anywhere near me.
Something is making me scroll up to look again……
….damn, why did I do that?
That is wonderful and not nearly as frightening as the scarecrow wreath.
I just checked, to make sure that that wasn’t a portrait of Lizzie Borden that you hung up, with the bones. Gives me the shivers just looking at it hanging on your wall. Still, it’s an original conversation piece. Especially when you have the ladies, over for tea.
Fabulous! Seriously fabulous. Real bones. Real cobwebs. You’ve outcreeped yourself.
That’s f’in freaky. I love it!
There is someone I know that I saved a baby bird skeleton and a dead bumble bee for. He has a bowl of bones on the kitchen counter and makes little art installations around the house. He was thrilled. Should I start sending them to you?
What a delightful reason to eat more fried chicken! I think I need one.
Brilliantly creepy…..don’t think I’ve ever described anything as such….you rock (again)
Awesome! Erica
Brilliant. I love it. The creepier the better!
I love it! Although, the baby with it’s eyes poked out might still be a tad creepier to me. Both fantastic of course.
Karen…I LOVE this wreath/frame!! So creative & a bit disturbing. Love it!!
That lady was creepy before you removed her eyeballs..I am a creepy lover too..Wait..not quite what I meant to say..
It looks great on your wall in your house I love it…. THERE… in my house I know I would have nightmares of that poor woman… But you did a really good job on it..
What about using those fake skeletons you can find everywhere for the bones? Just dismantle it. You can find different sizes of skeletons. And the cobwebs? Use your glue gun —
You could, Ann Marie. For sure. But there really isn’t any denying this is made from real bones, and that’s what makes it look so good. Or bad depending on your perspective. :) ~ karen!
Of all the creative things you have done while blogging—this totally gross wreath may actually be the winner. People are drawn to it the same way they slow down to see the twisted metal of a car wreak and to check out the injuries, even though they are saying, “This is so horrible” while they do so. I think it’s your finishing touch that makes it. The missing eyes are what people can’t handle. With no eyes, she still looks like she is looking at you. This may be your finest hour.
Now to try to forget that I ever saw that.
LOL! ~ karen
Hee, I love it!
You should check out Sharon Kopriva online — Houston artist, does a lot with chicken bones. I’ll never forget going to a buffet at her home after a gallery show — we all had to put our drumstick/wing leavings in a bowl. You know, for the cause :)
The creepiest part of this is you collecting other people’s left overs for years. And then re-boiling them.
The frame is amazing, and your wreath is beautiful.
Oh that is brilliant! I am going to start saving chicken bones today!
This is my favorite! Die-o-rama is good, but this is great. Wow. Agree, removing the eyes was genius. With she just looks tired. Without, she’s eerie. Will you keep it up all year?
Genious!
O.K…promise me right now that you’ll never come to Georgia. Yikes.
Yeah, I’m definitely a bit wuss when it comes to truly creepy things, but that is SO awesome! I probably wouldn’t hang it in my own house, but I love seeing it in yours! Very cool.
I think its a little nuts but I still love your blog!
I am still trying to get my head around keeping turkey bones for 2 years. Is it forward thinking genius, or just weird…? That being said, I like what you’ve done with your bones….
I LOVE the photo – without the creepy lady, it would be “spiders” scary. Now it’s “Exorcist” scary. Takes an evil genius to get a halloween display to the level of True Creep – you and Steven King, haha<:}
LOVE IT!!! And to think, there was a perfectly good chicken bone laying beside the dumpster I just walked by last night. Shame on me. If our resident dumpster raccoons haven’t stolen it I’m going pick it up this afternoon and start collecting!
I want to see more stuff like this… I ask my husband to save his bones from lunch and he thoght I was crazy. I just started a box of wierd stuff. I painted an old cigar box black and I’m adding stuff to the out side of it. On the Inside, I’m putting bones and teeth and any thing I can find to creep out who opens it. Fun…
Wow. Just wow. That is uber creepy, really interesting, and…pure genius. Tho it sure doesn’t take much to make photos of people from back then look any creepier, what’s up with that? And yet they still got married and procreated. Huh. So…does it smell like chicken?
Personally i prefer last year’s more ‘glam’ version …everything looks better with feathers and sparkle, IMHO. Even Halloween. :)
sick. blech. gag.
And, BTW, this is what runs through your brain??? Your neighbors must worry about their pet! Reminds me of the terrifying song my mom taught us when we were little. “… Now all the neighbors cats and dogs will nevermore be seen. They’ve all been ground to sausages in Mr. McGregor’s machine.” And their Bones made into picture frames… I think we should all send donations for a little Therapy for Karen! LOL!!!
Do you have a tofu version?
LOVE IT! best thing EVER! Im in the process of making a life size mummy from an old wet suit…have too many skulls and not enough mummies.. I may have to start eating chicken off the bone to whip one of these up now!
We have’n’t seen the chickens lately…should I be worried?
One year i made them from clay and stain them. Gave them out for Halloween. Told this liitle boy about nine that they were from my car that died yesterday… He bought back a friend … Hahaha