Introduction: Card Board Skull

About: I'm young, I'm talented, I waste both.

Originally I made the skull with nothing more than some cardboard, glue and a pocket knife. I got around the NEED to be accurate (I didn't have a ruler) by making stencils of the repeated parts, and tracing around them. I'm making this point simply because as an "Office" Instructable I figured the less materials the better. And if you're wondering, no, my 'office' does not have a ruler, but it does have wood glue....... go figure.

When I made the prototype one boring afternoon in the confines of my liquor store, I actually used staples to hold it together. This was a more simple version, but even so, the staples are retardedly fiddly and the finished product was less than desirable (that could have been because I used a pen to cut it out, but either way, I don't recommend using staples).

Including design and reworking, plus the final build, the original would have taken 12 hours plus. But just following the prints, I'd say this is an afternoon project, maybe taking 2 to 3 hours (and a lot of patience in those hours), including drying time. Unfortunately dogs find these skulls irresistible so, I'll be re-doing the whole print for your convenience ^_-

Also, keep in mind that as long as the outside cuts and the scored areas of card are accurate, the rest is up to you. I will mark on the templates the edges that are not imperative to the build. Have a play with different eye sizes, lengths of the cheek bones, cracks and breaks, whatever. I didn't intend for this to be a static project, I had a lot of fun when I first made it and that's what I'm trying to share.

Seeing as the whole thing will have to be re-drawn, the final product may differ slightly from the "Finished" pictures, but I'll do my best to make it close, and maybe fix some things I wanted to from the original.

EN
JO
Y
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Materials:

- Cardboard

I used the dividers from an empty wine box (my work has a lot of these). You shouldn't need more than (1) sheet (about 210 x 297mm) but I recommend having a few spare. Something about 0.8 thick is perfect, and it needs to be reletively dense. Corrugated card will NOT work!!!!

- Stanley knife

- Cutting Board

For those of you concerned with how your coffee table looks to guests.

- Pacer/ Mechanical Pencil
I used a 0.7mm lead. The thinner leads have a tendancy to snap and bite into the card because of it's high grit. This damages the card and makes erasing the lines a lot harder (you don't really have to erase the lines, it just makes for a cleaner finish).

- Eraser

- Scissors


- Ruler

- Wood Glue (PVA)

Because of the thickness of the card you can use super glue, but you'll end up with white tarnished marks on the card. Not only that but super glue is a lot more brittle when it dries, and with all the handling you'll undoubtedly break the seams more than once whilst building.

- Hair Dryer or a Lighter
Again, not a necessity, but it does shorten the drying time of the wood glue, and it also means you'll go through a lot less cigarettes stressing out =p

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Method:

I Made It Photo Contest

Participated in the
I Made It Photo Contest