Halloween skeleton made of plastic shopping bags.

I wanted a life size skeleton for our Halloween display and my budget was $0.00 Plastic shopping bags, wire coat hangers and tape was the answer.

Materials needed.

About 20 or 30 white plastic shopping bags.
Two wire frame clothes hangers
Lots of clear tape. I used narrow tape but also used some wide packing tape.
Thread.
Black permanent marker.

Step 1 Making bones.

Spread out your shopping bag flat and roll it up into a long cylinder.

Here's a tip, if you have a problem with the company logo showing through the plastic like i did, try the method in picture number 4. Cut the bottom of the bag off. Re-flatten your bag with the writing on the lower side of the bag. This way when you roll it up, all the print is as far inside the cylinder as possible.

If you would like longer bones, use two bags overlapped for extra length, as shown in picture number 5.

You will need 4 arms bones and 4 leg bones, unless of course you are going for anatomically accurate.

Comments

[CuriousTangles]

Thank you all for your nice comments. I'm just putting away the last of the Halloween stuff and thought I'd share some pictures of how it all turned out. They are on my blog at http://curioustangles.blogspot.com/2011/11/putting-away-halloween-till-next-year.html Maybe you'll get some ideas and start planning next year already!

[PaHalloweenFreak]

Very Creative! I love skellies! Nice job!

[jnufkins]

Very Awesome, and easy enough to actually do.. thnx

[Traymar]

SO creative and resourceful!! My kids and I love your skeleton, and, having the same size decorating budget that you have, this is perfect for us to try! So far we've done the arm and leg bones, the hands, and one foot. Thank you!!

[CuriousTangles]

I'd love to see your completed skeleton. I'm considering doing another one myself, it would be cute to have one as Eboneezer's wife, but maybe just add a white dress instead of all the ribs and hips, and give her a pretty bow on her skull.

[Traymar]

Yes, you should do a wife! That's a great idea! I've been sick with the flu, so our skeleton got stalled... however, we're back at work on it tonight, and we'll definitely post pictures of the finished product. Thanks again; we have thoroughly enjoyed planning and creating this! I can't wait to hang him up outside!!

[sixsixzero]

I may add one or 2 of these to my monster house!

[lkitts]

Love it! Great Job!

[l8nite]

Love it ! Last year I made a newspaper skeleton from here in instructables and it turned out pretty cool but took FOREVER ! ok maybe 2 days.... This seems even easier ... did you miss me ? I just went and looked, I have a large bag of plastic bags but they are all different colors! comes from shopping at different stores I guess...shrug...wonder what a multicolored uncle bones would look like......

[CuriousTangles]

I was going to do a newspaper skeleton at first, but I wanted something that would have a chance in the outdoors here in the rainy Pacific Northwest. This really didn't take all that long. I may go ahead and make a whole pile of bones as well to scatter about.

Perhaps you could check at one of the stores where they have white bags, there's often a bin out front for people to recycle their used ones. Our nearby shopping mall has a large 15 x 10 x 8 foot plexiglass cube that is filled with bags that people have brought back to recycle.

Glad you all like it. I quite enjoyed watching him out the window today, he came to life in the breeze.

[kokoleo]

Genius!

[ChrysN]

That looks excellent, nicely done!

[jessandstavro]

Awesome!

[Kiteman]

Oh, this is excellent!

I'm going to tell all my Cubs about this...