Intro: A Quick Death

This is a very quick project - the whole thing took me less than ten minutes, and that includes taking the photos - using nothing but scrap from your recycling pile.

STEP 1: The Body

Sketch out the shape of the body, and then cut it out. You'll notice that my cutting is not perfectly straight or symmetrical - this was a deliberate choice to add character to the, er, character.

If you're working to reproduce my version, the squares on my cutting mat are 1cm across - the whole piece is about 8cm tall and 4cm wide. The head is about 2cm tall.

Colour the body with your black marker - you don't need to colour the back, but you do need to colour the edges.

STEP 2: The Skull

Sketch out an angular skull shape that fits within the edges of the head. I used the head I cut out to mark a rectangle on another piece of card and then drew the skull within that.

I cut the jaw off the main skull just below the line where it joined the skull, and snipped along that cut edge to make teeth.

I cut the eye-holes out with the tip of my scalpel, then rounded them off by turning the point of a pencil in them.

STEP 3: Glue on the Skull

I smeared a little PVA on the backs of the pieces, and pressed them into place - they don't need clamping because they're carrying almost no load.

STEP 4: The Stand

If you want your decoration to be free-standing, it needs a stand.

Just cut a scrap of card an appropriate size, glue along the edge and then hold it in place for a few minutes while it dries.

STEP 5: Done!

That's it, you're done!

You might want to save this project for Hallowe'en, but I'd love to see pictures of your versions when you make them...