Frankenstein Head Candy Dispenser Door Decor

In this Intractable, I share with you how I made a door decoration for a friend of mine who uses a wheelchair. She is unable to get to the door quickly and wanted to take part in Halloween 'trick or treat' fun with the kids in her area. By making the Halloween Frankenstein Candy Dispenser head to hang on her front door, the local children are able to take candy without disturbing her and she has the pleasure of knowing everyone is having fun.

I used scrap materials that I had to hand and this is what I came up with. You can see the full video of the build over on my YouTube channel, Making It Out Of The Woods.

Step 1: Make a Box

This project starts by making a box shape. I used scrap wood, pallet wood and ply. Simply cut the wood you have to size and glue the four sides together.

Step 2: Draw Out a Character

Draw out the spooky character that you want to use. I chose to draw Frankenstein, well Frankenstein's monster really, and drew a cartoony profile of him on an off cut of plywood. You can draw any character you like, I think Dracula would work really well too!

Step 3: Cut Out the Mouth

Now use a scroll saw or coping saw to cut out the mouth section of your character. I love the way he is beginning to look "alive!" already here.

Step 4: Painting and Drawing

In this step you need to paint the face the colour you like and then paint on the features. You can use a marker pen here too to help you define some characteristics. When you are happy with the features, simply paint them in.

Step 5: Use the Glow Paint

When the white paint areas on 'Frank Jnr' had dried, it went over them again with this glow in the dark paint to give his teeth and eyes an extra spooky glow!

Step 6: Cover the Back Board

I used blackboard paint here to cover what will be the back board behind Frank Jnr's head. I wanted to be able it write a message on it, but if you wanted to paint it with regular black paint that would be fine too. Its important here to remove an area of vinyl that sits above the hole where Frank Jnr's mouth will go.

Step 7: Fix on the Bolts

Everyone knows that if it wasn't for the bolts in Frank Jnr's neck , his head would fall off! So you must not forget this step. Get yourself a couple of large bolts made for fixing in to cement. Drill eight holes in to the board below the mouth hole and feed through some cable ties to secure the neck bolts. Perfect.

Step 8: Fix on the Frame

Now we need to fix on the side frame. Cut down your scrap wood to make a frame and attach that with glue and tacks to the main board. This makes Frank Jnr's head a little more 3D and hides the box that will contain all the candy later.

Step 9: Attatch the Back Box and Stain It

Time to glue down the box you made earlier. Stick it to the front of the black board and cut a section from the top of the frame to allow you to drop candy down in there later. Hot glue some battery powered, green LED sting lights inside the box and seal it all up with a scrap board.

Step 10: Test the Lights

Turn on the lights and fill his mouth with candy! I attached some hooks and string to the back of the board so that he can be hung on a door. I pulled the string on the inside of the door and secured it.

Step 11: Write Your Message

Now all that is left to do is to write your message on the board, will it be 'trick' or 'treat', hang it on your house door and wait for all the little ghosts and ghouls, wizards and witches to come knocking!