Introduction: Jack in the Box Head

By
A Jack In The box head that I made for Halloween this year. Took a long time to make....but was worth it in the end!!! This costume was not very expensive, around $30.

Have fun!

Step 1: The Items You Will Need...

YOU WILL NEED

metal bowl: to put the paper mache mix in

something to hold the ball up while paper mache is drying (a stand).

big ball--you want to find one that is plastic and that is a little bigger than your head... also, for a kid, you might want to deflate the ball a little, so find a ball that you can deflate.

flour and water--paper mache mix.

acrylic paints--blue, yellow, and black.

white spray paint--to paint the head white.

flat circular foam shape--bottom of the little hat on his head.

foam cone--for the top of his little hat.

plastic baseball batter's helmet--for inside the head.

foam sealant for houses (not today!)--to keep the plastic helmet in place.

glue gun--to glue stuff

extra glue sticks--well, let's just say that one glue stick isn't enough.

LOTS of newspaper--paper mache stips

Detatchable needle--like the ones they use on balls (look @ pic #3)

Drill & very small drill bit--to drill two small holes later on

Some salt--for part of the paper mache mix

dremel and circular blade attachment--to cut the mouth out

Cheesecloth--for the mouth

Red food dye--to color the cheesecloth red (duh)

Step 2: What You'll Be Doing

what you'll be doing and in what order you'll be doing it

1.Get all the supplies
2.Paper mache (very messy)
3.Sizing the head
4.Checking (and if you have to) correcting some of the sizes
5.Gluing your batter's helmet into the mold
6.Spraying the head white (of course, with spray paint)
7.Cuting the mouth
8.Some more painting
9.Making your I-Can-See-but-You-Can't mouth
10.Final painting and details

Step 3: Start Your Head!

You will start by doing a lot of layers of paper mache.

here is the way I made my paper mache mix:

1 part flour to 5 parts water...add a little salt to the mache so that it doesn't mold...boil about 3 minutes and let cool.


You will need lots of newspaper strips!


When you start adding paper mache to your ball you will want the ball on some sort of a stand so that it doesn't start rolling around.

Start at the top of the ball and move down.
It doesn't matter if you do a couple layers at a time.
Make the newspaper nice and goopy with paper mache mix...It's not the paper that makes whatever you're covering thick, it's the paper mache goop that makes it thick.

Once you get to the bottom leave a part of the bottom not covered, look at the picture in this step.

Once you have done a layer then let dry.

If the ball is squeezing out of the neck hole (look at the pic on this step) once the layer of paper mache dries, deflate the ball just a little.

You will want to do 9-10 more layers... Do not try to rush this, or else it won't turn out good!

Once you are done with paper mache and it is all dry, you might have a few rough spots where a little piece of paper is uneven or something like that...The answer: Just sand it down a little with sandpaper!

Step 4: Deflating and Shaping

There you have it, you are done with the messy stuff!

Once you have done the paper mache layers, deflate the ball.

To do this you will simply, from the neck hole cut a large gash in the ball.

Let the ball deflate and pull out the deflated the ball through the neck hole.

Be very careful when pulling out the ball... There is a very low possibility that the mache mold will cave in, but that will only happen if you didn't follow my directions so far!

The mold could be a little delicate once you pull out the ball, so don't start throwing it around.

Step 5: Making the Sizes Right!

Once you have the mold, have whoever is going to wear the headput their head in the mold with the helmet on backwards (I will tell you why later on).

What you will do is try to have the person indicate where their eyes are by having their fingers(on the outside) point to where they think their eyes are.
(look at picture #1 on this page)
Once they point out where thier eyes are mark those two spots lightly with a pencil.
You will want their eyes to be right around where the mouth will be. (see pic #2 on this page)

If (when they put the mold on and they point to where their eyes are) is above where the mouth will be, hold the ball up a little (while it's still on their head) and have the person point to where their eyes are again.
If they still are pointing to their eyes and it's not in the mouth area, keep on holding the ball up a little higher until it is.
Once you get a good position of where their eyes are right where the mouth is going to be, mark that spot.

Step 6: Confirming Sizes

The next step is quite simple.

Get out your drill with the smallest drill bit you have.
Without the person's head in the mold, drill a very small hole on each of the eye marks you made on step #5. (look @ pic #1)

Have the person put the head back on once the two holes are drilled and have them get their eyes into the right positon again.
If there eyes are in the right place, when they're looking staight ahead in the ball, they will see two little dots with light coming through them.

If they don't see any dots right in front of their two eyes and one's a little right of their eye and another's right in front of their left eye, ect., then that's fine!

What you'll do is have them take off the mold and drill another hole(s) where you think their eyes are and then have them look again.

Hopefully by then it would be in the right place!
If not just drill a couple more holes. (look @ pic #2)
As you can see in picture number two, I did three sets of holes and the third one was correct.
You don't have to patch up the incorrect drill holes (if you have any at all) because, as you also saw in the picture, the imaginary mouth that hasn't been cut yet, was surrounding the holes that were incorrect, too! And since later you will be cutting out the mouth, you will be cutting out the incorrect drill holes, too!!!
If your drill holes are way off (which is pretty unlikely) and they won't be in the mouth area that gets cut out...then... sadly...you'll have to patch them up with a little paper mache...

Step 7: Sticking the Helmet in Place

Put on your batters helmet backwards and put your head back inside the mold.

The reason you're putting the batters helmet on backwards: Later, when the helmet is glued into the head and you're looking through the mouth, you won't want a big flap on your helmet in the way.

MAKE SURE FOR THE LAST TIME THAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PLACE FOR YOUR EYES

You will now spray the foam sealant into the mold.

REMEMBER: FOAM SEALANT EXPANDS , SO CHECK HOW MUCH YOUR FOAM SEALANT EXPANDS BEFORE YOU SPRAY INTO THE MOLD!

ALSO: WHEN HANDLING FOAM SEALANT--WEAR GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION

Spray very little sealant...Just enough to get the helmet in the correct position once the foam sealant expands and dries.

Look at picture for rest of step

Step 8: Spray Painting

Now that you have gotten the helmet into the correct position and the foam sealant is dry, you will spray the head white.

Cover up the neck hole with newspaper so that you don't spray the inside of the mold.

Put the mold on a stand of some sort so that when you spray the head, you won't have to move it to spray another part or have the mold roll away.

Spray paint the mold (or as I call it, the head) white!

Don't spray paint too much in one place!

Once you have done a layer of white spray paint let dry.

Do another layer of spray paint.

Keep on doing layers of spray paint until the head is solid white.

Once you have done the things above, move onto the next step!

Step 9: Cut the Mouth

You will now cut the mouth!

The mouth is up to you

I freehand drew the mouth lightly with a pencil and made it as even a smile as I could.

Make sure that the mouth cuts out the drill holes that marks where their eyes are.

The reason:
The person will be seeing through the mouth... But people won't see the person's eyes because there will be some fabric in the way!

To cut the mouth:
Get out your dremel (if you don't know what a dremel is look at the pic on this page) and attach a round blade to it.

THIS IS A JOB FOR AN ADULT

Cut out the mouth by cutting with the dremel along the light pencil lines.

Once the mouth is cut out, you are done with the dremel!

If you have some rough edges on the lines where you cut the mouth, sand it down until is looks good.

Step 10: The Nose and Hat

Get a small cone (made out of foam) that you think will do well for the nose.

Round the inside of the foam cone so that when you glue it to the head it looks natural instead of just sticking out with gaps under it to each side.

Once you have rounded the foam cone, cover it with a thin layer of paper mache.

Once you have done the layer of paper mache on the nose cone, and it's dry, paint the nose black with acrylic paint.

Do another layer of black paint until the nose is a solid black.

You are done with the nose! On to the hat.

You will need a larger cone and a base for the hat (look at the pic on this page).

Glue the base and the cone together with a hot glue gun.

Cover the assembled hat with a layer of paper mache.

Once the layer of paper mache is dry, paint the hat with yellow acrylic paint.

Do another layer of yellow paint until the hat is a solid yellow.

You are done with this step!

Step 11: The I-Can-See-But-You-Can't Mouth

To start off this step, get a large metal bowl and pour some red food color into it.

Get a large strip of cheesecloth and soak it in the food coloring until it is a dark red.

Let the dyed cheesecloth dry and then glue it onto the inide of the cut out mouth (on the edges) with glue (see pic on this page).

Step 12: Final Touches!

This part is all up to you.

Glue the nose and hat on with hot glue--I won't tell you where to put them, I'll just show you what I did (look at pics on this page).

You also, In this step, are going to decide where to paint the eyes.

What I did on the eyes: I used a compass and lightly drew the outline of the eyes on the head. I then painted the eyes with blue acrylic paint.

Like I said, this step is up to you. Good luck!