Halloween Masks, Made From Tape!

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Your friend is cooking up a Halloween costume that involves cardboard, a yard of metal sheeting, and a dozen wire hangers; it may look cool, but there’s a good chance she won’t be able to sit down or hold her drink all night. You, on the other hand, will be sitting pretty in this simple mask, which you can make from household supplies in only an hour or two. Keep the rest of your costume minimal—and keep your hands free for holding your beer.

To make our fox, you’ll need:

• Measuring tape
• Foil
• Stapler
• Black permanent marker
• Scissors
• X-Acto knife
• Cutting mat
• 1 ¹/₂” wide ribbon
• Red and white duct tapes

Instructions

1. Measure the distance from the outside corner of your left eye to the outside corner of your right eye. Add 6“ to this measurement to get the width of your mask. (The width of our mask ended up being 11“.)
2. Use your ruler to measure the distance from your hairline to your upper lip. This will be the height of your mask, before the ears and nose are added. (For us, this measurement was 5 ¹/₂“.)
3. Tear four pieces of foil slightly larger than the height and width of your mask. Stack them and then staple the corners to hold them together.
4. With a permanent marker, draw a football shape on the foil stack; the width and height are the measurements you got in steps 1 and 2. You’re going to cover up the marks you make with duct tape later, so don’t worry if it’s a little messy.
5. Cut out the football shape with your scissors. Staple the top, bottom, left, and right edges of the football to keep the pieces of foil together.
6. To find the correct placement of the eyeholes, line up the football horizontally against your face and lightly press it against your eyes. Then draw circles slightly larger than a quarter around the center of the pressed-in areas.
7. Place your football shape on a cutting mat and use your X-Acto to cut out the eyeholes. Place your football shape aside.
8. To create the ears and nose, stack four pieces of foil that are roughly 4″ x 8″; staple each corner to hold them together. Then take your permanent marker and draw two triangles on the foil. These triangles will be the ears and can be as big or as small as you want; our ears were roughly 2 ¹/₂” x 3″. You can also curve the edges of the triangles, like we did, for slightly rounded ears. For the nose, draw a “B” on the foil. Again, this can be as big or as small as you want—ours was roughly 2″ x 1″.
9. Cut out the ears and nose with your scissors and put a few staples through them to hold the pieces of foil together. Position the ears and nose however you want on the football shape and staple them in place. Your mask is taking shape!
10. Take your ruler and measure 2“ in from the left side of your football shape; put a dot here with your permanent marker. Repeat this step on the other side.
11. Cut a piece of ribbon about 30“ in length, then cut in half. Staple one end of each ribbon on top of both end dots on the foil; use 6–8 staples to make sure they’re securely attached.
12. Flip your mask over and cover the front (you can tape right over the eyeholes) with long, slightly overlapping strips of red duct tape. Wrap any extra tape over the edge of the mask and stick it to the back.
13. Use your white duct tape to add details—we added some around the ears and eyes. If you have trouble cutting shapes out of the duct tape with your scissors, lightly stick a strip of duct tape on your cutting mat and use your X-Acto knife to cut out the shapes.
14. Once you’re finished, flip your mask over and from the back, cut out the tape that’s in the eyeholes with your X-Acto.
15. Use your permanent marker to draw a nose on, and you’re done.

Want to make our elephant mask? Download the instructions here.

By Lan Truong and Callie Watts

Photographed by Sarah Anne Ward

Styled by Maya Rossi

This craft appears in our Oct/Nov 2012 issue with cover girl Aubrey Plaza. Subscribe now.