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DIY Sunflower Skulls – Super Simple Tutorial & Video
DIY Sunflower skulls are a really fun project that you can create to add some Halloween spookiness to your front porch decor. What I love about this simple DIY project is that it can be as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be. You can finish it in half an hour or spend days painting away and adding lots of cool details to your sunflower skulls.
I also love that you can do this on a very large scale or a very small scale. In the video below, I created very large sunflower skulls for the front porch and also did a mini bouquet of skull flowers to display in the kitchen. The possibilities are endless.
The original idea for this Halloween DIY project came from the artist Beejay Oslon. You can check out his AMAZING version on Instagram @beejay.oslon_art. Thank you Beejay for sharing your art with the world.
Materials You Need
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- 3 Ashland Oversized Sunflower Stem (Michaels)
- 3 Large Skull Heads (Family Dollar) or 6.5×4.25×4.6″ super-realistic skull head (Amazon)
- 1 Sunflower Bouquet with 7 flowers (Amazon)
- 2″ Skull Heads (pack of 12) (Amazon)
- 3″ Skull Heads (pack of 6) (Amazon)
- Brown Raffia (Amazon) or Excelsior (Michaels)
- Hot Glue Gun (Amazon)
- Micro cutter (Amazon) or something to cut the skulls in half
The cost for creating the 3 large sunflower skulls was around $80.
The small sunflower skull bouquet cost around $30.
Watch the Video
Step by Step Instructions
1- Gather your materials
Just gather all of the materials from above so that you’re ready to go. You may want to plug in your hot glue gun so that it’s ready!
2- Remove the backs of the skulls
In order to secure the skulls to your sunflower heads, you’ll need to remove the backs of the heads. You can use just about anything you have to remove the backs of the skulls. It will really depend on the material that your skulls are made of. Mine were a soft plastic material so I was able to use a razor blade and even scissors for the smaller ones. A tool called a micro cutter is also handy for cutting plastic.
3- Paint the skulls (optional)
You could definitely paint your skull heads to make them look really unique and realistic. I was pretty happy with the variety of skulls I purchased so I skipped this step.
The original artist of this project definitely painted his skulls and they look AMAZING. So, get creative here!
4- Glue the skulls onto the sunflowers
Use your hot glue gun to attach your skulls to the faces of the sunflowers. Make sure that you have you position the skulls correctly based on the way you’ll be displaying your sunflowers. You don’t want to have any upside down skulls! Or… maybe you do!
My larger skulls were super pliable, soft plastic so I was able to squeeze the skull heads and get them to fit perfectly onto the faces of the sunflowers. Honestly, I probably didn’t even NEED to glue them on. For these, I just ran a bead of hot glue around the face of the sunflower because I knew exactly where they would be positioned.
The plastic of the smaller skulls, however, was less pliable. So, for those I had to just position them on the sunflower faces and then use other materials to “nestle” them into the flower face. I ran the hot glue directly onto the halved skull for these so that all of the edges were secured.
Hold the skull heads in place until the hot glue dries.
5- Add finishing touches
After I glued the skulls onto the sunflowers, I added some chestnut colored excelsior around the edges of the skull to make it feel like it was nestled into the flower head rather than floating on top. Raffia or even twine are other materials you can use.
You can also get creative and use different materials. For the smaller bouquet, I thought that creepy little eye balls in the center of the sunflower heads would also look neat. I also saw some plastic baby doll heads at the store when I was picking up the smaller skull heads and I think those would look great too.
So, be creative and explore a range of different materials and possibilities! Most of all, have fun!
Follow my Halloween DIY Pinterest Board
Looking for more great ideas? Follow my DIY Halloween project Pinterest board for tasteful, classy, and super over-the-top spooky projects you can make for Halloween!
Wrapping up
This was a super easy and fun DIY project that anyone can do. I must say that for the effort this took, it was a really impressive result. I get lots and lots of comments on my spooky sunflower skulls!
If you liked this DIY project, you will also love my roundup of Halloween DIY Projects that showcases many more easy (and unique) Halloween DIY projects.
More DIY Projects You’ll Love
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Handmade wood slice Christmas ornaments make an excellent gift and a fun weekend craft project. From painting to wood burning to metal work to decoupage, here are 5 unique wood ornaments you can make to spread holiday cheer. - Filing Cabinet Makeover – From Rusty Hunk to Floral MasterpieceIn this filing cabinet makeover, learn how you can turn your rusty hunk of junk into a gorgeous floral garden storage masterpiece, DIY style.
- DIY Build a Fort Kit (+Printables To Make It Amazing)To make a build a fort kit, you’ll need PVC pipes with connectors or wood and twine for the structure, a sheet to cover the fort and lighting for the inside o f the fort, like a lantern.
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Amy Fedele
Amy is the founder of Pretty Purple Door and has been a garden designer since 2014 and graphic designer since 2005. She helps home gardeners design their own beautiful landscapes that are colorful in all four seasons, show off your personality and suit your lifestyle. Amy's work has been featured in publications like The Spruce, Family Handyman, Buzzfeed, Country Living Magazine and more. Read full bio.