Halloween is creeping up fast! It’s time to get your treats, the house, or even the office Halloween ready! Do you remember those old vintage paper-măché pumpkins? They were made for collecting treats and holding candles as decoration. Using the vintage pumpkins as my inspiration, I decided to create some fun candy dishes in different Halloween creatures. I was inspired by Pro Tapes® to make my own in a unique, different way. As I was looking at my stash of Pro Gaff®, I thought why not use the tape directly? I really wanted to challenge myself and the tape, so I set out to see if it could be done. I realized tape was definitely the better way to go for this project, opposed to the typical way of creating a papier-măché with the messy water, glue, paper and paint, not to mention, the dreaded drying time. Substituting all of that with Pro Gaff® tape was a win!
Here’s why: Pro Gaff® comes in so many varieties of colors, it’s ready to use as is: no paint, no dry time! Pro Gaff® has so many amazing colors that won’t fade, so you can trust it will hold up for a long time and still look new. Pro Gaff® tape also has a unique matte finish, which was a plus for this project because it really resembled the look of a real paper-măché. Pro Gaff® tape is hand tearable and very easy to work with, which made this project a breeze. Here’s exactly how I created each bowl… no tricks, all treats! Happy Halloween!
Materials:
- 7 Foam Bowls
- X-Acto™ Knife
- Scissors
- Cutting mat
- Pencil
- Sharpie
- 6 Toothpicks
- Pro Gaff®: Black, Grey, White, Orange, Olive Green, Green, FL Green, Purple, Yellow, FL Pink.
Step 1
Flip one bowl upside down and stack on top of a second. Use a pencil to mark the areas of the mouth to cut out with your X-Acto™ Knife.
Step 2
Cut out the mouth and begin to tape the inside area of both bowls with 2” Black Pro Gaff®. It was a little tricky covering the curved areas but I found it was best to start with smaller strips around the top perimeter and work your way down into the center of the bowl with longer and wider pieces that covered brim-to-brim (I got a lot less creases this way). You can easily hand rip Pro Gaff® tape both lengthwise to make it skinnier and across the width to adjust the coverage you need. You get clean, crisp, even tears each time!!
Step 3
After the inside is completely blacked out, position the two bowls back together to create the 3-D form. Start covering the intricate areas first, I suggest starting around the opening of mouth. For best results, I went back and trimmed the brim off the edges of both the top and bottom bowls, except for the bowls that will be used to create the cat candy bowl. This will give your bowl a flush round surface. Tear the Pro Gaff® tape into thinner strips by hand ripping it lengthwise and with these thinner pieces secure the two bowls together in place.
Step 4
Continue to cover the outer surface of the bowls in long wide strips of Pro Gaff®. Chose a length that will cover almost completely from top to bottom and continue clockwise around the bowl.
Step 5
Start to embellish and give each bowl some personality!
Step 6: The Cat
Ears: For the ears, rip a long strip of black Pro Gaff®. You will fold the ends together leaving a ¼ inch overhang with the sticky side down, cut the top of this now double sided ear into a triangle. You can use an X-Acto™ blade or some scissors.
Using the overhang part of the tape, attach each ear to the back of the head.
Teeth: Follow the exact same process, except use white Pro Gaff®, instead of black for the sharp teeth.
Nose: Cut out a small triangle from your Fluorescent Pink Pro Gaff®.
Eyes: Draw some eyeballs directly onto the yellow Pro Gaff®. You can pencil it in first and finish the look with a permanent marker. Both write very nicely across the surface of Pro Gaff®. It never smudges and you never have to wait for it to dry. Finally, cut them out and stick them in place!
Whiskers: ¼ inch grey Pro Gaff®, is purr-fect for some whiskers. It perfectly covers a toothpick. The toothpick will stiffen the whiskers and keep them upright. I ripped a long piece of this Pro Gaff®, placed the toothpick down and then folded the ends together, trimming the top into a nice point. I used my X-Acto™ blade to poke a hole into the cat’s cheeks and pushed the covered toothpicks through, then securing them into place from the inside with a small piece of black Pro Gaff®.
Step 7: Jack-o-lantern
Stem: Marry two strips of green Pro Gaff ® together, adhering both adhesive sides together. I did this twice and then taped both strips together and molded them all together over my finger. To get some dimension I hand ripped 1’’ olive green Pro Gaff® lengthwise and applied them down the stem leaving a little overhang to press right onto the top of the pumpkin.
Leaf and vine: Fold a piece of green Pro Gaff® in half and cut into a leaf shape. Attach the leaf to a longer piece of ¼’’ FL green Pro Gaff® as a vine. Wrap that piece around the stem of the pumpkin and attach at the top and the bottom to secure in place.
Face: Use an X-Acto™ blade, scissors or even hand-tear some triangles from a roll of black Pro Gaff® for the eyes and nose. I used my X-Acto™ blade and a cutting mat, because I wanted to ensure the eyes matched in size. I used the grid on my cutting mat as a guide.
Step 8: Witch
Nose: Sculpt with tape! Start with a piece of green Pro Gaff® sticky side up. Layer on two more long pieces of the Pro Gaff®, then begin to shape the nose by rolling the thickened strip of tape into your desired crooked nose shape, and affix using the excess exposed adhesive edges. I left some overhang here like I did on the cat’s ears and placed another vertical piece from mouth to head to hide any seams.
Hair: For her hair, I used 2’’ purple Pro Gaff® tape. Marry two long strips of tape adhesive sides together, and leave a bit of overhang. Now you can easily cut a few lines of fringe vertically to give the look of real hair. Then place those fringes pieces of tape around her head accordingly.
Hat: Her hat is made up of a 3rd bowl. Keep the brim on this time! Start from the bottom and work your way up covering the surface with Black Pro Gaff®. Keep the top open to create the pointed top. I stuffed some purple tape scraps (leftover from trimming her hair) in the hollow part just to give the tape a little surface to stick to and help keep its shape. I added some length around the brim, this time by folding Pro Gaff® tape in half horizontally leaving some excess to apply it right over the edge. To finish, I embellished her hat with a ¼’’ Fluorescent green stripe of tape. I then taped the hat in place on the witch’s head with a few UGlu® Dashes.
Eyes: same as the cat’s.
Step 9
Fill with your favorite treats!
Notes
Some things I took note of while making these Pro Gaff® Halloween candy bowls was, Pro Gaff® stuck amazingly to the Styrofoam. I could even lift up the tape carefully and reposition it if I needed to. I would highly suggest Pro Gaff® for any future DIY projects. Also, covering the curved surfaces of the bowls was a bit tricky, but doable. I had a few trial and errors runs, but with a little practice one will always find the right technique. I also recognized my love for Pro Gaff®. The flat matte surface of Pro Gaff® hides imperfections nicely and I found it easy to smooth out any air bubbles over the rounded surface. Pro Gaff® is also stiff yet flexible and strong enough to sculpt with. I was able to bunch up a strip or two and wrap it within itself and sculpt the witch’s nose and hat only using tape. Pro Gaff® is strong enough to hold its own form. Last but not least, Pro Gaff® tape a smooth writable surface! You can write directly onto it with a pencil, pen or sharpie markers. I was able to create some of the finer details because I could write on Pro Gaff®.
