DIY Milk Jug Skeleton, AKA "Little Jack".

Meet Little Jack, our new house guest!

Made from just a few milk jugs, paint, felt, glue and some string. I've seen many variations of milk jug skeletons, but most had the eyes, mouth, and nose cut out, or had awkwardly long bodies. Oh yeah, and none of them looked like Jack Skellington! :D

Caution! This is for indoor use only! I am currently working on acquiring more milk jugs to make some outdoor friendly Jack-faced skeletons for our yard. We are in NEED of some yard decorations, and these would be perfect with a little tweaks. So, stay tuned!

 Here's what you'll need:

-5 clean milk jugs

-Black felt, & Red felt

-Hot glue gun

-White embroidery thread

-Thin black (or white) ribbon

-Black acrylic paint, & paint brush

-Scissors

-Sharpie

-Hole puncher

-Nail polish remover

-Stiffing Spray 

First thing you'll want to do, is paint the face. This way, it will be dry when it's time to attach the head. 

Next, you'll want to cut out Jacks bat bow tie. I just sketched out the tie on paper, and used it as a stencil. After cutting it out you'll want to spray with the stiffing spray. Giving this a chance to also dry, while you work on the rest of his body.




Now you want to draw your lines, using your Sharpie. Don't worry about the lines being messy! That's what the nail polish remover is for. It also takes off any date stamps you have on your jugs as well. You just wet a paper towel with nail polish remover, and wipe the marker away. 

I hope these angles give you a good idea where all your lines should be. The one jug is obviously going to be your skeletons rib cage. The other jug you are cutting off the top, to flip over and use as the groin.








Using your hot glue gun, you're going to attach the top piece of the other jug, to the bottom of your rib cage, like shown in the photo below. Then you're going to cut away the pieces outlined with the red doted line. And before moving onto the next step, you should punch holes where the legs will soon be attached.

Using the jug you just cut the top off, and one other jug,
you are going to cut off two handles. 

Which now you are going to hot glue onto the top side of your skeleton's rib cage. Just put a little glue under the handle, and press in place until it starts to cool off. 

Your skeleton's head should be dry now, as well as his bat bow tie. Simply hot glue them both in place, like so.

Using a small piece of red felt, cut out a simple heart and hot glue that in place as well.

Using this photo as a guide, you are going to cut out each of these pieces TWICE. You'll need two jugs, and each jug should look like this >
on all four sides.








When finished cutting, you should have two hands, two feet, and two bones for each limb. I realized that dipping each piece in nail polish remover, and then wiping them off was more effective then just wiping them with a wet paper towel. Once cleaned off, punch all your holes.

 After this step all you're doing is using your white embroidery thread to tie all your pieces together, and in place. Also, all the pieces are slightly bent, so make sure to lay out all your pieces first to be sure they are all facing the same way. 

To hang him, just cut two slits on the top of his head, and slide your thin black (or white) ribbon through, and tie a knot. He's very light weight, so I was able to hang him with just a single push pin. Making him officially the cheapest, and coolest Halloween decoration we have yet! Come Christmas this little guy will be back again, rocking a Santa hat. Which then will also make him also the coolest Christmas decoration we have. :D