DIY: Cardboard Animal Masks for Halloween

You’ve bought the candy, the spooky decor is up, and the kids can’t wait to go trick or treating and show off their new costumes to all the neighbors. But if you’re anything like me, you’ve once again failed to pull together a clever disguise for yourself to wear while you’re chaperoning the candy haul. I spotted these cardboard animal masks on Flickr, and knew I wanted to recreate them for my own kids, but while this mask maker planned to paper mache his versions, I loved the simple cardboard forms and figured some paint would jazz them up.

Materials: free printable animal mask templates, cardstock, scissors, Sharpie (or pencil), cardboard, X-Acto knife, glue gun, hole punch, ribbon, paint

First I sketched out the masks, and you can use mine to save yourself some time—here are the templates for the Adult Fox, Adult Owl, Child Fox, Child Owl masks. While regular printer paper will work, I highly recommend printing your mask template on cardstock for easier tracing.

Use scissors to cut out the paper shapes. Cut along the solid lines but not the dotted ones—those designate areas that will be scored and folded.

Use a fine point Sharpie or pencil to trace each shape onto cardboard. The fox design will need to be flipped and traced twice to create a full mask.

Use both scissors and an X-Acto knife to cut the shapes out of the cardboard. Score the dotted lines on the fox snout and owl beak with the X-Acto, being careful not to cut all the way through.

Prime up your hot glue gun, and attach the layers together. Below are close-ups of how to assemble the trickier parts.

When you attach the animal parts to the face mask shape, glue just along the center. This allows the face mask to curve back comfortably around your eyes.

Punch one hole outside of each eye cut-out on the mask, and secure a length of ribbon to each side for tying.

While you can totally rock these masks au naturel, paint goes a long way in giving your DIY cardboard animal masks some added personality. If you’re making one for your child, be sure to let them get in on the action too (I promise it’s autumn here, but my daughter runs hot and wears sundresses inside year-round!).

She also insisted that we had to be “girl” animals, so you’ll notice the addition of a bow and some eyelashes made from a cut toilet paper roll.

When people ask what I am this year, I’m gonna tell them “I’m a hoot.” Bring on the king size candy bars!!!