Frightful or Silly Skeleton Garlands

Plastic fruit can be found in most craft stores. The small plastic pears you can find there are the perfect shape to make skeleton head garlands, with a fun or frightful appearance. As someone that has never seen much use for artificial fruit, I am glad to have a project that has me proud to purchase plastic pears. This project is very easy, and can involve the whole family. Kids will love sketching out or painting on the skeleton faces that they want to see hanging up for the season. I have not specified the number of pears or other items on the supply list because the exact numbers will depend on the space you will want to display the garland, personal preference and the amount of paint will also depend on your painting style.

You will need:
Paintbrush
White acrylic enamel paint
Black acrylic enamel paint
Small plastic pears on wire stems
Plastic lacing
Pony beads in colors of the season

Instructions:
1. Paint the pears with a light coat of the white acrylic paint. A little of the pear color coming through will add a great touch. If you prefer, you could also use a glow in the dark paint for the base instead of white, which will add a special spooky factor.
2. Paint the wire stems of the pear black and let the pears dry completely.
3. Paint faces on the pears in black. The faces can be a spooky, scary, or silly as you want. If you do not feel comfortable going straight for the paint, then sketch the faces on the pears with pencil before jumping to the paint. Let the paint dry completely.
4. As a finishing touch to the faces, you can add white accents to the eyes. Let the pears dry.
5. String around five inches of pony beads on the lacing in any color combination or pattern you desires. All black, black and orange, purple and lime green, or whatever strikes your fancy and will fit your vision is the right way.
6. Tie the lacing to the wire at the top of your first skeleton head.
7. Continue stringing beads and tying the lacing to skeleton heads until you have reached the desired length. Remember to end with around five inches of pony beads so that the beginning and end match.

Display your new skeleton garland how and where you wish. This project is one that you can store and keep displaying for several years.