Macabre Cloche

This was a super simple and fast project. The silk flowers were from a bouquet I've had for years. The skull, snake, and spiders were already part of our Halloween decorations that we usually put on the bookshelves. I found the cloche (a bell- or dome-shaped cover) this year at Target and knew it would be a perfect fit for the skull. The whole thing went together in less than 30 minutes but it has a really nice elegant creepy feel to it.

What I used:

Plastic cloche

One plastic skull

One sprig of silk flowers with two strands

Two rubber spiders

One spider ring

One flexible rubber snake

Super glue

I bent the end of the flower stem into what looks like the top of a heart. This allowed me to insert the empty part of the stem underneath the skull to hide it and to wrap the two sections of flowers around each side of the skull. To add balance to the arrangement I wrapped one side around the bottom and the other side up the side of the skull. We'll secure it in the next step.

I also added a couple of loose flowers to the bottom to fill some of the empty space on the side where the flowers went up the skull.

I took the rubber snake and wrapped it over the top of the flowers on the side of the skull to act as an anchor. Then I superglued the bottom of his jaw to the top of the skull so the jaw would stay open like it is about to strike. I added the two rubber spiders to the bottom flowers on either side of the skull and wrapped the spider ring around one of the flowers on the top so that the body of the spider sits in the center of the flower. If you want to make this arrangement permanent I suggest you glue everything down, but we'll talk about that in the next step.

At first I tried to secure the skull to the bottom plate but the glue didn't hold. It did work fine for holding the rubber snake on the top of the skull though so it depends on what materials you're working with. If you want to secure everything down to make the display permanent I think hot glue would actually work better for the skull and the flowers.

This would make a great centerpiece for a dinner table or an entryway. It's simple and spooky and will add a little creepy factor to your Halloween decor :)