Pretty Realistic Cardboard Antlers

I recently discovered the power of paper maché through this amazing instructable by robbtoberfest. I wanted to make an Antler-Headpiece, and I since my last attempt was way too heavy and caused me some headache after wearing it for an hour, i came to the conclusion that cardboard and paper would be the Ideal materials for such a project:

It's lightweight, it's really low-budget, the materials are extremely common and there's almost no limit in size, form and color.

In this tutorial I will show you how to make antlers for Halloween, motto-parties, decoration and whatnot.

Materials necessary:

- Scissors fit to cut cardboard

- Glue (make sure it's water soluble) or actual paste

- Some Kind of jar for your glue-and-water mix

- Cardboard - Paper (I am not using the classical Newspaper, but this thin kind of wrapping paper one would use to protect porcelain etc. because it has some advantages)

- Paint brushes

- Acrylic paint

Optional, but highly recommended:

- Wire

- Wire cutter

- Masking tape

- Box cutting knife

- Transparent finish (for water protection)

With Wire (taped antler):

Use the scissors and/or box cutting knife to cut an antler-like shape out of the cardboard.

You might want to get a reference from the Internet, or maybe you already have a specific shape in mind - just go crazy ;)

I made small deer antlers similar to those on a skull I own, they are about 6 1/2 Inches long and each of them has three points.

Make two layers each, the upper layer can be a little smaller (I just used the spare-cardboard for demonstration purposes here, that works, too). Use the masking tape to attach the two layers with the wire in between.

Bend the cardboard with the wire inside until it suits your expectations.

I recommend wrapping the lower end with a strap of cardboard to give it a more round/ plastic look.

Without wire (smaller antler in the images):

You can also do this without wire, but it's going to be a lot more unstable and annoying to process.

Cut a rather wide strip out of the cardboard and fold it in half lenghtwise. For small antlers, just cut a notch into the top, for bigger antlers you will also have to cut out the upper two points of the antler.

Cut slits into the folded cardboard and attach more points by sticking through slim triangle-shaped pieces of cardboard.

Bend the strips until everything sits in place.

I recommend wrapping the lower end with a strap of cardboard to give it a more round/ plastic look.

You might want to have a solid base for a headpiece or whatever project you are using this for.

To make a simple base, just cut out your preferred shape from the cardboard as needed and slit it until the base of your antlers fit through. Don't cut a hole into it, you will need the excess cardboard to hold your antler in place.

Fixate the antlers with some glue and let it dry, then you're ready to wrap!

When you are content with the shape, you can start putting on the paper maché.

Rip apart (don't cut) the paper and mix the glue with water (the ratio depends on the type of glue you're using, for me about 2:1 Glue:Water worked out pretty well using cheap glue).

Use a paintbrush to apply the glue to the antler-base, then put on a strip of paper. Cover the paper in glue until it's soaked, then lay on another piece of paper overlapping a bit with the one already on the base. Repeat until everything is covered in a a layer of paper maché.

The thinner the paper is, the better it works this way. As stated above, I was using thin wrapping paper wich has the bonus advantage of being entirely grey when it comes to painting it.

If you're using paste and newspaper, you might want to soak the newspaper pieces with paste, then simply cover the base with the pieces (I don't like this method, because it's a mess, but it works anyways).

Let everything dry, then put on one to three more layers the same way (until you think the construction is stable enough).

The pictures show a pair of wireless antlers, because I decided to make an instructable after I finished the ones with wire inside.

When painting with acrylics or other water-based paint, make sure to let the layers dry properly in between painting so the paper maché doesn't peel off.

For this tutorial, I decided on a lighter color, but the process is similar:

Make a smooth base using a light color (plain white in this case), paint the entire piece.

Use a sponge to tap on darker colors and make the antlers look rough, use more color on the bottom and less on the tips. Use different shades and don't be too accurate with this.

Paint on dark stripes lengthwise, where the natural antler would have scores (in my case from the bottom to abt 1/3 of the length, see picture 3). Again, use a rather dry brush and don't be too accurate.

Optional: Use a light color and highlight tips and edges.

Also, the light antlers received 3-4 layers of glow-in-the-dark paint since they were intended for festival-like occasions.

Last but not least, I sprayed the whole thing with transparent acrylic finish as to protect it from water

For the brown ones I used medium brown and white acrylic paint and layered different mixes of both. I wasn't quite content with the sharp contrast so after all had dried, I made a fourth layer of the brown-ish white color, but thinned with water to smoothen up the edges which worked out pretty well.

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Now you've finished your antlers, make use of them!

I made a headpiece and I am about to make a second one, but I am sure that's not the only thing you can do with these.

Show me your project down below!