Spooky Halloween Manhole and Cover Craft

Spooky Halloween Manhole and Cover

Made from Styrofoam

Bloody, creepy ghoul hand pushing coming out of manhole.

Skeleton hands push cover off of manhole cover.

This is a really fun and easy Halloween craft idea.

What you will need for this project:

Styrofoam pieces
Paint  - Taupe, brown, gray
Black magic marker
Dollar store ghoul hand or skeleton hand tongs
Dollar store red finger paint

This is a piece of Styrofoam I found in an old shipping box. I though it had the shape of a manhole so decided to paint it in urban grunge fashion.

I save all the Styrofoam pieces that come with shipped packages. They can be used in lots of craft projects.

Since you won't have the same shape of Styrofoam to use as I have, look through old boxes you've got stored and try to find a unique shape. It doesn't need to have a round hole just pick one with a hole (square/rectangular hole is fine).

Look in boxes that shipped electronics, appliances, furniture, etc. They come with unique Styrofoam piece shapes.

Side view of the shipping Styrofoam.

The manhole cover  is a scrap of flat and thin Styrofoam.

I painted the Styrofoam freestyle with the taupe paint. Paint some areas with only one coat and some areas with two coats. Do this randomly. This is gives the piece an aged look as things wear unevenly, especially color, over time.

Then I painted some areas with the brown paint. In general, paint in the same direction with all the colors.

I used a large, thick black magic marker to color random areas.

Then I used gray paint as the third color. Again all three colors, the taupe, the black and the gray are painted randomly. Don't paint each color fully over the Styrofoam. It's the missed areas that create the contrast and aged look.

I painted the cover the same way. Paint the taupe color.

Paint with the brown color.

Black magic marker streaks.

Randomly paint the gray color.

Now you've got what looks like a rusted out piece of metal with a ragged cover. It looks pretty spooky right now!

Just lay the cover on top of the manhole. Do not glue it or secure it in any way.

I bought a ghoul hand from the dollar store.

And wanted it to look even scarier by painting some blood on it with some red finger paint.

Then I just positioned the bloody hand to look like a ghoul it is pushing the cover to get out of the manhole.

 

I also bought a set of Halloween skeleton "salad tongs" from the dollar store.

Oooh, scary!