How to: Vicki's spooktacular papier-mâché bowl

No tricks, just treats — create your own bowl using all recycled materials!

Vicki Gillow, Community Engagement Manager, talks us through the process to make a multi-purpose papier-mâché bowl in time for Halloween. Whether you need a bowl ready for trick or treaters sweets, or a nod to the Mexican festivities of the Day of the Dead, you are in for a treat.

To make your Halloween, Day of the Dead treat bowl, you will need to follow the three stages as detailed below.

Materials you will need: 

• Newspaper
• PVA Glue
• x2 old brushes
• Old tubes of paint (colours of your choice)
• Permanent markers or Sharpies
• x2 finer paint brushes for decorating the bowl
• Balloon for each bowl (these can be reused and do not need to be burst)

Stage one: Create your bowl

1. Blow up your balloon to the size you want to be and draw a line around the widest point of the circumference.

2. Using a combination of glue and water, paste the newspaper strips onto the balloon (the half not containing the tied end), up to your line. Build up five layers of glue and newspaper, and try to ensure that the strips overlap. Once you’re done, leave the balloon overnight to dry.

Stage two: Create your base

1. Gently lift the hardened newspaper bowl off your balloon, stick down any bits that come loose using blue and water, and trim or sand the edge so that it lines up with your drawn-on line.

2. To make a stand, twist and roll some more newspaper so that it makes a small circle, about a quarter of the width of the widest part of your bowl. Use some marking tape to secure it and glue to the bottom of the bowl, pasting more strips over the top with glue and water. Leave it to dry overnight.

Stage three: Decorate!

1. Coat the inside of your bowl with white paint and leave it to dry. Then layer on your base colour. While that is drying, you can also paint a design on the outside.

2. When the inside if dry, draw your design on in permanent marker, and then use coloured pens or paint to colour it in. 

3. After your bowl is dry, fill it with some tasty Halloween treats to reward any trick or treaters!

We'd love to see your bowls! Post them on social media, using #AbbeyfieldHalloweenCrafts and tagging us in your post on Facebook The Abbeyfield Society, Twitter @TheAbbeyfield and Instagram @abbeyfield_society.

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