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DIY: Paper Mache Deer Head

A while ago I made a post about how to dress up a paper mache deer head to make it look like two tone faux mounted deer head. Unfortunately a lot of people were having trouble finding these elusive paper mache deer heads, so I started working on a tutorial on how to make your own from scratch. Finally I've finished it so I can share it with you all! Like with my turkey candles, I made a rough 3d model of a deer head and put it through a program to make it printable onto flat paper. Then all you have to do is cut it out, fold it up and glue or tape it together!

To get the template for this project, click here!

Here's what you need to make a paper mache deer head!

Print out the pattern onto cardstock, cut out and assemble according to the instructions.

My printer was running out of ink so the lines and numbers barely show up on camera, but it should print better for everyone else. Assuming you have printer ink!

I filled the head and neck with crumpled newspaper to help it keep it's shape.

Here it is all put together. If you like how the deer head looks at this point (low poly/faceted) then you can skip right to the paper mache steps, but if you want it to be more realistic, you can go on and sculpt some more details into the head.

To rough out the details, crumple up aluminum foil and use masking tape to hold it in place. I looked up a photo of the anatomy of a deer head to help me figure out where I needed to add the foil.

Here you can see the face almost done with the rough sculpt.

If you want even finer details you can use some air drying clay to sculpt that in.

When the air drying clay is completely dried, sand it smooth.

Paper mache time! Rip the paper into strips (instead of newspaper I used brown packing paper) and mix up some paper mache paste.

Dip the paper strips into the paste and run them between your fingers to remove the excess paste. Apply it to the head, overlapping the paper about a fourth of the way. Since you're not going to hollow it out like you would a pinata you only have to do 1 or 2 layers.

And here it is, done! Technically this is the end of the tutorial, since that's how you'd make a paper mache deer head, but I will show you how I decorated this one!

To finish this one off, I hot glued it to the wooden plaque that I stained a dark color.

Push the head down firmly to make sure it's glued down well.

And here it is, done!

 

For the Home, Other, Tutorials

DIY Faux Deer Head

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First off I gotta say... Happy New Years! Welcome to 2015! Alright, back to this weeks project. I've always wanted to put up a faux mounted animal head in our house, but I could never find something that would work/was in the price range I wanted. I ended up giving up on finding the faux animal head and I made the flower curtain to go in that spot in my living room.

Well, of course not soon after I ended up finding the perfect head. Or almost perfect. Workable. I found a paper mache deer bust and it was on sale, yes! One of the antlers was broken off, but it was a super easy fix and they gave me an additional discount because it was the last one that they had. Double yes! I came home and got to work, and now I'm going to show you how to make your own!

suppliesSupplies.

01This step is completely optional. I wanted the head to have a bit more detailed, so I used some two part epoxy clay to sculpt in more detail. I also fixed the antler by popping it back in and then hot gluing it in place.

02Here it is all done being sculpted on! Looks pretty crazy right now, but it will make sense after painting.

03While I waited for the clay to cure, I added the hanging hardware. Just find the center of the wooden plaque and attach it there.

04Paint time! Paint the plaque and the animal head. I used white gesso because it has a matte finish which is what I wanted for this guy. I'm also going to use liquid gold leaf for an accent color.

05Once dry, mark out where you want the accent color to go. I did mine about halfway down the antlers.

06Paint time again! After I painted this part, I went back and added a few drip details.

07Use hot glue to attach it to the wooden plaque.

08Since the deer head was paper mache, it wasn't perfectly flat on the bottom, so when I attached it to the plaque there was a huge gap in some parts. If you have this problem, you can simply squeeze in some hot glue and then paint over it with your main color and that will hide the gap!

And then you're ready to hang!

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Here it is in all it's glory. I took the flower curtain down and put this guy up in its place. I like it so much better than the curtain! What do you guys think? Let me know down below!

Alright, so now it's time for the giveaway winner! Congratulations blog reader Nicole!

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I will be sending you an email today! Make sure you reply as soon as you can because if you don't get back to me within 48 hours I'll unfortunately have to redraw a different winner.