DIY A Vintage Halloween Jack-O-Lantern From Egg Carton Paper-Mâché Magic

Decorating for Halloween with vintage inspired items can give your home that old-timey, eerie look that's perfect for the spooky season, and this egg carton DIY is an easy way to accomplish the aesthetic. By making paper-mâché from the old cardboard, you can sculpt your own jack-o-lantern and paint it in the vintage style. To make this even easier, use a plastic pumpkin treat bucket, like the Way To Celebrate Halloween Plastic Pumpkin Treat Pail from Walmart for less than $2, as a mold for your paper-mâché. This will help you easily get the right shape of the jack-o-lantern and provide a subtle guide for face placement. Otherwise, you can use a balloon as your mold and pop it once completed, then attach a piece of wire as a handle at the end. This would create a jack-o-lantern that's made entirely of paper-mâché.

Before you can begin thinking about the design of your pumpkin, you'll need to make your paper-mâché. Start by tearing the egg cartons into bits as small as possible and leaving them in hot water for at least an hour, though it could take a few. Once the egg carton pieces are mushy, use your hands to squeeze out the liquid, leaving you with balls of paper. Add enough Elmer's glue into the paper to form a sort of clay. If it's too sticky to work with, combine your paper-mâché with some cornstarch. Once your mixture is the right consistency, you can start crafting your jack-o-lantern. After you've created the vintage piece, consider placing it on your front stoop or using it in a Halloween tablescape you can easily do yourself.

For the balloon method, blow up your balloon to the size you'd like, cover it in paper-mâché (aside from the knotted bottom), and let it mostly dry before popping the balloon. This will create a rougher shape, though you'll be able to carve out your face with an x-acto knife for the 3D effect. Once the inside has also dried, you can shape the face and paint your project. Make a hole in each side and add your wire handle, bending it on the inside so it doesn't fall out. 

For a more realistic look, paint a bit of glue onto the face of your plastic bucket and layer with paper towels. Add thick clumps of paper where you want the emphasized cheekbones or eyebrows, traits that are common with vintage style jack-o-lanterns. This is where you'll get to shape the face structure, though you can manipulate it more later. After another thin layer of glue, begin pressing your paper-mâché onto the treat bucket. Completely cover the outside of the jack-o-lantern aside from the bottom in your egg carton mixture. As you work, use the paper-mâché to further sculpt the face and get the perfect shape. After it has dried, use bright orange, yellow, red, white, and black paint to create dynamic eyes, a nose, and a mouth on your project and accentuate other facial features. You can outline everything with a black marker as well. With just some old egg cartons and imagination, you can DIY this cheap and easy Halloween decoration.