Hand Held Mummy Sarcophagus Prop!

Hello fellow Halloween lovers! This is BY FAR my all time favorite time of year! I'm super excited to share this fun hand held Costume prop with you for my upcoming Halloween Costume!

This year I'm going as a Mummy, and I thought I'd up the fun factor by adding a full size Sarcophagus prop that I can hold in front of me, look through, then reveal my costume throughout the night! So let's get started!

And when it's retired as a costume prop, it will grace our doorstep as a fun decoration as well!

• 4ft X 8ft Styrofoam insulation sheet (7 bucks at most home improvement stores)
• Duct and Packing tape (dollar store)
• Hot glue gun and sticks
• Exacto knife/scissors
• Styrofoam head
• 2 cans Gold spray paint
• 1 can base coat paint
• Thin bandage tape from the dollar store
• Several toll paints and brushes (your choice of colors)
• Dollar store simple face mask
• Jewelry molds (or dollar store jewelry)
• Embroidered gold cloth ( I found mine on a skirt at a thrift store for a dollar!) Check thrift stores, before paying for pricey fabric.
• 2 medium corner brackets (12 cents at most hardware stores)
• 1 plastic coated steel wall mount (1.50 at most hardware stores)

Figure out how tall and wide you want your sarcophagus to be. Generally you want it to be 4 inches wider on each side of you, 4 inches taller than the top of your head, and about 4 inches above the ground , so that you can carry it without dragging it. (Don't discard the left-overs they will be used as well)

You could make a pattern first, with butcher paper, but I chose to eyeball the main outline. It's pretty simple, but again don't cut unless you feel comfortable with your outline.

• Outline main shape with pen or sharpie
• Cut out outline with strong scissors or exacto knife.
• Be sure you are cutting on a safe surface that can't be scratched
• This is MESSY, so be sure you work in an area that can be covered in tiny Styrofoam balls.

Cut off the face of your Styrofoam head. I used a kitchen knife, but I'm sure there are many ways you could cut it. Be sure it will lay flat.

Go through the back of the head, and gently hollow out the yes with a small sharp knife. Be very careful when cut the eye holes, so that the lines are clean.

(this head was used, a new one will be all white)

You now need to cut out your edges (walls) and the raised hair piece. I also decided to make my hair piece longer, so I cut 2 more pieces as well.

You need to add an edge to the entire piece except the bottom. So cut long strips to the desired length, and I chose a 6 inch width.

The head piece is 2 feet wide, and 2 1/2 feet long (including the longer hair)

• Use Duct or Packing tape to attach the sides (walls) to the surrounding edge of your sarcophagus.
• Take your time to make sure the the edges are clean, and sturdy.
• Reinforce layers of tape if needed.

1. Place the face on top of the hair
2. Trace around the face
3. Cut out face
4. Place face inside cut-out
5. Place entire piece on main piece
6. Trace eye holes
7. Cut out eye holes in main pieces
8. Add hair pieces
9. Hot glue pieces together

For this step you could just purchase dollar store costume jewelry, but I have heat resistant silicone jewelry molds, so I made some hot glue jewelry! I learned to make silicone molds right here on intructables!

• Make jewelry by squirting hot glue into molds
• Remove from molds
• Glue molds to Sarcophagus with a little more hot glue

Using a thin tape (I used bandage tape from the dollar store) cover the exposed edge of the headpiece.

Since this was my first attempt making something like this, I didn't realize that gold spray paint would melt exposed Styrofoam! So my face literally started melting in step 13! Luckily I had a backup plan, a cheap plastic dollar store mask. I'm still glad I have the head in place though, it helps keep the mask steady, and makes the project sturdier.

• Glue mask to face with hot glue
• Make sure the eye holes align properly
• You could/should do this prior to painting, I learned the hard way, but you can learn from my mistakes! Gotta love Instructables for that fact alone!

To create the handle:

• Create a small hole at the level you want to hold your sarcofagus. I chose about 3 feet from the top.
• Make sure the hole is centered
• Using your two corner brackets, insert them from the outside in, creating a loop.
• duct tap them in place on the front.
• Push your steel wall mount through the loop, and duct tape in place.
• When complete, paint

(again, I forgot this step originally, it should be done prior to painting)

Now that your elements are all secure, it's time to paint!

• Put down drop cloth.
• Using a white or cream base coat spray paint, spray the entire sarcophagus! let one side dry, then turn it over and paint the other side. Allow to dry for at least an hour.

Now that your base coat is dry, spray your entire sarcophagus gold! I used a brighter yellow gold for mine.

Spray one side, allow dry time, then flip and spray opposite side. I applied two coats, for a rich full coverage finish.

The devil is in the details, so have fun and be creative!

Add color to your jewelry with toll paint
Hot glue your embroidered fabric on head as well as the body.

Line hair section with gold sequins and hot glue.

This costume prop was a big hit, and it's soooooo light weight! I carried it around all night in heels, one-handed, no problem! It was so fun to catch someone's eye, through the prop, then pop out to reveal my mummy costume! It would also make a great decoration! And the model could be used to create a fantastic Vampire Coffin, with a few tweaks!

Happy Halloween! And if you liked this instructable, please vote for me for the Halloween Prop Contest!

- That Redhead