How to Make an Intestine Wreath

Move aside jack o lanterns and cotton spider webs! If you want your house to display an original decoration this Halloween, try making an intestine wreath. My husband was inspired by a posting on BoingBoing which described how to use your standard “crack filler goop” to make realistic intestines rupturing from a dummy. We decided to skip the dummy and make a wreath complete with eyeballs purchased from any Halloween aisle. This project is definitely messy. (Note to self – next time, remember to wear rubber gloves when using the crack filler! That stuff stayed on for days.)

Materials:

• 1 tin foil pizza pan
• 1 bottle of crack filler
• Acrylic paints and paint brushes
• Utility knife
• String or rope
• Optional: plastic eyeballs or something equally disgusting
• Optional: varnish to make the wreath slimy-looking

Directions:

Step 1: Cover your work area with newspaper to protect from the unavoidable mess.

Step 2: Make several diagonal cuts into the pizza pan while leaving the outer edges intact. The result should be triangular cuts similar to slices of pizza.

Step 3: Curve each of the triangular pieces to form a convex wreath shape. This will serve as the base of the wreath. You may need to use a few soup cans to anchor the pizza pan.

Step 4: Cover the surface of the pizza pan with the crack filler using squiggly movements.

Step 5: Add your eyeballs/decorations while the crack filler is still wet.

Step 6: Allow to dry overnight before painting.

Step 7: Decorate! We started off with a plain base coat in red. We then added some depth by mixing in some burgundy, brown and green. A thin layer of varnish was applied to “up” the grossness factor. Wrap a rope around the wreath and voila – you have a one-of-a-kind Halloween wreath!

The ultimate compliment is when kids would comment on how gross the wreath looked. My husband went a little overboard and painted on some brown poo on the wreath.