Instructions

1. Paint cut dowels with black paint. Once the dowels are dry, spray them with clear acrylic sealer and set aside.
2. Mix together your white paint and dark brown to make a very light cream
   color.  All you want to do is mute the white so it’s not so bright so
   only add a drop of the brown at a time (I used a popsicle stick to mix
   together).  Completely cover the entire head.  NOTE:  If some of it
   comes off don’t worry this project is very forgiving.  Just touch it up
   with of your cream paint.  Once that is dry you can start adding depth
   with the darker colors.
3. Use a sponge brush; fully load the brush with the cream color, dip the
   tip into the dark brown and dab it on in different spots of the head. 
   This makes it look old and dirty while it also adds depth.  Pull it back
   and examine it to make sure you have it the way you like it.  Do this
   step while it’s still wet.  So if you don’t like something you can
   simply cover it up with paint or add more.  Set aside to dry.
4. Once it is dry add the black; fill in the hollowed eyes and the teeth
   area.  Make sure to fill in between the teeth with black this step is
   very important for the end result. If you over filled the eye area you
   can take some of your cream color touched into the dark brown and
   correct it.  Let that dry.
5. Fill your brush with the cream color and lightly pat it onto the top of the teeth making sure not to fill in between the teeth.
6. If you chose skeleton heads with eyes, dip the tip of a regular brush
   into some red paint and add a dot of red to the center.  Spray clear
   acrylic sealer all over the skeleton heads; let dry completely.
7. Use a funnel and add some rice into the head (about ¼ cup).
8. Stick the dowel into the hole at the bottom as far as it will go.  Use a hot glue gun to glue the dowel in place.
9. Wrap gauze around and down the dowel to hide the glue where the skull was glued to the dowel and glue.
10. Decorate with different embellishments.