Spooky Skeleton Hands

When it comes to Halloween, I definitely prefer haunted—spooky music, cobwebs and ghouls—to gore. And these super easy DIY decorations are just the right amount of haunting. Set at the center of a dimly lit dining room or perched on a porch for Halloween night, these lit-up skeleton hands give any vignette a spooky vibe. And guess what? All you need is a few latex gloves and a permanent marker to complete the whole look.

It really is that simple: Pull up some guide photos of skeleton hands on Google Images, then use a standard Sharpie marker to draw some bone shapes onto one side of a latex glove. Start with long bone shapes for the palm of the hand, then shorter ones for the middle and tips of each finger. Complete the sketch with a bunch of smaller triangle-y and rectangle-y shaped bones at the base of the hand. I’ll warn you now: Drawing on latex is kind of tricky. Don’t worry if your lines aren’t perfect—you can always fix the minor imperfections in the next step.

Once you’ve got a skeleton hand you’re happy with, it’s time to color in between the lines. I switched to a thicker, chisel-tipped Sharpie marker for this (it gets the job done better and quicker!). Begin to color between each of the bones on the palm and wrist area, then color in a thick border around the outside of the palm and the fingers (about a half-inch).

Once your skeleton hands are all inked in, it’s time to make them stand up and light up.

Drop a flameless LED tea light—turn it on first—into a wide votive holder or a 4-ounce mason jar (with the ring but without the lid). Stretch the opening of your skeleton glove around the votive or jar so it fits snugly and hides the glass.

EDIT: As one pinner on Pinterest pointed out, you can also stretch the glove around the jar upside-down. This way, you won’t have to pull the glove off each time you want to turn the LED candle on or off. Why didn’t I think of that? Brilliant!

At this point, it will look a little limp, but all you have to do to “raise your hand” (ha!) is blow. Seriously, just stretch the glove out a little bit and blow some air into the glove to inflate it. The latex glove should fit snug enough around the jar to keep the air in.

That’s it! Time to put ‘em somewhere dark and moody and get the spooky vibe going! I love it when holiday crafts are this easy and inexpensive, don’t you?