Halloween, coffins and recycling!
Coffin, with recycled packaging!
Have you asked yourself why coffins are featured when it’s Halloween?
I believe on a lighter note, they make very good containers, but on a smaller scale as coffin treat boxes! Don’t you think?
Keeping with the Halloween theme, could it be that they are used in this way because coffins have dark or grim innuendoes, like what lies within? (in this case full of yummy treats!)
So they are a perfect example of making something grim, but fun using the coffin as a vessel to hold your treats in, either for trick-or-treating or just as a giveaway box!
What my intentions are!
Having dived into my recycle bag I came across a box that I had saved which contained a sink tap, funnily enough, this packaging resembled a coffin shape.
I thought one day this would come in handy, but I am not sure yet how to use it.
Well I thought, it’s nearly Halloween again, when all the scary ghoulish creatures, stories, fancy dress parties, or trick-or-treaters emerge!
what better way to use this exciting box and yes you’ve guessed it up-cycle it to look more like a ‘coffin’ but in this instance one of the ‘Halloween coffin treat box ideas!’
This is an unusual type of packaging and not everyone will have one like this, but it was an opportunity to show you how to up it a bit and give it a very spooky feel!
Having thought about it, other types of containers could also make good treat boxes, using the Halloween theme.
So I will dip into that too later.
We know that Halloween features:-
Ghosts, ghouls, witches, werewolves, vampires, mummies, zombies, spiders, cobwebs and not forgetting trick-or-treaters, but where do coffins come into all this?
Are you ready for the trick-or-treaters?
Let's consider two types of coffins.
So when someone dies, they are buried within a coffin right?
What is a coffin?
A coffin is a long 3D-shaped box that has six sides that taper at the feet and to the head, with an opening lid.
Coffins are generally made from different types of wood, like oak, mahogany, or elm-styled veneers.
What are caskets?
A casket is another type of coffin that is oblong shaped and the lid opens in two parts.
There is a top and bottom half of a lid. The top half exposes the waist upwards showing the deceased head and the bottom half covers the legs up.
Caskets tend to be much more expensive in how they are made and are more familiar in the United States.
Coffins and halloween!
Generally, Halloween is depicted around ghouls and spooks and something scary and dark and when we think of vampires we have the coffins!
A coffin is an interesting subject, to play about with,
It features all that is scary about it and is used in such a way to make it a cool artifact to withhold your treats in!
Because a coffin is a container, we wonder what we can put within it.
That’s what makes it a fun concept to play with, especially when it comes to Halloween coffin treat box ideas.
Vampires and coffins!
Vampires have been regarded as monsters, the creatures that roam the night lusting for blood. Their sucking fetish to survive, then by dawn return to their coffins before daybreak.
Their coffins would protect them from the daylight and the Sun otherwise they will experience great pain turning into dust or go up in flames.
So here’s the thing the link between coffins and vampires is, vampires need their coffins to hide, they are a team that’s highlighted on Halloween!
Back to this post!
To make something light of something dark, I decided to use this coffin-shaped packaging and make it into a coffin-style treat box.
This time of the year we generally get quite a lot of spiders, and spider webs and we have shorter days, so the darkness is within easy reach.
I have considered spiders and spider webs depicting a dark coffin to put you in the mood.
Does that sound good?
Here are the resources you will require to help with the coffin making!
One coffin-shaped box.
Black acrylic paint, White acrylic pen.
Black shredded tissue paper/paper to cut shape/black felt tip.
PVA glue/Glue gun (not shown)/Scissors.
Black tissue paper.
Paint brushes.
Some plastic spiders.
Strips of hessian.
Let's revamp this box!
How did you find that? You can paint the whole box, with a helping hand under ten minutes.
It would need to be left to dry and the rest is how you are going to design your coffin.
I went for a spiderweb, some strips of hessian to give it that old look and a finishing touch with a couple of spiders.
In my search to find different types of packaging that could be converted into coffins, I also found a couple of different styles of chocolate boxes that would make great Halloween coffin treat boxes!
This is what I did with them. The shape of each box determined what spook to feature on each one!
- Two empty chocolate boxes.
- Acrylic paints/pens.
- Paint brushes.
- Scissors.
  Some tips!
- Once you have selected your box, work out where the right area is on the box to cut all the way round for the lid or find a way to open it up.Â
- In this instance, we are looking to make a container to hold treats in.
- Remember to allow enough space to put treats in the bottom section of the box.
- Depending on the shape of the box you have, you need to decide how it will open up safely, without damaging the shape.
- You need to apply enough coats of acrylic paint to cover the patterns on the box, making it an excellent base to paint on.
- You can recycle your disposable gloves by washing the paint off them and re-using them again.
- Also, wash your paint plate so the acrylic paint doesn’t dry hard.
- I attempted to glue the plastic spiders with PVA glue, but this didn’t work, so I used some blu tack, this didn’t adhere the plastic spiders either. Hot wax was the only type of glue that held the spiders fast.
- The chocolate boxes I used have unusual shapes and this should not deter you from how they look, but how you can transform them into super spooky Halloween coffin treat boxes!
Here are some easy coffin printables!
Need some help in making coffin boxes?
I have included these templates and video showing you how to make a super easy coffin box, with just a few simple resources from kidspot.com (make a spooky coffin)
These printable links are the top and bottom parts of a coffin. No measurements required everything is done for you, all you need to do is print out the templates, stick onto black card and cut out!
I had a go and printed one out from my smartphone. Check below what I did with it!
I ran off the templates which were very easy to do and this is what I ended up with!.
Fancy a Halloween selfie?
Are you looking for a cool and unusual gift treat for Halloween, then look no more, I have the perfect solution for you.
Take a look at this amazing site, where you can superimpose your pet or member of your family into a spooky reproduction for Halloween.
PopArtYou is the place to be!
Your whole family can be the ‘Vampire family’ or your pet can be ‘Freddy Kruger’ or a specter, the choice is yours.
All you need to do is provide the best photographs of your good self and members of your family, or your pet dog or cat, and at your request on the character or characters you want them to depict, and bam! PopArtYou will do the rest!
Their specialist artists will use their magic and recreate a spooky portrait designed around Halloween.
You will even get to review it before it’s finalized and the turnover is super quick!
Here are some examples.
How about the whole family doing a Halloween number just like this one?
Vampire family.
How about Freddy Krueger? Just imagine your pet in a creepy pose!
In both cases, you need to provide good quality pictures and these will be used to generate the artwork around.
Do you want to know how this works, then check the link below!
Halloween resources!
Are you looking for art resources that would cover all your Halloween thirst? Baker Ross will have everything you need to feel those spaces!
So Baker Ross those ideas with some fun Halloween ideas to tempt you too!
So Baker Ross those ideas with some fun Halloween ideas to tempt you too!
Hey,
I LOVE this article and your website.
My niece and nephew are going to love going through this post before Halloween and working on their coffins and caskets.
I am going to share this with my sister-in-law first and encourage her to go through this with my niece and nephew. They are going to have such a great time.
Looking at your other articles too, you have some amazing ideas that will help educate and make kids happy. I LOVE them.
Keep up the amazing work you are doing.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom, your feedback is so inspirational, this is exactly how I want visitors to my
website to react!!! and the fact that you want to share this Halloween article, with your
niece and nephew is even better! I am also glad you had a peep at all my other articles and they got your
tick of approval! super stuff.
Thanks a bunch Tom, and happy Halloween!
I honestly like your website so much as I think the text you used is so fitting. In fact, if you don’t mind can you actually let me know what text you used for the part at the very top of this article above the heading that says: “What my intentions are”. That will be much appreciated!
Such cool ideas here for Halloween.
Hey Schalk, yes of course when I chose my theme for my website, this was the
style, design, and fonts they use, I love it as it kind of compliments and works
well with the children’s themes, I write about, it has that informal feel and fun look.
So the name is ‘Architects daughter’
At first, I thought it was a kind of ‘Scribble’ font, but yeah it’s quite cool.
Also, this font automatically comes up when I choose different size headings.
Hope that helps and feel free to ask anything else😀
These seem so easy and fun there are tons of coffin shaped boxes. You have great ideas on how to decorate the coffin and what part we like is what we are going to be filling our box with.
In the article we like how you put all the things in between, such as what vampires sleep in.
We are going to pass this article on to my brother so that he can do this project with his kids.
Cheers,
MnD
That sounds great Mathew, love it when I can inspire kids as well as big kids,
like the adults to do some easy crafting and the best thing is that you are thinking about
recycling your throw-outs! So no real cost to you and you are up-cycling something ordinary
into something fun and in this case spoooooky!!! great for Halloween!
So happy you are passing this on to your brother and his kids, they will have a great time
crafting, and oh’ please do check-out other posts that also cover more articles on Halloween!😀
Thanks for your super feedback and Happy Halloween! 🧛🧟
Absolutely love this idea! Great work! Very spooky👻
Hi Elena, thank you so much! glad you liked this project, just remember to save all your
treat tubs or boxes and spook them up with a bit of paint and then you
can have them re-filled with more of your fav treats, but you will need to go
trick-or-treating first lol!
I love your ideas!
This can be a great way to spend time with your family now that Halloween is coming.
In my country, Halloween isn’t celebrated that way. They just organize Masquerade balls for youngsters, which are also okay, but again there’s now the opportunity to do something like this.
Thank you for this article!
Alisa.
Hey Alisa, thanks for your feedback! Wow, Masquerade balls sound super fun too!
I could think of some great spooky masks to make, Mmmmm maybe on another post lol!
My aim is to offer ideas, and hope readers can get something out of them whether it’s
something simple, or even big.
Thanks for dropping by and Happy Halloween!