Halloween Skull and Ghost Soap Carvings

Looking for a super unique Halloween or Dia de los Muertos craft?  A couple of weeks ago, we tried our hand at designing, carving, and floating Ivory Soap Boats. It was so fun and easy. Ivory soap is the perfect medium for beginning carvers because it is airy and soft. (It's also relatively inexpensive! Bonus!)

Today's sugar skulls and ghosts are a bit more detailed than boats, but the results are so cute. I definitely recommend trying out this soap carving activity with kids of all ages. They are sure to have fun.

How to Carve Skulls and Ghosts from soap!

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Materials Needed:

• Ivory Soap
• Dish/ Tray
• Plastic knife
• Paper
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Large paper clip
• Watercolor paintbrush

How to Carve Skulls and ghosts from Soap:

1. Unwrap your soap. Trace it onto a sheet of paper. Then, draw your design.

Hint:  

• Remind kids to make their ghosts and skulls BIG. The tools that we're using today are easy-to-wield, but not very precise. It's much easier to carve larger, simpler shapes than tiny detailed ones.
• Want to include some artsy insight? This would also be a great time to talk about positive and negative space. (Positive being the object and negative being the background.)

2.  Cut out your template and place it on the soap. Use a pencil to trace it out.

Hint:

• Soap will fly everywhere! Place your soap inside a dish or tray to help catch all those carved out soap bits.

3.  Carve!  

Hint: Use your different tools for different purposes.

• The pencil is great at drawing details.
• The plastic knife is great at hacking off larger hunks. (Use the back of the knife to scrape off 'Ivory' from your soap.)
• The watercolor brush is great for sweeping away all those tiny bits of soap to reveal your design.
• The paper clip great for smoothing out bumpy bits or carving out little bits of soap at a time.

Once you're done, admire your creations!

Need more soapy inspiration?

• Watch this Met video to see the process 
• Carve an Ivory Soap Boat
• Don't want to use the soap to wash hands? Try the Ivory Soap Microwaving Experiment! 
• Or, grab your soap and make some Ghost Mud.

Looking for more Dia de lost Muertos crafts?

• Giant Dia De Los Muertos Skulls
• Colorful and glittery skulls
• Sugar Cube Skulls
• How to grow science-y crystal skulls
• Milk Jug Skull Luminaries

Happy making!