Nightmare Before Christmas Scary Vampire Teddy Toy Tutorial

Hey everyone! I'm back with a new tutorial. 

I just finished Scary Teddy last night. He is one of the toys made by the citizens of Halloween Town during the "Making Christmas" song. He is later given as a gift to a child in the "real world" and chaos ensues.

Materials Needed:
-Pink Insulation Foam

-Soft Craft Foam Sheet

-Saw/knife/scissors/foam cutter
-Fine grit sand paper
-Caulking

-Paper towels or soft tubing

-1 yard cheap black fabric

-1 Sheet or section of white felt

-Acrylic Paints/brushes

-Hot Glue/Wood Glue

-Wooden dowel

-White colored pencil

-Wire Spool: 20 gauge

Scary Vampire Teddy Head Construction Tutorial
(Detailed description corresponds with picture tutorial above)

1a. Use reference photos to get accurate details, scale, and measurements.

1b. Make or Buy a round foam head.
(I could have bought a foam ball, but I had tons of pink foam just laying around so I figured I might as well  use it. I used 3 squares of pink foam, stacked and glued them together into a 6"x6" cube . Then once it dried I used a kitchen knife to shave off all the edges until it formed a ball.)

2. Notch out a wedge shaped mouth area with a knife .

3a. Cut out small ear pieces. Glue them to the head.
(You can use toothpicks to help them stay in place as they dry)

3b. Draw out with pen the placement of the eyes, nose, and widows peak.

4. Cut a small "dot" of foam for the raised nose, and glue into place.

5. Use some sort of flexible tubing for his lips.
(I did not want to spend any money, so I used rolled up paper towels dowsed is white glue. I blow dried them until they were tacky, then applied them to his mouth. Once they fully dried, they hardened and were very strong).

6. Use an exacto blade to notch, cut, and shave out the details of his eyes and widows peak

7. Pace paper up against the mouth and mark the shape of the mouth opening as best as you can. from that draw teeth that will fit in that opening. dry fit the paper teeth into the mouth. this is a tryal and error process. Once you get a good set that fit perfectly, they can be used as the paper template to cut the foam teeth later.

(Detailed description corresponds with picture tutorial above)

1a. Use reference photos to get accurate details, scale, and measurements.  

1b. Sand with fine grit sand paper. Patch any holes, seams, and gaps with caulking

(oops, ear fell off)

HEAD

2. Paint the head with a all over white coat of acrylic ( may need two or three coats for nice full coverage.

3. Paint the black details ( ears, widow’s peak/head, pupils, nose, inner mouth)

4. Paint lips red

5a. Paint eyes with a yellow wash. Paint a little darker yellow at the outer edges and blend to a lighter yellow toward the center.

5b. Using white acrylic paint on a thin, small brush, dry brush white dash lines all over the ears and black part of the head (see photos for reference)

TEETH

6. Cut out the teeth out of a thin sheet of craft foam and hot glue into place. Use the paper template you made earlier as a guide.

BODY

7. Take a piece of insulation foam and draw the body shape on it, place the head nearby to use for scale.

8. Cut out the body out of pink insulation foam.

9. Slice off the harsh, hard edges of the foam to form nice rounded smooth edges of the body. Sand hands and feet with fine grit sand paper.

10. Dry fit the head onto the neck area, shave the neck down accordingly, until the head sits on the neck/shoulders perfectly.

11. Paint hands and feet white

CLOTHING

12. Front: Lay the body on black material. Trace the body shape with white color pencil. Cut it out about and inch or so outside the white markings.

13. Back: Repeat step 12 for other side of clothing, but cut it out about 2-3 inches out side of the white markings.

14. Back: Cut small slits at the armpits and hips to make the material easier to wrap around the body.

15a. Lay the larger (back) piece of material down. (make sure white trace lines are facing in).

15b. Lay the body face up on the material.

15c. Fold the material up and wrap it forward around the body, glue into place.

16a. Place the smaller (front) piece of material on top of the body (make sure white trace lines are facing in).

16b. Fold the material down and wrap it back around the body, glue into place.

17. Trim off any excess material to expose white hands and feet.

18. Use white color pencil do draw on lines/stripes all over the clothing.

ATTACH PIECES

19. Use drill/bit to drill a whole into the neck and bottom of head.

20. Pour wood glue into each hole, and insert a dowel. This will hold the head and body together.

ACCESSORIES

21. Add a collar out of black material, and white, round buttons cut from felt. Hot glue into place.

CAPE

22. Cut the cape shape out of black material. Leave and extra half inch on all edges to fold over the thin guage wire.  Line the left, right and bottom of the cape with the wire so it can be flexible and look like it’s flying behind him. Leave two inches of wire sticking out at the neck area (left and right) of the cape so it can be pushed into the neck and secured.

23. Use white color pencil to make white marks/stripes all over cape.

(The side that has the folded and glued edges is the bottom or underside. Flip it over and put the pencil stripes on the opposite side- top side)

24. Shove the extra wire you left at the top of the cape into the bottom of the head at the neck. Run a line of hot glue on the underside where the cape material meets the back collar for extra strength. The cape should be posable and look like its blowing in the wind, not hanging limp behind him.

25. DONE

Comment if you have any questions or comments

Good Luck . . .