DIY Paper Mache Bewilderbeast Toy

This DIY is a request from my son and his wish-list for this project included a movable neck and tail. I did manage to give it that, plus a bonus of a movable mouth. The materials are really basic: paper strips, paper towel/tube, some wire, watered-down glue, shopping bag cloth and the star of the show-hot glue. I have put up a DIY video of it on my Youtube channel that I hope you'd enjoy. Further down I dissected the step-by-step guide of how I DIY-ed it, so please scroll away.

materials needed:

paper/newspaper strips
paper towel
paper towel tube
balloon stick/wooden stick
watered-down PVA glue
hot glue sticks
glue gun
white glitter dust
shopping bag cloth or any white fabric
wire
beads for the eyes


SETTING UP SUPPORT FOR THE BODY

Cut a paper towel tube and take apart a piece of about 5 inches in length. Attach two rolled part of the tubes in differing sizes. This will support the two pieces of about 1.5" cut paper towel tube that will be placed at both ends.

PREPARING THE HEAD

Crumple a palmful of paper in the form of an oval then start gluing strips over this as the paper-mached 'outer shell'. Cut a piece of cardboard and attach it to the 'head'. This will support the horns of the bewilderbeast.

LEGS, NECK AND TAIL SUPPORT

Create 4 paper-mached legs. For the neck and tail, take a stick of about 2.5' in length and glue a little ball. Mine was made out of paper, on hindsight this would work better with heavier material like aluminum foil or air-dry clay. Create two of these 'lollipops'-one for the neck and one for the tail.

MECHANISM FOR MOVABLE NECK AND TAIL

Take the body support and cut slots onto both ends; make a cut under the slot to insert the ball of the tail support easily. Make slightly smaller tubes and cut semi-circles on the edge of these. Attach the tail support into the tube. Insert the ball into the slot. Tape the cut below the slot.

SETTING UP THE MOVABLE MOUTH

Take the head and start cutting hole at the back about the size of the neck support. Hollow it out by taking the crumpled paper inside. Cut thoroughly across where the mouth is. Clean up the cut edges by gluing paper. Reuse a flip lid and attach it to the mouth as its movable mechanism. Hot glue the neck support at the upper portion of the head only.

TAIL AND ALL

Cut about 7' wire and attach at the tail support. Cover with paper strips. Start covering everything with paper, adding bulk where necessary and taking care that the neck and tail with still turn.

PAPER TOWEL SKIN

Cover it further with paper towel. Add paper-mache tusks and beads for eyes.

BONY FLAPS

Take a cloth from a shopping bag and cut pieces for the flaps. For the bony parts of the flaps, secure the flap on a flat and easy to remove surface and apply hot glue starting outside the projecting curves of the cloth. Make tiny cuts on the underside and hot glue on the sides of the legs. Cover the edges of the glued cloth with paper towel to clean up the transition.

Do the same on the tail.

WINGS

Cut six pairs of wire in differing sizes. Poke tiny holes at both sides of the beast's back. Temporarily attach cloth with hot glue, cut cloth into shape. Decoupage the wings all through out with paper towel strips.

At this point it is time to paint everything with white acrylic paint.

HORNS

This will need several sticks of hot glue and easy-to-remove surface like wax paper. After applying the glue on a flat surface, sprinkle some glitter dust. Remove carefully and add black tips using a marker. I've lost count how many I made, make sure they are in differing sizes.

DETAILS

The tiny poking horns all over the face can be achieved by directly applying hot glue on the beast's surface then slowly pull away the glue gun. The teeth is made of paper and the tongue is a piece of cloth laminated with hot glue.

Time to meet the alpha!