DIY Halloween Mirror

Instructions

1. My mirror was plain white and boring, so I started by painting the frame black.

2. Once the gesso was dry I added some bronze wax paste to the raised areas on the mirror. It works best if you use your finger and wipe the wax along the surface. Don't fill in all the nooks and crannies with bronze, or you will spoil the effect. This step honestly took me less than 2 minutes.

3. I went on pixabay to find free images to use and found this sugar skull. To transfer the image onto the mirror I used waterslide paper. It is very simple to use. Load the paper into your printer and print like normal. No need to reverse the image or do anything special.

4. Cut the image out as close to the design as possible. When applied to the mirror the excess film will be reflected.

5. Add some water to the sink and put the image into the water. It will curl up instantly which is fine. Make sure all the backing paper is wet. This takes about 15 seconds when I timed it.

6. Add some water to the mirror. This will help you position the image.

7. Put your image on the mirror paper side down. You will be able to slide the image off the paper. You have to be very gentle or you will tear the film. I always hold the top of the image down and slide the backing paper out.

8. Using a soft cloth gently smooth the water out from under the image. Once the water is gone it will be very difficult to move the image. The good part of this image is how it reflects in the mirror at certain angles. It looks eerie. Once dry I used the gesso to add some black around the inside of the mirror to make it look more worn.

9. I bought some cheap spiders and painted them in the same way as the frame. I made some red wax paste to colour the spiders for effect. I ordered some cheap and cheerful skeleton hands which I moulded into shape using a heat gun. They were also painted with black gesso and rubbed with bronze wax paste. All the elements were glued in place using a hot glue gun for easy removal after Halloween.