Made from a vintage duck blow mold and a doll, Nightmare Before Christmas magic was made. Image copyrighted, all rights reserved, Debbie Morrow

If you’ve been checking out this blog, you might have guessed that I love the Nightmare Before Christmas (NBC) characters. I’ve made the Mayor, Jack Skellington (with a few improved remakes or blunders), Sally, Oogie Boogie, and Zero. As you can see from the image, I’ve added a duck and baby vampire to the family. I’ll be breaking these tutorials into two posts for the sake of shorter, more manageable reading.

The Duck Tutorial:

You’ll Need:

A Plastic Duck Blow Mold

Large High Heat Glue Gun

Piece of Styrofoam or Foam from a Boxed Product

Black, Red, and White Acrylic Outdoor Paint/Brushes

Spackle or other Pre-made Drywall Compound/ Large Brush

A Dremel Saw or something else that cuts plastic easily

Artificial Nails

Tweezers/Marker

Super Glue Industrial Gel ( NOT liquid) for plastic and other materials

A Protractor or any round shaped item you can use for outline

*Before starting any project, remember safety above anything else. This website is not responsible for injuries occurring after following my directions. 

Find something in your house that has a good round circle that would be the size of the duck’s eyes. I found two different sized spice bottles that did the trick.Or use a protractor. Mark out the eyes, each with two circles, and the bullet holes.

In a well-ventilated area, heat your glue gun up and when ready, push the glue gun head into the bullet hole marks. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Bullet holes aren’t. At this time, also add a few drainage holes in the bottom of the duck if planning to place outdoors.

Take a Dremel saw and cut out the plastic mouth opening enough to be able to place teeth in. Take artificial nails (Dollar Tree find) and cut each one to fit the teeth you want. Glue them into the ducks mouth opening with the help of tweezers. Let teeth harden overnight before painting.

In the meantime, take a piece of foam, the size of a small board or two that will fit underneath the wheels. Once you have a good fit, mix up black outdoor paint with wall compound. The ratio I used was 5 Tbsp. of compound to 1 Tbsp. of black paint. Mix well and add more paint if not dark enough. Paint the foam with the compound/paint mixture. This will give the foam more strength and hold up better to seasonal use.

Once the teeth are hardened in place, paint the eyes with black and white paint. The bullet holes were achieved by painting a black smudge inside holes first. Let dry, then adding red paint to each hole.

With the foam painted and dry, glue the piece underneath the duck.

That’s about it. If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a comment. Thanks!