Realistic Claw Marks for Halloween

Does your Halloween costume need a little something? How about claw marks?

Today, I'm going to show you how to make realistic claw marks on your body for Halloween. Best of all, it's incredibly cheap and easy to do. In fact, the items you'll need are probably already in your house.

What you'll need:

• Toilet paper (2-ply works best)
• White glue
• Foundation (closely matched to your skin tone)
• Eyeshadow (purple, blue, black, pink, red, green, etc.)
• Black paint (or liquid liner)
• Toothpicks (dental floss sticks with picks work as well)
• Fake blood (find the recipe for realistic, edible fake blood here)
• Cotton swabs or paint brushes
• Foam makeup applicators

First of all, you'll want to tear one piece of toilet paper into long strips. Pretty easy, right?

Next, you'll want to glue one piece for each claw mark onto the desired area of your body. The best way to do this is to add a line of glue, stick the strip on, and then very carefully, place a small drop of glue onto your finger, and kind of rub the edges of the toilet paper on your skin. This makes the toilet paper look like it's "molded" to your skin.

Once the pieces are on there, kind of pinch them and move them around a bit to create "wrinkles."

Using a foundation that closely matches your skin tone, start painting it onto the strips. At first, it will look kind of like burn scars. You can leave it like this if you want (with more blending, of course), or move on to the next step to get the claw mark look.

Let the strips set for about 10 minutes before moving on.

Once the glue has become a little less sticky, use your toothpick or dental floss stick to draw a slit in the center of the toilet paper strip. Be careful not to scratch yourself. Kind of pull the sides away from the slit to create an opening--almost like a gaping wound. Paint the inside of this "wound" with black paint or liquid eyeliner.

Now, you have the basic wounds, so all you need to do is add color. I like to start with purples and pinks, to make the area look inflamed and infected. Next, I add a little yellow and green around the edges for extra nastiness. Finally, I drip a tiny bit of fake blood inside, just to make it look a bit more fresh.

The final result?

Pretty gross, huh?

I ended up doing a little more blending around the edges, and it looked freaking awesome.

Check out my other holiday tutorials for more DIY Halloween effects!

Happy Halloween!