If you’re looking for a humerus Halloween repurpose idea that’s functional and guaranteed to make your guests smile, then you’ve come to the right place. Yup, this week we’re going to show you how to make these skeleton hand ice tongs.
Don’t they look so freaky and they work like a charm too.
If you don’t count the “waiting for paint to dry” time, the ice tongs took about 20 minutes to make.
Okay, before I get to the tutorial, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram. And don’t forget to subscribe so you’ll never miss a post!
What you need
- Plastic skeleton hands (affiliate link for the ones I used at the bottom of this tutorial)
- Leather strips, beads, baubles
- Screws, nuts, and bolts
- Free Skeleton Arm Printable
- Old bangles, a bandana, or other decorative bits
- Bamboo salad tongs
I used an old grubby one that’s been lying in our cutlery drawer for ages.
How to turn wooden tongs into skeleton hand tongs
RighyO, get ready for some quick and easy crafting ;-) Using the bolt as a guide, drill a hole in each of the bamboo tong ends and the bottom of your skeleton hands.
My skeleton hands I used already had a hole in the palm so all I needed to do was test if the bolt fits.
Paint the bamboo salad tongs, nuts, and washers a flat matt black to better tone in with the skeleton arm bone template.
While you wait for the paint to dry, print out the free skeleton arm bones. You can resize the printable depending on the size of your tongs. Mod podge the bones on the inside and outside of the tongs. I used an outdoor mod podge, but any mod podge should work. Unless you’ll be dunking the tongs into boiling water ;-)
Screw on the skeleton hands using the nuts and bolts. Be sure to put a washer between the nut and the tongs to help prevent the wooden tongs from splitting. Tighten the bolt and align the hands so the fingers overlap. It improves the grip factor.
Play around with old bangles, baubles, etc and dress those skeleton wrists up.
I cut up a bandana and wrapped it around one of the skeleton arms. I’ll probably use the left over bandana to make a no-sew heart pillow.
On the other arm, I stuck a hardcore skeleton charm that I repurposed from one of my hubby’s old leather bangles. Shhhhhh, don’t tell him ;-)
No body wants a boring skeleton hand tong right ;-)
Put some ice in a bucket ………….
…… pour yourself a drink ……..
…… and test those babies out ;-)
Not bad for 20 minutes worth of gluing and screwing right :D BTW, that blue stuff in the glass is a blueberry tonic we found the other day that’s super yummy.
The ice tongs will work as salad tongs too;-)
If you like the idea of repurposing a bamboo salad tong to make this bootiful skeleton hands ice tong, then don’t forget to pin it for later.
Sharing is caring ?
Oh and if you’re looking for some of the things we used, we’ve got you covered Disclosure: Clicking on the links below, means we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us make more amazing crafts to share with you ;-)
Or if you prefer to buy rather than DIY, then maybe these beauties will appeal.
And as always, wishing you a wonderful, crafty week filled with lots of love. Thank you for popping in for a visit.
Last update on 2026-04-15 / Source Amazon Affiliates
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