Hospitals are a bit short-staffed lately, and you have been called up! How is your bedside manner? Test your crafting ability as well as your medical demeanor with this plague doctor mask papercraft.
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Hopefully this project doesn’t seem too macabre, because I really enjoyed creating these two designs! And if the traditional black plague mask doesn’t suit your fancy, then you can dress it up in a way that does. That’s the beauty of papercrafts like these—you can use whatever color/style of paper and whatever decorative accents you like.
Watch a short video of me putting this project together on Instagram.
Supplies
- Cardstock
- Hot Glue
- Precision Craft Glue or a Glue Stick
- Decorative Ribbon/Gems (optional)
- Bone Folder (optional)
- A Cutting Machine or X-ACTO knife
- My Free Template
How to Make It
1. Use your cutting machine or X-ACTO knife, along with my template, to cut out all of the pieces of the plague doctor mask.
Note: If you are using the SVG files that includes the score lines, don’t forget to set them as such in Cricut Design Space and attach them to their shapes before sending them through your cutting machine. I used a lime green color to mark the score lines, so hopefully that helps! The black mask also includes lines that need to be set to “pen.” If you’re having trouble with the score lines, check out this video.
Assembling the Decorative Layers
2. Start by layering on the decorative pieces on both sides of the mask. I also included a ruffle of ribbon around the eye pieces, but that’s totally optional!
Assembling the Mask
3. Attach the two sides of the mask together using the tabs along the top. Be sure that it is firmly in place before moving on to the next step.
4. Take your triangle piece and attach it to the bottom tabs on each side of the mask—following along the edge, and gluing one or two tabs at a time.
Finishing Touches
5. Finish your mask by adding any other ribbon/gem accents you so desire!
How cool is that!? Like most of my 3D projects, I wasn’t 100% sure about how these would turn out. So, I was really pleased when they actually came together the way I had imagined!
As they are now, these masks are slightly too small to fit on the face of an adult. I had designed them larger, to begin with, but ended up scaling them down in order to allow the pieces to fit on normal-sized paper. And, since I planned to use these for decorative purposes rather than functional ones, I didn’t make the eye pieces see-through. If you wanted to use them functionally, though, you could! You would just need to get larger paper, and some transparent material for the eye pieces.
This project was actually inspired by my little sister. She cosplays as a cute plague doctor on occasion, and I thought it would be fun to make a couple of “fancy” masks that she would enjoy. And, of course, it felt fitting to do it during the Halloween season!
I use Adobe Illustrator for all my designs, and a Cricut Maker to bring my creations to life. For tips on creating fun paper cuts like this one, see the FAQ section on my website. Also, be sure to check out the other Halloween freebies available on my blog!
Enjoy making this plague doctor mask papercraft! And, as always, be sure to share your frightful results with me on Instagram.
*This post contains affiliate links. By clicking through my links to make a purchase, you are supporting this blog and the hard work that goes into providing free, quality designs.
Mandee is a professional graphic designer, amateur bird watcher, and rollercoaster enthusiast. She is a wife to hardworking high school teacher and mommy to three adorable little humans. She fell in love with graphic design when she started working on a comedy website with a guy she met her freshman year of college. Design wasn’t the only thing she fell in love with, and they were married a year and a half later. She created Designs By Miss Mandee to be a place where she could merge her passion for design with her lifelong love of crafting. 3 Comments on Plague Doctor Mask – Halloween Cut Files
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Diana
September 21, 2022 at 8:41 am (6 months ago)Hi Mandee!
How much larger would these templates need to be increased to make a usable mask for an adult?
Mandee
September 21, 2022 at 9:41 am (6 months ago)It depends on the person. I can actually fit my face inside them as-is, but it’s not very comfortable. I’d say increasing the size by about 15% would do the trick.
Diana Boyle
September 30, 2022 at 7:04 am (6 months ago)Thanks so much!