Make a Halloween Witch Ornament

 

Source- http://www.vintageimagecraft.com/

Craft this very-Victorian Halloween Witch Ornament and deck out your Halloween tree in style.

(click here for a larger Halloween Witch Ornament image)

Our Halloween Witch Ornament is inspired by Victorian decorations of the late 19th century. This one has it all; a crafty witch in a pumpkin, woven black braid, and faceted beads. This is a very versatile design, and once you get started, you'll think of a hundred ways to adapt it into ornaments for all occasions.
There are two secrets to the construction.  The first secret is - shhh - foamcore board.  The other secret is printing two mirror-image vintage illustrations for the front and back. We give them to you, ready to be printed, but if you start making your own designs, start with two identical copies of your image and "flip" one of them with your graphics program.

Materials for Halloween Witch Ornament

• 
  
  Vintage images (FREE PDF download).
• Matte photo paper, heavyweight.
• Foamcore board, 3/16" thick, black (see Tips).
• Flat, decorative braid, 1/4" wide, black.
• Small, faceted plastic or glass beads (ours were 6mm orange beads).
• Beading pins (see Tips).
• Craft glue.
• Scissors.
• Craft knife (for cutting foamcore board) (see Tips).
• Self-healing cutting mat. 

Instructions

1. Print the vintage images on matte photo paper.  Trim them carefully with small scissors. Using one cut-out image, trace the shape on the foamcore board. Cut out the shape with a craft knife. Glue the images to each side of the foamcore, aligning the tops of the images carefully. Press them flat and let dry.
2. Cut a 17" length of decorative braid. This will fit around the ornament and leave 7" for a hanging loop at the top. Start at the bottom of the ornament.  Glue and pin the two ends to meet at the bottom.  Work up one side, gluing the braid to the foamcore edge, and pin in place every few inches.  When you get to the top, begin again at the bottom and glue and pin the other side, until the braid meets at the top. Be sure the hanging loop is centered at the top of the ornament. Let the glue dry.
3. Insert a beading pin into a bead, dip the point in craft glue, and insert it into the braided edge, next to the hanging loop. Continue pinning beads around the edge until you reach the other side of the hanging loop.
4. Done with your Halloween Witch Ornament! Now scour your collection of vintage images for likely candidates, and make a batch of Victorian Halloween ornaments (see Tips)!

Tips

• Who knew beading pins existed? We tried using our regular straight pins, but the pin heads were a little small for the holes in the beads. A quick trip to Joann Fabrics and Crafts, and we came home with a box of "beading pins", which are a little shorter than straight pins and the heads are larger.
• Foamcore board, or foam board, is a material constructed of an inner layer of polystyrene foam sandwiched between two layers of heavy paper. We used black (black paper on black foam) but this project will work as well with any color. If you fear that white foamcore might show through the edging braid, color the edge of the foamcore black with marker or paint before you apply the braid.
• Cutting foamcore board is tricky. Do not use scissors, because they will crush the edge as you cut. Use a long-blade craft knife or a micro-saw.
• When looking for other vintage images for these ornaments, here are the qualities you want:
• well-defined shapes are the best, like circles or other geometrics.
• avoid images with words, because when the image is flipped on the back of the ornament, the words will be reversed as well.
• if you find an irregular shaped picture you like, trim it with the background into a circle or oval, or cut out the figure and glue it to a geometric shaped background paper. We did this with a flying witch, and glued it to a yellow full-moon image for a great composite picture. Remember, you can resize any image.
• Go crazy with your beading. We opted for a single row of identical orange beads, but you might vary the size and color of beads for an authentically Victorian look. On the other hand - just the braiding looks great.

Now you have one, lonely Halloween Witch Ornament. For some other Halloween ornament designs, see our Halloween Clown Ornament, Halloween Chenille Figures, and Halloween Pumpkin Ornament!

Newbies Coming

First let me say that these photos are not mine they are stock photos from Raven's Haven and Soft in the Head. I am in no way claiming that these are my photos. I am in the process of making these three dollies and some of you are shouting make more Halloween MAN! So without further ado, this is what is to come. If you would like any of these please feel free to contact me and let me know or ask for pricing....The first pic is the Grimleys, then Eleanor witch then Igor...

Really Kewl Pumpkin Faces to Have and Kewlness

First let me give you this website I use it at school for the kids when I taught Science

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000152


Look up his Halloween videos for kewl ideas....

Primitive Wilhemina Flytrap Frog Witch

Ok she is just the cutest thing ever! Meet Wilhemina Flytrap. She is roughly 12 inches tall. She is made from muslin that has been painted for the look of olde. She has hand-painted eyes, sculpted mouth, separate eyelids attached on by hand and the cutest outfit ever. She is weighted on the bottom for sitting. her arms are made from wire and are poseable. Her dress is an awesome Moda fabric black with gray ravens all over it and the bodice is gray with black crackle through it. her hat is made from matching raven's fabric. In her arms she holds a big pumpkin...Great for a prim home this holiday season.......Oh and she has a vintage military button sewn to the front of the bodice....Pattern by Soft in the Head.......

SOLD THANK YOU.....

On Ebay Now Broom Hilda Witch Broom

See her here

Make Your Own Halloween Cat Mask

Halloween Cat Mask

1 of 5

Materials and Tools:

plastic eye mask
foam from waffle mattress pad
razor blade/scissors
soldering iron
black and gold spray paint
Apoxie Sculpt as a base material (liquid latex)
paintbrush and sponge
spray glue
spray gloss sealer
purple, pink and silver nail polish
cardboard box
dust mask
black permanent marker
stapler
felt, elastic, ribbon
fabric glue

Step 1

Steps:

1. Place a store-bought plastic mask onto a piece of foam from a waffle mattress pad. Trace the outline of the mask on the foam with a permanent black marker.

Step 2

2. Sketch the eyes, nose, and mouth and face patterns on the foam.

Step 3

3. Cut out the foam pieces. Sculpt each piece with scissors before gluing onto the plastic mask.

Step 4

4. Glue the sculpted pieces on the mask with fabric glue.

Step 5

5. With a soldering iron or wood burner, burn scroll and line patterns onto the foam. Wear a dust mask or respirator.

Steps 6-8

6. Coat the mask with spray adhesive.

7. Sponge on liquid latex with a scrap piece of foam. Wait for it to dry.

8. Coat the Halloween mask with spray adhesive again.

Step 9

9. Wear a dust mask. Place the mask in a cardboard box. Spray paint the entire piece black. Allow to dry.

Steps 11-12

10. Mist the Halloween cat mask with gold spray paint.

11. Apply purple, pink and silver metallic fingernail polish to add highlights to the eyes, mouth and cheeks.

12. Spray a gloss sealer all over the mask.

Steps 13-14

13. Remove the existing elastic strap from the mask.

14. Staple white elastic to each side.

Steps 15-17

15. Tie a ribbon on one side, where the elastic is attached. The other side is tied when it is put on to wear. This is a decorative element to cover the elastic strap.

16. Cut felt to fit inside the cat mask for comfort.

17. Glue felt on the inside of the mask for a nice finished look for your Halloween cat mask.

Halloween Cat Mask designed by Lyn Marie Neuenfeldt from Milwaukee, Wis.

Ever since Lyn Marie’s grandfather took her to see a horror movie at the age of 5, monsters and monster masks have fascinated her. One time, she tried to cast a plaster mask on her brother, but he ended up in the emergency room with doctors removing the plaster from his face. She now happily works as a special effects artist in Milwaukee, specializing in monsters.

Website: www.mo42.com

Freebie for Y'all Pop Up Witch

Just get your spookiest paper and see what you can come up with :)

Extreme Pumpkin Carving

I have always wanted to do this. A house down the street from us had these pumpkins everywhere on their porch and they looked awesome!

http://www.extremepumpkins.com/

This is a must see......

Creepy Witches' Fingers

Yield: 5 dozen

1 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1 Egg
1 tsp Almond extract
1 tsp Vanilla
2 2/3 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking powder*
1 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Almonds, whole blanched
1 Tube red decorator gel
(optional, not pictured)

Gross everyone out with these creepy cookies.
In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda*, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoonful of dough into finger shape for each cookie. Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape. (Accompanying picture showed long rolled shape with bulge at centre for knuckle; you puff it out rather than squeeze it in.) Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325F (160C) oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood."
(ed. note - I opted not to go for the bloody effect as you can see in my picture above, and my guests were still grossed out! - Britta)
Remove from baking sheets and let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.

(Collected by Bert Christensen, Toronto, Ontario)

*The recipe is reproduced above exactly as I found it, but please note the stars I added. I used baking powder for several years just fine, assuming the baking soda listed in the instructions was an error. However, when I moved to a new place with a different oven, my witches' fingers kept puffing during baking and not keeping any detail, which was disappointing! I finally realized that the dough was very similar to a Christmas cookie recipe I had, so I just used neither baking powder nor baking soda and had a more shortbread-like recipe that keeps the detail perfectly, since it has no leavening ingredient. I recommend that method as most reliable.

Eerie Eyeballs

Yields approximately 9 dozen bite-sized eyeballs

3 oz (small box) lemon gelatin (can be sugar-free)
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1 cup pineapple juice
8 oz cream cheese (can be lowfat/Neufchatel)

Dissolve lemon gelatin in 1 cup water in double boiler, add marshmallows and stir to melt. Remove from heat. Add pineapple juice and cream cheese. Beat until well blended. Cool slightly. If you have a truffle candy mold or round ice cube trays, spary them with non-stick cooking spray first, then pour the mixture in the molds and leave to set in the fridge. Otherwise pour into a deep ceramic dish and chill until thickened or firm enough for scooping into eyeballs. Using a melonballer, scoop full balls of the mixture and set aside for decoration. To decorate, use liquid food coloring and an old detail paintbrush and get creative. You will need black food coloring for the pupils. Also, if you are in a hurry, instead of painting the colored irises, you can carefully dip the ball in a small pool of food coloring to approximate the iris, but still paint on the pupils. Note: if you are using the melonballer method, you might need to add one package of plain gelatin to your mixture. The molds work fine with just the lemon gelatin to make gently squishy eyeballs.

For 1999, I found rubber ice cube trays that worked beautifully with much less waste than the melonballer technique. I sprayed the rubber trays with non-stick cooking spray beforehand like you would any gelatin mold, let the gelatin mixture sit in the refrigerator to set, then I was able to carefully pop the eyeballs out to paint them. Some of the eyeballs did break, and they do have one flat side, but that actually works, since then they don't roll around while you are trying to paint them. Since 2001 I have found that Wilton truffle candy molds are even better, since the swirl design on the top is the right size for the cornea shape on the eyeball. When using the truffle molds, one recipe makes about 9 dozen eyeballs - plenty for a party crowd!