#TBT The Upcycled Mummy’s Curse! A spoOky DIY
Continuing my Throwback Thursday posts, this time highlighting my love of Halloween, Ancient Egypt and upcycled crafts! Posted in 2015 on the Amazing Casting Products blog, I had some rather odd inspiration for this project and it all started with me finding some fun plastic Halloween skulls at a Thrift store. With two of them, I made Ghoulish Glam Skulls and the rest I saved for Halloween decor around the house.
While I was outside in the garden one of our dogs, Luna, decided to play in the house, the skulls were close to her toys and she cracked one of them. I of course couldn’t be angry with her playing though her rather adorable “I totally did NOT do that” face also helped. When I was about to throw out the skull, an idea came to me: why not use the cracked skull as a base for a Halloween mummy head prop?
Supplies:
Amazing Casting Resin
Alumilite Dyes
Liquitex Gloss and Matte Varnish
Acrylic Paint
Aluminium Foil and Paper Bags
Stir Sticks
Plastic Halloween Skull
Cotton Muslin Fabric
Black leaf tea bags
Beacon’s Gem-Tac
Paint Brush
Paper Tape Roll
Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks
With the crack being along the side of the eye socket and most of the left side of the skull I needed to stabilize the now-fragile skull. I thought of using Casting Resin but I needed to seal the hole before filling the skull with resin. I taped up the crack with clear packing tape, creating a temporary seal for the resin.
Knowing that if I were to fill up the whole skull with Casting Resin it would not only require a lot of resin but make the skull on the heavy side I needed to put some sort of filler inside the skull. Using used clean paper bags and crumpled aluminum foil I slipped them inside the skull through a hole in the bottom.
Next I made small batches of Amazing Casting Resin and poured it through the hole in the bottom of the skull. By pouring small batches and then tilting the skull I was able to make sure all of the inside of the skull was equally covered with resin, stabilizing the plastic skull. This process went very quickly because Amazing Casting Resin sets up in 10-15 minutes. I ended up using 3/4 of a resin kit to fill the inside of the skull.
Once I had filled up the inside of the skull I hot glued a tape roll to the bottom of the skull to create a neck for the mummy head. Any gaps between the tape roll and the skull I filled in with aluminum foil and hot glue.
I then mixed up some Casting Resin and poured it into the newly formed neck of the mummy head. I put some extra foil into the neck cavity and filled it up with more Casting Resin, using up all of the kit.
Once the resin was cured, I removed the tape from the now resin-filled crack and removed any excess resin spills off the skull.
Since not much of the plastic would be visible under the wrappings but I didn’t want it looking like a skull. I painted the skull with a mixture of yellow, brown and black acrylic paint. I glued on used tea bags to create eyelids and created a nose out of paper bags and tin foil. I glued on some loose tea grounds to give the look of sand/dirt and sealed it with Liquitex Matte Varnish.
To create wrappings: I dyed cotton muslin fabric in a bath of hot black leaf tea and bags. I let it soak for a few hours to stain and then let the fabric dry. Once dry I tore the fabric into 2 inch strips to make wrappings. I started applied the wrappings to the skull with a bit of Beacon’s Gem-Tac and started to wind it around the skull. I didn’t use any set pattern or style; I just had fun and made sure to cover up any of the more skull-like features of the head.
Once I was finished wrapping the skull I liked the overall look, but felt it needed something more to create the look of age.
Since real mummies still have old oils and resin still visible on the surface of their wrappings, I created some out of Liquitex Gloss Varnish mixed with some Brown Alumilite Dye. I used the varnish instead of resin because I wanted to control how it dripped and needed it to dry quickly. The Alumilite Dye allowed me to tint the varnish without losing the transparent nature of the varnish.
Once dry, this spooky décor is a perfect addition to my creepy curiosity cabinet on display for Halloween!
Until next time, safe travels!
This is an affiliate post, which means I received an assortment of products as a compensation for the creation of art. To read my full disclosure, click here.
#TBT Sit for a Spell! DIY Eye of Newt Apothecary Jar
Kicking off my Throwback Thursday posts with one of my favorite upcycling Halloween crafts. Posted in 2015 on the Amazing Casting Products blog, this quick and easy project is perfect with Halloween coming up fast.
Taking inspiration from one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Macbeth:
“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,–
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”That part of the play has a wonderful spooky quality, often inspiring all types of ghoulish displays and decor for Halloween. The interesting part is that most of those names of ingredients were not intended to be taken literal, but were herbalist or folk terms for common herbs and plants. In the case of “Eye of newt” it was referring to a type of mustard seed. However thanks to pop culture more often than not most people think of real newt eyes in a jar. So knowing some seeds in a jar isn’t that ghoulish of a Halloween decoration I decided to go with the pop culture version of making a jar with faux newt eyes.
Supplies:
A Glass Jar previously used for a candle
Resin
Moss
Eye Beads
Glitter (optional)
Chalk Sticker
Chalk Pen
Wood Bead
Black Chalk Paint
Sandpaper
I cleaned up a old jar that previously had a three wick candle with a metal lid, making it perfect for an apothecary jar. I picked this type of glass because it is tempered and can handle the heat often created by thick pours of curing resin.
I put some dried moss at the bottom of the jar to add some visual contrast. It would also help with adding some textured base to prop the fake eyes on so they wouldn’t all sink to the bottom.
I mixed up 3 fluid ounces of Amazing Clear Cast Resin and slowly poured it on top of the moss to cover it.
The moss became a bit dark after the resin started to soak into it, so before the resin layer started to cure I sprinkled a bit of micro crystal glitter* to give just a slight shimmer to the moss layer.
*The glitter is an optional step
For newt eyes I used transparent acrylic Eye of Warding beads carefully placed in the still wet resin. Recent popularity of the beads has had a lot of bead manufacturers making all kinds of the Eye of Warding beads out of glass, acrylic, clay and even recycled plastic.
*Take a trip to your favorite craft store to check out what types of beads they might have for you to use!
Once I let the first layer of resin cure for about an hour I added some more eye beads and little snippets of moss. I didn’t want to add too much. I wanted it to look like someone used the “newt eyes” a lot in their spells.
While the final layer of resin cured I worked on the lid to the jar. To bring down some of the bright silver tone of the lid I used some sandpaper and little bit of chalk paint to give it an aged look. A painted wooded bead, glued on top of the lid, gave it a pull knob.
With a chalk board sticker for a label the jar was finished and not a single newt harmed! 🙂
Until next time, safe travels!
*This is an affiliate post, which means I received an assortment of products as a compensation for the creation of art. To read my full disclosure, click here.
Upcycled Fabric Cedar Sachets
Since I was a child I was raised to save fabric. My childhood was full of stories from my grandmother, who lived through the Great Depression and my mother, who lived through WWII, on how they learned to be frugal and resourceful, saving things to turn into something new. Outgrow a shirt? Pants have too many holes? Curtains sun damaged? Fabric left over from making a dress? Save the fabric! The years have sped by, and in this modern world the ease and access to any number of arts and crafts supplies is astounding. However there is a want and even a need to reduce, reuse, or recycle long forgotten craft supplies.
One of my favorite upcycled crafts I was raised on making was fabric sachets. Both pretty and practical, these little bits of fabric, crafted into any number of shapes, stuffed with cedar, would decorate the house, protect our clothing from insects and remind us of loved ones present and past.Supplies:
Fabric scraps
Small pieces of lace and/or trim
Small lengths of ribbon or thin strips of fabric such as linen or muslin
Thread
Sewing needle
Buttons
Fabric Scissors
Cedar shavings (many pet shops and hardware stores have large bags available)
Cedar Essential oil
Mixing bowl
Sewing Machine *if not hand stitching
Ruler
Pencil
Paper
Craft scissors
Pour the cedar shavings into the mixing bowl and remove any large chunks of wood or bark from the mix. Sprinkle lightly the cedar essential oil and stir the shavings. Repeat this about 4 times to make sure the shavings have an extra boost of cedar scent. Let the shavings sit and soak up the oil, which can take 5 to 10 hours.
In this pile I have fabric scraps, remnants, old bed linen, swatches of clothing, table cloths and more. The only requirement for any fabric pieces to use in this project is that is to be lightweight and ideally cotton, hemp, linen, muslin or other plant fiber based materials. These will allow the scent of the cedar to release easier over time.
Using a ruler and pencil draw a 5 inch by 5 inch square. This is the starting size for the heart pattern.
Cut out the 5inch square and fold in half. Staying just within the lines of the paper, draw half a heart. Then within that line draw a second dotted line, ¼” width. This will be the guide for a ¼” seam.
Cut out the paper heart and draw in the ¼” seam allowance dotted line on the second side.
Use the pattern to cut out 2 fabric hearts for each sachet. If possible fold fabric and pin the pattern onto the fabric to cut two fabric hearts at a time if the remnants are large enough.
Do not worry if the fabric pieces are only wide enough to cut one heart out, as you can always cut more of a contrasting or complementary fabric.
Place the right sides of the fabric hearts together and stitch around the heart with a ¼” seam. Make sure to do a reverse stitch when you start to sew and at the end, as it will strengthen the stitch and prevent it from unraveling when turning rightside out and stuffing the fabric heart. Make sure to leave a portion unstitched, making an opening to turn the fabric heart rightside out.
Snip any corners of fabric that might pull or tuck when turned rightside out, such as the dip in the heart or the point of the heart. Turn rightside out and use the eraser end of a pencil to push the heart into shape. Stuff each heart with cedar shavings.
I used an Overcast Stitch to sew up the open part of the heart, as any lace or trim later will cover up the stitches. If you do not want to add lace or trim later, use a Slip Stitch to sew shut the heart.
Using a small piece of lace or fabric create a sash that goes around both sides of the heart, making sure to cover the stitch that closed the heart. Gather and stitch together the sash, in the front of the heart. If you do not want a gathered front sash you can always stitch closed the sash on the back of the fabric heart.
Loop a piece of ribbon and stitch the ribbon and a button through the sash and the fabric heart to create a secure hanger for the sachet. Hang your newly created sachet on doorknobs, hangers, coat racks or in boxes or dressers
Different lace and trim placements make each sachet a unique piece. Try making sachets in different shapes, sizes and fabrics. Not a fan of cedar? Switch out the cedar for dried rose petals, rosemary or lavender!Happy Holidays and until next time, safe travels!
Ancient and Contemporary Inspired Artistry