Halloweeny: A Pendulum and Board

Happy Halloween and Samhain Blessings, darling friends!

I finished off one last Halloween project to share with you. A pendulum and board (I've also seen it called a pendulum map).

Halloween has long been believed to be an ideal time for telling fortunes and divination. I have an old book from 1912 called "Games For Hallow-e'en" that is filled with games to divine ones future... especially in matters of love. Ooh lala!

While playing with resin I had this idea to incorporate herbs for their magickal properties. Making a pendulum filled with psychic enhancing herbs seemed ideal.

So, while pouring my resin into the mold I added crushed herbs, spices and roots that are believed to boost ones ability to divine the future. While some may not agree with using resin or other non-natural materials in their craft, I say "Why not use every tool at your disposal?" Shake it up, baby!

A length of gold chain, findings, a sun charm and the pendulum is ready to answer all my pressing questions.

I had an entirely different vision for the pendulum board, but things didn't work out as planned.

A gradient of blue hues was used to paint a wooden hexagon. Then I took to the computer to come up with a design and used my Silhouette to cut it out of gold vinyl... then I went back and adjusted the whole design because my lines were too thin, stars too small and lettering all wrong. 

In the end, I'm super happy with this little piece and will ask it all sorts of questions by candlelight this evening.

Will grocery prices continue to spiral out of control?

Am I on Santa's 'nice' list?

Will my husband take me to 'wing night' on Thursday?

You know, all the big important questions.

Have a beautiful Halloween, my friend. May all your fortunes be good.

 

Halloweeny: A pumpkin cottage

I've had a number of pumpkins waiting for attention for a short while. I managed to get two of them gussied up for Halloween yesterday. Here's a pumpkin cottage I made for my faerie folk!

Its so stonkin' cute. I just used little resin windows and frames that I had in my stash (I believe they're from Prima Marketing and Michaels) and then added other mini bits I had laying about for the extras.

Here's a short clip of me putting it all together.

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A post shared by Nichola Battilana (@pixiehillstudio)

Halloweeny: A Crown for a Spooky Queen

Hoooo baby! I am feeling like a spooktacular queen in this creepy crown. 

Seriously though, I've been a crown proponent for ages and I remain strong in my stance... a crown can absolutely change your mood and uplift. I need one for every occasion, including spooky season.

Just look at that shiny black resin skull. *heart eyed emoji here, right?!*

Spiders, skulls, bones, flowers and stringy cobwebby bits!

Want to make your own? I put this together using the same method as seen in this tutorial, swapping out spooky bits for flowers and fairy wings. Quick as rabbits, get your fingers working and we can be spooky queens and kings together.

Halloweeny: A Creepy Clock

I made a spooky thing! A creepy clock! A terrifying timepiece!

 

A few weeks ago I saw this clock at HomeSense and immediately wanted to make my own.

After searching thrift store for a couple of weeks I finally found a clock that I could use as a base for my own creepy timekeeper.

I cleaned it, sanded it, and covered it with cheap skull beads and other spooky bits from my stash.

I coated the whole thing with black paint, then applied some light paint with a dry brush to bring out the details. 

I actually love the solid black version and might revert back to it at some point, but for now...

... this creepy thing will sit on my mantle in it's current spooky state.

I considered changing the clock face too, but I like the filigree pattern and think it suits the piece, so it stays.

Here's the inspo and my finished piece. I like them both, but I'm proud of the one I hobbled together.

Pop over to THIS insta post to see the making of this piece.

Hope you're good and making your own messes xoxo

Halloweeny: 1 Matchbox, 9 Clovers and a Very Strange Day

What a strange morning!

Took the dog for an extra long walk today and found a whole bouquet worth of four leaf clovers. Just kept finding one after another. Eight four leaf and one five leaf in total.

Continued on our walk when the pooch spied a squirrel... annnndddd he was off like a shot. Nooooo! He ran down a steep wooded hill and I stood shouting from the top. Nope, jerk face was not listening. I took my clumsy life into my hands and started to descend the steep af hill. A few feet down and I spied a little bum sticking up out of leaves. It was a god damn gnome! At that moment the dog suddenly took notice of me and came trotting up the hill, pleased as punch.

You can think what you like, but I'm certain Mr. Gnome sent that squirrel to alert a rescue party. Of course I brought him home and I'm pleased to report he's now safe and convalescing nicely. Lu, my beast, is napping from all the excitement.

And now, on to the matchbox...

Rummaging through my work space yesterday and came across some cute Halloween stuff in my stash. While waiting for glue and paint to dry on other projects, I tossed this cute wee spooky matchbox together.

Is it mad creative and an example of fine crafting skills? No. Not in the least.

Is it adorable and does it make me smile? Fuck yeah!

Hope your day is weird and filled with wonder too xo

Halloweeny: Money Paw

 Have you heard of monkey paws and their ability to grant wishes?

Only problem is, as with most wishing mechanisms, everything gets turned sideways and you'll regret not heeding that old adage "Be careful what you wish for". Why can't monkey paws, leprechauns and djinn just let us be rich and successful rather than ply us with their this trickery!?

This paw is quite harmless as it's made from a skeleton hand salad tong and not a real monkey.

I chopped up the hand to give the proportions I wanted, then sculpted up some monkey flesh using air dry and paper clay.

For the nails I used acrylic press on nails and grunged them up a tad. The 'fur' is wool roving.

And to get that sort of shiny dehydrated mummified flesh, I painted the piece with black acrylic paint mixed with Mod Podge.

Now, if you knew this monkey paw could grant wishes BUT you were also aware that it was a tricky bugger... how would you phrase your wishes so that you didn't get scammed by the sneak?

Halloweeny: Spooky Wreath

Ok, maybe it's more cute than creepy or spooky, but the nice thing about Halloweeny is that that doesn't matter one pip!

This is made entirely with stash and DollarTree finds. I honestly just threw a bunch of stuff at it until I liked what I saw.

I started with a regular wreath frame from DollarTree and wrapped some burlap around that. Then covered the burlap with spanish moss. That completed my base.

On top of that I added pingpongesque eyeballs, plastic bones, leftover fake leaves and flowers from my crown making. There's a few googly eyes in there and fake spiders and ants crawling around. 

I cut lengths of tea-stained cotton and tied them together to make a 'ribbon' to hang my masterpiece. Finally, I used my hot-glue gun to make some spidery type webs which was quite cathartic given I'm usually fighting to get rid of those wispy bits.

Do you think I'll actually get some goblins and ghouls visit this year with this hanging on my door? If not, no worries, I don't mind eating all the halloween candy one bit.

Halloweeny: A Talisman

I was asked to create a protection talisman. A proper one. One that looked like it meant business. Of course I obliged.

It had to be small, and scary, and include some metal.

The thing about protective talismans is that they SHOULD be scary. Do you want a little puffy floof of a dog protecting your space? Or a snarling hell hound that drools and bares it's teeth to any potential interlopers up to no good?

And so I created a little skull, an emblem of death, yes, but also an emblem of old spirits, and ancestral protection. Atop the skull is a protective bindrune. 

A crown of 13 steel pins is ready to poke, stick and jab when need be.

There is natural wool poking this way and that, a natural protective material. Wool that keeps us warm. Wool that keeps us safe and dry. Wool that provides a homey safety. 

The final touches are a pinch of spanish moss. Often used to stuff poppets and used in revenge spells, but here it's a warning: 'I am prepared to seek justice if necessary'. There's red cotton thread with intention tied in it's knots. And finally a hand-forged iron nail. Iron being a strong protective material that repells the magic of others and keeps the holder safe.

What would you add to your own protective talisman? 

Halloweeny - Baby Pinhead

I feel like I haven't properly celebrated Halloween in about a million years. So this year I'm putting in an effort and going to try to cram as much creepy into the season as I can. 

First up: Baby Pinhead

To be fair, my husband spied the creepy doll heads at the Dollarstore and exclaimed "BABY PINHEAD!". I was raring to go but then I couldn't find pins anywhere. Is there a pin issue I don't know about? Has Covid somehow led us to a national sewing notion shortage? No idea. 

The husband suggested that I use little nails instead. I scoffed "Ummm, he's called Pinhead, not Nailhead you plonker" but then I realized that the poky things in that dear cenobites head do look an awful lot like nails. So, nails it is.

Painting this little weiner-schinzle took way longer than I anticipated. You'd think a slap of white paint, a little shading, but those damnable squares took forever to get right. I tried to get the "pin" placement as close as I could to the original character design.

Once the wee dastardly face was done I wondered what the heck to do with him. Right now he's nestled atop a terrarium, a studded leather bracelet for a neck, and keeping an eye on my dining room. Maybe one day he'll sprout a body. Until then he'll wait patiently, no tears of course, they're a waste of good suffering.