Creepmas Cookies

I was inspired by Lady M to make my own Creepmas cookies yesterday on the last day of Creepmas.  Decorating is not my forte, but as long as no one is keeping score, I'll just have fun with it.

I used the Sugar Cookie recipe from JoyOfBaking.com and a buttercream recipe from I don't know where. 

Buttercream Recipe

3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Cream butter and add vanilla. Beat sugar in gradually at low speed.  Add milk and beat on high speed for 3-4 minutes.



I made white bats to pay my respects to all the bats that have and will perish from White Nose Syndrome (WNS).  It's killed millions of bats in the US and Canada and is spreading like crazy. As of the 2013-14 hibernating season it's been confirmed in 25 states and 5 Canadian provinces.

It's caused by a fungus native to European caves and doesn't affect European bat species, but has had a devastating effect here in North America.  Mortality rates for bat colonies in an infected cave can reach 100 percent. 

I know not everyone loves bats, but they are the major predator of nighttime insects which translates to less pesticide use.  They also help the environment by pollinating and dispersing seeds.  So whether you like them or not, they have a big impact and are worth fighting to save. 

This is a really well written article that I recommend reading.

There are many online resources, but here are a couple to get you started if you want to learn more:

WhiteNoseSyndrome.org
BatConservation.org

That's probably the scariest thing I've posted about this Creepmas season.  On a lighter note, here's some more cookies. While making salt dough ornaments I discovered you can make Pac Man ghosts out of tulips last Easter and skulls out of snowman butts last Creepmas.  Good news, it works with sugar dough too!

Merry Creepmas everyone! It's been a lot of fun spreading Creepmas fear, I mean cheer!

Creepmas Art

Long before Creepmas was a thing, my kids were unintentionally making Creepmas art.

 My son made the origami box for me and then his little sister got a hold of it and decided it needed a few embellishments. I think it would make a great gift box for a special little Creepmas present.

Here's a video if you want to learn how to make your own origami box. After that it's just paper teeth, googly eyes and of course a big bow on top.

I know as a mom I should look at the angel my daughter made in preschool with her own little hands and be all, "Aw, isn't that adorable." But look at those eyes, that angel aint right in the head.  Alright creepy or not, I have kept it all these years because, "Aw, those were her little hands."











My kids know I have a soft spot for creepy crawlies and these last two pictures were made just for me.  If you look closely this tree is festively decorated with caterpillars. Last is the Singing Santa Snake, say that three times fast.

 




I'm sure there are proud parents behind these Creepy Christmas artists too:

Ashley Amos

Christina Dee

Lizzy Love

Creepmas Shrinky Dinks

Earlier this year I played with shrinky dinks and here they are again in Creepmas form.  Since that time I've taken to wearing latex gloves while handling them so I don't have to worry about fingerprints. 

I love using Crayola glitter markers to accent things, but it smears easily after the shrinky dinks come out of the oven.  Make sure to let it dry completely, before touching. I recommend spraying with at least two coats of an acrylic clear coat. I like to use a spray first to set and then brush on a clear coat for a glossier finish.  I rushed the last batch and only did one coat and then when I applied a liquid coat with a brush, the glitter smeared all over. 

For the Santa skull beard and hat trim I used a white paint pen.  I wasn't sure if it would crack from baking, but it worked fine.  I found the Santa at EnjoyColoring.

Here are my painters tape skulls adapted for Creepmas.  Remember they shrink down to about a third of the original size. 

Creepmas Cthulhu

 

This was inspired by this gnome project, and a generous friend who had me over for my first felting experience. Which was a fail, but then I came home and did this with the stuff she gave me.  Being that this is my first felting project ever, take this tutorial for what it is, a work in progress.  If you don't know anything about felting I'd watch a few tutorials on Youtube.  I found this video to be very informative.

 

The Cthulhu above was made basically the same way as the following tutorial, but I've tried doing a few things differently.  Whether they are improvements remains to be seen, I'm still trying to figure things out.  The biggest difference is the "tentacles" on the guy above are made with curly wool locks. My friend just happened to have a handful of teal roving and a bit of the curly stuff, which was just enough to make two Cthulhu's.  I can't wait to have her pick out her favorite, after all none of this would've happened without her. 

 

I saw this tutorial on how make felt balls by shaking them around in a dish.  My ball didn't entirely ball up as you can see, I don't know what I did wrong, but it still gave me a nice foundation to work with. 

 

 

 

I covered it with more roving and felted it into a round oval shape. You want it to be firm, but not too firm.

 

 

I didn't have enough of the curly stuff for another full set of tentacles, so I got creative.  I started with rolling the roving into thin worm shapes.  The three tentacles on the left were braided together, dampened with a little water, the ends where curled around the braid and left to dry.  The only change with the two in the middle is they were braided with a piece of cord and that made for looser waves.  The one on the far right is the actual curly wool for comparison.

 

 

 

I liked the ones in the middle the best but I want them a little less kinky, there's something I thought I'd never say, so I doubled the strands before braiding. The picture below shows four rolls of roving braided with a piece of cord.  Again I wet the whole thing and curled the ends of the roving around the black cord and then let it dry.

 

 

 

And this is how they turned out. 

 

 

 

After the tentacles are made or if you have curly locks, fold them in half and starting at the bottom felt them into place. 

 

 

 

Continue with the next row.

 

 

 

And the next. 

 

 

 

Now it's time to firmly felt the head and then add details.  Here I just indented the eye area, left kind of a brow ridge and felted the forehead some more.  You could also make the details more prominent by felting in a darker shade.

 

Next is the hat.  Back to the original inspiration, per the pinecone gnome instructions I cut out a triangle 3 3/4 inch on all sides, folded it in half and stitched up the side. 

 

 

 

Here it is turned inside out to hide the stitching.  This makes a very gnomish hat, I'll probably play with different sizes in the future. 

 

 

 

To add a little puff ball at the end, grab some white roving and roll it into a little ball.

 

 

 

Start by felting it directly to the tip of the hat.  I poked the eraser end of a pencil into the hat to hold it without poking my fingers.  Once it's on there pretty good you can focus more on shaping it into a nice ball.  You could also just make a separate ball and stitch or glue it on.  You could also just glue on a pom pom, but where's the fun in that?

 

 

 

If you want the hat folded over you can stitch it in place or do like I did and insert a pipecleaner.  For the first Cthulhu,  I just used a piece of pipecleaner, with the ends folder over so it's not pokey.  This time I wrapped it in a little cotton batting to fill out the hat more. I think I liked it better without the extra padding, but I don't think you can even see a difference in the pictures. 

 

 

 

The next step is to figure out how long the trim needs to be. 

 

 

Felt it to about half the thickness, but keep the length. 

 

 

 

Position the hat on Cthulhu the way you want it, you can stick it a few times with the felting needle to tack it in place. 

 

 

 

Then add the trim and felt all the way around securing it and the hat to Cthulhu's head.

 

 

 

Then you can bend the pipecleaner for a sassy Cthulhu Santa look.

 

 

On a side note look at these delicious green brains we got from friends today.  Creepmas is the most wonderful time of the year. 

 

 

Creepmas Ornaments

Here are some wonderfully creepy ornaments I saw on Etsy. 

This little angler and snowmen are by 5erg.  I love the grumpy snowman in the middle. 

 

 

This steampunk snowman is from AlternativeJewellery, they also had some cool 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' stuff. 

 

 

 And yet another awesome snowman, this one by artsycraftsyfolks.

 

 

And still more snowmen, these creepy cute guys are from SpookyHollow

 

 

This fabulous ornament is by CarnalBarker. What can I say I'm a sucker for anything with eyeballs and teeth. 

 

I can't decide which is cuter the snowman head or bat from WhimsyCalling.

Here is a creepy crawly from WhimzyGrimzy.

 

 

Here's a few ornaments I saw at Hobby Lobby.  Not my favorite store, but I always like to look for Creepmas inspiration.  I wonder if they realize they have the largest selection of Creepmas ornaments in town. Some are creepy cute, some are just creepy and some things like this display just make my eyes hurts. Seriously when did Candy Land throw up on the North Pole? 

 

 

 

 

I admit I couldn't resist, I bought the zombie ornament. I mean WWJD? 

 

 

Here's a few Creepmas ornaments that I received as gifts.  

 

And here's a Creepmas ornament that I made for a friend this year.  It's only about 3 inches tall, but it's filled with Creepmas cheer.