Pine Cone Snow Spiders

I think this is my favorite Creepmas craft yet. I spotted some lovely pine cone spiders from ZombiesWearingHelmets.com a couple years ago and finally got around to making some at the annual Halloween craft party.  An image of them disturbed a friend of mine enough that I entertained the idea of gifting him some and thoughts of gifts led to thoughts of Creepmas and here we are. I wish my photography skills were up to capturing just how awesome these guys look in person. In lieu of quality, I've gone for quantity.

The Whole Family

Now is a good time to buy those cinnamon scented pine cones at the craft store. Around here it's the only time they carry the big ones.





The sticks are from the backyard, I baked them at 300 degrees for a half hour, to make sure they were completely dried out and to get rid of any unwanted creepy crawlies. Hopefully no real spiders were harmed in this craft, at least I didn't see any.

Dad Full Body Shot

When I assembled them this fall I used hot glue, since they were going to be hanging outside, I thought that would be the best waterproof option. That worked well until the temperature started to drop and then the hot glue didn't hold so well. Since these guys are indoor spiders now, I reattached any wayward limbs with my favorite, Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky glue.


Dad Close Up.  Notice His Webbing.

I originally thought about flocking them and then I found this video that uses spray on texture, which I happen to have from a home improvement project.  Following the video I first sprayed them with a light coat of white paint, and then followed with the spray texture.  I didn't completely coat them, I wanted some of the natural brown to show.  They also still had some fake cobwebbing from Halloween on them.  I'm a little sorry I took most of it off, because I really like the cobwebs with the texture spray.


Mum Showing Off Her Legs

A quick note on what I learned while repairing walls.  First use the low odor water based version. Even then it has quite the aroma. You know when you bury a body in the cellar but you forget to throw down some lime? Yeah, me neither, but the texture does have a weird putrid smell. Make sure to use it in a well ventilated area.

Also it's a splatter spray so block off anything you don't want coated.  I hung my spiders from a shower curtain rod and then I taped a plastic sheet to the back and sides of the shower, and let the bottom flow over and cover the floor.  Even then I managed to get some on the little bit of the shower that wasn't covered, but it wiped right off.

Mum Close Up

The eyes are similar to what I've done in the past.  A base of air dry clay, some of my paper clay and tissue paper. Painted with acrylic paint and a few layers of clear gloss on the eyeball to make it look wet. It's hard to see in the pictures, but I used some red/blue gradient yarn fibers on the pink eye bits to give it that veiny look.





Wee Little Guy

I will say tissue paper is a pain to work with, at least I think it is.  As soon as it's wet it sticks to things you don't want it to, like fingers or clumps and it tears easily.  I found putting it in place first; folded, twisted, flat, however I wanted it and then squeezing a few drops of watered down glue on it, worked best. I used a small bottle of Elmer's white glue, with a 1:1 mixture of water and glue, to apply the glue. 

You'll need something to manipulate the tissue paper, especially in some of the little crevices.  I started using toothpicks and paint brush handles and then I remembered I have these Sculpey tools and I really liked using them for this.


Wee Little Guy Close Up

It's probably a little late to send out Creepmas cards, but maybe this for next year: