Lughnasadh Gourd Rattle

This sabbat completely sneaked up on me and I had NO idea what to create.  Thankfully Sosanna gave me an idea and I just so happened to have a box of dried dragon gourds. I've been busy painting murals in my grandchildren's rooms and gardening. I have thoroughly enjoyed the summer. We've had quite a bit of rain but my flowers are loving it. I've taken lots of pictures of the visiting butterflies and bees.

Now, I had not dried these for the purpose of rattle making. They are dragon gourds and they have all kinds of lumps and bumps making them look perfect for the body of a dragon, which was what I had planned on using them for. I've been letting them sit around for 2 years. They still needed to be cleaned. So, I found one whose seeds had loosened during drying and was smallish and would make a perfect rattle.

This is a really really simple craft. All you have to do is find a dried gourd and paint it. Of course it will be a Lughnasadh theme.

If you dried the gourd yourself it will probably need to cleaned if you haven't already done that. To clean you will need to let it soak in some warm water for a bit and then scrub it. It takes a bit of elbow grease to remove the layer of mold. The dragon gourds are a bit of a pain to clean because they aren't smooth. They have ridges and it is a bit harder to clean around those.

After you let the cleaned gourd dry thoroughly overnight, it will then be ready to start painting. For this, I'm putting a layer of sky colors on first. I put a really light blue, almost white, on first. Let that dry, then I watered down a darker blue and just placed and drizzled it here and there. 

I will be painting a sun at the top of the gourd. I believe I will give it a spiral look. So, first I am painting the yellow spirals. I'll let that dry and then add a bright orange. When that dries, I put a few yellow and orange dots,

 

 Now, on the handle paint dark green. When it dries take a dark gold and paint some straight lines. These will be your wheat.

I mixed my gold with a burgundy. I used that color and painted lightly on the same wheat lines, letting both colors show. 

Now, just add a few wheat kernels at the ends of each line with the darker mixed gold.

 

On top of the dark kernels highlight with the gold.

Now, take a thin liner brush and add little hairs with the darker mixed gold.

Now, at the base of the wheat, I'm going to paint some sunflowers. Start out with a dark brown circle and paint a lighter brown circle around the outside of the darker circle.

I'm sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the first layer of the petals of the sunflowers. Sometimes I just get started and forget to stop. Take a muted orange color and paint the petals all the way around the brown. Then when the orange dries, go over that with a golden yellow. 

Now take the stick end of your paintbrush and dip it in the golden yellow paint and make little dots in the center of the sunflower. 

For the leaves, I used two colors of green. Grass green is painted as a base color for the leaves, then a lighter kiwi green is painted over that. 

 

I'm going to use the same kiwi green to make stems for my dandelion puffs.

Now, take the kiwi lime and make two or three small leaves hanging down from the stem.

Now you are going to take the white and make some straight lines coming off the stems. At the end of those lines make little criss-crosses, like stars.

Put a few of the criss-crosses above the dandelion, like the wind is carrying the wishes. 

And there you have a nicely decorated gourd rattle to enjoy by the fire for Lughnasadh.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this craft and brightest blessings to you.

Saga

Mabon Funkin Altar Decorations

This article is part of Kallan's wonderful Sunday Stew. Please hop on over and read all the                                 different flavors added by each chef. I know that you will love it!

It's the second harvest celebration and the official beginning of fall! Let's all celebrate with a pumpkin spice coffee! While you're drinking your coffee let's make an altar/home decoration.

This week I'm trying out the funkins. Now, I've never used these. I've seen them for years in the stores, but I've always passed by. I preferred (and still do) real pumpkins. However, I did want something that would last a few years, so I thought I would grab a couple of these and start crafting.

I decided on one white and one orange. I also purchased some fall leaves, fall colored flowers, black wheat, and some orange glitter ribbon.

The first thing you want to do is decide what to put on your funkin. I wanted words on one and a picture carved on the other. I went to dafont.com and found a nice font that I liked. I went with "Here Comes The Sun". It is a nice sized decorative script without too much frill.

For the white pumpkin I decided on a stag silhouette in front of the moon.

I printed it out the size I wanted.

I used transfer paper to put the lettering on the funkin. Just lay the design on the transfer paper and trace over it with a pencil. Do this with both designs.

I know the design I made for the white pumpkin is atrocious (and I'm almost out of black ink) but I only need to make an outline on my pumpkin, so it worked.

Now carve them both. Also cut the tops off, like you would a pumpkin. I'll let you know now that if you have never carved these, the orange was terrible! It seemed brittle and it was harder to carve. The end result carve of the orange one did not have smooth edges. The white one was way easier to carve and it did not make a mess. They both had very heavy PVC smells, which I don't like. When you are finished carving, wash them. The transfer paper makes a bit of a mess. 

There is a caution on the bottom of the funkins that they are highly flammable. You can use lights but only LED lights in them. I'm not going to risk anything since I am also using dry items, such as the wheat in mine. I decide to line behind each of the designs with a bright felt. I'm going to use yellow. I used E-6000 craft glue to attach it to the funkin. I just smeared some glue on the inside, around the design.

These are lightweight and the items that we are going to be putting in them are heavy, so they will need to be weighted inside a bit. I just put a few rocks in each one. 

Next you want to make your arrangement. The black wheat comes with twist ties around it. Keep those to hold your end arrangement together. I used 2 bunches of wheat per funkin. Also, the wheat is quite long. It's up to you how much you want to have standing up, so you will have to trim it. I just put the wheat inside the funkin and kind of measure how much to remove.

When you are finished measuring your wheat and you have it bunched together, tie it with a twist tie to hold it. The other flowers I clipped each one off of the bunch right at the base. Now just arrange your flowers and leaves around the wheat. Use another twist tie to hold the flowers to the wheat. Then put your lovely ribbon around your arrangement and tie a bow.

 

Now, when you put the wheat arrangement inside the funkin it will not be stable, unless you use foam blocks inside. I hate those foam blocks. I stuffed raffia around my arrangements. It worked nicely and my kitties, Gaia and Kissy had a blast.

 


After you are finished stuffing whatever around your arrangement, stand back and look at the awesome that you have made.

Welcome Autumn. Have fun with what you made, put more decor around it. Light some fall candles or incense. This will look nice for Mabon.

Bright Blessings,

Saga