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

Lughnasadh Altar Wreath Craft

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!

Last year I made a nice Lughnasadh banner craft, if you haven't seen it, it's here. It's a great craft to help kids learn symbolism of the Sabbat.

I'm still in the process of trying to use all of my current stock of craft supplies. I dug through my items and slowly put together a craft in my mind to make for Lughnasadh. I found a grapevine that I had forgotten about. I found some corn husks from a couple of years ago that were left over from other Lughnasadh crafts. I looked at my clay and came up with a way to use it. I found some material that I cut into strips.

I went on a morning walk and found some gorgeous sunflowers. This would be the only thing that I didn't have. I tried using a kitty litter method to quickly dry the sunflowers, it ended up being a big NO NO. I then ended up running back up the hill in the rain, laughing, with scissors in one hand and a bag in the other, to get some more sunflowers. I hope that the flowers dry nicely, but if they don't I have more to replace them that are currently hanging to dry. So I've made this with my fresh sunflowers, but you can use fake or dried, if you would like.

My process for making the wreath was in this order:

1. I made my clay decoration.

I used Original Sculpey clay. I remembered a Lugh bread tutorial from a couple of years ago and I translated  it to my clay. I want to make it look like wheat. Here are my steps:

I made a base for the wheat. It is 5 1/2 inches tall by 3 1/2 inches at the widest top part:

I rolled out another bit of clay and using scissors I cut it into strips. I laid the strips on the base like so. (ignore my nasty clay baking pan)

Next, I rolled out lots of little balls around this size, flattened slightly. This will be the wheat tops.

With a pair of small sharp scissors I cut down the middle, without cutting in half, I stopped just short of the end.

On each side of the middle cut, I cut small slits. You don't want to cut all the way to the middle cut and again, stop just short of the bottom.

Place them all over the top of the base, covering the ends of the strips.

Now roll out three skinny strips and braid them.

Place the braided strips like so. Now your wheat is ready for baking. I baked at 275 for 30 minutes. 

When it comes out of the oven and cools, paint it all over with an off white color. I used Apple Barrel English Lace acrylic.

When the base coat has dried, give it some highlight color......like it is baked bread. I used burnt sienna mixed with king's gold.

While the wheat baked, I formed the grapevine into a wreath.

I took the fabric that I found, cut it in half down the middle, and then tied it together, making one long piece to wrap around the wreath.


I also had a small piece of the fabric and made a small bow to place on the knot at the bottom. You'll see it in a later pic.


The next step is making corn dollies for your wreath. I'm going to make a boy and a girl.

First you take two husks and place back to back.

Take a third husk and wrap around the top of the two.

Separate the two husks upside down over the wrapped part.

Tie them down with a string.

Separate one husk into 3 pieces. This will be the arms.

 Tie together at one end, and then braid.

Slide between the husks. Place so that you have an even amount of arms on each side.

I wrapped and tied another husk for her waist.

Then I shredded the skirt.

For the boy, you follow the same process as above, but after you tie his waist. You separate the bottom part of the husks into to legs and tie them off at the knee and the feet. I also did not braid his arms, I just tied them off.

When you are finished making all the parts of the assemble your wreath as you want it. To attach the sunflowers you can hot glue or you poke a wire through the base of the sunflower and then tie it to the wreath. Sunflowers have a good sized base so this makes it easy for attachment. I glued my corn dollies and clay wheat and wire attached my flowers.

That's it for this craft. I hope you like it and make one of your own!

Brightest Blessings,

Saga