Witches at Home - Halloween Shrine by Julie Ann

It's great to be back at Calico Craft Parts as the days grow shorter and we approach Halloween. I'm not hugely into ghouls and ghosts and gore, but I do love our yearly visit from the little witches, warlocks and spooks who masquerade as our neighbours' children for the rest of the year. It takes me back to when our children loved to dress up and get thoroughly over-excited on Halloween!

This year I've chosen one of the Calico, Haunted Castle large shrines to display in our window with some little battery powered tea-lights.

First let me introduce you to Hecate who started her life as a charcoal sketch. She now lives in a spooky castle with her Witch Sisters; her owl and her cat and a tribe of bats and spiders.

I created the interior of her home by lining the inside of the shrine with the top layer of some autumn coloured napkins fixed with fluid matt medium and then subtly stamped with autumn leaves and bare branches.

The arch at the centre of the shrine has a spider and some bats cut into it and I used the shapes left behind as stencils.

I loved how effective the black and gold looked - the perfect contrast and a dramatic silhouette!

Now it was time to paint some Calico shapes and play!

Yellow tissue was a great addition to create the impression of lighted castle windows.

The circles pushed out from the arch provided the setting sun and the rising moon.

A touch of gilding powder to the black acrylic helped to give the impression of eerie light.

There are so many great Calico parts that you can play with to create all kinds of effects around the shrines too.

I combined Halloween shapes with these beautiful toad-stools from Calico Craft Parts.

Calico Craft Parts are full of imaginative detail.

And it's fun to create a magical world of witches and their familiars. Hecate might well have some treats to share with young visitors rather than tricks up her sleeve! We'll have to see.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit to Hecate's castle. Here's wishing you creative fun until we meet again in a fortnight's time.

Calico Craft Parts used on this Project
Haunted Castle MDF Shrine Kit
Wood Spider Shape 5
The Cat's Behind
Great Horned Owl Perching
Spooky carved pumpkins and cats wood corner
Owl and Spider Wood Corner
Wood Flying Bat Colony Shapes
Flying Bat Silhouette
Witch on a Broomstick
Decorative Wood Window
Spotted Toadstool
Word Elements Blank