Cigar Box - Spooky Cemetery

 

My creation goes along a passion of mine....miniature faerie gardens.
If you follow updates to my Etsy shop, you'll be first to know when I list miniature spooky cemeteries like this one or other faerie garden kits, starting early next year.
In the meantime, here, I will give you idea's on how you can make your own ...
 "Cigar Box - Spooky Cemetery" just in time for Halloween!

First you will need some Amazing Mold Putty,  a craft mat or wax paper covered surface to work on, things to mold, I used some little tombstones, 2 frozen Charlotte's  I picked up at a flea market, and a clay owl I've had since I was a little girl. Mix equal amounts of the white and yellow putty until no swirls of color show. Just a solid mass of yellow. Then press your items into a small ball of putty and leave to set about 10 minutes.

Once you pop out your pieces from the molds you are now ready for the Creative Paper Clay..
The paper clay is extremely easy to work with and fun! Brings back memories of playing with clay in High School  at my Ceramics class. Remember those days? :)
To keep the paper clay fresh, only pull out what you plan to use at the moment.

 I pressed bits of clay firmly into my molds. I added excess class in case there was any shrinking. The tombstones that are tall and skinny with Celtic markings are from a mold and so are the short ones that say R.I.P.  Also my owls and frozen Charlotte's, one which I only made a 'bust' of. I set out the clay filled molds to dry out a bit while I made the other tombstones and some miniature pumpkins by hand.

* I recommend to keep a small dish of water near by and a few wet towels. You can use the towels to clean your hands as you work with clay. The water can be used sparingly to re-dehydrate the clay as you work.

The clay is simple to use. For some of the other tombstones, I rolled out bits of clay with a smooth no-ridge pencil. Almost like a miniature rolling pin! Then formed the tombstone shape. For some ridges, I made a coil of clay and with a tooth pick, made some scoring marks onto the tombstone shape, added the coil and and secured the edges in place with a dry emboss tool.

I either hand indented the letter, R.I.P. or used Halloween buttons to make the spooky  impressions.

I placed the hand formed clay pieces onto a craft sheet with the clay in molds, to cure for 2 hours.
The I carefully pulled the clay tombstones from the molds and with little scissors, trimmed off any excess,  and placed all my clay pieces on a old cookie sheet rack to completely dry over night.

 To make the adorable mini pumpkins, I simply formed the clay into little balls. Then I used the side of a round toothpick to create the pumpkin indentations. I poked a hole at the top and inserted a bit of clay to make the stem.

 After my pieces were dry, I selected a few and pumpkins and painted them orange with green stems. I just used acrylic paint. For the tombstones and other pieces, I dabbed them with a mixture of gray and black paint, then... while still wet with paint, I gently wiped them with a clean baby wipe.
This left the darker color in the grooves and created a old "haunted"  look everywhere else.
Don't you love it! :)

 I glued pieces of shipping foam into the bottom of a cigar box and added some craft moss on top of that.
The background image is just something I had in my clip art stash box. I trimmed this to size and glued to the inside of the lid.

 The tombstones stay up by gluing pieces of toothpicks to the backs so they can be inserted through the moss and into the foam. Lastly I glued some skeleton beads for the "feet" of the box.

What do you think? I hope you'll leave me a comment and let me know. :)