Macabre Monday-You WOOD do that!

I honestly didn't think I'd make this challenge, the Minions at HDH really challenged us, but I surprised myself.  The Boy wants to be Voldemort(if you don't know who that is-where have you been?)for Hallowe'en, so I decided to make him a wand.

The Hubs found a cool stick while gardening that he thought would make a good wand.  So I sanded it down and stained it with some danish oil.

To make my handle I took some twine and wrapped around the base and sealed it with floral tape.  I then took a string of beads and hot glued them in a spiral.  Let it all dry, then painted it black.

Pretty cool, isn't it?  The beads shine through on some spots and it has a cool iridescent glow.  I decided to give it a whirl on my dog and see if it worked.

Nope.  Still a dog.  After all, the wand chooses the wizard, and this isn't my wand.  I'm lucky I didn't set my damn house on fire.

Macabre Monday-Ancient Evil

This was a tough challenge for me to figure out.  Use an ancient evil (aside from myself) as your inspiration.  Oh I went all over the place in my mind, searching for that one...thing.  I asked my husband one night what comes to his mind when I say "ancient evil." 

"The kraken." was his quick reply. 

So there it goes.

If it's not September through December, our home has a nautical theme.  We love the ocean.  So I thought to make something we could frame and hang.

After finishing this, I realize it has a more pirate feel,but kraken goes right along with it.  Besides, pirates are also an ancient evil.  Capt. Jack Sparrow and the like have glamorized the pirate, but let's not forget the old creed of take all you can, give nothing back. I used that cool map from Delicous Doodles.  A friend of mine's dad worked in a junk yard most his life, and gave me a bunch of odds and ends to use in my craft stash.  I finally found a home for a few of those things on this project.  I used a bag some onions came in as the netting, and an odd weird bead as a nice kraken eye.

  I almost entered this-

That lady with the big ole kraken tattoo is me.  This was my husband and I renewing our wedding vows after 10 years married.  It's the best pic I can find of that tattoo at the moment.  I figured a kraken tattoo would be a cool thing to enter, but I didn't make it. I just wear it.