Tutorial Corner: Halloween Hobgoblins and their habitat

So I’ve been sharing pictures on my Facebook via Instagram of the cute little Hobgoblins I’ve been making. I got the idea from a picture on Pinterest:

I was like hmmm… I could do those with no problem! So here’s how I did them!

You’ll need a habitat (if you want one, it’s optional! You can always hang them from the ceiling from fishing line, as it’s shown in the picture above. You’ll also need some feathers of your choice (Walmart, $2.97); Spanish Moss (Walmart, $3.49); miniature skeletons of your choice. I got mine at the Dollar Tree. They’re a part of a “Skeleton Garland” that I just cut apart from the string. You’ll also need a hot glue gun, glue sticks and scissors.

Step One: Remove your skeletons from the string (if applicable).

Step Two: If needed, shorten the legs. Just take a small bit of the lower leg out.

While you’re at it, take the femur from the knee joint with your scissors. It’s best to do both legs at the same time, just make sure you don’t get your sides confused.

With a small amount of hot glue, attach the lower leg back together.

Do the same with the thigh.

Then glue the leg all together. Give the knee a bit of a bend backwards to make it look like it’s floating.

Step Three: Cut the lower arm off at the elbow. Poor Skelley.

Step Four: Kind of bend your skeletons arm at the joint however you want it.

Step Five: Glue the arms to the elbows in a raised fashion so it looks like this:

Pose your dude like he’s drunk.

And him and his buddy will eventually look like they’re doing the Thriller.

Now comes the fun part….

Step Six: Taking your feathers, get your idea laid out on the table in front of you. Think about how they’ll look on the finished product, so make sure the curved feathers go in the right direction.

Step Seven: Using a pretty good size dollop of hot glue (be careful not to burn your fingers!) attach the wings to the back, right between the shoulder blades on the spine.

Finish both sides and then take a smaller feather to cover up the mess you made out of the spines of the feathers. Trust me, you’ll make a mess. I know I did.

Repeat the steps with your other, more bashful, Hobgoblin.

And make it look like it has an awesome little purple backpack.

Ehhhh this one doesn’t really care, as long as he’s part of the party.

Step Eight: With a small amount of hot glue, affix a bit of the fishing line to your hobgoblins back.

Step Nine: If you’re making a habitat, this is the time to figure out how you’re going to want to fix them in it. I was having issues trying to get them on the lid right, so I ended up using a small amount of glue on the rim of my glass canister and held the fishing line for a bit for the glue to firm.

Add some Spanish moss, some twigs and maybe some mini-tombstones if you have them and voila! You have a Hobgoblin Habitat. But! Please Note: If you plan on leaving these outside, please note that you’ll want to use high heat hot glue. If not, if they are in direct sunlight, the hot glue will weaken and your hobgoblins will fall apart. Plus, if they’re in a small container, like a jar, the glue heats up and causes condensation in the jar, so make sure to poke a few holes for heat to get out (oh and to let your Hobgoblin breathe!)

If you would like to see a tutorial on how to do the spider web lid to this canister, let me know and I’ll do one!

Awww look they’re dancing!

This is my first Hobgoblin, the one that started it all. Unfortunately, I had to do some emergency surgery to him and whilst putting him in his new habitat, I re-broke his arm. Poor guy!

Polish Review: Glitzkrieg War Paint Fall Frolic Collection

Hey there, Witchie-Poos! I hope everyone is enjoying this, the evening of the last day of summer! Tonight I have for you six of the seven polishes in Glitzkrieg War Paint’s Fall Frolic Collection!

I will say right now, I absolutely adore pretty much any jewel-themed polish collection. They’re indicative of the fall months where everything is so beautiful and fresh.

Autumn Twigs is first up. Listed as a holographic cream with big, brown hex glitters.

It doesn’t seem like much in the bottle, but once you put it on the nail it just screams beautiful.

Two coats of Autumn Twigs and it reaches full opacity. It’s a gorgeous brown holo, which amazes me. I’m not one for brown polishes, but Autumn Twigs hits a heart string. I love the sparkle!

It dries super fast and to a mirror finish.

Next up is Pine Needles… Listed as a dark green jelly with hunter green glitter and teal matte hex glitter.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

It goes on like a dream, like most jellies do. I applied two coats and then covered with a topcoat.

I’m not much of a fan of greens, but I really, really like this one. It’s like the emerald city met the wicked witch and this is what they produced. I can totally see this becoming a part of my halloween costume!

Next up is Leaf Pile… It’s a sleeper, that’s for sure. It’s a brown jelly with small bronze hex glitters and larger transparent hex glitters. They look awesome, which really surprised me.

This polish quickly became one of my favorites in the collection.

I love how it shimmers and shines. This is two coats on all but the middle finger, which is three.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I can see it becoming one of my favorite fall polishes. Only problem I see, is that the one I was sent does not match the polish with the same name in the store. Not real sure what’s up with that .

Next up is Gourds Galore. I LOVE this polish. Gourds Galore is listed as “a bright orange jelly with big, orange holographic dot glitter and tiny holographic rust-colored glitter.” and it doesn’t fail to impress.

It translates onto the nail awesomely and in two coats I love the opacity it creates.

And it’s so darned pretty!!!!!!

Next up is Hayride. Listed as “a bright gold jelly with gold flakes, gold holographic glitter and bright yellow matte hex glitter.” I love how this one shimmers and shines. It’s like a little pot of gold on your fingers.

Two coats and you reach a pretty decent opacity for a jelly polish. Three would have made it too heavy.

But it really does shimmer and shine!

Last but not least is my favorite… Wine By the Bonfire is listed as “a dark purple jelly with a selection of holographic and metallic purple glitters.”

My bottle shot doesn’t do this polish justice. Seriously.

It goes on wonderfully in two coats. Three again would have been too chunky. The hexes don’t always translate well, but that’s ok. I love the vampiness of this polish. It screams to me!

Heh. Now I got them to translate well. Ugh. But still. Goodness, it’s pretty isn’t it?!

All in all, these beauties from Glitzkrieg are AWESOME. The opacity is easy to reach, the dry time is minimal and the formulas are awesome. All except for the Leaf Pile problem on her Etsy store, they’re more than worth the money spent for them!

You can find these and other polishes (including Hardy Mum, which is the seventh polish in the collection) in her Etsy shop. At $8.50 a bottle, it’s a steal!