When I saw THIS VIDEO last year by my favourite YouTuber, Eduardo Talbert of Monster Tutorials, I was in no doubt a mummified fairy would feature in my future. I was itching to get started and gathered my supplies. Then Christmas happened.

FFS.

One might suppose there was no real hurry, at least in most people’s world. After all, demand for mummified fairies might ordinarily be limited to Halloween.

But then, I’m not most people.

And in my world, Halloween isn’t limited to one night a year.

This surprises you. I can tell.

So I was only too pleased when Christmas was over and I was finally able to get stuck into making my very own mummified fairy. In fact, I got so excited… I made three!

Before looking around for something else to corpse.

A Macabre Skeleton Birdcage for instance.

For both projects, I followed Eduardo’s tutorial almost to the letter, but I did improvise in a few places. I also have a few tips if you’re planning to make one for yourself, so read on for those.

Fancy a mummified fairy for your collection but don’t want to make one yourself? You’re in luck! I’ll happily make one for you! But I only have a limited number of skeletons, so you’ll need to get in quick! Drop me a line via my contact page or on The Witch at OneandSeventy’s new Instagram account and we’ll get that sorted.

While you’re there, why not hit the follow button and join an already growing number of Halloween-obsessed followers?

Before I get into what I used for this project, I want to share Beloved’s reaction upon arriving home to the final project. And I quote: “Ewwww! It looks like a decomposing pixie!”

He couldn’t have paid me a more perfect compliment.

What I used to make a Mummified Fairy

The Skeletons

I used skeletons from a skeleton garland that I picked up in the Halloween sales for 50p each. I’ve seen them on Amazon, but the cheapest one doesn’t have a great description and I’d hate to give you a bum steer.

It’s nion impossible to find Halloween-related stuff throughout the year. Do you have any great sources for this sort of thing outside of Halloween? If so, please share!

Wood Stain

I used Ronseal in Natural Oak because that’s what I had, but you can use any wood stain, preferably one with a reddish tint to give it that “just juicy” feel.

Painting the Wing Wires

Instead of nail varnish, I used white acrylic paint.

Making the Horns

Instead of air-dry clay, I used White Tack. Odd choice, perhaps, but I didn’t have any clay! So I thought White Tack seemed like a good substitute. And it is! OK, it’s a little soft, but it does harden up a little over time and if you’re framing up your fairy, it doesn’t matter.

Even if you decide not to frame yours (and I have a couple, as you can see) then so long as you go careful, the horns should be perfectly fine. I haven’t had any fall off yet!

The Plastic

I started using plastic gloves “borrowed” from the petrol station, per Eduardo’s technique in his easiest way to corpse a mini skeleton video but quickly realised I didn’t have enough plastic for the wings. I happened to have some plastic dust sheets in my decorating kit, so I liberated one and used a combination of both techniques.

In hindsight, a slightly thicker plastic sheet might be better – the dust sheet is a little more flimsy than I would like, but it does work and I’m all about using what I have if at all possible.

TIP: If you use Eduardo’s “glove” method, I highly recommend doing the corpsing before adding the eyes and horns. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself snipping and cutting around both, which is tedious.

Framing a Mummified Fairy

I framed mine in one of IKEA’s Ribba shadow box frames because that’s what I had. But it meant I didn’t have a soft backing to stick pins into. Neither did I have vintage pins, so I had to improvise.

First, I aged a piece of square card, then glued the fairy onto it.

Then I took 6 dressmaking pins from my sewing kit and painted them with black Alcohol Ink.

The pins were too long for the frame, so I cut them down with wire cutters before glueing them into position to make it look like the fairy was pinned like the specimen in Eduardo’s tutorial.

TIP: Alcohol Ink is your friend. It will colour all sorts including metal, glass, and plastic. Squeeze a little ink into an old jam jar lid and brush it on like paint. A bottle will last ages, but a word of warning – this stuff does NOT wash out in water! I definitely recommend using a dedicated brush and lid for each colour. There are loads of colours of Alcohol Ink available but in all my work so far, I’ve only used three:

Oregano – a green that ages gold metal beautifully

Cranberry – a lush, deep red that’s almost blood-like

Pitch Black – does what it says on the bottle

The Labels

Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I downloaded and printed one of Eduardo’s labels that I aged using the tea and ink method I used for the Halloween potion bottle labels.

I glued on the label and raised the edges a little before glueing on a couple more shortened pins to make it look like the label was pinned on.

And there you have it. Instant Mummification!

What do you think? As always, drop a comment below to let me know, or come on over to Instagram or Facebook for a chat. Don’t forget, if you have any great resources for getting hold of Halloween-eque items throughout the year, please let everyone know. Especially if you’re in the UK!

I’m really pleased with these mummified fairies and I hope Eduardo feels I’ve done his project justice.

A hui hou,

 

 

 

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