A couple days late for Halloween but it’s Dia de Muertos so I’ll say it still counts. I’ve always loved art and making things, something I was lucky enough to get from both of my parents. Early in October I was reading through my latest edition of Better Homes and Gardens and saw this fantastic witch cut out of wood for your yard. http://www.bhg.com/halloween/decorating/witch-decor-for-halloween/#page=8 I’ve been working on adding to our Halloween yard scene and thought she would be a great addition. The problem being, I own zero wood working tools, so I let the thought pass until I was visiting with my dad a couple weeks later. Being a carpenter and building his own house from the bottom up, this man has tools. The beautiful desk I’m sitting at right now, he built for me with his own two hands. 

We’ve done a couple wood working projects together over the years and when we were looking for something to do that day I again thought of the witch. I thought it would be fun to work on it together and fortunately he was up to the task too. It seemed almost serendipitous that he just happened to have a four foot piece of scrap plywood behind his garage. I freehand drew the outline of the witch and my dad, talented man that he is, was able to cut out every little nook and cranny of the design with Dani helping keep the wood steady. He even cut out a little base to keep the witch from falling over.

When we got our little four foot addition to the family home, we painted her black with a small can of outdoor paint. We had some left-over black chalk paint but we wanted her to stand up to the elements and have the ability to use her as a decoration for years to come so we went with a more weather resistant, outdoor paint. As a final addition to our vignette we bought some white pumpkins to use a skulls in her caldron. The “caldron” was the left-over base from a hanging basket of strawberries bought earlier in the summer. I used more of the black paint to paint the creepy skull faces. Besides being creative my parents taught me to be resourceful. I think my love of all things thrift store and making something new out of something old comes from them. In the end the only cost was the small can of black paint and 4 little white pumpkins.