A few years ago I took the twins’ to a Halloween event at a local museum. It was fantastic. They got to hold a live tarantula, trick or treat and learn about all of the creepy bugs, insects and owls that we love around Halloween. One of the fun activities we did there was make hot glue spider webs. Of course it was the adults who had to make them for the little ones, but even still, it was such a great activity to do.
Recently when I pulled all of our Halloween decorations out of the garage I came across the hot glue spider web we had made and it still had the little plastic spider ring attached to it. And then I remembered that I had fancy new hot glue glitter sticks (which are part of the new Mod Podge Mod Melts line) in amongst my craft supplies and thought it would be great to make a new and improved version of these spider webs, and who doesn’t love decorations that sparkle. There should be more sparkle and glitter for all of the holidays, even the scary ones.
I have a ton of black creepy crawly spiders in our Halloween boxes seeing as last year for the twins’ Harry Potter birthday party I’d made a trail of them for the guests to follow to the front door. I’m guessing one must have been stood on though because it wasn’t until I was editing the photographs that I noticed one poor little guy had a broken leg.
Normally I would suggest just grabbing a hot glue mat and applying the hot glue in a web shape directly onto it, but being the perfectionist that I am, and my inability to create straight lines with a hot glue gun, I played around until I found a new way to do this.
Basically, I lay a piece of wax paper over the top of my craft mat and traced over the lines to create the star for the web, and then free-handed the rest of the web. FYI, the glue will adhere to the craft mat, I found that out the hard way on my first attempt, so wax paper is a must.
Then I used a little extra hot glue to attach a spider and set the wax paper aside to dry while I created a few more.
Once the hot glue is completely dry and cooled, peel off the excess wax paper, it won’t peel off in a big sheet, but it is quite easy to remove.
Supplies:
- Hot glue gun
- Mod Podge melts in glitter
- Wax paper
- Cutting mat
- Plastic spiders
I’m going to use two of my webs outside when I decorate over the next couple of days, but for now I used hot glue to attach one of the webs to a painted pumpkin to go next to the fireplace.
I’ve used this same black painted pumpkin for years for various things, so I’m thrilled that I was able to jazz it up a little this year.
Although it does seem to have become target practice for throwing balls for the dogs, despite my protests. It may have something to do with the fact that I’ve placed inside a wood crate.
Here’s a peek at the space I’ve decorated to put it in. This is one of our favorite rooms in the house and I just cannot wait for the cooler weather to really set in so we can light that fireplace more often.
It’s almost Halloween. Have you decorated yet?
Tonya
