This week I wanted to start making some Halloween decorations for the dollhouse so I spent some time looking at images of real size houses decorated fro the holiday. I kept seeing these huge spiders and I knew the dolls had to have one. I am in love with how he (she??) came out. I am sure after the dolls get past the nightmare view of the spider right outside their bedroom window they will love it too.
The body of the spider is simply half of a styrofoam ball. Mine was about 1 ½” in diameter and since we only need half the ball you could make a pair of spiders really easily at the same time. The other main component of the spider is just some chenille stems. I used white stems since I wanted to coat them with the same paint I am going to use on the body both so they match in color and to give a good “spider leg” texture to them I cut my legs to about 4” long so I got 3 pegs per stem so I only needed 3 stems (with a bit leftover)
When I cut my ball in half one side of it kind of flattened a bit so I decided to use this as the spider’s face. I used a bamboo skewer to poke four holes on each side of the spider body and dipped the ends of the legs into some tacky glue and inserted them into those holes. Allow this glue to dry.
Next we are going to disguise the texture of the foam ball by covering it with a layer of wrapping tissue. To do this tear some pieces of the tissue paper then brush some Mod Podge onto a small area of the ball add a small piece of the paper and brush more of the Mod Podge over it. You want to really soak the paper with the Mod Podge. Make sure to cover the top of the spider’s body. If you miss some of the flat bottom that is not so important but the part that will show needs a good coat of it. Also be sure to work some around each leg where it is attached to the body. This will blend the legs into the body and also help to hold them into the body. (we don’t want to have our spider loosing a leg at some point) Allow this to dry completely.
Once dry it is time to paint the spider. I just used some black craft paint for this. I was able to use a brush on the body but I did find that it was easiest (although very messy) to use my index finger and thumb to apply the paint to the legs. Just dip your finger/thumb in the paint and run the leg between them, much faster and I got really coverage with one coat of paint that way. Allow to dry completely.
I wanted to add a bit of bling to my spider so I used some purple glitter paint on the legs. It is very subtle and I might go back later and add another coat but I didn’t want to add too much. Just enough to catch the light from time to time. Allow to dry.
Next it was time to add the eyes to his face. I simply used some dots of red 3-D paint for this. I had debated trying to add glitter but in the end like the plain eyes better. Allow to dry (this type of paint takes a while to dry so let it sit at least overnight before you touch the area where his eyes are painted on.
Now it was just a matter of bending the legs and setting him place, I think he really likes the roof of the dollhouse but you could put him anywhere. And since his legs are so flexible you can use those to help anchor him in place.
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