Simple Stone Spiders

Last year, Darian and I found a fun project for us to do together. It was the silly stone spiders that were blogged about by Rebecca Cooper over at Simple as That. We picked up the supplies, but then things got super crazy with the Pumpkin Massacre project and we never managed to get around to making them.

But...I happened across the pieces and parts a few weeks ago. I decided to go ahead and modify my original plan and just make some simple stone spiders that would hopefully add to the spookiness of my mantle.

These things are really easy to make. All you need is something for the body (she used stones, I used craft glass since stones around here are hard to come by), paint, pipe cleaners, and regular old white glue (i.e. Elmer's).

I will admit that these were a little difficult for me to find. Darian and I went to more than a few stores before we happened upon these in Michael's. After the handy dandy 50% off coupon I had, I think I spent about $2 per bag (I bought two).

As I knew that I was going to be doing quite a few Halloween projects requiring black paint, I nabbed this large bottle of acrylic paint at JoAnn the other day. It was happily on sale, making it about $2 as well...but I paid $0 thanks to a remaining balance on a birthday gift card.

Paint your stones with the acrylic paint and allow them to dry for a little over an hour. Don't worry about coating them super thick, these babies seem to do pretty well with just a nice even single coating.

Each spider will require two pipe cleaners. I bought mine in bulk last year. They've come in handy for making ribbon bows and other random items.

Using a wire cutter, clip each pipe cleaner in half.

Line up the resulting eight pieces in an asterisk. Try to keep the ends as even as possible...otherwise your spider will look a little lopsided.

Once you have your eight legs, start with one pipe cleaner and bend each end under the base and to the other side. Rotate around to make sure all four pieces get bent. This will hold your spider together.

Then bend the last 1/2" or so of the leg to give it a nice little curve and pop your spider up off the ground.

Assemble your spiders by placing some white glue at the center base of the legs and adding a stone body. Allow them to dry for at least an hour (preferably two or three).

Once they're done, disperse randomly throughout your house for a little extra Halloweeny feel.

The mantle is getting there...piece by piece. Adding the spiders to the spooky bottles and the Halloween banner is helping. A couple more steps and we'll be set...

This post is part of a series. To read the other posts, click here.