Nature's Spooky Harbingers of Autumn and Halloween Nature DIY Crafts

 

It's not autumn yet, but the shadows seem a bit longer, the days a miniscule shorter, and the anticipation is building for spookier and moody days.  There are some amazing nature-based components that say "autumn is coming" to me. Here's some of them - 

moss and lichens - if things stay still in nature, sure enough moss and lichens will grow in the right climate. There is something so eerie about a living blanket of green covering details of its host. 

fog - fog is one of those atmospheric elements that makes everything vague, engulfing vision, and creating an echoing imagery that never clearly reveals its origin.

(my childhood home in fog - a Civil War hospital)

spider webs - whether spiders creep you out or not, there is something about these works of hard draped in dew that screams - atmospheric creepiness!

mushrooms - the scent of a damp forest floor littered with leaves and acorns, broken branches, and mushrooms sprouting daily. 

long shadows - Usually in early September, your eyes begin to notice longer shadows being cast. Days are a bit shorter. Nights longer and cooler. The shadows preview coming darkness. 

the scents - rotting berries on the vine, gourds and pumpkins in a damp garden, rotting leaves, mushrooms, distant wood smoke, wet tree bark, damp earth, dew.

daily sights - birds flying south, ducks flying overhead, smoke from chimneys, leaves tumbling on the ground in the wind, puffy clouds, flickering firelight, squirrels rushing about, colored leaves in yellow, orange, and red. 

If this has gotten you in the mood for autumn atmosphere, consider collecting bare branches and make beautiful decor - 

In the photo above, I made a stick figure by hot gluing the sticks together and then wrapping with twine. The pumpkin in the lower left was air-drying clay shaped into a pumpkin and painted and stabbed into the stick body. The Blair Witch-inspired large figure was hot glued and wrapped in twine. The figure on the bottom right was a root I pulled out of the ground and drew a face on the root ball so that the roots were hair. Top right was a corn dolly made with twine and corn husks. Top broom was a stick with fountain grass strands. 

For these items, I needed a hot glue gun, natural twine, air-drying clay, and some acrylic paints. 

Pulled up a dead plant's roots with plant stem. I used air-drying clay to create a body and face. Then, painted it. 

painted to blend in 

completed 

I found a branch that I could break off to recreate a body, arms, and legs. I used air-drying clay to make a pumpkin head.

I hot glue wrapped the twine on hands, feet, and body and painted the head. 

A trek outdoors can bring back river rocks, pine cones, acorns, leaves, branches, moss, bark, seeds, and any other inspiring elements to make the best nature-based crafts.

Here (below) is a dead tree limb used as a tree for dried carved apple heads I let age for a month and get wrinkled up.

stay inspired - stay in nature!