The Great Spiders Nest

Well, after seeing so many great Halloween Decorations, I really wanted to make my own Cocoons. They had to be XXL because I really wanted them to look creepy.
It was fairly easy to make, you only need time. And mini spiders.

Step 1: What You Need Aside From Big Spiders Who Want to Eat You?

So, what is needed aside from time?

- Wallpaper Paste
- Mod Podge
- balloons
- Newspapers
- kitchen roll
- varnish for outdoor use (Colour is not important, white is of course the best)
- Mini Spiders
- Spider Webs (20g is enough, but you can use more)
- tights (in teint or white, 20den)
- Spray paint white
- Plasti kote Clear super or any other transparent spray paint
- glue gun

If you used varnisher in any other colour than white:
- Full shade tinting paint in White (It's for outdoor use and weatherproof)

Step 2: Take a Deeeep Breath...

So let's start with the hard part. Blow up the balloons, each balloon gets to be a spider cocoon so do as many as you like. As you can see, I bought the normal shaped balloons because I wanted an slight oval shape. A cocoon is not round but has a slight eggform to it. Well the spiders in my Country do it that way... don't know about other countries though. (But they all are out to get me. )

I didn't use normal newspapers but my old schoolbooks. But newspaper is better, as the Paper is lighter. Cut it up in stripes.
Mix the Wallpaper Paste (read the instructions) and start wrapping up the balloon in the newspaper stripes. It holds better if you coat the ballon and the stripes with the stuff first. But don't dunk the stuff on the balloon, or it won't hold the weight and will fold in itself. Or just burst.

Finished? Let it dry, mine took a day to dry. When it's hard and dry, do it all over again. Let it dry again.

Step 3: Play With Podge

This is the fun part, and you only need a kitchen roll and Mod Podge. I mixed some water into mod Podge, around 1:1 so that I got something like a melted Ice cream.

With a normal big brush, paint your cocoon with the Not-Vanilla-Icecream-Stuff.
Dunk a kitchen roll sheet in it, wring it up and carefully unfurl it. Now start wrapping your cocoon with the kitchen roll. Let it dry. If you worked carefully, all your balloons are still intact, round and smooth and have not burst.

But don't worry, if they didn't hold and now you have some deformed egg. You can still use that.So dont throw it away, just start a new one and come back to the not so perfect one later.

Step 4: Paint It!!

Now, I didn't have any White Varnish for Outdoor Use at home so I used synthetic enamel paint and weatherproof varnish booth in Green. Basically it's a lot faster if you use white varnish, so if you have and used it, good. Just skip the repainting step I had to do, to make them White. But if you, like me, did'nt have one, as you can see, it's no major problem. You will just have to do an additional painting step to do.
So I painted the dried cocoons with what I had at home, green enamel varnish. After drying I painted them a second time (It's better with two coats, as they will have to survive in autumn weather with Fog, Rain and Wind. )

The next step was to get them to be white as they were a beautiful forest green. For that I painted them with white full shade tinting paint. But you can also use normal white paint for walls just be sure it's for outdoor use too.
Again I painted them two times, just to be sure they would be white.
Let them dry.

Step 5: Spiders Get a New Home

Now we're at the finish lane. For the next step I used
-Tights in teint
- White and Clear Spray paint
- spider webs
- mini spiders.

First take the tights and push the cocoon with the pointy end through one leg just till you're past the panty part (Tights have two parts, the pants part with a bit thicker material and the legs with thin material). Be careful not to rip the tight to much.
Now cut it and tie the end. Your cocoon is now pointed upwards, hang it somewhere so that you have both hands free. Spray it with the white paint, all over and immediately cover it with the spiderwebs.
I covered the nylon part of the tight too (so it looked like a big Spider String) and tied it with a knot.

When the cocoon is covered, just glue some loose parts of the web with the glue gun to the cocoon. And the little Spiders too. The last step, spray it with the clear spray. Mine was old, so it had a yellow touch to it, but it made it look even better.
Now make a hole in the end of the tight, so it's easier to hang it up.
Finished!
I hope I did explain everything, if not just ask.