Every now and again, while reading through old newspapers, there is a craft that is so charming, like this brown paper witch, that it needs to be modernized.
This brown paper craft was originally published in 1920.
Brown Paper Witch
The instructions read:
She is the queen of festivities tonight and she should not be ignored or neglected. And aside from that, if you have a party “wished” on you at the last minute and you haven’t a thing in the house that will do as a centerpiece for the table, use her.
She is made of an unassuming piece of brown wrapping paper, rolled into a cornucopia and pasted together.
Her neck was pinched slightly to fit the collar, which is pasted together in the back.
That peaked hat is a fake – it’s only a circle of paper stuck on over the peak of her head, which has been painted black to match it; and the “hair” is pasted to the under side of the brim.
The hat and hair are painted black.
The arms, which hold the wrapping paper broomstick so thoughtfully, are one of mother’s kid curlers pushed through two holes in the witch’s “cape” and bent together.
Twenty minutes, a pair of scissors, a paste jar, some wrapping paper, black paint or ink – who said you had nothing in the house to make a centerpiece for Halloween?
Source: Evening public ledger. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), 30 Oct. 1920.
