Witch Krafting with Kat

  The Old Stinker!  By the light of the full moon The howling begins. Run if you must for all your sins. The Old Stinker is on your trail. No matter how hard to no avail. A claw, a bite and down you go. You may have run but you're much too slow!  By Kat Hazelton 2024 'Old Stinker !' I have always been fascinated by cryptozoology and in particular stories of creatures that have reportedly been seen roaming the countryside of the British Isles. In particular I do find the stories of wild devil dogs particularly interesting!  There are many dog like beasts stories across the UK, for example there is the B arghest a devil dog in North Yorkshire, The Demon of Tidworth, The Black Dog of Winchester, Padfoot of Wakefield and t he Black Shuck which resides in the East Anglian region of England. Some of these and others I promised to do future articles on. 😊 Devil Dogs !  Often described as large dog like creatures with canine teeth, long sharp claws, piercing red eyes, ...

  I just had to share the new Ghostbusters frozen Empire trailer, looks like it's going to be a good film! Nice to see Janine in a Ghostbuster suit at long last! In my view she was always a Ghostbuster! 😊 👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️👻❤️  

Some of my background papers made using acrylic paint on a Gelliarts plate. Hi everyone well since the start of the new year I have been spending a bit of time making background papers. Those of you who know me or have followed me here and on my Instagram page know that not only do I love to explore the world of Witches, Folklore and Cryptozoology but I also love crafting especially influenced by these themes. Normally I come up with a project and work my way from start to finish which is methodical but can be also a bit stressful and lacking some creative freedom! So this year I am trying to be a little more mindful in my creating. So I am getting back to basics and starting off by creating background papers. These are extremely fun to make and also very relaxing way to spend a few minutes or a few hours a day! Using various mediums such as acrylic paints, inks, watercolour pencils, stamps, stencils, gel plates and lino printing techniques you can create your own patterned paper. They...

  Sir Rowland Alston in his younger years.  Odell is the setting for a tale of the supposedly diabolic Sir Rowland Alston. The Odell family had their ancestral home on the site of Odell Castle - where they had lived for over 300 years - and the majority of the family members were pillars of community and well respected. Sir Rowland was the exception. Apparently a depraved and wicked man - his crimes included brawling, gambling, drunkenness and cavorting will ladies of ill repute - who had sold his soul to the devil, so the story goes. Rowland’s notoriety was such that even after death his presence still cast a black shroud over the village. His ghost was seen to walk through walls and tree trunks in broad daylight; he further terrified the villagers by riding his ghostly steed inside his ancestral home, an act that would leave demonic hoof marks on the floor. Such examples of supernatural terror eventually led the people of Odell to raise a mob and exorcise the foul spectre. ...

To follow on to my article yesterday about the Devil in the boot I found a talk about Sir John Schorn via Eventbrite.  Wayne Perkins explores the story of Sir John Schorn Sir John Schorn: The Man who Conjured the Devil into a Boot A Folklore Society online talk by Wayne Perkins Tuesday 27 February 2024, 18:00-19:30 GMT ‘Sir,’ ‘Master’ or ‘Maister’ John Schor(e) was the Rector of North Marston in Buckinghamshire in the 13th – 14th centuries. After his death, his shrine became the third most popular pilgrimage destination after Canterbury and Walsingham. Even Henry VIII is said to have visited it in 1511 and 1521. The income gained from the pilgrims visiting North Marston was so great that his relics were ‘translated’ to Windsor to help finance the chapel of St George. However, he was never canonized--he only ever held the distinction of ‘folk saint.’ So how did this rural rector garner so much fame? He is said to have affected many miracles including curing the sick and creating a s...

  Sir John Schorne and his boot containing the Devil! F Taken from the Green Men & White Swans The Folklore of British Pub Names . 

Goblin, drawing by Olive Cockerell from Queen of the Goblins, by A. Pickering, 1892 Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, R.B. Fleming https://www.britannica.com/art/goblin#/media/1/236584/5702 Map of UK showing the area of Buckinghamshire in red.  Welcome to this weeks Witchy Wednesday. This week it is about the strange 'little Witches' of Buckinghamshire. Buckinghamshire on the surface doesn't have such a rich history of Witches and folklore characters as say other counties in the British Isles. No one really knows why? But I suspect it was likely that Buckinghamshire did indeed have many strange and fantastical folktales but that over time sadly these stories, left undocumented, just were forgotten and naturally faded away with time. Folktales are stories in the oral tradition, tales that people told each other out loud, rather than written down. Often told to family members during the winter months whilst sitting around warm fires. They are closely...

  Congratulations they have reached over 10,000 signatures.  Thank you so much for signing and sharing.  Please do keep up the good work!  It would be great to add a few more signatures before the end date of the 13th.  Remember signing not only shows that we care about those who were wrongly accused of witchcraft but also that the truth is worth fighting for. Even those without a voice can get justice through the help of others.    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/640686  Petition is now closed at  13,157   signatures Sadly the likes of Anne, Joane and Ellen and thousand of others like them were accused and sentenced to banishment or death because of accusations of witchcraft. These people and their families lives were destroyed because of prejudice, greed, and hate.  Lets hope over time they will receive justice and people will remember them as victims not villains!

Welcome to another Witchy Wednesday and the first of January 2024. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Thank you to those of you who sent me kind messages and festive cards! Much appreciated 😊 I had planned on starting 2024 with a light hearted article on The Lincoln Imp, which I promise to post at a later date, but a friend contacted me to ask if I would post about this really important petition on the UK Government and Parliament website to legally pardon those convicted in Great Britain for offences of Witchcraft. As you know I feel quite strongly that most, if not all, of people accused of Witchcraft were victims of gossip, family feuds, greed, religion and predudices! So I decided to use this weeks Witchy Wednesday as a platform to hopefully increasing awareness and maybe add some more signatures for this really important issue.  Please follow the link below to read the petition and if you agree please sign and share around the internet with like minded fri...

'As that sexe is frailer then man is, so is it easier to be intrapped in these grosse snares of the Devill, as was over well proved to be true, by the Serpents deceiving of Eva at the beginning'. Interesting article on the BBC website about Witches please visit via this link https://www.bbc.co.uk/witches  🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 Even though Folk stories are fascinating to children please note that some folk tales and historical articles I post links too can be quite scary or contain adult themes. I would therefore recommend visiting all links and checking them yourselves before showing to younger children. 

  Me visiting ancient stones across the country from the iconic Stonehenge, the beautiful stones of Avebury, the spooky Rollright Stones, atmosphere Castlerigg in Cumbria and the magical stones of Long Meg and her daughters near Little Salkeld. Happy new year and welcome back to more Witchy Wednesdays.  For those of you new to my blog page my name is Kat Hazelton I have always been fascinated in folk tales. As kid I was always obsessed with all things weird and wonderful from stories about witches, fairies, mythological monsters, ghostly encounters and strange creatures found in rivers and at sea! As a child I loved to spend long hours reading up about these subjects and visiting places of historical interest with my family and later on my own as an adult.  This fascination with all things strange and magical has travelled along with me from childhood into my adult life influencing my craft work, both professionally and personally. A lot of my craft work and art is defini...