Making Baba Yaga’s Hut on Chicken Legs

When I was about 13 years old, I read Bony-Legs, by Joanna Cole for the first time. Back then, the terrifying witch who lived in a hut that ran around on chicken legs scared the pimples out of me. I’ve always had a vivid imagination. For some reason, I was reminded of that book the other day and my creativity went into overdrive. For weeks, I was obsessed with making Baba Yaga’s hut on chicken legs.

Scary, but not much and perfect for Halloween.

It took me two weekends to complete, but most of the time I was sitting around waiting for things to dry.

So if you’re keen to make Baba Yaga’s hut on chicken legs, I thought I’d share how I did it. It’s a long one. There’s so many little bits to cover. But before we get there, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. And don’t forget to click the subscribe button so you’ll never miss a post!

What you need

Chicken Legs

• Wire
• Foam clay
• Tin foil (aluminium foil)
• Feathers (optional)

Baba Yaga’s House

• Cardboard boxes
• Foam clay
• Craft sticks
• Craft paint
• Hot Glue
• Wax paper
• Alcohol ink
• Moss (optional)
• Patience while you wait for stuff to dry.

Tools

• A cylinder to roll out the clay
• Toothpick
• Sharp knife
• Wire cutters and pliers
• Glue gun
• Scissors

Making Baba Yaga’s Hut on Chicken Legs

This tutorial has two main parts: making a creepy little hut out of cardboard and those chicken legs.

You’ll want to do the legs first. That way you can use them as a guide for making the Baba Yaga’s hut.

I made a rough sketch before constructing all the bits. It helped me stay on track and keep things in proportion.

Constructing the chicken legs

The chicken legs are one of the most important pieces in bringing Baba Jaga’s house to life. They may look complicated, but they were the quickest and easiest to make once I figured everything out. This video will guide you through the basic steps to form the legs using wire and aluminum foil. I’ll also show you how to add the first clay layer clay to hide the wire bits.

Don’t worry too much about making that first layer of clay perfect. We’ll add a second layer of clay once the house is done. Leave wired clay legs to dry overnight. Chop the top of the thighs off with a sharp craft knife so they’re level.

Bend the chicken legs at the knees and put them to one side.

Erhmmm, confession time. I clearly have no concept of chicken anatomy, and bent my legs forward instead of backwards at the knees. Anyhoos, I figured these are magical chicken legs so they can be bent any way you want to as long as they support Baba Yaga’s house and don’t fall over.

Building Baba Yaga’s  hut

Use the legs as a guide and cut a squarish shape from cardboard. This will form the platform on which Baba Yaga’s little house rests. Poke the wire at the top of the leg up through the cardboard platform and test for stability. You may need to do this a few times until the platform stays upright and doesn’t topple over.

Use the platform as a guide to figure out how big the hut should be. My platform is 19 x18 (7.5” x 7”) and my hut is 10 x 14 (4” x 5”).

Draw the walls on cardboard and cut them out.

Cut out a few windows and a door. Save the door for later. We’ll be dressing it up in faux wooden planks in a bit.

If your walls are curved like mine, cut the cardboard against the corrugated “grain”. It makes it easier to bend the cardboard to get a smooth curve.

Glue the walls together.

Check that the cardboard hut still balances on those chicken legs and make adjustments if need be.

Measure the width of the roof area and add a few extra cm or inches if you want an overhang.

Cut the roof out and glue it on top of the walls.

You should end up with something like this.

Cuddle your new fur baby while you check that the Baba Yaga’s hut still balances on those chicken legs.

Adding a chimney and attic window

If you’d like to add extra bits like an attic window or chimney, use the roof as a guide to draw a pattern onto a piece of cardboard.

Cut the pieces out and then glue all the bits together.

The chimney will hide a battery pack for fairy lights once the house is done. My hubby’s brilliant idea. The attic window is simply a little triangle that’s been glued onto the side of the roof. Paint the whole house black.

It’s starting to look less like cardboard and more spooky.

Unless you get up close.

Time to fix that by adding roof shingles and stone cladding.

Adding roof shingles

You can either make a thatch roof or add shingles for Baba Yaga’s hut. We’ve already shared a miniature thatching tutorial here, so I thought I’d do cardboard shingles to show you how it’s done. If you don’t want to spend hours painting each shingle once they’re glued down, paint a piece of cardboard black first. Going across the corrugated grain of the cardboard, cut long strips of cardboard. Chop the strips into smaller, rectangular shingles.

Staring at the bottom of the roof, glue the cardboard shingles on. When you start on the next layer, overlap them slightly.

Dry brush the shingles by dipping a paintbrush in a little brown craft paint and wiping most of the paint off before applying.

Start at the top of the roof and use light downward strokes.

Cladding the hut in stone

I’m not 100% sure what Baba Yaga’s little house is made from. Maybe wood? Maybe Stone? I have no idea, but stone cladding is easy to do, so I went with that. Plus, it looks pretty awesome when it’s done. Roll foam clay into small balls and stick them onto the cardboard walls. Foam clay is lighter than other craft clay and it sticks to cardboard while it’s wet.

Don’t worry too much about making the balls perfect. Keep some space between the balls and alternate the size for a realistic look. Start cladding around the doors and windows and work outwards.

Don’t forget the chimney.

Use a small flat piece of foam clay to hide the bit at the very top of the roof where the shingles come together.

Leave the clay cladding to dry completely and paint it black (again).

Mix equal parts of a bright yellow, and white and add in a teeny, tiny bit of purple to make a sandstone colour.

Dab the colour randomly over the stones with a small, dry sponge. Don’t cover the stone completely. You still want some of the black to peak through.

Once the paint dries, lightly dab on browns and greys, until you’re happy with the look.

Fill any large gaps between the stones with moss.

When you’re done with the cladding, it’s time to tackle that cardboard platform and give it a faux wood makeover.

Giving cardboard a faux wood grain

I love using this inexpensive technique to create faux wood. All you need is toilet paper, cardstock and mod Podge.

Working in sections, apply mod Podge to the cardstock.

Tear off a few strips of toilet paper and separate the layers. Scrunch the toilet paper up into a ball for added texture. Unscrunch the paper and place it over the Mod Podge.

Gently move the toilet paper around to create wrinkles and brush on a second coat of Mod Podge.

Repeat until the cardstock is covered. Build up the layers until you’re happy with the look. Just make sure each layer is dry to the touch before adding the next one.

When it’s dry, paint the toilet-papered cardstock black.

To create dimension and depth to the wood, use the dry brush technique to add browns and whites over the black.

Leave to dry before cutting the toilet-papered cardstock into strips.

Glue the strips onto the cardboard platform.

Don’t cover the holes where the chicken legs go.

And keep any extra strips of faux wood to cover the cardboard door.

Adding a door and windowpanes

Just like the roof, there are a few ways to make a door for Baba Yaga’s hut. You can find a polystyrene door tutorial here or use this one if you want a stained glass window fairy door. Since I had a whole bunch of leftover wood strips I used those. Glue the strips to the cardboard door and add curly wire hinges and a door knob.  Tape or glue the door to the hut from the inside.

If you want the door to stand ajar, this tutorial will show you how to repurpose clothespins to make small hidden hinges. For the windowpanes, I thought I’d experiment a little. Scrunch a piece of wax paper into a small, tight ball to create cracks in the waxy layer.

Drizzle black alcohol ink over the flattened paper ….

…. and use a sponge to smoosh the ink into the cracks.

Iron the wax paper and glue or tape it to the inside of Baba Yaga’s hut to make window panes.

Doesn’t it look like webs made by spider toddlers on a sugar high?

Right, so except for a few finishing touches, that’s the hut done.

Finishing Touches

Baba Yaga’s hut is almost ready. It just needs some lights, a roof trim, skull support beams, and a little work to bulk up the platform all of which are optional.

Fitting a light

I may have mentioned earlier that the chimney will hide the battery pack. Using a a skewer or something sharp, poke a hole inside the  chimney where it joins the roof.

Thread the fairy lights through the hole into Baba Yaga’s hut.

Paint the battery pack black so it disappears.

Adding roof trim

To hide wiggly woggly cardboard inner around the roof, I used lace off-cuts.

Paint the trim black with craft paint and leave to dry. My lace was a little wide so I cut it in half first.

Glue the trim to the roof.

With the roof all dollied up in lace, it felt like it needed something creepy to balance or prop it up. And since Baba Yaga eats naughty children, I added two small skulls and twigs to the mix. Drill a hole in the top of the skulls.

Glue a twig inside the hole.

Glue the hut on the platform and use moss to hide any gaps.

And then position the twiggy skulls on the platform and glue them down.

Finishing the platform

If you look at the piccy above the platform looks a little light weight. To bulk it up I used craft sticks. You can put a cardboard frame or border around the platform too.

Paint the craft sticks black and distress them with a wire bristle brush before gluing them all the way around the platform.

Baba Yaga hut…… Done!!! Back to those chicken legs.

Giving the legs goosebumps chicken bumps

I’ve never understood why goosebumps are called goosebumps. But then again, I’ve never seen a goose up close and personal. In Afrikaans, we call those little bumps you get when you’re cold “honedervlies” which literally translates to chicken flesh. And that’s what we’re going to do now – give the chicken legs flesh using foam clay. Roll the clay out into a long, thin strip.

Starting at the toes, wrap the clay strip around the toes. Smooth and form the clay with a little water.

Use a pen (those retractable ones), to make random divots dots bumps all over the clay.

Stick the end of a paintbrush into the clay to create placeholder holes for the toenails.

Add more clay around the leg and use the end of the pen to make bumps up the legs and to hide the seam where the clay joins at the ankle.

Paint the legs a dark brown and use a little of the sandstone colour we mixed earlier to dab it on and highlight the bumps.

Glue feathers around the thigh.

And add toenails made out of clay.

And that’s it.

All that’s left to do is put a little glue on the top of the legs and poke them up through the holes in the platform.

Add some creepy props to enhance the spooky vibe. Think along the lines of fake cobwebs, skeletons, witches’ cauldrons, and other Halloween decor bits. I made a small crate and scattered a few bones inside to make it look like Baba Yaga’s lair. The legs I chopped off after making this RIPped canvas came in very handy 😉

There’s another crate on the other side of the house, with a mortar and pestle on top.

Unlike other witches, Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wielding the pestle like an oar. And just in case her mortar goes in for a service, I added a small broom too.

Tips for displaying Baba Yaga’s Hut

Once your Baba Yaga hut on chicken legs is ready, it’s time to decide where to put it. I would have loved to put it in a dark corner, surrounded by fog machines and dim lighting to create an eerie atmosphere. I don’t have fog machines and what nots so she’s resting on a rustic table and keeping our crow company.

For a slightly haunted ambience, black, scented candles will have to do.

Isn’t the play of light on those chicken legs is just perfect.

You can even add branches or driftwood to create a forest-like setting around the hut. Take a walk in the garden and see what you can find.  As long as you have fun.

Yoh, sorry it was such a looooong tutorial, but I hope there’s enough meat 😉 for you to make your own version.

If you like the idea of making Baba Yaga’s hut on chicken legs, don’t forget to pin the tutorial for later.

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Oh, and if you’re looking for some of the things we used to make Baba Yaga’s house, we’ve got you covered. Disclosure: Clicking on the links below, means we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us make more amazing crafts to share with you 😉

Chicken Legs

Baba Yaga’s Hut and Platform

Setting the Scene

Or if you prefer to read some Baba Yaga stories, then maybe these will appeal.

And as always, wishing you a wonderful, crafty week filled with lots of love. Thank you for popping in for a visit.