Presents for the Teachers

As the end of the school year approaches the question of what gift to give to the teacher arises. I volunteered to make some presents for my niece and nephew for their teachers and was told they needed five presents in total - as each class has teaching assistants as well as the main school teacher.

I wanted to make something that would be useful and pretty at the same time. After a search on the internet I found just the thing - a Post It Note Holder. Those little sticky note pads always come in useful and to put them in a pretty holder was ideal. I found a video tutorial on Stampin' Academy with Chic'n Scratch which was very easy to follow and also featured the 'Bind It All' machine. I purchased one of these machines many months ago and hadn't touched it so I finally plucked up the courage to use it, and it was so simple I don't know what I was worried about!

For the Post It Note Holders, instead of using designer scrapbook paper, I used some tissue paper I had left over from the 'Babywipe Background' technique as described in the posting on 2 May 2009. Basically, it is tissue paper with a few colours of Brusho paint dropped onto - the colours merge together and they have a wonderful intensity. The tissue paper was adhered to the card with gel medium. For the inside I used old pages of sheet music again coloured with some Brusho paint. On the front cover, a vintage child image, some text and a flower just about completed them. Very easy to do and I'm pleased with how they look.

Wonder if I'll get a gold star!

No Sew Fabric Doll No.2

Following on from the post below, I remembered a wooden button I had with a tribal face etched on (purchased from Button-It)and decided to make a totally different type of doll to my usual 'pretty' ones. I used scrim and cotton fibres and lots of little wooden beads to complete the look of this little warrior who is called 'Tribal Tau' I Googled some African boy's names and the meaning of Tau is 'lion' and as he looked a bit wild with his crazy mane of hair, it seemed to fit!

Although this is supposed to be a 'no sew' doll, I did actually use random little stitches here and there to attach the strips of fabric to the wadding core, instead of wire.

No Sew Fabric Doll

Over at MAD MAMMA's on Flickr the theme for this month's art doll is a 'no sew' one using the tutorial given here.

Here's my doll she's another mermaid called 'Milly'. She was quite quick and easy to make really despite my initial worries!

Chloe's Old Shoes

Another Ballerina

My eight year old niece Chloe, had worn out her favourite shoes - her toes were almost popping out the front of them! She is a typical girly girl and loves everything pink and glittery.

Well, just as they were headed for the dustbin I saved them!! I couldn't see all that lovely sparkly pink material go to waste now could I (I suppose I'm a bit of girly 'girl' myself.

In next to no time at all another little ballerina doll was born. Her tights are from the lining of the shoes, and her bodice the outer fabric - it looks lovely and shimmering in the light! The ballerina's shoes are two of the gemstones from the original shoes too.

I wonder if Chloe will recognise the fabrics when I give her the doll this weekend?

An ATC

The above ATC is my entry for the current theme on MAMMA. The current theme is 'The Jumble Sale' and is detailed here by Nancy who is currently looking after the group and came up with the great, challenging theme.
The background to my ATC is created by layering random pieces of masking tape then painting over the top with a few different colours of acrylic, then wiping off part of it before dry. This is a technique described by Claudine Hellmuth in one of her wonderful books.
The fabric part of my ATC is actually a piece of the inner lining from Chloe's old shoes (it was underneath the pink satiny fabric). It was a fine mesh (as Hardy once said to Laurel!!) and ideal for applying an image transfer onto (with Golden's Regular Gel (Matte) medium. The other required elements - triangle are the lace, and metal, the key.

Finally, my thoughts are with our dearest Margaret (MAMMA)at this very sad time as her beloved husband Ernie passed away earlier this week. I wish you all the love and strength to get through this terrible time Margaret xxxx

Clay Faces - again!

Following on from yesterday's post here's a couple more photos of my latest dolls. The close up of the face is one where I used watercolour pencils to outline the eyes - following the step by step guide below - and no smudges!!!

Clay Faces - how I do mine.

I've had a bit of trouble lately with painting my little clay faces so decided I would blog about them as much to help me (as a memory aid) as for anyone else who may be interested.

My last few attempts have failed at the last step - when I sprayed a little finishing gloss on them everything smudged which is so disappointing. I have been using Sharpie pens for the detail and it seems the ink in those pens reacted adversely with the finishing gloss.

So having had a little play around this is a Step by step guide and seems to work fine:

1. Paint the whole face with skin coloured acrylic paint and let dry
2. Apply chalk blusher to forehead, cheeks and chin
3. Outline the eyes - using a watercolour pencil
4. Paint the whole of the inside of the eyes with white acrylic and let dry
5. With watercolour pencil, draw in the inner eye
6. Paint the eye colour in the whole of the inner eye section and let dry
7. Paint or pencil in the black part of the eye and let dry
8. Dot a spot of white paint for the light in the eyes and let dry
9. Pencil in the eyebrows
10. Spray a light spritz of the finishing gloss - only a very light spray else it'll smudge and be ruined.

The finishing gloss I use is called 'Porcelain Gloss' and is from Sandra Lee's 'Floral Kraft' range. It is really meant for dried or silk flowers but works fine on the clay (unless using Sharpie pens as mentioned above!)

I have in the past used Sakura Glaze pens for the features and they have been fine, although when I tried recently, they too smudged! I think I need to let them dry completely before spraying on the finishing gloss - and then make sure to spray only one light spritz.

The difference in using watercolour pencils and Sakura pens may be seen in the photos above (from the top, the first picture shows pencil finish and the second picture, the Sakura Pen finish). The pencils give a much finer finish than the pens - but I think both work equally as well. Once the heads have the hair applied, the details of the face don't show up so much anyway.

I'm off now, to make some more - they are something I never tire of!

Pretty Ballerina - Paper Doll

This month's theme over on the Yahoo group Fantastic Flat Paperdolls is 'Ballet' and I made this pretty ballerina for my swap partner. Hope she'll like it!