PaperArtsy Blog Challenge No. 2: Shiny Stuff

I'm joining in again with PaperArtsy's next challenge

"Shiny Stuff".

Here's what Leandra says on her blog

"it's time to get in touch with your inner magpie! We are exploring metals, mica, beads, wire, jewellery, paint effects, Treasure Gold, in other words, all things shiny, rusty or metallic."

All the details may be found here

along with a YouTube video from Leandra which is what

actually inspired me to join in.

I made a paper sewing fairy called Phoebe (that name

apparently means bright, radiant and shining).

I'll show below with photos and not too many words how I made her.

 

 I used a stamp from Character Constructions

and some shiny plumber's tape which I roughed up a bit.

 I stamped onto card painted with 

Fresco Finish 'Sage' colour and stamped

the bodice part again onto the silver tape and layered it up.

The face is moulded from air dry clay.

 

I made the wings and bobbin feet with more of the silver tape

 stuck onto card and embossed with my Big Shot machine.

I coloured them randomly with a mixture of Viva Precious Metal Colour

and Alcohol Inks.  

 She's looking shiny!  

Next I added the arms with silver brads

and machine stitched the wings on.

With some 0.6 gauge silver coloured jewellery wire, I made

a cage to replicate the bottom of the dress form.

 

 Attached the face and wool hair with E6000 adhesive

and a wire hanging

(a hairbrush wouldn't go amiss!)

   

 Not very shiny at the back, but it's always good (I think) to

see how things are put together.

This current challenge runs for another 15 days so there's

plenty of time to get involved.

Thanks for looking :)

Hello Dolly!

I've made another ten dolls for my Etsy shop

GemstonePaperDolls 

This is the 'Genuine Gemstone Collection'

as each doll is wearing a tiny gem of some sort.

Rosie above for example, is wearing a

Rose Quartz around her neck.

Here's a couple of montages

showing a little snapshot of each doll.

 

 I made the outfits with their particular

gemstone in mind.

Hope you like them and

thanks for looking :) 

Another Garden Goddess

This one is called 'Rose' and she was made much the same as 'Fern' (in previous post below) except she isn't completely covered in Decopatch paper - her neck and arms are painted in a flesh tone and she is wearing a lace shawl and some sparkly jewellery.

I love the voluptuous shape of this template - and must say it pretty much mirrors my own body shape ................ except I have a few layers of fat on top!

Garden Goddess Art Doll

The current challenge on the Flickr Art 'n' Soul group is to make a 'Garden Goddess' using the template by The Enchanted Gallery and to use some embossing on it (either powder or metal).

Here is 'Fern' the Autumn Goddess.
I cut the shape from mountboard, covered it with some Decopatch paper and free hand scribbled some lines to emboss - I didn't want to cover too much of the paper up as it has lovely autumn leaves and ferns on. I glued on a few buttons near the bottom (after removing their shanks) to make the cute little plant pot and flowers.
 

The hair is part of a tassel and it's just the right colour I think. 
The heart shaped sign is actually a button which I've rubbed a little gold metallic cream onto to tone down.   The wording says 'How does your garden grow?'  Quite appropriate for this garden Goddess.
 
Autumn is my favourite season and I really like this doll and can just picture her in a pot plant - or hanging up in my dining room - maybe I'll forget to enter her into the challenge!!  As she was so quick and easy to do though I think I'll make another to keep for myself.

Meet 'Fritzi' the Festive Fairy

Whilst blog hopping recently I came across this intro  'Do you like a challenge? Do you like Art Dolls?  Well you have come to the right place.....'  Where is this place you ask, Artist Trading Dollz Challenge Blog created by Linda B - her own dolls are truly amazing and if you like art dolls do go have a look and a drool over some of hers. 

The first challenge was to create a 'Festive' doll she said 'think parties, celebrations, happy times, lots of colour and sparkle'.

My doll 'Fritzi' is from Germany and over Christmas went to a fancy dress ball as a 'Festive Fairy'!  Her crown and outer wings are made from some fabric leaves which are absolutely dripping with silver glitter.  The rest of her clothes are an assortment of fabrics.  She just couldn't get her hair right on the day so wore a glitzy, red sequined wig instead.

Lovely as the silver glitter is, it does unfortuntately get everywhere - much to my hubby's amusement!  Over the last few days he's gleefully informed me that I had a silver moustache and a silver neck!  I had to laugh though when after I gave him some sandwiches he asked what the glitter was actually made of - is it glass?  His sandwich was liberally covered in the stuff and he was actually contemplating eating it!!   What does this say about me?  No, don't answer please. LOL.  I didn't do it on purpose to get my own back - honest!!  I will say though that I did take the sandwiches off him and made some fresh, glitter free ones!  Incidentially, what is glitter made of? LOL

The festive fairy has a lot to answer for!

Girl With A Heart - Paper Doll

This one is a bit different from my usual dolls as I've made her clothes (the sleeves and the skirt) with old book text coloured, then rubber stamped with ink.  I thought the book text was applicable as she's gone to Cindy to wish her a happy birthday and Cindy does like her books methinks!  The wings are a sandwich of acetate and tissue paper made in the same way as I did some Christmas baubles - well actually I made them from the leftovers of the baubles - waste not, want not - and they sort of determined the whole colour scheme.

The heart she is holding is made from metal and is left over from some Christmas ATCs I made recently - oh no, I don't throw anything away!

Anyway, I know that Cindy now has the doll so here she is!

I'd just like to take the opportunity of thanking those of you who leave some lovely comments here (and on Flickr) on my little creations - it means so much!  Thank you!!

 

'Elfie' Paper Art Doll

'Elfie' is an old English girl's name meaning 'elf' or 'magical counsel' and I think it suits this paper doll perfectly.  She's a little woodland elf!

I made her dress from some fibres from a ball of wool (well, it's polyester really) and I didn't knit it, just stuck it on.  Other parts of her dress and her booties are made from some silky fabric in a co-ordinating colour.

I love her hair - probably because I had mine chopped off today - and mine's dark brown (with a nice grey parting!!!!)  The doll's hair is from a cone of something or other - it's very fine and silky.

Her overall costume looks a bit like she's in a Panto - girlfriend for Jack and the Beanstalk maybe?  Well, at least that's seasonal - lol.

Masquerade Paper Doll

This is a paper doll for a swap entitled 'Masquerade Ball' on the Yahoo group Fantastic Flat Paper Dolls.  As the doll is going to a ball I thought a long gown was in order, so for once, the legs are covered up (although you can still see them through the lace insert of the skirt!). 

Her mask is painted onto her moulded clay face and that cone on top of her head is supposed to be an 'up do' hairstyle - It's a card triangle shape covered with some embroidery thread and hightlighted with Stickles and seed beads. I cut her fringe a little too short too (it's lucky I'm not an hairdreser!!)

The curly strings are meant to be hanging from the mask and they too are embroidery thread coated with the paint and curled around a thin stick while still wet.

The gown is from oddments of lace, silk, netting and plastraw.  I rubber stamped some stockings on the legs with one of Tim Holtz's texture stamps and her sparkly shoes are more of Ranger's Stickles.

So all she needs now is a partner to accompany her to the ball!

Miss Halloween 2009

This month's theme on the Art Raffle is 'Black and Orange' (although it doesn't necessarily have to be Halloween related).

As my creative brain doesn't stretch very far I decided to make ... yes, another paper doll!  She turned out to be something of an exhibitionist with her tight bright orange bodice, pumpkin button bra and black lacy tutu with matching cloak.

Her hair and bodice are Plastraw (like raffia but stronger), her crown is a glittered up plastic embellishment and her stripey socks are coloured in with Marvy LePlume markers.

She looks like a winner to me - so I've crowned her 'Miss Halloween 2009' ........ what's that you say .... 'Smashing Pumpkins' ?   No, I've never been into their music ..... sorry, I couldn't resist adding that!

Any excuse to make another paper doll!

Oh yes, and I just had to make one for my niece's forthcoming birthday card. The doll is attached to the card by the shoulder brads so can be detached for playing with! She is complete with her own little shoulder bag too.

Altered Coaster Book

This month's challenge on the GAS (Group for Altered Art Swaps) over on Flickr is to create an altered coaster book. Viv who set this theme stipulated that 'Your 'book' may be on any theme you wish but somewhere it must include a stamp and some texture and must be made of at least 2 coasters.( i.e 4 sides)'

I used three identical coasters (cardboard beer mats) which had an unusual shape and cut a square aperture in the first two. I decided to use a clay face (for a change!!!) which I had already painted and was waiting to be used. The face I mounted on the last coaster and with the apertures it can be seen even when the book is closed.

I had trouble deciding on a theme and after looking through my rubber stamps, decided to go with Paris / France. There is a mixture of old and new France in the book though - 'pages' 2 and 3 have a modern street map on and pages 4 and 5 include some vintage French adverts. I couldn't quite decide what the face had to do with my theme - maybe her hairstyle is a chic Parisian bob - or maybe not!

The texture is on the front cover. I built up around the aperture with some Golden Soft Gel and then a crackle glaze over the top of the whole cover. A slight twist on the French flag, I used an old gold colour instead of white to give a more vintage feel and a couple of old French coins. As I said it's a bit of an old/new mixture, but hope that it'll do.

ATC - Dolls

These two dolls (Purple Polly and Orange Olive) are on a smaller scale to the others I’ve made - so they can fit onto an ATC. Well that’s what's supposed to happen but due to a … design fault shall I call it … Polly’s legs can’t quite make it pass her skirt! Just as well really in view of the lack of any underwear!!

I found some wired ribbon in my stash and it’s ideal to use for skirts since it can be manipulated into folds without the need for any stitching! I did stitch Olive’s skirt at the top onto her body and her legs are free to move so she fits nicely onto the ATC. With Polly however, I glued her skirt at the sides so therefore restricting her movement. Oh well, I’ll know for the next time (if I remember that is!)

For the faces on these two I used only chalks and watercolour pencils for the features (no pens) and the effect is much more subtle - I think I prefer that - for now anyway.

'Princess Pewter' Paper Doll

Another paper doll. This one I tried to give a metallic look to so used a silver acrylic paint for the skin. Her dress is card covered in silver aluminium tape, embossed and coloured with alcohol inks. She also has some nice dangly jewellery too! Almost forgot to mention her head piece (or crown as she is a princess) it's just a fragment of a CD cut into strips.

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!

Meet Goth Moth!

Another button fairy! This one is the sister to 'Yellow Wings' - see below. Her wings are made from card with some stuck on machine knitting (a scrap from my Mum!). Her face has been moulded from air dried clay then painted and inked. She wasn't going to be a 'goth' originally, but I sprayed on the gloss finish a little too early and all her make up smudged - doh! Don't you just hate it when that happens. So a goth she is, still I'm sure until they both fly to their new homes, 'Yellow Wings' will keep her in order - lol.

Button Fairy

Meet 'Yellow Wings' she is a button fairy and my entry for this month's challenge on MAMMA's Monthly Art Doll (MAD) swap. MAMMA (Margaret) has a tutorial on her blog showing how to make a fairy.

My fairy has an air dried moulded clay face which I painted and made up. She has pink fibres for her hair, buttons for her body of course, and her wings are card with some bobbly cotton yarn glued onto. She can hang up by means of a beaded hoop.

I like this little fairy and she will be hard to part with, but at least I know I'll be receiving in return a wonderful creation as everyone's work on the group is fab!