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.

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!

Mermaid Paper Doll

Isn't she lovely - well, I think so, especially her wild hair! Being underwater most of the time plays havoc with your hair so I must recommend a good conditioner - lol!

I've joined a new Yahoo group called Fantastic Flat Paper Dolls and this month's theme is 'Mermaids'. Well, I've never made a mermaid before but really enjoyed making the tail! The base is two layers of card (the back is covered with a scrapbook paper) and on the tail I used some self adhesive silver tape (I think it's what electrican's use, but for what I don't know!). I embossed it free hand to make a scaley effect then coloured it with a few different alcohol inks. I had trouble finding a top for her. I wanted her to have a bikini top but couldn't find anything suitable (much like me when I'm getting dressed these days - lol) In the end I used some more of the silver foil and made her a little triangular shaped top. Her face is moulded for air dry clay and coloured with pens and chalks and her hair is some gorgeous fibres which are incredibly soft and fluffy.

She is jointed at the arms and under the belly button. I think I'll have to make another one to keep for myself so I can play with the hair all day! Help someone.....please!!!!!!!!! LOL

Altered Slide Mailer

This is a slide mailer I altered and sent as a gift for Cindy on her birthday and now I know she's received it, I can safely show it.

Not being particularly imaginative, I always struggle as to how to decorate these mailers and deliberated on this over several days!!! In the end I kept it simple. I painted the front and back with block colours of acrylic paint in pastel colours and painted the torso over the top on the front. I made a head moulded from air dried clay and 'made up' the face with Sakura Pens and pencils, and gave her some hair which was supposed to resemble a 1960s style bob but that didn't quite work! For the inside I acrylic painted in pale green and pink and in the alcove painted in the rest of the girl's body - in black and white to give some contrast. I added some beads under the glass too. I made a bit of a mess of the inside when I glued in the glass so it had to be sanded away and re-done. I think I need some more practice with these.

For the back I added a tape transfer of some words which I have on a rubber stamp - they say "Don't try the cake, go for the icing, Happy Birthday". The words are a quote from 'Liam Holland, aged 8'. I bought the rubber stamp from HobbyCraft and there is a whole series of them by Inkadinkado - so funny.

I finished the mailer off by adding some beads and fibres, again in black and white. I was pleased with the finished article and glad that Cindy liked it too.

'Girl Talk'

I've made another journal page for Astrid's Round Robin challenge in advance for the same reason as 'My Fair Lady' below.

This page is for Heidi. The background is a mixture of acrylic paints, metallic rub ons and some gloss finish. There is quite a bit of shine to it so unfortunately it hasn't photographed very well. The Style Stones have rub on words on them - all linking to the 'Can We Talk' rub on in the background. I coloured them with metallic rub ons and finished with some of Anita's 3-D Clear Gloss Finish. They were all linked together with some black beads.

As there was a bit of a gossip theme going on I thought some girlies should be present! The heads are moulded from air dried clay and coloured with metallic rub ons. Their eyes are sparkling with some of Ranger's Stickles (or maybe just because they are enjoying their good old gossip!!)

As Heidi had mentioned that she didn't want a particular theme and that 'anything goes' I shall send the page off to her before waiting to see her own page.