Decorated Storage Jar

Hi guys, Shirley here with a decorated storage jar.  The plain empty jar was sitting unloved on a shelf in the garage so I thought I'd give it a makeover.

I started by prising off the plastic stopper on the lid, then brushed some Mod Podge on the insides and sprinkled in some Frosted Lake Mica Powder by Finnabair, replaced the stopper and gave it a good shake to distribute the powder.

Next, I pasted the outside of the jar with Mod Podge and adhered white tissue paper to provide a base for the next layer, then got my stamps ready.

Using the Finnabair Lace & Doily stamp set and Wire Net stamp, and Ranger Archival Ink in black, I covered a half-sheet of tissue paper in stamped images, leaving space between so that I could rip them apart.  You need to protect your work surface when stamping through tissue, because the ink will soak through.

I tore up the tissue then adhered it over the base layer,

then raided my stash of beads, ribbons and embellishments to pretty it up, mixed more Frosted Lake mica powder with gum arabic and water and painted around the shoulder and lower portion of the jar, and added some Frosted mica flakes around the base.  I added a light brushing of Mod Podge onto the coin charm then a dusting of Pale Silver mica powder.

Pretty, don't you think?  Think I'll have another look in the garage, see what I can find ....

ASOI products used:

Finnabair Mica Powder - Pale Silver
Finnabair Mica Powder - Frosted Lake
Finnabair Mica Flakes - Frosted
Finnabair stamps - Lace & Doily
Finnabair Stamps - Wire Net
Ranger Archival Ink - jet black
Mod Podge

Butterfly Doll

Hello!

When is an Art Doll not an Art Doll?..... um.... when it's a butterfly attached to a canvas on legs?!

My project today is a variation on a theme...yes it's a doll, but this one isn't a free standing piece by itself, it's an embellishment..

I'll show you how I made her...

The three main bits are made from clay. As I wanted holes through them, I poked a bit of wire through in the appropriate places! 

The clay then got painted and stamped a little...

The easiest way to get a detailed design on a curved surface is to use stamped tissue paper. I stamped everything, then made sure the ink was dry...

(I stamped two faces as I wasn't sure at this point which one I was going to use!)

The stamped images were then cut out and glued onto the clay using Mod Podge..

It's really useful having holes in the clay, as the wire can be pushed through again and rested on something whilst the Mod Podge dries!

Once the Mod Podge has dried, we can start to assemble the doll.

You'll need lots of craft wire for this! Cut two pieces, then thread both through the horizontal hole...

Make spirals at the ends of the wire (you can always fiddle about at the end and make these smaller or larger if you need to)

 Next, make a loop at one end of a long strand...

Thread on the large 'body'..

Thread on the 'head'

Tightly coil the remaining wire around and around the top of the head, both creating a design feature and securing the head and body of your doll...

I wrapped more wire around her neck...

Now, adding on the 'bead' at the bottom requires a bit of jewellery making technique... but really, just practice making loops and wrapping wire around things. We're not making jewellery, so it doesn't matter if it's not perfect!

Thread a bit of wire through the hole in the bead, and bend like so...

Make sure one 'tail' is a lot longer than the other at this point. Make a loop with the shorter tail, and join it onto the loop under the body...

Wrap both ends loads of times around the wire and the top of the bead. Messy is good!

Now for the wings! Stamp the Stampotique wings twice, once onto acetate, and once onto painted cardstock...

Cut out, bend the acetate then glue together....

Once the glue is dry, glue on the clay body...

Now the butterfly doll is finished, it can be attached to whatever you fancy!

I painted a canvas, stamped it with dots (Darkroom Door) and glued the doll to the front..

The doll gives a fabulous 3D look to your work..

I used painted spools as legs..

and added thick wire as a hanger. More thin craft wire was wrapped around to echo the wire elsewhere on the piece, and a cut out word added...

Phew...! Hope you like her!

Trish xxxx

Art Doll part 3 (only 3?!!)

Hello!
This is kind of a follow on project to the first Art Doll tutorial I shared this summer (THIS one!)
Todays Art Doll looks like this....

Oh yes...getting weirder..... :)
One of my step by step pictures for the first doll looked like this:

Which gave me an idea for a shape.....and todays doll was born!
My 'peculiar genius' doll is much smaller than the hanging doll of a few weeks ago, I wanted the face to fill the entire head part this time....

The shape is basically the same though, with the crown part included in the initial chipboard piece. As before, I painted the chipboard, stuck book pages to it, then added the face by gluing on stamped tissue. Doodled lines and painty dots to finish it off.
The body is also roughly the same shape as before...

Again, covered  with book pages and stamped tissue. This time, I stamped this fab dotty image by Stampotique onto the tissue to give the body a nice design. Painty dots and doodled lines again, then the body was finished off by the heart embellishment...

This is the smallest pendant from the Prima Mechanicals range, turned over, painted white with a punched out heart stuck to it!
Adding the head to the body requires a neck, of course! This neck will be visible, so I painted stripes on it....

No legs this time, I've used chipboard circles. I think they look a little wheel like....

I edged them with blue paint, and carried on with the dots/doodling theme! I always add a phrase or title to my work, this time I've added it to one of the 'wheels'....

The Art Doll is basically a flat item, so if we want it to stand up, we need to add things to the back! Even if you have no intention of ever making jewellery, I would thoroughly recommend large cube beads as a stash essential.... they are brilliant for jobs like this!

Apologies for the unsightly glue picture!!
So.... Art Doll part three!

Hope you like her!
See you soon,
Trish xxxxxx

'Oh Joy' : An Art Doll tutorial!

Hello!
I'm back after a little break, all ready and raring to go with lots of step by step tutorials! The first one today is an art doll technique. I love these, and there are so many ways of creating them that this might not be the last this summer!  This one is a doll hanger..

 I'll show you some close ups of the finished piece at the end so you can see more detail!
To start, sketch out the head and body on a scrap of chipboard...

No drawing skill needed! Cut them out...

(Then I nearly got distracted as that pic, with the head in that position, gave me another idea! One to save for another day!!!) I covered the chipboard with book pages..

French text, for a change! I did just a little painty decoration of the head and body...

I left the crown part free of paint, as you can see. At this point I remembered I needed legs..... so, back out with the pencil and chipboard!

Cut out, book text and decorate..... I added stripes and red shoes...

Now the legs are done, finish off the body...

Doodling, a cut out word and a red heart. The head needs a face, so stamp on onto tissue using [permanent ink...

Don't worry if its not perfect, we're going to cut bits off! Glue the tissue to the head shape using Mod Podge both under and over the tissue. Even if  the tissue does not cover the whole head shape, I would always add that top layer of Podge over everything. That way the finish is even across the whole shape...

Once dry, the Mod Podge will disappear....

I've doodled a bit around the edges, and added red dots!
The last thing we need to make are her wings. Create a painty background on a scrap of card..

Stamp with a butterfly stamp....

Then cut out...

I have separated the wings as my body was just a little too wide for the butterfly to be used uncut- the wings didn't stick out enough!
Now we're ready to assemble!
The hanger doubles up as the Art Dolls arms... they look almost ballerina-like, raised above her head! The arms are thick wire, and just hot glued to the back of the body...

The wings are then glued behind the arms...

The head needs to be stable, but I wanted to add it at a jaunty angle, so a neck is a good idea! The neck is a bit of bamboo skewer covered in a book page...

The head can then be glued however you wish...

Whilst the head needs to be static, I wanted the legs to have movement. I glued a loop of wire to the body...

Another loop of wire was glued to the legs. This loop needs to be at a 90 degree angle to the loop you already glued to the body. Snip a bit out of the loop on the legs so that it forms a hook.......

Simply hook the legs onto the body...

All done!

So, a simple, painty body...

Topped off with a quirky head....

And every Art Doll needs red glitter shoes...

Hope you like her...I'll be back with another tutorial soon!
Trish xxxx