Showing posts with label Papier-mâché. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Papier-mâché. Show all posts

Monday, April 11, 2011

Make a 19th-Century-Inspired Ornament

 Here's a really wonderful tutorial for making paper mache ornaments for this holiday season.  I know it's early.  Some would say "too early for Christmas", but I believe that the sooner you begin your preparations, the better the holiday turns out for you.  I love to sit back during November and December and watch everyone else fighting the crowds and buying items that no one really wants just to have something.

I feel the same way about Christmas crafts.  As my current Easter project has proven, sometimes crafting takes way more time than you think.  If making Christmas decorations is your thing, it may pay to start early, even "too early" so you can get it all done.

Below is a great tutorial from Better Homes and Gardens.  Enjoy!
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Modeled after decorations in turn-of-the-19th-century style, these papier-mache ornaments spread good cheer whether they're hung from your tree or positioned around the house.
snowman ornaments
What You Need
  • Cookie sheet
  • Parchment paper
  • Celluclay instant papier-mache
  • White glue
  • 3-inch-diameter green plastic-foam ball (body)
  • Resealable plastic bag
  • Thin palette knife
  • Thin wire
  • Acrylic paints: antique white, brown, black, pink, and silver
  • Brush-on water-base clear finish
  • Mica flakes
  • Crafts glue
  • Silver glass glitter
  • Pink tinsel garland
How to Make It
  1. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Mix a few handfuls of instant papier-mache with warm water, following the manufacturer's instructions. It's best to mix small batches of dry papier-mache and keep the mixture in a resealable plastic bag while you work. Knead the mixture with your hands until it's a smooth, workable consistency. Keep a small bowl of water handy to dip your fingers in as you form the snowman on the cookie sheet.
  3. Apply a thin coat of white glue around the foam ball before coating it with the wet mixture. Note: The mixture adheres better if you use the glue.
  4. Apply a generous layer of the mixture over the entire ball for the body, smoothing out bumps and ridges with your hands. The finished ball should be about 3 1/2 inches in diameter.
  5. Place the wet ball on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Gently press down on the body, creating a flat bottom so the snowman will sit upright.
  6. Complete the paper-mache sculpting as follows: Roll a 1-3/4-inch ball of mixture for the head. Set the ball on the top of the body, gently smoothing the ball into the body at the neck area. Insert a toothpick through the center of the head to secure it to the body.
  7. Roll tiny balls of the mixture for the nose and cheeks. Press the balls onto the face. Use a palette knife to smooth the features and a toothpick to shape the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth.
  8. Shape a small column of the mixture for the hat and attach it to the top of the head. Smooth the edges into the ball. Cut a 3-inch length of wire and fold it in half to create a loop. Twist the ends together. Insert the twisted end into the top of the hat. Smooth the mixture around the base of the loop.
  9. Place the cookie sheet with the snowman bauble in an oven set at a low temperature and bake for at least 2 hours or until hardened. Remove the snowman from the oven and let sit on the sheet until cool. Lightly sand the figure until the surface is smooth.
  10. Paint the head antique white. Paint the cheeks and nose pink. Use antique white and pink to paint stripes around the body and to add words, dotted borders, and stars. Paint the hat and wire loop silver. Use black for the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth. When the paint is dry, create an aged patina by mixing a small amount of brown paint with water; apply this mixture to the figure.
  11. When the paint is completely dry, brush clear finish on the areas that you want to sparkle. Immediately sprinkle mica flakes over the wet finish. Allow to dry and then brush off the excess mica flakes. Apply bands of glue around the snowman's body; immediately sprinkle glass glitter over the glue. Add glass glitter to the hat in the same way. Apply a band of glue around the neck and press a length of tinsel garland into the glue.
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Friday, October 15, 2010

Christmas Piñatas

Here's a quick and inexpensive tutorial for making Christmas pinatas.  Make several and decorate the tree with gifts, or make a group to give as gifts to friends and acquaintances.  These look simple and easy, so you have time to make plenty.  This also looks like a fun craft to make with the kids!

This was discovered on AllCrafts.com.


Alison Pinata 01
I have been wanting to make little papier-mâché Piñatas for such a long time after seeing them on Not Martha, and Christmas seems like the perfect time to make these little balls filled with sweets or toys. They are easy to make with young ones, and fun to find fillings for. Children will enjoy pulling them apart and seeing what’s inside, and everyone will enjoy making them and seeing them hung up around fireplaces, on trees, or clustered on a door or shelf.
With a simple flour and water paste* mixed to a smooth gloopy consistency and papier-mâché strips of tissue paper around semi blown up balloons of about 10-15cm diameter.
Alison Pinata 02
Leave a gap around the top as your opening – enough to get goodies inside.
Alison Pinata 03
Leave to dry till the case is hard, and then deflate the balloon by pricking it or cutting it with scissors (it won’t pop, but will let air out slowly as it removes itself from the inside of the papier-mâché case).
Alison Pinata 04
Once you have the empty shell, you can fill with whatever you like – small bags of sweets, toys, biscuits, glitter or cut out pieces of paper, small puzzles to put together, or even write out your own jokes to tell.
Alison Pinata 04
Then take another piece of tissue paper and a length of ribbon and seal the opening with more flour/water paste.
Alison Pinata 05
Have fun decorating! Finally add a small tag to the ribbon which says ‘Pull Me’ to help open.
Alison Pinata 06
Pull open, and enjoy!
* For those with gluten or wheat allergies, the following alternatives to wheat flour can be used: Tapioca flour, rice flour. Experiment with other flours to see if they work, or alternatively use a white paste with PVA craft glue watered down, however I tried here to limit the amounts of glue being used in the whole project. You may want to add some salt to the paste to prevent mould as well.
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