African Style Figure

Another make shift sculpture using a wooden meat hammer from Wilkos and a dolls head and bust from the pound shop.

Padded out with tinfoil and covered in masking tape, head is painted with acrylic paint.

To get a feel of what it's going to look like and how much fabric I need, I always dress the sculpture roughly how I want it to look.

I used bronze Powertex and wrapped the t-shirt fabric all the way round to the base.

 Once completely dry I added gold pigment to bring out the textures.

I felt she needed something else as she looked a bit too plain and I also needed to sort out the base. So again, I draped some fabric over her to get the look I was after.

Once the fabric was wet with the Powertex it became heavier and so didn't drape as it did above, but I was still happy with the way it looked.

Then I did the hat in ivory. She needs some drying time now.

Was hoping to get a photo outside today in the sun, but it's raining again! So, here she is after a night in the airing cupboard, so she is fairly dried out, but will dry out even more over the next couple of weeks. I have decided not to give her robe any pigment colour so it doesn't clash with the gold on the fabric of the first layer.

I have to say that I'm really pleased with the way she has turned out.

As you will know by now from all my other posts this week, PaperArtsy have a challenge theme of liquid sculpting medium.

***Edited***

The sun has popped out and enabled me to get a half decent photo.

Bottle Sleeve

I made a quick bottle sleeve with some leftover fabric, lace and red powertex.

Once dry, I added silver treasure gold.

Close up of the face and 3d sand balls, which are extremely fiddly!!

Paperartsy are asking to see our makes using liquid sculpting medium for their challenge this week.

Straddling a Wall

So what happened to the other little man???

He was wrapped in black Powertex along with the previous one.

But before he was stuck anywhere, I gave him a coat of gold pigment to bring out the textures.

Painted a piece of polystyrene to sit him on.

I don't know why the colours look so defined on the photo as in real life they blend much more!!

And this is the other side which has only had one coat of paint.

After seeing the pickies I decided the wall needed something else, so I added more colours, this time I took it outside to photograph.

I'm entering into the PaperArtsy challenge again with this one.

Mini Man on a Ball

Whilst sat in front of the tv I made a couple of mini armatures with wire, tinfoil and masking tape.

I wanted him to sit on top of a ball so I bound him in pieces from an old dress and wrapped t-shirt yarn round a polystyrene ball. The easiest way to do this is also cover the ball in powertex. Not a very good photo I know, but they were drying.

Here is the following day and he is totally dry. As you can see I bent him into shape on purpose so he would dry like this.

And the ball is completely dry now too and you can see that the t-shirt yarn stayed in place too.

I painted the ball in various colours of paint until I was happy with the end result, but basically it went, light blue, grey and then a stone colour dry brushed over the top.

You can see the different colours a bit better here and as you can also see, it's very easy to cover the powertex with paint.

I was very lucky in a way as I was just positioning him on the ball to see if he required any additional bending and the doorbell rang. When I went back to him, he had stuck to the wet paint and become a permanent fixture! I then made him a little book with a denim cover and a stand so the ball wouldn't roll away.

Having used the Powertex again, this is definitely my go to product.

PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium.

***Edited**

Another photo, this time taken in the lovely sunshine.

Love is in the air....

I created this shadow box from the inner of the box of Green and Blacks chocolates that Martin got for Christmas. No we haven't only just finished them, I was waiting for the right thing to come along to fill it with, so here it is. Background is a piece of fabric. Sides have been covered in washi tape. A couple of the fabric butterflies have been overlaid with die cut, stamped and embossed ones. The Eiffel Tower and the heart are die cut from burlap which has been given a coat of Americana fabric stiffener. 

PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium.

More Experimenting

Clay heads from a mold, but I needed to make them 3d so added a piece of a polystyrene ball to the back.

Again I wanted to test the Americana Fabric Stiffener to see how stiff it would go. Stuck the head on a wooden skewer and blue tacked it in the empty wkd bottle.

As you can see, I did two. I used a cotton muslin to cover both bottles. It's pretty light weight and see through as you can see the labels from the bottle through the fabric.

Once completely dry (24+ hours) I carefully pulled the bottles out.

And I'm happy to say that they both stood up independently just from the stiffness of the fabric.

Close up of the bottom of the fabric which you can clearly see through.

As you probably know by now, PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium for their challenge this week.

A Couple of Cards

I die cut these hearts from denim fabric and a heavy weight burlap.

Next they were subjected to a heavy coat of Americana fabric stiffener, in fact, I think I put a bit too much on as they took ages to dry but it was the first time I'd used this product. 

I mounted them on top of each other and then onto cards, which was relatively easy to do as they were stiff and flat. I doodled on the kraft card in white pen and I machine stitched on the white one.

Paperartsy have a challenge theme of liquid sculpting medium.

Poppies

I don't have any photos of the first stages, but basically what I did was to cut out rough circles in red fabric and covered them with Americana Fabric Stiffener which is transparent. I then draped each one over a little pot and scrunched the edges. This is them after they have dried. I also coated some string too.

I painted some tiny polystyrene balls with black shimmer dazzling metallic paint.

I wanted a canvas but didn't have one the right shape, but I did manage to find a box that one of Martins ski tops came in. I painted it with deep turquoise and apple green multi surface paint.

Once the balls were dry I glued them into clumps.

And finally my finished piece. I'm hoping you can see poppies.

All products are from the DecoArt range. Stamps are PA mini script and SN stamp set.

PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium.

Beer Mat Mini Book

I was in need of a messy play so I added all sorts of textures to these beer mats. Texture sand paste mixed with ultra matte medium (this just helps the sand paste stick better), fibre paste, modelling paste with micro beads mixed in and modelling paste using a pallet knife to make peaks.

I painted them with various DecoArt products from the media range until I achieved the look I wanted for each piece. I stamped in everlasting chalky paint to lighten them up a bit and give a bit of contrast, added a few die cut pieces and people images. Once finished I added the idea-olog words and then randomly added gold interference paint and wow, this stuff is fab, you can't see it until it dries.

Close up of the interference gold over the rust effect.

I mounted each mat onto a piece of white paper that I'd painted with a mix of espresso and black dazzling metallics and scrunched to make into a mini book.

Front cover and inside.

Front and back covers.

Close up of three of the pages.

Close up of the texture and gold interference.

All products are from the DecoArt range.

Crayons

This piece of card has had everything thrown at it. I started off trying out my new to me Target water soluble crayons and Crayola Twist Stix and I was going to throw it away. Instead I gave the whole page a thin coat of neon orange acrylic paint. Next I watered down a purple and painted that on. Once dry I added black media mist, followed by magenta and finally white. This made it quite pale, so to bring it back to life I stuck a couple of fingers in the pot of turquoise Dylusions, smeared it around a bit and then did exactly the same with the lime. I also wanted to try some of the new wooden stamps I brought back, so I inked them up in black stazon and randomly stamped. Lastly I added stencilling with white chalky paint. I told you I'd thrown everything at it.

I cut the A4 card into 6, decided which way up I wanted them and mounted them onto a small card. Next I went in with black and white sharpie pens and added lines and doodles.

I added a happy birthday sentiment to half of them, the other half I've left blank to add to when I need to.

The finished cards measure 4" x 4".