Sixty-Eight Days Till Spring!

Hi!
This is my first project as a designer for Creative Paperclay®.  I am looking forward to showing you all the fun projects you can make with Paperclay, along with some tricks and techniques that will help your creativity soar!

I am so ready for spring to come! 

 Here is a little bit of early spring that I created for my studio.

Supplies

Creative Paperclay® modeling material
Delight™ air dry modeling compound
Acrylic paint pen (white, purple, black)
American multi-surface paint (iris, cerulean blue, cobalt teal, sprout green, ebony)
Gesso
Re-purposed tissue covered foam ball
Re-used Fabric covered cardboard bird
Thin cardboard or cardstock for bow
Dowel
Sm clay pot
Florist foam
Yellow glass head pins
Punched paper flowers
22 gauge cloth stem wire
Excelsior (chestnut brown) 
Weld bond glue
Hot glue

Let's get started

I started out painting my clay pot and dowel and set them aside to dry.

 

  Next I detached the wings of the bird. I covered the body with Creative Paperclay® in small sections smoothing with water along the way. I did the same with the wings. I set them aside to dry. When they were both completely dry I attached the wings using Creative Paperclay®.To do this I used a little water on the bird and the wing, added small amounts of the clay on the inside and outside smoothing the wing and body together. Set aside and dry. 

When dry you can smooth even more by sanding with a fine sanding paper. Paint with Gesso. When dry paint your little birdie with your favorite colors.

 To create the bow I cut a thin piece of cardboard in a rectangular shape. I folded it in half width way, and cut out a cat eye shape.  Open it up,take the two outside points, bring them to the center and glue in place. Roll out a rectangular shape of Delight™ air dry modeling compound and cover the outside. Trim off excess. Add small pieces on the inside to cover, smoothing with water as you go. Roll and cut out 2 shapes for the bow ribbon and add to the back of the bow. Roll a cylinder shape for the bow middle and attach in back as well. Let dry and then paint.

 I used Delight™ for the bow because I wanted a really lightweight piece to add to my dowel.

 

I worked on the styrofoam ball next. Since it was already decorated with the tissue paper all that was needed was to punch out little flowers with a paper punch and attach them with yellow glass head pins.

For the first bird leg I used 3 pieces of 22 gauge cloth stem wire and twisted them together. I punched a hole in the bottom of the bird and shoved the wire into the hole. I used Weldbond glue to secure it. The second leg I used 4 pieces but left one piece longer for pushing into the ball. 

I assembled it all by punching a small hole in the bottom of the ball, forcing the dowel in the hole,  filling the clay pot with florist foam, pushing the assemblage into the foam, adding excelsior around the top of the foam, hot gluing the bow on, adding the bluebird on top with Weldbond.

 Thank you for checking out my first project! I hope it inspires you to create a little spring for your favorite spot using Creative Paperclay®.

Shari

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