"Reach For The Stars" by Linda Hess

Those of you who follow my posts know that I teach art in at a local Catholic School.  Every year the school has an auction to raise money for "extras" that the school and/or teachers may need/want/wish for.  I have been given the job of creating a piece with each of my classes to be auctioned off during the event.  One of the pieces that I am creating wit a class is called "Reach For The Stars".  I will be creating it with the 8th graders who shall leave us soon and venture on to high school and beyond.  It will incorporate tracings of each student's hands and part of the arms that they will decorate.  The piece will be framed in a 24"x36" wood frame tat I plan to inscribe with inspirational sayings that I found online (of course).

With that piece stuck in my head (I am very excited to get started on it!), I thought why not create a smaller version with a bit of dimension?  Immediately a vision began to form and I ran to the studio for some clay....

If you know me, you know that my studio is filled with every kind of clay imaginable.  For this project I grabbed my Creative PaperClay, a straight blade, a small bowl of water, and my Sculpey Etch & Pearl tool (http://www.sculpey.com/product/sculpey-etch-n-pearl/).  I pulled off a bit of the Creative PaperClay and went to work.
1) Roll a 1" ball of clay in your hands.  Pinch the ball into a paddle shape and flatten slightly. 

2) Use straight blade to cut a thumb line and 3 finger lines.  This will give you 5 rough fingers.

3) Roll each "finger" until smooth and rounded.  Clay can be easily manipulated at this point.  If it begins to dry and you can't seem to get the cracks out, dip your finger into the bowl of water ad smooth over cracks.

4) Position fingers to form "reaching" hand.  Shape hand and wrist. 

5) Add fingernails using the "Etch & Pearl" tool as shown.

6) Wasn't that easy?!  Now create a few more.  Arrange the hands in a staggered line.  Once happy with the look, cut a straight edge. 

7)  If you have followed my posts for any amount of time you know that this is where I get impatient, so into the oven the hands will go....bake at 275 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.

 

Once cooled it is time to put the piece together (wasn't that fast?!).  I took the back off a frame (5"x7") and got rid of the glass (you can reuse it for something else like I do OR pitch it).  From my stash of scrapbook papers I found a great paper from Murdock Country Creations (www.murdockcountrycreations.com [turquoise #PSO42] ).  I cut it to fit the back and glued it on using my favorite "The Ultimate" glue from Crafter's Pick (www.crafterspick.com)

 

Next I painted the cooled hands with a variety of acrylic paints.  Don't they look nice? 

Hmmm, I think they may need manicures...perfect. 

A beaded trim from my stash (I think Expo, International, but not positive) attached to the top edge adds a bit of bling and the illusion of stars.

Place the backing into the open frame.  Position the hands and glue in place.  Print off chosen saying or use a rubber stamped saying.  To get a organic look, tear the edges towards you rather than cutting.  Glue in place. 

THERE!!  All done.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.  See you next time. 

 

 

Once Upon A Time Paper Mache Book by Gloriann Irizarry

Once upon a time a beautiful story was written and a legend was born. 

A enchanted book capable of making all your wishes come true was discover and I will be here to guide your creative quest to conquer this project.

Hi my dear followers and friends it is Gloriann Irizarry here to help your imagination and open a book of enchantment . I will show you how to turn a simple paper mache book and transform it to a magic Home decor piece to delight everyone. Who know maybe you want to hide a special trinket or just make a one of a kind box to give to a special friend. It don't matter I will show you here step by step how to complete this OOAK Enchanted Book.

Brought to you by Creative Paperclay

Materials

1 package of Creative Paperclay Material

1 Paper Mache book

Xacto or hobby knife

White Acrylic Gesso

Paint brushes

Acrylic paints ( Martha Stewart Glitter paint, renaissance brown, metallic black, purple and pink)

Elmers school glue 

Butterfly cookie cutter

Flower cookie cutter

Jewelry Key charms

 Old hair brush

Light purple ribbon.

Scrapbook Paper Pack The Once Upon A Stack DCWV 

Once Upon A Time Book By Gloriann Irizarry 

#bygloricom

I start by preparing the paper mache book prime completely with the Gesso medium to reinforce the surface and to achieve a clean final look.

  

I use a big brush and apply the first layer of gesso and waited to be completely dry before I apply the second and final coat of the white acrylic gesso to the entire paper mache book blank.

After the second coat of white gesso dry I use one of my favorite acrylic color Metallics Renascence Brown. I use the X or crisscross painting technique. This will give some nice background feel to the book cover.

Make sure you use the Crisscross technique only on the cover and wait for the paint to be completely dry before the next step. You don't want to ruin the wet paint on our next step.

I place it like this to dry so it will not be marked or damage.

Now the to create the many pages of stories and spells. You might think Oh this is going to be hard. Im not an experience painter. Well don't let the fear take the best out of you. Look all you will need is and old brush and a nice wet coat of the Metallic Black on the page section of the paper mache book and with one even stroke use the brush and brush the paint away. 

The bristle of the brush will remove some of the heavy paint off and reveal amazing looking pages. Do this all around the book to give the box the sensation of a close book.

I had so much fun choosing the images I wanted to display in my book cover right from my Scrapbook Supply box. I choose The Once upon a time Stack by DCWV . The quality of the paper stock is amazing and the styles are super adorable. I love the many designs, embossings and my favorite all the GLITTER. Yes tons of glitter . The beauty is the glitter is not going to be spreading all over and the styles are so tasteful.

I decided to cover all the inside of the book in paper so it look very nice.

I choose Rapunzel golden glitter embossed locks for the left panel of my book.

I wanted to keep the book effect so I chose a letter printed story to cover the right panel of the book.

carefully measure twice and cut once the panel. I use my Elmers school glue and carefully attach each cut panel inside the book . Cut any excess paper .

I cut side panel of a similar style paper and use the Elmers glue to attach the side panel. Make sure you cut any excess paper off so you can close the book completely.

I look at the book and notice something was missing. The spell wasn't written right. So I decided to add some well need 3D details. I added some of my favorite jewelry charms and could not say no to this gold key. I added a nice purple ribbon and glued it to the left page of the paper mache book box.

Ok the left page is all set now we need to match the right side. Uhm! let me think it is going to be a magic story. AHA! nothing better than a magic castle found right on the The Once Upon A Time Stack.

I cut around it and use the Elmers glued to secure it in place. Added 3 pretty flowers and the spell has been casted in this beautiful ooak book

I wanted to give the spine of the book a unique style to match the cover so I cut 2 pieces of the beautiful glitter embossed paper and glued it to the spine to create the old style bind effect.

Now I wanted the give the cover some nice 3D effect so I rolled a clay sheet in to a 1/4 thickness. 

Choose your favorite cookie cutters or clay stamps to create your center pieces. I used my favorite the butterfly and a sunflower using this technique.

Let it dry flat over night or longer depending on how humid is your room at the time of crafting.

I wanted to add more details to pop so I use a nice flower cutter I have to create mini flower to decorate.

I did not wanted the flowers to be flat so I grabbed the other end of a paint brush and give the flower a little pinch here and there to bring those to life.  Let them dry .

I added more details to the flowers by using water down acrylic pink paint the centers of the petals to give them a natural feeling to them. 

For the butterfly I stated with a base of pink acrylic and work my color layers one by one.

Added purple to the center of the wings. 

Use the dry brush method for the yellow acrylic on the edges and accents on metallic green. 

The final touch was sealed with the Martha Stewarts red glitter paint to the center and pink glitter paint to the rest of the piece ans let it dry. this will seal the butterfly and give it the magic touch look.

Use this technique on the Sunflower Creative Paperclay cutout. 

For the cover I use my favorite pattern paper I found on the Stack . I choose a scrap from my paper stack and create the back ground for me to place the nice glittery Creative Paperclay Butterfly and Sunflower i created for this project. I tear the edges out to give it an antique look and glued it to the bottom front cover.

Now that the butter fly and the sunflower are dry we are ready to attach them to the book cover.

Use plenty of glue and place it to your top right corner next to the tittle.

Place the beautiful Creative Paperclay sunflower to the bottom left corner ans let it dry.

I wanted more details to be magical so I glued plenty of Lilly flowers to all the cover.

There is never enough flowers on magic gardens. 

Now I have to say when you open this book I'm very happy the way it turn out and 

 I love how the inside look.

My favorite has to be the Glittery Creative Paperclay cut outs and the Keys.

The more glitter the better. Well that is my favorite magic look. Plenty of fairy dust.

. 

No Magic book is ready with out some keys. I choose my favorites from my stash of jewelry findings and added to ribbon. I secure them to the book with more glue and let them dry.

Now you can hide your treasures in this book.

The Once Upon A Time Book is ready to cast his spell all over your kingdom. 

Now open it if you dare .

I hope you had a wonderful time and feel free to ask any question or comments bellow or email me at @bygloricom

Have a bless day and remember to always have fun while crafting!

Sincerely ,

Gloriann Irizarry 

Sculpting Creative Paperclay® to Mold with Rachel Whetzel

Earlier this month, I shared a tip that stamping on Creative Paperclay® was easy, and simple to do! This week, I'm sharing a little twist on that same idea. Molding and stamping Creative Paperclay® to use in making a mold! I had the idea that I could make some Valentine's Day decorations using  and resin, so I got to work trying it out.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

• Creative Paperclay®
• Stamps
• Molding Material (I used Amazing Mold Putty) 
• Resin (I used Amazing Casting Resin with Alumilite Red Dye) 
• Acrylic Paints (I use Folk Art) 
• Hole Punch
• String and Needle

Start your project by shaping your Creative Paperclay® into the shape you'd like. Make your surface as even as possible, and don't make your clay so thin that stamping would cut through the clay to your counter top.  I used some sculpting tools to write LOVE on my heart, and a Tim Holtz clock stamp. I had 'love endures forever' running through my mind while I was working. Set your clay out to dry. 

Once the clay is dry, sand your edges, and fine tune any bits that you need to. I used a carving pick, and evened out the word LOVE. I also used a bit of water to smooth out that area. 

Once your surfaces are smooth, and ready, mold your piece, and then pour your resin!! 

When I pulled out my cured resin, some edges needed trimming. I did that while the resin was still a bit soft, and then used my hole punch to create holes where I planned to put stitches later.

Before I put my stitches in, I used craft paint to fill in all the indents that my stamps made, and wiped off the excess. Then I put the stitching in! Such a simple, easy thing to do, and now that I have created the mold, I can replicate my original Creative Paperclay® piece with ease!! I can also pour my resin a bit thinner than the clay, making it easy to use the pieces on cards or a scrapbook page! 

What custom pieces can you imagine making over and over? 

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! CLICK HERE to visit me at my "house" too!! Thank you so much for reading!! ~rachel

Don't MISS IT!! We're hosting a Valentine Link Party on Feb 8th!!