2016 #5 Art Fairy {by Alison Hall}

 2016 Topic 5: Art Dolls

Hi everyone, Alison the Craftytrog here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you a post about making an art fairy using Stampbord, which is a white clay coated board made by Ampersand, and mixing and matching various PaperArtsy Ink and the Dog stamps. These little A6 sets of stamps are PaperArtsy's originals, and I just love all the quirky images in them. I have a huge box of them!

I adore making art dolls. It's so fun picking different images to use as faces, bodies, and making limbs with whatever you fancy...chains, beads, keys etc. Stampbord is a great surface to stamp on, and takes all kinds of ink and paint really well, and it works perfectly for this kind of project.

Step One: I started by cutting some paper templates for the Stampbord pieces, and stamping my chosen images. I just wanted to see how they would work together before I started painting and stamping for real. 

Step Two: Next, I painted the Stampbord pieces with Fresco Finish Paint. I've used a 1" and 2" square piece of Stampbord. 

I used Blush for the 1" piece, as a base for the face, then Caribbean Sea and Captain Peacock for the 2" 'body' piece. I also painted some pieces of Smoothy Card with Blush, and some contrasting colours of Tango and London Bus. These are for the hat, wings and numbers on the body and feet. 

I used Jet Black Archival Ink to stamp the face from Ink and the Dogs Kids Plate 6, the hat and game piece numbers from Pierrot Plate 2, the winged clock from Eclectic Plate 4, and the tape measure from Clocks Plate 5. I used the edges of the clock's wings to stamp a little collar for my fairy. I inked up the edges of the Stampbord pieces with Jet Black Archival Ink.

 Kids Plate 6

Pierrot Plate 2

Step Three: I used Tim Holtz Word Bands to make some legs for my fairy, rubbing some Caribbean Sea Fresco Finish Paint into the words, then wiping it back. I used Tim Holtz Type Charms to make some feet, punching out the stamped game pieces and gluing them into the charms. 

I punched two holes in the fairy's 'body' with a Crop-A-Dile, and attached the 'legs' and 'feet' with jump rings. 

Clocks Plate 5.

Step Four: I used a running stitch to ruche up a piece of gold organza to make a cape for my fairy. I bought this fabric from PaperArtsy at a show way back when!

Step Five: I cut out the Blush coloured wings and 'collar', and punched out some of the Tango/London Bus clock numbers, and glued these to the body with Glossy Accents. I attached the head to the body with Glossy Accents, and glued on the hat. 

I punched two holes in the top of the body, and threaded some ball chain through, then attached the organza cape to the back of the fairy using a glue gun. To finish, I added a little colour to my fairy's cheeks by mixing a little London Bus into some Blush, then using a cotton bud to dab it on.

Eclectic Plate 4

I hope I've inspired you to delve into your stamp sets and make a quirky little art fairy for yourself. If you don't have any Stampbord, you could just cut some squares, or whatever shape you fancy, from thick board or wood, then base-coat it with Snowflake Fresco Finish Paint. Have a look in your embellishment box, and find something unusual to make arms, legs, or wings. If you're a better seamstress than me, you could even whip up a little outfit for your fairy.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xxx

Blog: Craftytrog's Inky Adventures
Twitter: @craftytrog

Facebook: Alison Hall

Thanks Alison, stampbord is an underused substrate, so pleased to see it being used. It takes colour really well and is deliciously smooth for stamping. Your little fairy is fabulous, i love her dangly legs.Ink and the Dog stamps are bursting with images just perfect for Art Dolls. ~Darcy 

We would love to see how you interpret this Image Art Dolls  topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #5: Art Dolls, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Art dolls link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 20th. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.