2016 #5 Time to Grow {by Lauren Hatwell}

2016 Topic 5: Art Dolls

Hi everyone. It's Lauren here, and tonight I'd like to share a post about chipboard art dolls with you.

I love art dolls and stamping so this is one of my favourite techniques, because it allows you to elevate simple stamping and colouring to a really striking focal point for any project. You don't need anything fancy and you can customise it any way you choose. It's a method I go back to again and again and its perfect for the "assemblage" style of stamping I enjoy. 

Step One: Squiggly Ink stamps were one one of the very first series of PaperArtsy stamps I bought (from our very own Emma Godfrey as it happens) and I still love them. I've always thought the flying clock from Ding and Dong Plate 2 looked like a face with bunches so that was my starting point. First the fun bit. Stamp out, colour and cut out the pieces for my doll. The Crown is a Mini and the arms and legs were made with a curly bracket from Swirls and Curls 3. I've used Smoothy Card throughout. It's a lovely robust card and perfect for this sort of project.

Ding and Dong Plate 2

Swirls and Curls 3. 

Step Two: I like to lay down a layer of gel medium at this stage and construct the doll directly onto the next layer of card. When it's dry, cut out the complete doll. Repeat this process until you are happy with the thickness of the piece. I tend to go for 3-5 layers depending on what I'm making. Because the smoothy card is so sturdy I only needed three layers for my doll. Once the gel medium and the paper fuse together and dry thoroughly you get a really lovely board. 

Step Three: When I'm happy with the piece I will sand the sides to smooth them and coat the top and the sides of the piece with gel medium (I used a soft gel medium for this piece but if I want my brush strokes to show I'll use a heavier one)…

Step Four: Because this is a three dimensional piece, I coated the back of the whole piece with Slate fresco paint just to keep everything neat and tidy.

Step Five: I wanted to make a flower out of the Dragonfly stamp from Squiggly Ink Tops & Tails 2 so I stamped out four of the images and coloured them with Fresco Paints in shades of blue (Antarctic and Lake Wanaka) before assembling the flower. I painted a wooden skewer with Granny Smith Fresco Paint and used that as a stem. The leaves were made from the clock wings (or bunches) painted green.

Squiggly Ink Tops & Tails 2

Step Six: For the base, I coated a box with some canvas and painted it in various shades of green Fresco Paint (Guacamole, Hey Pesto and Granny Smith) to make it look like grass. I coated some offcuts of precious Smoothy card with Candy Floss Fresco Paint and stamped flowers from Squiggly Ink Tops and Tails 2 before cutting them out and putting a green flat packed pearl in the centre of each flower. I then stamped the Swirl from the same set randomly over parts of the grass to form a sort of vine or leaf for the flower before sticking the flowers in place and adding a phrase from Kim Dellow's recent release EKD01 which is already a favourite.

This is one of my favourite kinds of project. It's so lovely just losing yourself in a few favourite sets of stamps and coming up with something that you enjoy looking at which maybe speaks to you in some way. All it takes is a little bit of imagination and a few of your favourite PaperArtsy products, old AND new.

It's been lovely to be here again. Thank you for looking today. I hope you've enjoyed it.

Lauren Hatwell

Blog:Marvelous Mechanical Mouse Organ 

Oh Lauren you are totally making me fall in love with Squiggly Ink. The clock does look like a face with bunches of hair, it's so fun to pick out those kinds of things. The flower made from the dragonfly is just aforable, I want to grow those in my garden. ~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.