Summer Vacation Paper Dolls

For this swap the challenge was to come up with paper dolls that had at least 4 moveable joints.  The theme was summer vacation, sharing any summer fun plans, or great summer memories.  My favorite summer activity has always been swimming so I decided to make my paper dolls swimmers.  I decided to do a bit of a retro twist on the swimsuits and then used bright modern colors.  I hand drew my characters and colored with sharpie markers.  Dolls were to range from 6" - 9" tall.

Altered Purse - Vintage Mermaids

Attempt 3 - wow, this was the most difficult purse to work with. 

I loved the decoupage effect, but this purse was soft and squishy.  Maybe if I had had more newspapers to stuff inside to help it hold its shape, that might have worked better?  That is why you see images on only 2 sides of this purse.  No sooner would I push down on

one side of an image than the other side would pop loose.  Very aggrivating!!

Now that I look at this purse I see that I could go back and hand paint some objects, but I know that is not going to happen any time soon.

Altered Purse - Wizard of Oz

Attempt number 2!  This was a lucky find because it was slick and smooth and hard so it was perfect for decoupage.  Like the first purse, rubbed it down with lacquer thinner, gesso, acrylic paint, but then out came the Mod Podge.  I used an 8x8 patterned paper pack by Graphic 45.

This is a very flat purse, so I have been carrying it because I love how it turned out, but it sure doesn't hold much. Have gotten lots of compliments.

bottom view

left side

right side

Altered Purse Marie Antoinette

First attempt at an altered purse.  This summer I took a class for graduate credit called Art Materials and Exploration for Art Teachers. It was held at the Steelworkers studio in downtown Joliet, IL in the studio space of Marsha Lega. So for one of our assignments  we were asked to bring in a pair of shoes or a purse to alter. I had several thrift store purses just waiting to be transformed.  The first thing we did was to rub down our pieces with lacquer thinner to create some tooth, then we added gesso. Acrylic paints and gel medium to finish.

I was inspired to create this Marie Antoinette design because I had just been collecting images for a Marie Antoinette chunky swap so that was fresh in my mind. I just decided to wing it and start painting her free hand in a loose simplified manner, not being too worried about reality or shading, just having fun with is and that was the emphasis of the instructor -to explore, try things, and enjoy it. For my backgrounds I looked through some of my scrapbook papers for some patterns and decided on the colors I wanted to use and filled in my space.

Heart Charm Necklace

This piece uses 20 gauge wire in brown and pink gold. the hearts link into each other.  This shape was a bit of a challenge to shape the bottom. I will probably have my students make one as a pendant so they can learn the technique, possibly with a pair of matching earrings, maybe add some beads hanging inside and from the bottom, and then offer this necklace design for the advance students

Caged Bead Necklace

Glass beads and 20 gauge copper wire was used to creat this necklace.  Three beads are suspended within each cage except for the central cage which has five beads.  Double ended coils and a hand made clasp were added to complete the length needed.  I think this might be more of a challenge piece for my students.  I will probably have them create a pair of earrings so they can learn the technique and then give them the option of making a matching bracelet or necklace.

Wire Charm Bracelet

I used three different colors of wire for this bracelet - a pink gold, a brown, and a copper.  Crystals were suspended within each charm. Charms were shaped into triangles, diamonds, and drop shapes.  Jump rings were created using the same three colors of wire.  The base of the bracelet and the toggle clasp on this bracelet were purchased and added two more metal colors - silver and an antique copper color.  I thought this would be an excellent project for my students giving them practice in wire bending combined with beads, making their own jump rings, and I think I might have them learn how to create their own clasp findings also.

Twisted Wire beads

Using 20 gauge twisted orange wire, 20 gauge copper wire, glass beads, plastic beads, and round crystals, to create and simple necklace without a clasp.  I thought this would be a good basic necklace to start with for my students introducing how to create loops (which can translate to eye pins), and how to twist wire to create beads.

Loopy Bracelet

I used 26 gauge orange wire and glass e-beads which are the size of an 0/8.  Four wires cut to about 16" and it was very similar to a ladder stitch but much easier because you don't have to thread two needles since the wire does the job for you.  spending some time this some doing wire work and coming up with some new projcet ideas that I can use with my junior high students.

Flip Flop My Design

I picked up some bright colored flip flops, these were an XS.  I decided to use the tropical paper from Graphic 45, 8x8 size.  I used a hibiscus paper shaped flower(which I just made up, cutting free hand) as the tabs on the back to put my pages to gether and it was a bit flimsy so added strips of paper that I cut from the borders of some of the design pages.  Love the look of the Graphic 45 line, all images were in the pack. I also free hand cut the big flowers to decorate the flip flop cover.