My Ambitious Friend...

I love this post from my friend Kendra, over at Creative Ambitions.

I love reading her posts.  She is ALWAYS creative and sometimes Very Ambitious...this is one of those times.  I want to make one of these soon....maybe this summer????

Ok… so this is probably random…but yes… I made a decorative dress form.

Why?

Because I’m crazy like that…

I have one of those minds that tell me…

“you can make that”

My creative ambition is an endless battle… so I just go with it…

And here is how I did it…

First… I started out with one of these…

You have to have some sort of mold to try this.

I wrapped it in saran wrap.

  At this point, you’ll need cardboard, newspaper and glue.

(I used wallpaper glue and at times… elmer’s glue)

I glued lightweight, wet/soaked card board to it at first to give it a sturdy shape.

Then, I glued strips of newspaper all over the cardboard.

It will look something like this…

(this is the first one I made… it still looks like this)

And the second one I made…

I let it sit for a couple of days to dry.

Next, I took my scissors and cut a straight line up the back.

NOW…

Here is where you need to use your imagination…

I didn’t take pictures of the whole back cutting/seam taping process… sorry!

Bad… I know!  

Anywho…

I took the paper shell off the form.

Then, I taped the seam up with some kind of cloth tape we had laying around the house.

After I had her taped back up… I glued some more newspaper over the taped seam.

For the bottom and top of neck… I cut out foam core, doubled it up, and hot glued it in place.

You may even have to hot glue some of the inner cardboard pieces back down.

Now, here was the fun part… I ordered this…

It’s a paper-mache/clay mixture.

Sooo…

I mixed it with water and applied it to my paper shell …with my fingers…VERY MESSY.

In fact… you may want a mask… (glue and pulp dust flies in the air as you are mixing)

I put it on thick so it had to sit awhile (out in the sun) for a few days to dry.

Next, I sanded… again…VERY MESSY.

I used my hair dyer to blow the dust off of her.

Then, I skimmed it with joint compound to try and smooth out the surface some.

And… sanded again.   Blew the dust off again.

And now she was ready to decoupage.

 Here we go AGAIN with lack of pictures…

I didn’t know if this would even turn out so I didn’t take pics for all the steps.

Finally, I glued pieces of scrapbook paper all over the form.

Eerrrrrrrr…. stop the car… back up…

Ok… so, are you wondering about a base… maybe???

This is still a work in progress… but here is the gist of it…

Table leg from my local ReStore.  Wood plaque from Hobby Lobby.

Drilled a hole for the table leg to fit in, gorilla glued it and painted it black.

Then I cut a hole with my jigsaw in the bottom of the form to slide down the base.

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten with that.  Trying to figure out how to secure it to the base so it’s not wobbly.

Almost there…

But in the meantime, here she is in her decoupaged glory.

I used a French Toile theme.

I think she looks…very “Boutiquey”.

Soooo…

The modeling paper clay says you can nail in to it?  I don’t know… too scared to try.

Maybe… I will try on the next one before I decoupage it.

Ok… one more time…

sporting a ruffled cross body purse I have been working on!

I must say… making her was a messy and lengthy process but if you have the patience…

it can be a fun project.