101 painted faces. . .

I have three projects sitting on my desk.  Homework, paid work and these three girls.

 Obviously I should be doing my homework and the paid work first but these girls have been calling to me to paint their faces.  I've been staring at their blank bodies for days...um what to do, how to paint them. etc etc etc...They could wait no longer.  Since this morning they have had about 101 different faces painted on them and then painted out again. This is the latest version.

Now it's cup of tea, pecan and white chocolate muffin (me made) time...

Then paid work and homework...the girls will have to live with these faces for awhile...

A couple of you have asked how I made them.  

Here's How

Grab your supplies and prepare to get messy.... yippee!!!

• cooking foil - it's quite easy to mould, especially for small fingers
• cocktail sticks/bbq sticks (depending on size of doll)
• sticky tape - I use masking tape/decorators tape
• pva glue (thick white glue - water it down) or collage sticking glue or gesso. I used gloss medium - because that's what I have in the cupboard.

• very loosely scrunch up a sheet of foil (about A4 size) Don't scrunch too tight or you will have problems in sticking the sticks in.
• you will need to make a head, body and limbs. This is where the sticks come in. For long legs, use a bbq stick for the whole leg it makes them more solid. For short legs a cocktail stick will do, just for attaching legs to body. (For my girls above, I used a separate piece of foil to mould onto the end of my stick for the boot. 

• attach the limbs to the body
• tape the limbs securely in place. I like to tape the whole body but it's not necessary
• rip up some newspaper or tissue paper. I used some pages from an out of date telephone directory
• slap the glue on the doll (in small areas) and then start sticking bits of ripped paper to the doll and cover with more glue
• once the whole doll is covered in paper leave to dry (usually overnight - I pop mine near the radiator)
• you can cover the doll with several layers it you want to

• when the doll is dry, I like to give it a coat of primer - gesso (covers up the newsprint if you don't want it showing) and it makes the paint stick better
• you are then ready to paint your doll and make her come alive.
• You will find that your dolls love to have their picture taken....so snap away

Hope this is helpful.  Please please please send me photos of your dolls. If you have any questions just shout...

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