Valentine Paper Dolls

I made these Valentine paper dolls yesterday. I was trying to come up with a good project for the Beaver's troop my son belongs to. Now Valentine's can be a tough theme to come up with "boy" projects so I thought I would use the whole "knight in shining armor" idea. The Beavers will be making larger ones that will be pre cut and base painted. The knight is based on a project in the Usborne "Knights and Castles things to make and do" book. I added a Princess to appeal to the girls out there and it kinda of completes the theme.

Materials Required: thin cardboard or chipboard (cereal boxes) Knight template, you can use mine or make your own Princess template gesso or white paint scissors pencil crayons, felts, or paints to add color scrap fabric, ribbon, sequins, foil, glitter,or any extra embellishments glue Print out templates or make your own. Now Google Doc shrinks my templates by about 20 percent or so. My finished dolls are about 12 inches high so if you want them this size or larger you'll have to enlarge the template. Trace onto your thin cardboard or chipboard. Cut out. Using white tempera or acrylic paint or gesso paint a basecoat onto your figures. If it starts to to warp a bit don't worry... it will flatten when it dries. For the Knight: Either paint or color in the knight with a silver grey. Make sure to pencil in where his legs are and leave the space white. Let dry. Using foil or shiny paper...here I'm using some small silver muffin wrappers...cut little wedges. Glue on the joints of the armor. Using glitter glue, paint or felts, and trims embellish your Knight. You can also use stickers or cut out some shapes from foil. You can glue a feather on the helmet as a plume. I found these hearts at the Dollar store a week ago and bought several packages cause the price was so good...had no idea at the time what I would do with them. You can cut a heart out of red paper or glue some scrap fabric or felt to a cardboard heart and use that. As an after thought I added a sword ...my son really wanted the sword. I painted and glittered it and then glued it into place. Set aside to dry. For the Princess: I painted on some flesh color but you can color it in with pencil crayons or felts. I penciled in a few guide lines. I added some scrap tulle for a crinoline. Just cut out a rectangle, gather it up on one short end, press into the glue at the waist below the belt and hold into place while glue sets up. Don't worry about getting the length right as we will trim this later. I then glued a piece of scrap fabric over top the crinoline in much the same way. Add some glue down the side of the cardboard skirt and tuck the raw edge in to give it a good finished look. Now you can trim the skirt and crinoline to the right length. You can add some trims to the bottom and top of the skirt if you want. Glue into place. Take the extra upper body piece and paint or color in. I also painted the conical head piece at this time with a mixture of the paint and some glitter glue. You can add some trims or sequins to these pieces. I had some extra tulle so I added a veil...you could use some scraps of tissue paper. Glue at the very top leaving most of the veil free. I also painted in my hair. Glue conical head piece on top sandwiching in the veil into position. You can use some clothespins to hold this while it is setting up as long as the head piece is dry on top.

Here is a good way to make cuffs...cut a muffin liner to fit utilizing the ruffles.

I'm using a mini one but you can use a large liner just cut the ruffle into a smaller strip.

Apply some glue to the upper body on the base doll.

Position the extra upper body to fit...this lets her hands be on top of the skirt you made.

With markers or pencils finish the face and hands.

Take some leftover cardboard and cut a long triangle.

Make sure the bottom is straight or plum.

On the long straight side take about 1/2 an inch and fold over. Using a ruler or bone folder smooth it down so it is a good fold.

Apply some glue to this folded edge.

Stick on the back of your doll making sure the bottom lines up.

If your doll does not stand you make have to trim this piece on the bottom.

That's it. I love making paper dolls....Grade 4 is going to make the pair as a Valentine project and the Beavers will make a large Knight as a special Valentine for their Mom or Grandma. (they're only 6 after all)

See you next time.

Polar Bears Update

I did the Polar Bear project with Grade 1 today and we modified it a bit.

We just painted the sky purple and lifted out a moon using a plastic cup wrapped with a piece of kleenex.

We painted the ground blue and added the plastic wrap.

I simplified the colors so the polar bears would stand out more.

How to Paint Polar Bears

Well I'm back after a wonderful holiday break and several cleaning/organizing days in the studio. I've been thinking about polar bears a lot so I thought I would show you how to paint a few using either a stencil technique or contact paper. Materials Required: thin cardboard or chipboard from packaging tape scissors watercolor paper or nice quality sketch paper (one with some tooth) watercolor paints or tempera disks paintbrush plastic cling wrap repositionable contact paper gesso polar bear template 1, polar bear template 2, if needed Draw out some polar bears, use the templates if needed. Transfer on to some thin cardboard. Now you could use an exacto blade to cut these out but I prefer to use scissors. I just cut through at one spot and then cut out the shape in one go. I then come back and tape together where I cut through to start. This is more kid friendly than having to use a blade. This will leave you with the positive and negative image. Now you have a choice at this point. You can trace them onto repositionable contact paper and use it as a sticker which will resist the paint. Peel off the paper. Place where you want and then paint your scene. Leave to dry. Or you can use the negative as a stencil. Plan out your scene. Paint over entire surface and then come back and stencil in your bears. I like to add some color to my arctic scenes. With polar bears you have a lot of white so I try to do a sunrise/sunset with extra color or a snow scene with lots of shadow. Here I'm doing a sunset. I'm adding some color on the horizon. While it is still wet I'm lifting out a sun shape using a coin wrapped in some kleenex. I then add more colors to my sky. Before I start painting in my middle ground I make sure I have my plastic cling wrap handy. I paint in my hills and snowdrifts and then while it is still wet I push my cling wrap in creating texture and then leave in place to dry. Using cling wrap is one of my favorite techniques and I think it's perfect for a snow scene because it forms a sort of ice crystal type texture.

When dry remove the cling wrap...place your stencil where you want it. Squeeze out some gesso or thick acrylic or tempera paint on a palette.

Using a round brush pounce on the paint holding your stencil....you can tape it into place with some painter's mask to make it easier for the kids.

You are trying to get some good texture for that furry coat.

Set aside to dry.

When your paintings have dried you need to add a few details to finish them.

With the contact paper one you need to remove your "sticker".

Then add an eye, nose and some shadows to define the bear.

For the stenciled ones...you add eyes, nose and shadows.

And that's it...in reality these bears would probably show up as only silhouettes at sunrise or sunset but I wanted to distinguish them from black bears so you have to imagine there is a light source from behind the viewer as well.

Give it a try. At school I'm going to get the kids to do a Mommy and two cubs similar to this one.

See you next time.