Circus Themed Card using Creative Paperclay

A couple years back, I took a pottery class through the Lifelong Learning program offered by my city's Parks and Recreation department. We learned to throw pots, work with clay slabs and even did some molding. Back then I used some small face molds to make embellishments for a clay bowl. When it came time to play with Creative Paperclay I remembered the molds and thought it would be fun to cast paperclay.

The Creative Paperclay was really easy to work with and molded quite well. I was happily surprised by how much detail you can get. Once the castings were dry, I used an emery board to smooth the edges so they were ready to paint.

Viva Las Vegastamps! has several circus themed stamps and for some odd reason, when I look at them, I'm drawn to the Unicycle Lady 2 3/4 x 3 1/2 #14619.
I thought she would look great in brightly colored costume that sparkled. So, I stamped the image with dye ink, colored it in with Copic markers and then used a glue pen to add glitter. After I fussy cut the image, I knew I had the focal point of a card.

The sentiment, Perhaps You Were Just 1 1/2 x 2 1/4 #7834 from Viva Las Vegastamps!, seemed like a good companion to the unicycle lady. The molded faces could become part of a crowd, watching her perform. I found a vintage crowd photograph, printed it in sepia tones, and painted the faces a similar shade using an acrylic wash.

I love texture and wanted the bottom of the card to look like the dirt floors I had seen in circus rings. I had saved some sawdust from a previous project (I save everything! LOL) and applied it using 1" wide Miracle Tape and it gave me just the looked I was hoping for.

With all the components complete, I assembled the card. I used pop-dots to lift up the circus ring wall from the crowd, so they would appear to be sitting behind the wall. I used pop-dots again for the unicycle lady so she would be in front of the wall. It took a double layer of pop-dots where he body was above the crowd (versus the wall).

I hope you enjoy this card and it doesn't give you any nightmares about your past at the circus!

You can see my other projects on my blog on the Create & Craft website.

Happy crafting!
Joe Rotella