Paper Doll Paper Weight

For most of the past month the weather has been gorgeous and I have had all of my doors and windows open to let in the fresh Spring air. I was sitting at my desk this week working on some projects for my upcoming art show and every time the wind blew so did everything on my desk. I never thought a I was a paper weight kind of girl, but that day I changed my mind. I needed something to hold my papers in place when I had the windows open on a nice day, but most paper weights are boring or downright ugly! VivaLasVegaStamps! To the rescue! I grabbed my Art Doll Medium stamp and got to work.



You can view the full video tutorial below :D

I always get unmounted rubber stamps and I add two strips of Miracle Tape to my acrylic block to hold them in place. I stamped my art doll onto a manila folder and realized my girl needed some clothes. I think my Hanging Tiffany Lamp stamp is extremely versatile, so I decided to use it for her skirt. I stamped her skirt and then glued the folder closed using gel medium.

 
I carefully cut all of the pieces out and used a needle tool to poke all of my holes, then I attached her head to her body using gel medium.

 

 I colored all of the pieces with Prismacolor pencils and I drew the design for her dress and colored it as well. I attached her legs with tiny brads and attached her arms with larger decorative brads then I glued her skirt into place with tacky glue.

 

 I painted a scrap piece of watercolor paper with black acrylic craft paint then traced her silhouette with a white Prismacolor pencil and cut it out. I cut a piece of wire and formed a loop in one end, then sandwiched the looped end of the wire between my girl and her silhouette using tacky glue. I painted the wire black to match the doll and set her aside to dry.

 

I originally created a base using Creative Paperclay® by rolling out long skinny noodles and winding them into a spiral. I stacked up several spirals to create the base and painted it with alternating black and white stripes. I stuck the wire into the base, but the doll was too heavy and she kept falling over! I added a washer to the bottom to give it a bit more weight, but it still wasn’t heavy enough. I ended up removing that base and making another one using Sculpey because it is so much heavier. I made the hole for the wire then removed it and baked the Sculpey as directed. When it was set and cooled I painted the Sculpey base then stuck the wire back into place.



 She doesn’t fall over anymore and now I have a pretty and unique paperweight that will keep everything from flying away on breezy days :D

 

You can view more of my work on my blog :)