Feature Friday- Christmas Paper Maché Characters

BySusan Myers on holiday crafts

                          
My Christmas Ornament club meets this weekend and I have been working like crazy over the past several weeks to complete my projects. Our club has been meeting now for the past 19 years, and we have quite a few artistic folks in it that appreciate time spent on ornaments. But being the glutton for punishment that I am, I always choose something extremely time-consuming and difficult and struggle to get it completed every year. But I do work best in a time crunch and I guess if I wasn’t totally stressed each year, well it just wouldn’t be the holiday season.

This year, I went less with an ornament and more on the side of decoration. I chose to combine sculpture, paper maché and quilling to create a unique tabletop decoration.

 
This photo shows the ornaments in their many stages. I used styrofoam and toilet paper tubes to create the basic structure of each decoration. Once that had been established, I shredded up newspaper, mixed up white glue and water and paper machéd the heck out of it. Once it had dried, I pulled out the acrylic paints and went to work.

Each ornament has my signature plaid on it somewhere. This kinda became an issue this week when I came down with the flu and found myself upstairs painting plaid while drugged up on Robitussin. I spent quite a while on Tuesday night painting plaid on my final decorations. They looked wonderful! The next day, when I picked them back up to work on them, I noticed that every single line was choppy, crooked and ridiculous. I had to repaint them all. Lesson learned. Do not paint under the influence of Robitussin.

The final step was to put in details with cardstock and my quilling tools and then coat the entire project in Mod Podge. These decorations are made almost entirely from paper with the exception of the foam base and the 3 1/2″ wide strip of Christmas fabric wrapped around the base. Special thanks to Discount Sewing Supply for supplying some of the awesome fabric used on these decorations.

And now for the reveal….

For more details on quilling techniques, check out my Summer Blooms Quilled Frame Tutorial.  This is actually a relatively simple, but very nice gift. 

For more details on paper maché, check out my Quilled Paisley Monogram Tutorial, where I go through the basics of paper mache to create the monogram base. 

I am an artist, crafter and humor writer living in Atlanta, GA. I attended the Atlanta College of Art, and have a background in fine arts, graphic design, and photography. I like to specialize in vintage and recycled crafts such as quilling, Ukrainian Egg Dying, batik and quilting.

25 Comments

  1. Ashlee @ I'm Topsy Turvy says:

    very VERY fun! They are so much prettier than my paper mache (big bulky pinata's!) Thanks for linking up Topsy Turvy Tuesday's!

  2. Anonymous says:

    Very well!!
    From Italy

  4. AllieMakes! says:

    WOW! Those are amazing! Awsome job!
    Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can't wait to see what you have for next week!
    AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

  5. Absolutely adorable! I am so impressed.

  6. Dewi Citra says:

    I'm looking for a papier-mache project and I find you
    They are so cool !!
    I wonder if you designed them on paper before you decided to make them ?

  7. Those are incredible!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for linking them up to gettin' crafty on hump day! 🙂

  8. Those look so cute! Thanks for linking up to Mad Skills Monday!

  9. Kristen @ ladybug-blessings.com says:

    wow! These look amazing! Thanks for linking up to Handmade Tuesdays @ ladybug blessings!

  10. Jan @ bobbypins boardwalk says:

    These guys are marvelous, Suzy! I think I can actually hear them talking among themselves. You did a remarkable job. Thank you so much for sharing on the Boardwalk Bragfest! Tell Tom Hi. I saw him the other evening on Quigly Down Under! Swoon…… You lucky girl.

  11. I wonder if I joined a crafting club if my "efforts" would result in better artworks?
    You must have a great time working on these characters. So much personality1

  12. Wow! You are so talented! I need to make some giant bugs for my boys room but I have been intimidated to try. Now I want to pull out all my styrofoam balls and give it a go! Thank you so much for linking up at my first party!

    Stacy

  14. shopannies says:

    what wonderful talent

  15. I linked over from be colorful. Those are all absolutely amazing. I love them all. Thanks for sharing. Please stop by my blog is you get a chance at http://www.diybydesign.blogspot.com. If you follow me I'll follow you back. Thanks.

  16. Whoa, I think I see a classroom project in my future.
    Delightful, thanks for sharing.

  17. Koroneczka says:

    Great collection!

  18. Those are absolutely stunning!!

  20. Can't wait to pick mine out!! I'll be happy with any, but I'm kindof partial to your snowmen! EXCELLENT work as always!

    PS Hope you are feeling much better. We missed you Wednesday nite!

  21. Wow, these are awesome! I love that penguin, the carolers and the Santa with the list. I sure hope the rest of them put in as much effort as you did. Even if they didn't, at least they will appreciate all of your hard work!

  22. Those are amazing! I love the carolers!

  23. The Answer Is Chocolate says:

    WOW, these are amazing!

  24. Beth @ Wiccan Make Some Too says:

    They are adorable! You will be the envy of your club.

  25. They are absolutely beautiful, but pictures don't do them justice. I wouldn't know which one to pick.

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