I simply tore my paper scraps up and soaked them in water overnight. I then pulped them with a blender. Squeeze as much liquid out of the pulp that you can. Then add Helmar Acid Free Glue to your pulp until you have a clay consistency.
Place you clay into your mold and allow to dry. I hit it with the heat gun for about 10 minutes and then left it over night.
I then painted my embellishments. I coloued the Jack 'O' Lantern's eyes, mouth and nose with a fine detail brush and black ink spray. I used a normal brush to pain the main areas and to dry brush details were needed with some Vicki Boutin and Dyan Wakely paints. I got some black ink mixed into my yellow paint when painting my moon and stars and I love the effect, the feel more Halloweenish.
I used Helmar Premium Craft Glue to add some bakers twine from the October 2017 kit from Scrapping Fun Kits as the handle of the Trick or Treat bag.Now my paper clay embellishments are ready to use when recording my memories or when making decorations for Halloween. Hmm I might make a banner with these cuties.
Since I had some paper clay left over and inspired by a post I saw on Pinterest I decided to make a paper mache pumpkin stack. I felt this could be a great way to use those single use plastic bags that have now been banned where I live but many of us have a heap of and any other non-recyclable soft plastic. So I stuffed my bags with single use plastic bags and any packaging that wasn't recyclable but was soft and clean.
I wound some washi around each bag to get the desired shape and then set to work applying paper mache to each pumpkin.
The top pumpkin was small enough to do on my desk so here is a video of how I did each pumpkin.
I used a assortment of Helmar white glues as I was towards the end or each bottle so it was a great way to use them up. Glues I used to apply my paper were Helmar Decoupage & Craft Glue, Helmar Tacky Glue and Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA. I added 1 part water to 4 parts glue.
Due to limited space to craft I had to do each pumpkin individually and wait for them to dry between each layer so this made this project much more time consuming than if I could do 1 coat on all of them, let that dry and repeat. So the time it took me is not a good gauge of how long this project will take.
I planned to not use a pole/pipe in the middle but I found a scrap piece of PVC pipe from my son's Physics assignment and used it to make the stack a stronger stack. I decided to seal each pumpking top. First I tried tape and then I grabbed my Helmar Premium Craft Glue and ran it round where the paper mache and pip meet, adding scraps to fill in gaps if needed.
I needed to make a 4th pumpkin as once I squished the pumpkins down a little and sealed with the Helmar Premium Craft Glue there was extra pipe left to cover. This is the one that is in the above video.
Once the 4th pumpkin was on I used my left over paper clay to make the stalk. I left this to dry for 48 hours before painting.
The boys and I spent a day applying coats of orange paint to our pumpkin stack.
Once it had a good coat of orange on it I applied watered down brown paint in small sections and then wiped off the paint before it dried. This helps add detail to the pumpkins. I also painted the stalk brown.
I love how my pumpkin stack turned out. I love that it is much more environmentally friendly than anything I could buy.
And I just had to make a cute Banner with my paper clay embellishments. A blog post and process video for making the banner will be up on my blog and YouTube channel shortly.
So why not save any clean soft plastic you have that is not recyclable and use it to make a paper mache decoration. Great for the budget and the environment, so a win win.
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