Tea cup card with teabag

I made another tea cup! 

This time I did remember to document the whole process, I believe :D 

I began by taking pictures of the embossing, 

I was quite thrilled by the water discovery so I took pictures to show how it happens.

I used a paint brush to "paint" the shape with the water, the first one to the left has already broken through the water, I used a tool to outline it and pushed it gently. The second one did soak in the water but is just there without further prodding. The third one is just a fat drop of water that has not yet been absorbed by the paper.

I found out that adding some regular white glue or PVC helps to strengthen the paper, and I'm hoping it makes good filling material as well so the embossed area isn't too fragile.

The next step was to keep on outlining and gently rubbing the design from the back or inside. I do this placing it over 3 napkins, just regular paper napkins, otherwise the embossing can't "grow".

I have no idea what the tool I use is called, I found it in my mother's stuff too many years ago and never heard it's name or where she got it from. If anyone knows I'd really love to find out so I can get others and replace this one since one end comes off, although I'm not complaining since the inside part of the metal tip comes in handy sometimes! :)

And here I turned the paper around so this is the front or right side of it and went all around the design with the small ball tip of my tool so it would become defined. I removed the napkins from underneath so it was on a flat and hard surface, a glass would be ideal, I just used my cutting mat. 

So, after I was done I lined the embossed part with pink bond paper and cut the back of the cup shape and glued them all, leaving a big pocket inside the cup. For the embossed part of the cup I used thick paper, in México we call it "papel marquilla" and I'm not sure what its English name is or what its components are, but I remember getting blocks of that paper through my entire schooling years for art lessons, and I loved it back then as much as I do now!. Specially because it came in a rather large size and it's great for water colors, gouaché, ink and coloring pencils.

And it was time for my favourite part! The little teabag tag. Can you tell how tiny it is from the picture? In my country we use the metric system, so I'm not too familiar with inches yet!.

The white paper on the left is the actual tag and it's made of coated paper, as well as the "tea bag". The little square to the right is -well, at that point was going to be- a little paper cut out silhouette, I cut through 2 papers at once so I could have them on both sides of the tag.

I felt so happy cutting paper that I made a flower for the front of the tea cup

Time for some music! 

I was very happy that Alice asked me about Philippe Jaroussky yesterday on her comment, actually she asked about counter tenors. I love this video! 

OK, back to the card. I needed to attach the string to the teabag so that it would stay put if it got pulled out from it, I was wondering how to do that and I remembered seeing this hand at Elsita Mora's blog that I liked very much so I decided to make one to hold the string in place.

Click on the picture to go to the original post where this image comes from.

So I made a tiny hand similar to the one on the picture

But that didn't go too well as the fingers in the middle became distorted so I started a bigger one

I traced a design on it using the same tool I use for embossing, come to think of it I call it a burin sometimes, and began cutting. 

At one point I had to use my thread counter to see some of the details on it.

Then I realized it needed some backing so I could actually glue the tag's string to it, so I added some.

And here is the teabag finished. I made some tea with the tip of a paintbrush and paint :) It actually has a 3rd fold not visible on this picture, so it's a triptych. Everything else on it is blank so a note can be written on it.

And here at last is the finished tea cup with its teabag inside it 

Do you like it? :)

My first miniature art doll

I think he looks like a prince that walked out from a fairy tale. Probably from a French one!   X)
Would he smell of roses and mint as his colors suggest?
It must be Valentines' coming up that allowed me to indulge in the making of this charming gentleman.

I used a mixed technique to make this doll..
First I molded all the pieces by hand with  my own personal concoction of "starch-clay" it was a bit hard at first since the clay was not dry yet but I kept on working on assembling him together.

I painted a flower on the front of  his shirt that was inspired by a botanical motif on a medieval tapestry.



Below you can see some pictures I took while I made him:.




After the starch-clay had hardened I covered each one of the pieces with bits of papier máchê, waited for them to dry and sanded him for a soft finish, it felt quite velvety!



Then applied the background colors with acrylic paint.

And once that was dry I added the details with paint brushes.

I use polychrome for protection, it makes the best finish I have found so far, smooth to the touch and very shiny.

I'm looking forward to making more dolls of this kind and to experiment around with different shapes.

It is a really long process. I love the way this one looks and feels! Specially the size, it's a new one for me, so much bigger, it allowed me with SO much room than I usually have to paint on!
I love painting my dolls so much! ^u^
I could use a thinner paintbrush, one that only had one single hair at the very tip!

 I painted a butterfly on his back.

Since I had only painted my little doll beads before I wasn't sure of what I could do this time. But I'm quite happy with the new found extra-room!

It is still pretty small in size in real life, just look at the size of my fingers next to his head. It makes my pinky look chubby! (and it isn't one bit, just for the record! ;)
 
The picture below this has a post card I've been drawing as the background and 2 other pieces I also finished at the same time as this doll.

 I asked my daughter to help me for this shot, I wanted to see if he would make an earring 

:) he he he

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