I had a lovely day with everyone at Coleman's Craft Warehouse yesterday. As usual there was tea and coffee with biscuits and cake on offer on their big demo day and always a happy smile and a warm welcome. It was great to meet up with old friends as well as make some new ones :) and I was pleased to see there was interest for both napkin decoupage and Efco's new Easy Rust. Easy Rust Paste is not only great for creating terracotta ornaments as seen below but can also be used to create rust effects on altered art projects in the same way as Prima's Rust Paste Set - more on that in my next blog post ;)
For those who are interested here are the instructions for how I created the terracotta Elephant...
First you need a paper mache elephant...
Then basecoat it with a good layer of Efco Easy Rust Paste. When dry add touches of the other Efco Easy Rust Paste. (It doesn't matter which way round you do this..ie dark first, light second or vice versa.)
When dry use either pva glue or Mod Podge to add patches of gold leaf...
Then roughly cover over the gold leaf with more Easy Rust Paste except for the tusks and eyes...
Coat the exposed gold leaf with sealer (or weatherproof varnish if you are planning on keeping your elephant outside) to stop the gold leaf from tarnishing.
What you will find is that the 'hidden' gold leaf peaks out in places giving the whole thing a lift or a little life.
As Easy Rust Paste is weather resistant, provided you have thoroughly covered your elephant (including the soles of his/her feet) you can keep it in the garden. It's a very cheap way of creating terracotta sculptures for your summer garden!
Of course if you prefer your elephants a touch more colourful then you could always try napkin decoupage instead... ;)
I used one napkin to create this decorative effect. First I base coated the elephant with white acrylic paint and left it to dry. In the meantime I 'cut' out the butterfly and flower motifs from the napkin using a fine wet brush to trace around each one, gently pulling them apart. Then I painted a thin coat of Mod Podge on a small area and gently patted a motif in place, applying more Mod Podge over the top working from the centre of the motif to the outer edges. I repeated this for each motif until the elephant was covered. Then I applied 2-3 more coats of Mod Podge all over, allowing 20 minutes drying time between coats.
Again this elephant can go outside in the garden provided you use the Mod Podge Exterior paste and follow the manufacturer's instructions.
Happy Crafting Everyone!
