Art Doll Carol Singer

I just got back from France this evening and I must be crazy as I walked in the door and straight into my craft room! Whilst I was away I had spotted that the lovely people at the Eclectic Paperie were having a challenge to make an Art Doll. I really fancied this and some ideas started to take shape over the coming few days, thinking I had all of November. Then I thought to look back at the challenge deadline and realized it was today, my return date! I also wanted to join in the Indigo Blu challenge which is Chocolate Orange, which also closes today, at 8 pm, just to make it that little bit more interesting! No chance of photographing my make in daylight but I can always switch the photos tomorrow. For what I had in mind I thought the new Jane stamp by Indigo Blu would be perfect. I had wondered about using one of my favourite Lynne Perella stamps but I felt for an art doll something without too much decoration already incorporated into it was the way to go. I also felt as it is such a huge stamp that it would work well on shrink plastic and that this would have more substance than just a stamped image on cardstock.

 

I always think the difficulty with art dolls is making something self-supporting and I'd had an idea for a while of using a mini easel so that the struts were the legs and the canvas the body, and the whole thing would then stand up on its own and everything else could hang off it. I painted the canvas orange and covered it with music script tissue wrap and painted the easel chocolate brown. I stamped Jane in brown and made an orange shrink plastic flower for her hair from the Live Laugh Love set. I didn't completely shrink it but stopped whilst it was curled up a little to give it some shape so it would sit proud of her head. I gave her rusted wings and a ruffle collar made from the Alterations rosette die so she looked like an angelic chorister with the music script body. I added a rusted light bulb so she could look like she was going carol singing with a lantern.

I gave her 'dress' a zipper and added a row of tiny orange and white buttons along the bottom. I pulled the feet off a skeleton and painted them a 'live' flesh pink and glued them onto the struts of the easel. I finished her off with orange lipstick and pearl earrings. Well, it would be rude not to!