The Bunny Circus Eggstravaganza

The March kit from Alpha Stamps is here! So many chicks and bunnies; spring is on the way, which means Easter is not far behind. I love some Easter art, but I found a collage sheet entitled "Circus Chicks", and you sure can't go wrong with that! I made my Little Niche Egg shrine into a tiny springtime circus, because why not?

I fell in love with the little chick in its clown costume, and decided to work around him. Sure, he's not a bunny, but he is, at least, now sporting the bunny ears. For the background, I found the perfect circus image from the Big Top Circus collage sheet, and made it the background of my niche. I used two copies of the circus collage sheet so I could cut out the flags and banners and attach them with foam tape for added dimension. I also cut out the ball, and attached it with two layers of foam tape to bring it to the forefront.

Every circus needs a ringmaster, but the rabbit image I wanted to use had his head facing away from the action. I cut out the body of that rabbit and used the head from a different rabbit from the same collage sheet. Now he's paying attention!

The chick on the collage sheet appears to be wearing an eye patch, so I colored the patch yellow to match his head, and added a couple of crazy eyes. The eyes I used are designed for fishing flies; they were the perfect size for this crazy little clown chick. Because the eyes are plastic, it was easy to trim his left eye so it looks like it sits behind his beak. I also gave him some bunny ears, cut from the original head of the ringmaster bunny. Now he fits in with the other rabbit performers.

Here are a few photos of how this project came together. I first chose the image of the chick, and the circus background, and then the perfect piece of scrapbook paper from the Echo Dot Summer Dots and Stripes 6x6 pad that coordinated with those colors. The dotted paper was glued to the egg, and then carefully trimmed with an x-acto knife. Some baker's twine was glued around the outer edge. The circus image was adhered to the back and sides of the cardboard niche, which was then glued together with white glue. Clothespins work great for holding things together while the glue dries.

The niche was put in place and the flaps glued to the back of the egg. Masking tape held down the flaps during drying time. The hanger was also glued on at this time.

White Dresden trim around the opening reminds me of those sugar eggs with the scene in them that I used to love as a kid. I tried it out to make sure I liked it before gluing it down. In the photo below, the flags in the circus background have not yet been doubled up. That was my next step.

 

See how the flags pop, now that there's an extra layer? After the egg was put together, the outside was decorated with all the elements. The chipboard grass was greened up with a combo of paint and colored pencils. I used three clusters to make the Easter grass that the egg sits in.

Thanks for visiting the bunny circus! For a complete list of supplies, click here.

Teeny Tiny Circus Shriney

I had the smallest of jeweler's tins sitting around for the longest time, and decided to make a tiny shrine out of it. Luckily, I found a teeny tiny image of an elephant, so of course I made a circus shrine. It sits on a bead cap, and features some miniscule sequined stars. Here it is, with a penny for scale.

Not much else to say about this one. 😀

Circus Town

A friend of mine recently introduced me to feves, and I'm not sure how I feel about that; once I saw them, I had to purchase some. If you are unfamiliar with feves, they are small trinkets hidden in a king cake or similar dessert. You know, like the plastic babies you can buy at the party store. BUT, the feves my friend introduced to me are no plastic babies: they are porcelain feves from France. There are all sorts of feves to be found on etsy: animals, kitchen accessories,  and cartoon characters, just to name a few. I found a set that is circus themed and it was all over. They are mine.

Of course I need a way to display them, so I looked to Alpha Stamps and found the cutest little houses, perfect to make a circus town! They also had the perfect paper needed to decorate the houses: "The Greatest Show" 6 x 6 pad. It's gorgeous! I had fun mixing and matching the papers on each of the houses. For scale, the tallest house in the center is 3 1/4" tall, minus the flag.

Some closeups. Look at those little porcelain beauties!

I fussy cut some of the elements from the papers: the ball in the clown house, the pennants, and all the circus posters.

And, the backs. Circus Town is the perfect place for all my new feves to live. For a list of Alpha Stamps supplies used, click here.

Artist Trading Coins: Controlled Mayhem, with Tutorial

Artist trading coins from Alpha Stamps!  Here's some Controlled Mayhem to brighten your day: five coins and five pockets decorated in a circus theme. I used some metallic paint to brighten up the edge of each coin in shiny gold. Grommets were added to the upper left corner of each pocket, and they were all bound with a binder ring. A tassel made with fun and fuzzy fibers (and a sweet silver elephant) was added to the ring for maximum circus fun.

Here are the pockets and coins before binding. I used a rubber stamp to make the title on the first pocket. Old tickets look fab on the fronts of the rest.

Let's take the coins out!

Circus fun!

Mixed colors and patterns.

 Of course I had to decorate the backs a bit as well.

Here are a few in progress photos and comments about how these were made. My first step was to choose which images I wanted to use on the coins. Once those were chosen, I picked paper for the background and glued it on. Each coin then got a border. Some of the borders were made using black sharpies, and some were done with paint and a spotter, which is actually a tool for decorating fingernails. That's one at the lower left. You can get inexpensive sets of those on Amazon.

Here's what my table looked like when I was choosing the papers for the pockets. You can see the chipboard pocket at the top center. I painted all the edges with a gold metallic paint for a bit of sparkle. IMPORTANT: When I folded up the pocket and adhered the flaps to form the pocket, I did it with a coin inside to make sure I left enough give in the pocket. If you skip this step, your coin may not fit. Using double stick tape insures the pocket will stick firmly.

The photo below shows the three steps I took in covering the pockets. They can be a little tricky because of the rounded corners, but here's an easy way to deal with that.
1. Put double stick tape all around the straight edges of the pockets.
2. Glue the paper you're using, and line it up with the tape at the top of the pocket. Then flip the pocket over and cut as shown. I used an x-acto blade to carefully cut around the corners. Put double stick tape around the edges of the back of the pocket (I did not want to trust glue to hold those edges!) and carefully fold the edges over.
3. Flip over your pocket, and voila! Use an ink pad to darken the edges if you wish. I went around later with a dry brush of the gold metallic paint and added that to the edges as well.

4. Choose the paper you want to use behind the pocket, and glue that to the front of your pocket. Use and x-acto knife to trim around the top edge.

 

Once that's done, cover the back, and add a grommet to each pocket.

Thread a binder ring through the grommets, and you've got a fun little trading coin pocket book. Don't forget to add a tassel! For a complete list of supplies, click here.

Maximus the Magnificent

So. I had a little spell of free time where I didn't have a deadline for any art projects, and I decided to look for a tin to alter. I had in mind doing something Spring/Easter related. People are always giving me empty tins, so I looked through my tin drawer hoping to find something different. I found a square green tin (perfect for Spring; let's use that!) but I also pulled out a long skinny gold tin, thinking it would be fun to use for a future project. Well, I fought with the green tin just long enough to remember I had some new gold striped paper that might look really, really good with that second tin. The green tin got tossed aside, and Maximus the Magnificent the Strong Man was born. Maximus himself comes from an awesome collage sheet by Nichola Battilana (love her stuff!). I gave him some wings, a prize fighter belt, and a wee silver crown.

The three blocks I used in this piece are all vintage. I cut the red and white block Maximus stands on in half so it would fit inside the tin, and cut a wheel in half for the top. The sides and back of the tin are covered in patterned paper; the dots around the opening were done with Gesso. I used black and cream striped paper for the inside walls of the tin, some of the pennants in the background, and the belt. The belt buckle is actually a peanut butter label, intended for a dollhouse jar. Maximus' outfit needed a pop of red, and it was the perfect size and shape.

Maximus didn't start out wearing any headgear, but when I found that tiny crown and let him try it on, he refused to take it off. I think it suits him. 

Maximus has been looking for a nice place to live. Currently, he's residing in our keeping room, but he may move into the living room in the near future. You know how those circus folk like to travel.

Matchbox Circus

If you know me at all, you know I'm crazy about the circus. It's been a while since I made any circus art, so I decided to have a little fun with another mini matchbox like the one I used a couple of weeks ago to make Mini Mermaids. Here's some more big fun in a little 2 1/2" package.

First, the cover. I put alphabet stickers spelling out the word "circus" on a piece of paper and then cut it out to make a sign for the elephant to hold. Sequin stars add a bit of sparkle. The letters on the spine of the "book" were cut from a collage sheet.

When you open the box, there's a tiny circus performance going on. Or perhaps it's dress rehearsal, seeing as the seats aren't yet filled.

I painted the tiniest of people to create a wee trapeze artist and a ringmaster. I used the thinnest of brushes and the strongest of magnifying glasses to paint these performers. The trapeze artist is perched on her swing, which is actually a thin piece of wire, bent to shape. She's attached to her perch with a little white glue. The baby elephant's blanket is a piece of ribbon, cut to size and glued on.

When I say these people are small, I'm not kidding. Here's the ringmaster with a quarter to show scale. He's just about 3/4" tall.

Star sequins, Dresden trim over the curtains, and gold tape all make the circus shine.

A little bit about how I did part of the box. Here it is before the curtains were added. Obviously, something was needed here!

The curtain image I wanted to use from the the collage sheet was way too wide for the available space in the matchbox, but I really liked the way they looked. I cut them in half to see how they would look if I stitched them together in the center.

I cut the piece on the left along the swag, and then glued the two parts together. If I had thought far enough ahead, I would have saved one of those fringe folds to go in the center, but alas, I had to cut one, and the other was firmly glued to the back of the curtains on the left before I thought this through.

So, I took the thinnest of my pens and drew another fold, then cut it out and glued it on. Voila! Next time, I'll make sure to plan a little better. Meanwhile, however, the show must go on!

Now I have a little pocket circus to take wherever I go.

Need supplies? Click here!

Orphanage Rd. In Winter

Nothing says "holiday season" like some morose orphans looking sadly out at the snow, amIrite? When I found that the next Alpha Stamps monthly kit contained a window shadowbox, for some reason, I immediately thought of circus kids. Leslie, of Alpha Stamps fame, was kind enough to design a collage sheet full of vintage circus kid images for me. I chose a large image of four solemn looking waifs, gave them all bright red clown noses, and built "Orphanage Rd." to house them.

Yeah, it's warm and better than living on the snowy streets, but it's obvious it's not a great place to be. These poor kids want nothing more than to run away and join the circus, if only the circus will have them. So sad!

I used two collage sheets so I could cut out the girls in front and stack them for more dimension. The upper trim is a Fleur Border, painted black and then coated with glaze.

Here's how they looked before adhering them. I used foam adhesive glue dots to raise the image up. The girls have one glue dot separating them from the guys, and the guys had two glue dots separating them from the back.

Inside the box. Yes, I cut their poor little legs off, but you can't tell once they're behind the window.

Before I covered the outside of the box, I used a Sharpie to color the inside window panes black. The outside windows were colored with a silver Sharpie. The little girl and her dog were originally considered for this piece, but they just looked too happy.

To cut the background paper, I placed the paper, centering the pattern, and adhered it with removable glue dots.  I then used a pencil along the outside border of the window opening, and then cut the paper a little larger than what I traced. The silver outer pane will cover the edges of the paper, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

After gluing the paper on the front, I used some Tacky Glue to construct the box. Clothespins held the box until the glue dried. I cut the corners as shown, and once the box was dry, glued the paper to the sides, wrapping them in the same way you'd wrap a present.

I'm not going to lie, adding the snow made me a little nervous. I sure didn't want to wreck all my hard work! I cut a piece of scrap cardboard and did a few test runs. I first used the Diamond Dust with just white glue, but it was too subtle when the glue dried clear. Using White Opal Liquid Pearls looked way more like real snow. Once I figured out what looked better, I just went for it.

Bless you, sad little orphan children. I hope your circus dreams come true.

For a complete list of supplies, click here! 

Big Red Circus Wagon, with Lion Cage tutorial

The circus is in town!

I can't help but be a little sad that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus will be closing for good this year. I have always loved the circus, and making circus art. It just so happens that the Alpha Stamps mini 3D Cinderella Coach, with a change of color and adornments, makes the perfect little circus wagon for little peg people. It's been almost two years since I made my Tiny Peg Circus, and it was time for those little performers to have a means of reliable transportation.

The wagon is just the right size to hold six members of the circus. For safety reasons, no one wanted to ride with the lions, so I constructed a little cage to tag along with the wagon. I'll show you how that was made at the end of this post.

Before assembling the wagon, I painted the body red, and the front and back pieces brown. The front seat was painted black, and given tiny gold "buttons", tiny circles which came from Dazzles gold stickers. Some striped paper went behind the seat, and lots more of the Dazzles stickers were applied around the window and doors and along the roof line. Metal stars, leaves, and filigree pieces add a lot of circus glitz.

The back of the wagon also has some stripes, plus a "wooden" painted platform that is just the right size to carry the strong man's barbells.

Here's a view of the back, without the barbells.

The lion cage is tiny, but large enough to comfortably carry a couple of felines. The cage was constructed with cardboard and part of a set of chipboard gates. Those gates made the perfect fancy bars for the cage.

To make the cage, use the smaller gates from the set. Remove the long side of the gate, seen on the left gate below. Figure out how large you want your cage to be. The walls of this one are 2 3/8" tall, and the front and back are 1 5/8" wide. You'll need four slim pieces to fit on each side of the bars for the front and back of the cage; these are 2 3/8" tall by 3/8" wide.

Paint the front and back bars of the gate gold with a paint pen, and paint the remaining cardboard red. Using Aleene's Tacky Glue, glue the narrow pieces right up against the bars, and then glue on the front and back at 90 degree angles. Working quickly, glue the bottom of the cage into place. Using an x-acto knife, carefully cut the bars flush with the bottom of the cage. Keep the part you cut off; you'll use that later. Attach the back of the cage, which consists of the bars with the thin strips attached, and then cut those bars off, again, flush with the bottom of the cage.

Using the gate parts you just trimmed off, cut the excess bars off as shown below, and then remove one of the finials so there are six remaining. These will now fit the front and back of the wagon. Glue into place along the tops.

Glue into place along the tops, as shown below. Wrap a Dazzles sticker around the top of the bars and the bottom of the cage, and glue stars on the front and back corners. Use E6000 to attach the tiny ring handle, decorate the back, and add a flag if you're feeling festive.

To attach the wheels, add a piece of cardboard to the bottom that's slightly smaller than the bottom itself. This will help stabalize the included rounded pieces that will hold the axles. Glue them in place as shown. Thread the axles through the holes, and put the wheels on. If the wheels tend to slide around, take some masking tape and roll it around the axle. That will keep the wheels in place. At the left of this photo, you can see the trailer hitch. It's simply a piece of cardboard with a hitch fastener punched through one end.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my circus wagon even half as much as I enjoyed making it. Let's all wave goodbye to the circus as it leaves forever.

For a complete list of supplies, click here.