Animal Farm, the musical. Now with medallion tutorial.

What's up this month at Alpha Stamps? Paper theaters! I used the Small Paper Theater Box and some of the scrumptious theater backgrounds from collage sheets to make a theater base, and then had a marvelous time making it luxurious. I used all kinds of embellishments: flatback rhinestone studs, metal hands and stars, gold Sweeper Fringe, matchsticks, and a scallop shell charm, to name a few (Don't worry, there's a link to my supply list at the bottom of this post!)  There are even a few rhinestone stars floating down from the ceiling; they're attached with threads.

Who are the players in this fancy-schmancy venue? After some deliberation, I chose some great animal images from the Circus Animals collage sheets. The animals are in rehearsal for opening night of "Animal Farm, the musical". I just had to give them all googly eyes, as they looked like they were having such fun. Well, most of them, anyway. Ronnie Rooster is a little ticked off that he's not listed as one of the stars. He's folded up his music and is just about ready to stomp off the stage in defeat.

The characters are all stacked up with dimensional foam, and I folded some of the edges of the music scores in their little hands to give them even more dimension. The Animal Farm banner is made using a rubber stamp (Large Center Banner). The title of the play is hand lettered. I cheated on the sign on the side; I printed the animals' names out and then drew and cut out that banner. It's hanging from a pole made from a couple of matchsticks. Baker's twine was used for the cord.

Want to know how I made the folded paper medallion that's behind the star on top?

It's easier than it looks, especially if you have a scoring board. Here's how:
1. Cut a strip of paper 12" long, and a little less than half the diameter you wish your medallion to be. The strip I'm using in this tutorial is 1 1/4" wide, and the finished medallion is a little over 2 1/2" in diameter. 

 

2. Place the strip along the top and side guidelines of the scoring board, and using the scoring utensil, score every 1/2" (on the Martha Stewart board, shown here, you would score on each dot.) Your paper is longer than the board, so when you get to the edge of the board in your scoring, simply slide your paper over to the left to continue scoring your strip.

3. Once you have scored every 1/2", flip the paper over and score between each scored area. Now you will have a score line every 1/4". Flipping the paper makes it easier to fold.

 4. Finish scoring all the way to the end, and then fold the strip accordion-fashioned.

5. In order to join your medallion correctly, you'll need to cut off one of the ends at the first fold. 

6. Put a strip of double stick tape on one end, and bring the other end around (your strip should be in a circle now). Attach firmly.

7. Here's the tricky part: stand the strip up on one edge, and using both your hands, gently press the top edge down to the middle. Take a circle, coat it up well with glue, and place it on the center, holding firmly. I use white glue, and then set the medallion under a stack of books to set.

8. Once it's set, you have a festive medallion. 

For a list of supplies used in this project, click here. And enjoy the show!

Springtime in Paris, OR "Clarence Photobombs in France"

Alpha Stamps' theme for May is Springtime in Paris. Ah, so romantic. I'm not all that sappy, though, so I took a bit of a different tact. One of the collage sheets we were given is "Paris Postcards", which have reduced images of actual vintage postcards of France. I collect vintage postcards, so I really love this collage sheet. The colors and images are really wonderful. I decided to mount them on some artist trading blocks and other wooden blocks that I painted and then sanded. My original plan was to add other elements on top of the images for a Paris collage, but I loved the way the blocks looked with just the postcards on them, and I just couldn't bear to cover them up.

Enter Clarence. He just couldn't help inserting himself into every frame. 

I don't know...it just cracks me up.

I did at least collage the backs of the blocks.

But I prefer Clarence.

For a complete list of supplies, click here.