Tiny Paper Theater, full of photos and tips

I'm not sure I can tell you how much fun I had making this new tiny paper theater I got from Alpha Stamps last week. I was obsessed! If there's one thing I love, it's working tiny. Plus, all the bright colors on the accompanying collage sheet just stole my circus-loving heart.

I know it looks big in the photo, so here's a little better idea of its size. Without the addition of top finial, it's just 4 inches tall.

The swag you see near my thumb is part of a curtain from another theater on the same collage sheet. The center medallion has a face on it, but because I wanted the clown on top to be the focus, I covered that face with a decorative brad. There's also a foam square in the center of that swag to give it some dimension.

Wooden spindles and finials (colored with a gold Sharpie) add dimension. The top curtains and columns are raised as well. To achieve this, I used two copies of the same collage sheet, and layered some parts using foam glue dots.  

The foam glue dots showed between the stacked layers, so I cut thin strips of matching paper, put a little glue on the edges, and covered the gap. On the left you can see how the foam tape shows; on the right is the strip of paper covering that area. I used a cream colored strip to fix the base portion, so the wooden spindles had a nice place to sit.

The curtains in the side windows are cut from other theater facades included in the collage sheet. Because the curtains show both inside and out, I used markers to draw the curtain on the reverse side of the paper. Putting the curtain image face down on a light table allowed me to see where the details went. The photo below shows the part of the collage sheet I used for these curtains. I am holding the back of one of the cutouts where I hand drew the pattern for the reverse side.

Here's how they look once they're in place. The image from the collage sheet is on the left, and the hand drawn back of curtain shows on the right.

 Who's performing the first show? How nice this little group looks up on stage.

Making the characters stand was easy. In the following photo, the five easy steps are outlined from left to right.
1. Using a 1/2" circle punch, punch out a circle from the paper with which you're making your stage floor. I used Wood Flooring scrapbook paper.
2. Outline your character with a black marker, and your circle with a marker that matches the color as closely as possible.
3. Using white glue, attach a mini pin stands to the circle.
4. Once the pin is secured to the base, glue the upright part of the pin to the back of your figure.
5. Note that, if the floor of your stage has a pattern, you should orient the grain of the pattern to match the floor. The little goat on the left blends right in with the floor, while the stand on the right is obvious.

A very old theater near me has a night sky painted on their ceiling, which is just magical. I used a Night Sky scrapbook paper to mimic faux sky in my tiny theater.

The back of the theater has a poster that not only was tacked up crookedly, but is starting to come down. Maybe it's time to put up a new poster?

In the making of this theater, I constantly put it together and took it back apart to make sure that everything looked good. Oops, I can see below that the front of the stage needs that chipboard curtain part painted red. Also, the windows want some curtains and some trim (using Dazzles thin line stickers). Don't glue things together too soon, or you'll be sorry! One change I made to the chipboard base of the theater: with the facade I chose, the roof of the stage would show in the front once assembled. You can see the notches for the roof over the windows above. (In the finished theater, the curtains on the sides cover those notches.) I cut the opening in the front of the theater a little larger so the chipboard does not show.

Once the theater was glued together, I covered a piece of cardboard with the striped paper to make a new, higher-up roof, and attached it to the top of the walls as shown below. Gold stickers cover the seam beautifully.

Whew! That's a lot of photos and a lot of words. I hope you enjoyed my little theater. Here's one last picture, with the entire cast in attendance. 

For a complete list of supplies, click here!

Cirque Theatre

Send in the clowns! This month at Alpha Stamps, it's all about the circus, one of my favorite themes. Here's a wild and wooly clown extravaganza, made using the same Small Paper Theatre box that I used to make "Animal Farm". There is so much aerial action going on in this Cirque Theater, that I turned the box for a vertical presentation, and mounted it on a Small Wooden Theatre Base.

All clowns, all the time. Plus a few stars.

I was working on this over the Fourth of July weekend, hence the Americana feel. Once the theater was built, I filled it jam-packed full with clowns. 

The clowns are stacked at various depths to give dimension.

A vintage cupcake pick and some metallic hands welcome one and all to the circus. If you'd like to see how the paper medallion was made, click here for the tutorial. For this project, I made a semi-circle instead of using a full medallion.

Fill your days with circus fun! Need supplies? Click here!

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!