Paper mache is really fun and rather messy, but it's fantastic! You can model out anything you wish to and make amazing decorations! It's also a really good way to recycle paper, help save our planet!
STUFF YOU'LL NEED:
paper- it can be colored paper, news paper... (Ever since I started making crafts, there were always bits of paper left out so I started to assemble it as scrap paper. I really hope you could do the same!)
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of water
white glue (optional)
tape
acrylic paint
PROCEDURE:
-making the pot-
Tear your scrap paper into small and large pieces
2. Look for a round-shaped object. Go ahead and roughly shape some paper pieces into the circular object. Use the tape to fasten some places where the paper is sticking out.
3. You can now remove the paper from the container, place it on your table. Combine flour, water and a little bit of white glue(optional). Mix it well to get a smooth paste.
4. Plunge pieces of paper into the paste, make sure that the paste covers the whole paper. Then let the excess paste drip off and place the wet paper on your dry paper. Keep adding layers of paper and shaping them into your pot.
5. Let it dry- best in the sun. You will know that it's dry when there is absolutely no paste, you can hold the pot and, well... it looks strong!
6. finish off by painting the pot in whatever acrylic colors you feel like.
-the cactus-
For the cactus, I used news paper. The principals are the same: firstly shape your paper into the cactus shape you'd like it to be. Fasten off with tape.
Then dip straps of newspaper in the paste and start wrapping it around the dry news paper.
3. Let the news paper dry off.
4. As soon as it's completely dry, paint it with a first coat of white acrylic paint. If you paint directly with green, the writings on the paper will show.
5. Now it's safe to paint with the perfect cactus green, add black dots and white spines; you could even play with different shades of green to add different effects!
6. I crumbled pieces of colored paper as decorations for my cactus. I packed down some cotton in the bottom of the pot then I put the paper balls on the cotton.
There we go! A DIY cactus made of paper mache! You could use it to decorate your room, you could try out new stuff with paper mache! Let me know how it turns up!
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