As we approach New Year's holidays I want to add a little fairytale and magic to my life. To diversify your preparations for the New Year and Christmas, surprise your loved ones, and at the same time create a magical atmosphere in your home, you can create New Year's papier-mâché products.
The first unusual works of this technique appeared in Ancient China, and it was used in the production of protective headgear. Soon the French began to use it in their country for the manufacture of decor and even furniture, where the name “Papier-mâché” originated. Translated from French, the technique of making objects is translated as “crumpled paper.”
Handmade crafts look very original, especially antique ones. In addition, they are quite simple, and even children can cope with their manufacture. The papier-mâché technique is as follows: a certain shape is taken as a basis, onto which torn paper must be applied in layers. The paper is placed in such a way that each piece rests on the previous one. Each layer of the figure must be carefully coated with glue, and the paper must be carefully smoothed out so that there are no wrinkles. To create a craft, as well as strengthen its strength, you need to make at least 5 layers. Upon completion of the work process, the product must be thoroughly dried.
Hanging figures for the New Year, such as Christmas tree decorations, a New Year's or carnival mask and other handmade products, will amaze both children and adults.
New Year's toys and papier-mâché crafts are especially original, and christmas tree with such decorations pleases with its uniqueness. Under the green beauty you can put a molded Santa Claus, a New Year's house, a symbol of the New Year and other winter-themed figures.
Master class on working with papier-mâché (video)
Papier-mâché Christmas decorations: a fun decoration
What could be more interesting than receiving gifts? Of course, cook them! And it’s even nicer when souvenirs and Christmas decorations made by hand.
To make original or vintage toys for a papier-mâché Christmas tree you will need:
- A mass of several rolls of toilet paper;
- Work surface;
- Paint with brushes;
- Forms;
- Sandpaper.
The main material for the craft is paper pulp made from toilet paper, glue and glycerin. If you have it, you can start creating crafts.
Take the necessary mold, which can be anything, and fill it with mass. You don’t have to use the mold. In this case, it is necessary to squeeze the mass in your palms as hard as possible to keep it strong. In the process of making toys, the specific shape of the intended product should be given.
An excellent option would be to create animals, cones, Christmas balls. After modeling is completed, the products need to be dried for two to three days.
To make the surface of the resulting figures smooth, you should rub them a little with sandpaper. Smooth products are not only pleasant to touch, but also work with paints in the future becomes several times easier.
The final stage is painting the elements with acrylic paints. You can invite children to color the products - there will be no limit to their delight! The resulting balls or other standard shapes can be further decorated with ribbons, beads and other small details. The papier-mâché Christmas decorations are finished, and the mood is already New Year's!
New Year's mask for a festive evening
A papier-mâché mask is made slightly differently.
To begin with, take a model of the future mask, cover it with Vaseline and paste it with pieces of paper according to the following procedure:
- Standard papier-mâché technique;
- The first layer is covered with glue;
- Pasting with thicker paper, smeared with thick glue;
- Papier-mâché technique made from plain paper;
- Pasting with pieces of cotton cloth;
- Repeating the papier-mâché technique from plain paper;
- Pasting again with thicker paper;
- Pasting with white thick paper or white cloth
All layers must be done carefully, carefully smoothing out the folds and releasing any air bubbles that have formed so that the mask is even. Next, the product is dried well for more than three days.
After the mask has dried, we begin to decorate it. You can cover the workpiece with any fabric, but it is best to give preference to stretch fabrics to avoid wrinkles. The slits for the eyes must be made with a small allowance to turn the edges inward. WITH inside the mask should also be covered with cotton cloth. The last stage of making the craft is the most interesting.
The finished mask is decorated based on imagination. You can use anything: beads, feathers, sequins, braid and much more. A homemade mask is highly valued at any holiday.
Cotton papier-mâché and its simplicity
How can we cope without Santa Claus in the New Year? And if the character is made with your own hands, then the feeling of celebration is increased several times.
To create a hero from cotton wool and papier-mâché you will need wire or plastic bottle, which will be used for the frame of the product, cotton wool, thread and PVA glue. You can mix a paste of flour or starch with your own hands, but with glue the work is simplified.
To begin with, take a wire and twist it in the form of a human silhouette, onto which dry cotton wool will be molded in layers. After applying several layers, the cotton wool on the frame must be secured with threads. Now the main stage of work begins. Cotton layers need to be glued onto the frame of the craft. To do this, you need to thinly divide the cotton wool, soak it well with glue and apply it to the figure. To make the surface smooth, you can paste over the figure thin paper. After forming the silhouette of Santa Claus, you need to start sculpting his face and other small details. The sculpting of the New Year's guest is complete!
The time to dry the figure is calculated based on its size, but not less than 3 days. Last stage – New Year coloring book products with acrylic or other paints.
How to make crafts using the papier-mâché technique look beautiful?
To do this you need to know little tricks:
- Do not dry figures on a radiator or other heaters to avoid cracks;
- You can give the product ideal evenness and smoothness using sandpaper or additional layers of glue;
- To preserve the durability of the craft, at the end of the work it is necessary to coat it with varnish;
- Cotton fabric well soaked in an adhesive solution will help give the product strength.
How to make a papier-mâché toy with your own hands (video)
Not everyone can practice papier-mâché. To work with your own hands, you should have such traits as patience and perseverance. And for craftswomen who cannot imagine themselves without their favorite craft, and whose workflow skills for making original products have long been honed, crafts can bring good income.
Examples of New Year's toys made of papier-mâché (photo)
It's so nice to make gifts with your own hands for the New Year. Call your children to help and they will enjoy learning what papier-mâché is. Papier-mâché(French - chewed paper), an easily moldable mass obtained from fibrous materials (paper, cardboard, etc.), usually with the addition of adhesives, starch, gypsum, etc. Toys are made from papier-mâché New Year's crafts, teaching aids, dummies, theatrical props, caskets, boxes, vases, often decorated with painting, varnishing, and embossing."
Papier-mâché is a simple and cheap technology that allows you to create durable and lightweight paper surfaces. Tear the paper into strips, add flour paste and paste over the orange... Or you can beat it with a blender toilet paper, add pva and compress... In any case, together with your baby you can create unusual shape, image, character... Products made from papier-mâché can be subjected to any decoration methods.
Papier-mâché was invented in the early 16th century in France and was originally used to make dolls. The huge public interest in imported Chinese and Japanese lacquered decorative products became, around the 70s of the 17th century, the impetus for the development of production of papier-mâché products in Europe
A very wide range of products were made from papier-mâché: snuff boxes, boxes, toys, masks, trays, architectural stucco for walls and ceilings, candlesticks, mirror frames, decorative panels for walls, doors, carriages, as well as a variety of furniture products, including beds and wardrobes.
Exists three manufacturing technologies papier-mâché products.
According to the first- the product is glued layer by layer onto a model from small pieces of wet paper on a pre-prepared model. IN classical technique from several to 100 layers of paper are applied. Nowadays polyvinyl acetate glue is often used for this, but previously starch paste was used.
On the second In this method, products are formed from liquid paper pulp. Paper, cut into small pieces, is filled with hot water and placed in a warm place for a day. Then it is boiled, squeezed, loosened and dried. The resulting paper pulp is thoroughly mixed with chalk. Add glue to the paper-chalk mixture with constant stirring until a plastic, creamy dough is obtained. A mixture of starch paste and wood glue is used as glue. The dough is poured into the prepared form or applied in a layer on its surface and left until completely dry.
On the third method - products are glued together like plywood under pressure from plates of hard, dense cardboard.
Dried products are puttied, sanded, primed, and then painted. Models for molding products are traditionally made from plasticine, clay, wood and plaster.
Recipe for flour paste for papier-mâché
4 tablespoons of wheat flour, the first portion of water - 0.5 tbsp, the second portion of water - 1 glass.
Mix the flour with the first portion of water and stir thoroughly, breaking up all the lumps. Add a second portion of water and mix.
The resulting mixture must be well heated. It is important to stir constantly so that lumps do not form at the bottom. You cannot bring it to a boil - the flour will lose its properties. When a thick sour mass is formed, you can remove it from the heat. Let cool and use. Can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.
To get durable papier-mâché, you need to take a mold into which you can firmly rub the paper. For example, an orange: grease the surface of the mold with vegetable oil and, overlapping each other, cover with strips of paper greased with flour paste.
When the orange is no longer visible because of the newspapers, it is convenient to stick on a layer of contrasting napkin or tracing paper so that you can monitor the uniformity of the stripes.
Rub the paper in motion as if you were trying to make a snowball out of loose snow. The better you rub the paper together, the stronger the cardboard will be.
Making a mask from papier-mâché
Before starting work, the model must be covered with a layer of Vaseline. Next, the model is covered with paper using the papier-mâché technique. We tear the newspaper into small pieces (about the size of today's fifty dollars). In order not to get confused in the layers, it is better that the paper be of two colors: newspaper margins, for example, and newspaper text. The layers should be arranged in the following order:
1st layer: The first layer of papier-mâché consists of plain paper.
Layer 2: When the entire mask is covered with paper, you can make the next layer with glue. To ensure that the mask does not come out loose, but, on the contrary, turns out smooth, hard and waterproof, it is very important to press each piece well, removing air bubbles.
3rd layer: The third layer is thicker paper. It should be attached especially carefully, and it is better to coat it with thicker glue.
4th layer: Plain paper.
5 layer: Cotton fabric should also be finely chopped and soaked in diluted glue. This layer threatens the appearance of folds. Therefore, with some hard object you need to constantly push through all the necessary “relief features” so that they do not disappear under the layers of material, and remove unnecessary ones. When gluing pieces of fabric onto bulges, you may end up with “pockets” - pieces that have nowhere to glue or that form these same folds. They need to be cut with scissors.
6th layer: Plain paper.
Layer 7: Thick paper again.
Layer 8: The top, last layer can be thick white soaked paper or small pieces of white fabric (do not take a bandage; it can be used on middle layers, but, you know, it won’t look good on top). When the glue has set, use a damp cloth or just your hand to wipe the joints of the pieces of paper or fabric to smooth out any irregularities.
After all this, the glued model is dried. The mask should be dried at room temperature without removing it from the model to avoid deformation of the mask (3-4 days).
The mask can be covered with stretch velvet, crepe-satin and almost any fabric. We take the fabric approximately in the shape of the mask, carefully cut it around the eyes with an allowance, and glue it, turning the edges inward. When it sticks, we pull the edges and glue them inside too. The fabric is secured with super glue. It is better to take elastic material so that it does not wrinkle. The inside of the mask is also glued with fabric, preferably cotton. - this fabric should cover the ends of the fabric on the outside. Don't forget the ties!
How to make a head out of papier-mâché?
To do this, first from clay, plasticine, etc. sculpt the head and neck. The face is given the desired expression. The facial features of old men and women are made sharper, more angular, while in children they are made blurry and rounded.
The finished head is greased with some kind of fat and one layer of wet paper is placed on it. To do this, you will have to tear the paper (necessarily from unglued varieties) into small pieces. The paper is carefully smoothed out so that it exactly follows the shape of the sculpted head. When the first layer is applied, it is smeared with paste and another four to five layers of the same paper scraps are applied in the same way. The result is a dense papier-mâché mask, which, after drying in a warm place, but not close to the fire, so that it does not warp, is cut into two parts and removed from the clay mold. After this, using a strip of cloth, cover both halves of the head.
It is good to cover the doll's face with a layer of primer (chalk diluted like a paste with liquid glue). Moreover, you should avoid putting the soil too thick. It must be smoothed with a finger moistened with water. The primed form is dried and sanded. After this, you can begin painting according to a sketch previously made on paper. Oil paints are more suitable for coloring. It is better to paint the hollows of the face with a dark tone, and the convex places with a light tone. The eyes are made from beads and buttons or simply painted with gouache. Hair is made from fur, cotton wool, sponge, thread, tow.
“Children for the Christmas tree”: making cotton Christmas tree decorations.
Master class by the wonderful author ChirunArt or “Dolls Live Here”:
Master class on cotton wool Christmas tree toy. These toys are made using the ancient “cotton wool + paste” technique, using various tricks. I hope that this information will inspire you to make your own unique toys that will delight you and your children for many years.
So let's begin.
For work we will need the following materials and tools:
1. Cotton wool (cotton, homogeneous).
2. Wire (I have knitting wire from a hardware store, but it’s better even thinner and simpler, we will need it for the skeleton; frame).3. Potato starch.
4. Pva.
5. Foil (ordinary, whatever you can find. I have it for cooking).
6. Stacks (Very convenient with balls, rounded, sharp. Will be needed for small parts, face, mittens, cuffs...).
7. Shilo.
8. Watercolor paints.
9. Acrylic paints.
10. Glitter (sparkles) dry white.
11. Varnish in a can. (hairspray will do).
12. Rope (gold or silver for the loop).
13. Threads (ordinary cotton white or light threads).
14. Long needle. It will be needed to thread the string into the finished toy. (I have a set of needles for toys).
15. Brushes (of different sizes, for painting).
That's probably all the materials. I would like to note that everything is quite affordable, and you will not have any difficulty finding and purchasing it all.
I will be making a New Year's "Company" for the Christmas tree.
We take the wire and begin to twist “Skeletons” out of it.
On one main one we twist the legs, arms, ears. It should look something like this:
Next, we begin to add volume with the help of foil, and add movement to our figures.
Already at this stage, the outlines of future toys are visible. IN in this case- this is a bunny.
We do not spare foil; we wrap all parts, arms, legs, ears properly. It should cover the wire and fit very tightly to it (crumple it so that there is no excess air left). And don’t forget to form a pose for each toy (bend the arms, legs, and maybe tilt the head).
This is what my preparation for the future cockerel looks like:
Now we're starting to build up" muscle mass", volume, by applying pieces of cotton wool, and wrap (fix) with white threads. It’s convenient for me to add wire for the tail. Like this:
At this stage I added the missing length on the arms (wire).
And again we wrap it with cotton wool and secure it with threads.
There is no need to rush at this stage, because the more carefully the shape is worked out, the easier it will be to work with wet cotton later. Therefore, we look again and add if anything else is required. We don’t skimp on the threads either.
We use the same principle to make the bunny and the rest of the kids.
And the future baby squirrel.
Here are these wonderful three cockerels:
And the rest of the preparations. At this stage, you can still adjust the pose, turn the head, or make the arms more expressive. From the top row from left to right: A bunny, a fox, a squirrel, a hare and three cockerels.
Now let's go to the kitchen to cook the paste. We will need: water, potato starch, pva (not a lot at all). I do everything by eye :) Pour water, heat it up. Meanwhile, dilute a small amount of starch (1-2 tbsp) in cold water and add it to our hot water. Then cook, stirring constantly, like regular jelly. It should not be very thick, but not runny either. If you see that it is thickening very much, add water. Then cool until warm, add a little PVA and get to work. (My advice is not to cool it too much, because cold paste is not very pleasant to work with. And many people use a brush to apply the paste to the cotton wool. I find it convenient to use my hands rather than a brush, but this is more convenient for others.)
First, I smeared the entire workpiece with paste, then applied small pieces of cotton wool and again paste on top of each new piece. And smooth, smooth, expel all the air.
Dry cotton wool is very sticky to your hands. You just need to get used to it :) And we work on the face, make a nose with the help of stacks, and press through the eye sockets with a stack and a ball. Add you to the back of the head, tummy, and heels. Until you are happy with the result. The activity is very exciting!
We send it to dry. Just on an oilcloth (not on a radiator!), but for example, on a windowsill. We use the same principle to make the rest of the blanks.
In the evening I finished all the preparations and laid them out to dry overnight. The next day we begin sculpting the details (collars, skirts, cuffs, etc.) This is what the kids look like at this stage.
And here he is already smart and with a collar! After all the children are dressed up and decorated, we send them out to dry again.
The next day everyone was dry and ready to “live up.” Now you can start painting.
Since the cotton wool becomes wrinkled when it dries, and I did not insert plastic faces, I will have to slightly align them and make them more attractive. To do this, I covered the faces with acrylic paint in several layers.
Then you can paint the figures with watercolors and acrylic paints.<
After everything has dried, lightly touch everything with a brush with glue (PVA) and sprinkle with dry glitter (glitter).
To prevent our sparkles from flying off, I sprayed everything on top with varnish. (Spray cans will do; I had hairspray.)
These are such elegant and shiny children:) Now it’s time to think about how they will hang on the Christmas tree.
My toys turn out to be quite strong and hard, so we take an awl and make a hole for the rope.
Well, now let's see what happened! I think these kids are very smart :)
Now I’ll show everyone separately, and then everyone on the Christmas tree!
First cockerel! The Year of the Rooster is just around the corner :)
Bunny.
Well, the photo "Guys on the Christmas tree"
That's all :)
Many people ask, is it difficult? I answer, if you are interested in this activity and like it, then it’s not difficult! :)
I will be very glad if the experience I have acquired becomes useful to you!
Christmas decorations-papier-mâché balls.
To make papier mache Christmas balls I needed:
- three-ply toilet paper,
- PVA glue,
- balloons,
- threads,
- toothpicks,
- pearlescent watercolor and acrylic paints,
- gel with glitter,
- sockets for beads,
- rain.
I dilute PVA glue with water 1:1, maybe a little more water, I cut the toilet paper into pieces of about 3x3 cm, but you can also tear it with your hands.
I inflate the balls to the desired size and, using a brush, begin to apply toilet paper: I soak the brush in the prepared solution of PVA and water, wet a certain area of the ball and apply a piece of toilet paper and straighten it with the brush so that it is saturated, do the same with the next piece of paper gradually covering the entire surface of the ball, I leave only a small hole near the place where the ball is pulled, so that later, when our workpiece dries, we can lower the ball and remove it through this hole.
After I have laid the paper layer by layer so that the ball does not show through it, and the more layers the stronger the ball, I lay this workpiece to dry, preferably so that it dries naturally and not by heating.
After some time, when the blank has dried, I cover it with pearlescent watercolor, I do all this without removing the blank from the ball, as it seems to me that there is a better chance of not ruining its shape. When the workpiece dries again, I untie the ball and lower it, then pull it out through the hole left.
I make my drawings with acrylic paints, and I take the ideas for the drawings from old postcards. I apply glitter gel to the finished pictures. Paints and gel can be bought at any supply store.
Again, I dry the ready-made Christmas tree balls and attach fastenings to them: I cut off the rain of the required length, tie a fastening in the middle in the form of a toothpick folded in half, you can replace it with something else. The two ends of the rain should remain free, I thread both of them through a socket for beads (the socket can be bought at a sewing store), lower a toothpick into the hole of the ball so that it is secured there, pull the ends of the rain so that the socket is placed tightly at the hole of the ball and tie two knots. I tie the ends of the rain so that we get a loop for which we will hang our ball on the tree.
The ball is ready, hang it on the Christmas tree and admire it!)))
