Art Doll Charm

This is my little (3 inches tall) Art Charm Doll done for a swap on UK Stampers Forum. Pinky is running the swap and I have just finished mine.

I printed a doll parts template from the internet onto plain copier paper and then stuck this to a large sheet of black shrink plastic with glue pen. I then cut around the parts and soaked off the template paper with warm water, leaving me with all the bits. I then punched holes in the appropriate places with the crop-o-dile so I could assemble the doll when finished.

I decided to use Opalite inkpads in crystal blush for the arms and glacier blue for the legs. The stamps are two of my unknowns......but I thought they would give a decorative pattern when shrunk down. The torso was sprayed with starburst stains to achieve a mottled, shiny appearance. All parts were shrunk carefully with a heat gun and flattened whilst still hot with an acrylic block until cool. I only decorated one side of the doll with these. I painted the rear of the doll with blue matt acrylic paint and sprayed with fixative. All body parts were edged with gold Krylon pen.

For the skirt I used silver header pins and threaded numerous blue beads and just bent over the ends roughly with pliers to hold the beads onto the header pins. I then cut a length of fine black wire and threaded this through the two leg holes on the torso and threaded the beaded header pins onto this before securing at the front by twisting neatly at the rear of the doll. I then applied dabs of gold krylon on the torso as shown. All parts were attached with silver jump rings so the legs, arms and head were articulated.

The picture of the vintage ladies face was stuck to the head with glossy accents and a malachite star stuck on with glossy accents.

The silver lobster claw clasp was attached to the head with another header pin for hanging purposes.

This is the first of its type that I have made and I don't think it is very serviceable really. I found it a bit tricky but was quite pleased with the results though and it has given me more ideas for future pieces.