Clay Plumeria Bonsai

Clay Frangipani Bonsai Tree

            Hi friends I guess most of us have played around with clay at one time or the other! Last month a health scare mandated that I "take rest".Making clay Plumeria [otherwise called Frangipani] flowers and leaves to go on a clay bonsai tree helped me to "take rest" without going crazy! 

Clay Frangipani flowers

          The Plumeria flowers and leaves were all made with Thai Clay, a type of air drying clay popular for flower making.My first experiment with Thai clay was a small Thai clay rose you can see in this post on an Altered Bottle.I find Thai Clay  a challenging medium to work with and my little Bonsai tree has lots of amateurish imperfections but I hope you can bear with me!

Clay Plumeria Flowers

          I used oil paints to ink the centers of my plumeria flowers yellow and the leaves were made by mixing green oil colors into the thai clay dough before shaping them into leaves and adding veins.Made the flower buds in white and used my finger tips to lightly shade them with oil paints[ I found I had better control using my fingertips than a brush]!

Clay Frangipani Bonsai Tree

         I used wire to form the framework for the bonsai tree...in a similar fashion to how I made the Beaded Christmas tree and covered it with a tougher air dry clay called Mseal [you can read about Mseal here: Mseal tutorial ].Purposely added some cracks on the Mseal and finger painted it with different shades [brown and a bit of green and black] of oil paints to resemble a tree trunk.

Clay Plumeria Bonsai Tree

         I am sorry I dont have pictures of how I made it...it was all an experiment! I love Plumerias and here in India we can see them on the roadside in many different colors! I hope you like my Clay Plumeria Bonsai  !
Supplies : Thai Clay and wires to make tree framework + oil colors

Altered Bottle with Mseal

Altered Bottle

          There is something so exciting about recycling crafts....if you are a recycling/ altered project enthusiast like me I am sure you agree it is so thrilling to see the transformation ! So when it was my turn to choose a swap theme for our small group of "Bangalore Papercrafters" I chose the theme altered bottle. There are so many beautiful wine bottles out there but my hubby is a teetotaler and I had to settle on altering a Dettol bottle [ yeah we have plenty of those being doctors and all!!]

Altered Bottle

After the usual scrub and label stripping , the Dettol bottle got painted with Gesso and white acrylic paint and sponged light green with Mowed lawn distress ink

Altered Bottle

Mounted a  3 D decoupage fairy image with nearly 5 layers  atop a lacey heart on one side of the bottle .[Here are more examples of similar fairy 3 D decoupage : Spinning card tutorial  and Altered Tin can]. Added a spray of pearls to splay over the little fairies!

3 D decoupage

          The other side of the bottle has a floral image which at first sight looks like paper/ napkin decoupage...well its neither! The image is a beautiful tattoo I had picked up from a local super market and experimented on the bottle using water to transfer the image! Haha yes it worked much to my surprise!! Anyway gave it a top coat of modpodge so that it doesn't flake off!

Thai clay rose

I experimented with Thai clay [an expensive air dry clay]for the first time and made the red roses. Working with Thai clay  was a bit of a struggle as it would dry out so fast; so used the much cheaper Mseal to make all the leaves [Click this link to read about Mseal and how to use it :  Mseal Art tutorial ]

Mseal Art

Mixed green oil colour in while kneading the 2 components of the Mseal and hence could achieve a better look than my rose leaves in Mseal Roses Art.

         

Thai clay rose

The lacey white bow was made with a Sue Wilson die [ a gift from Shalini of Crafters Corner] and those pearly leaves are a find from a local fancy store!

Paper Bow

Here are the Mseal clay leaves winding over the edge of my altered bottle! The best thing about Mseal is you dont have to use an additional glue to stick it ! If you work while the Mseal is soft and pliable it will stick easily to glass/ wood/ metal!!

Mseal Art

The Dettol bottle had a rather sorry looking cap and I sculpted a more glamorous faux cap using Mseal and gave it a skirt of dangling crystal beads! Not too happy about the faux cap painting though!

Mseal art

Here is my altered bottle sitting in our showcase and the mirrors reflecting the other side too!

Altered Bottle

My bottle went to the multi-talented Anuja...hope she likes it !

Supplies : 3 D decoupage sheet :from Dufex, Crafters Companion company, Dies :Sue Wilson Filigree bow die from Crafters Corner ;Spellbinders Lacey Hearts, Mseal : local stationary Shop; Thai Clay : from Itsy Bitsy; Distress Ink : Mowed Lawn and Victorian Velvet

I hope you like my altered bottle...do tell me how it is....

Mseal Art Flowers-Roses

Mseal Art Roses

I like working with Mseal as unlike paper there is a permanence to it and you can even wash it if it gets dusty!Here is an altered project we made. Its the same tissue paper holder on which we made the puppy and the turtle in an earlier post. On the other side we made Mseal Roses.

Mseal Art altered Project

Here are the Mseal Roses and leaves before I painted them with acrylic paint.I like the unpainted flowers even.What do you say?

Mseal Art Roses

Check out the Mseal Art tutorial

Other Mseal Projects
Here is the tutorial link :Clay rose tutorial even though its not exactly with Mseal.While working with mseal your hands tend to get sticky and its difficult to take step by step photos unless your assistant handles the camera [ my assistant is 5 years old!]

Here are links to some more handmade flower tutorials made of unusual materials.

Handmade Foam flower tutorials

Foam Rose tutorial

Foam cala lily tutorial

Foam Rose tutorial

Handmade Rose tutorial -Clay/playdough, Aluminium foil,Styrofoam[Thermocol],Marzipan,

Playdough Rose tutorial

Easy Ribbon Rose

Thermocol flowers tutorial

Edible rose tutorial

Handmade Flower tutorials - Crystal flowers,Easy Beaded flowers, Spoon craft,Sponge roses

Crystal Flower tutorial

Beaded flower tutorial

Spoon flower tutorial

Sponge flower tutorial

Mseal Art -Altered Project- Puppy and Tortoise

Mseal art

This is another Mseal Art Project.The puppy was easy to make and was inspired by our cocker spaniel hence the long ears but my daughter wanted him to be  a Dalmatian so the spots!
This is the tissue holder which we altered for this project.

Mseal Art Altered Project

The tortoise shell and head are just 2 squashed ball .The feet are small cylinders.The shell was marked out with a kitchen knife.My little one put in a googly eye for the tortoise's eyes.

Mseal Art Tortoise

Mseal Art Puppy and Ball

For the grass I layered 2 sheets of Mseal and made indentations with a kitchen knife and then painted with Pearl green. 

Mseal Art Puppy

Check out the  Mseal Art Tutorial in the earlier post.
Do try out fun projects with Mseal and do leave me a link to any project you have done or do.

Mseal Art Altered Project- Lady birds and Mseal Art Tutorial

Mseal Art Ladybirds

Mseal Art is fun ,inexpensive and super easy.  When I started with Mseal art I knew nothing about it .It was an impulse buy from a stationery shop!I read the instructions on the packet to get started and learnt by trial and error.I am posting this tutorial to help anyone like me who likes to experiment with new crafts.

What is Mseal? 
Mseal is epoxy resin.It is actually a substance used by plumbers to seal leaks! Its manufactured as white mseal for hobby crafts.It is not expensive and the standard packet 50g packet costs just rupees 15.
How to do Mseal Art and Craft
Materials Required

• Mseal:For a small project you just need 1or 2 packets.I have used less than a packet for this ladybirds project
• Paint- Acrylic paint gives a lovely shine
• Kitchen knife- optional

1.On opening the packet you will find 2 substances.

Mseal 

2.Pinch or cut out some as shown below.If your Mseal is a little old there might be a hard layer at the junction of the 2 colors- remove this hard strip as I have found that this strip of Mseal  remains hard and can interfere with the texture of your finished work.

Mseal 

3.Knead thoroughly with your fingers.No need to add any water or oil

Mseal

4.Once the 2 parts of the Mseal are thoroughly mixed it changes color to white and becomes soft and pliable.You are ready to sculpt now.It hardens in 60-90 minutes so plan your project accordingly.

Mseal

How to make the Lady birds Mseal Art

Take a small amount of the kneaded Mseal and shape it into a leaf

Mseal Art Leaf

Paint the leaves.Here is my 5 year old helping to paint the leaf.We used Acrylic Pearl Green

Mseal Art and Craft

Roll a long strip for the stem and small balls for the lady birds.

Mseal adheres well to wood,metal,plastic,glass and no gluing is required!Just press them onto the surface and it sticks.Only do so before it hardens[ do within 60 mins of making  the Mseal] 

Here is the box which we altered for this Mseal Art.We used a similar one for the Shell Craft

Recycling crafts

Make veins for the leaves with a regular kitchen knife.

Mseal Art and Craft- ladybirds

Paint the lady bird body red and head black. Once the red paint dries paint spots with black paint.

Mseal Lady bird

Mseal Leaves

Here is the finished Mseal art

Mseal Lady birds

Mseal art is fun and easy. Oh and unlike salt dough craft  you don't have to varnish it. It stays the same for a long long time.
Here are the links to some other Mseal Art Projects

Mseal Art Grapes

Mseal Art Grapes

Mseal Grapes are easy for little fingers to shape . My daughter was fully involved in this one . The grapes are really easy to stack on each other and coloring is also a breeze! Aren't those grapes good enough to eat!