Paper Mache Pets

Monday Monday Monday. Here we go!

Still taking it easy over here, though I’m looking forward to getting back into it. I’m reposting a tutorial from last month’s Pet Month series. These little guys were fun to make.

Happy April. :)

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Hello! I’m Amy C from this heArt of mine, a blog about good food, a creative home and loving my family.

 

I’m happy to be here today for Jennifer’s Pet Month. While I like the idea of pets, we don’t have any real ones.

Well, that’s not exactly true.

We do technically have a dog but she lives with my in-laws. It’s a long story and we just met, let’s just say, it’s for the best. :) We make up for it by housing a whole slew of pets of the stuffed variety. My daughter loves pretend pets. Dogs, cats and her very favorite, her giant horse Harriet. I have been itching to do some paper mache stuff and thus, the idea of the ‘Paper Mache Pet’ was born.

I started this project like any old-school paper mache project, with balloons, white glue, a little water, a paint brush and newspaper cut in strips.

The glue and water ratio is 2 to 1; 2 parts glue to 1 part water.

I added the pieces, strip by strip, sticking them with the glue/water mix.

Then I let them dry overnight. Once they were nice and dry, I popped and removed the balloons.

To give the ‘pets’ a different texture, I used a technique I saw in the book Home, Paper Scissors by Patricia Zapata. I chose a couple of hues in the same color because I like the variation. I also painted the paper mache form to match the paper strips make it all blend better.

With my daughter’s help, I feed short strips through the paper shredder. It made a neat confetti.

The application of the small paper strips is just like simple paper mache, albeit, it’s a much slower process. Lay down a layer of glue/water mix, add a few strips of paper and add more glue/water mix.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Here is the brown one all finished and drying.

It’s slow, it’s messy but it is a fantastic texture.

 

I used cut-down paper cups for the leg/feet/base and wrapped them in fabric.

The ears and faces are made of fabric as well.

The pets aren’t just pets either. They double as banks. For the ‘bank’ part, I cut a little slit on top.

To cover the opening in the back, I stacked up some circles of fabric, looped a strip of fabric through another little slit and glued the strip to the felt circles. Not the most traditional closure but it works.

And there you have it, totally adorable pets! At least, my kind of pet. :)

Thanks for having me, Jennifer!

Take care.

–amy c