Glittery Paper-mache Earth Hanging!



I was feeling really brave last week when I decided to tackle paper-mache with my son!

It's MESSY!

Really messy!

As a parent, I have a love/hate relationship with messes.

BUT I am happy to say... the LOVE part wins out when I realize how this kind of sensory activity can be one of the greatest joys of childhood!

(I know, I remember!)

Therefore, we threw the smocks on, rolled up our sleeves and dove in!

After all, our Earth Day Celebration wouldn't feel complete without building a model of our big blue planet itself, in tribute.

For Paper Mache part we used: flour and water mixed to a thick-like soup.  We dipped strips of newspaper in the paper-mache, removed excess pulp with our fingers, and then placed on round balloon.  We built it up 3 layers thick.


Mixing up the paste

Placing the strips. Bode LOVED this part! He was very careful to lay them on flat and smooth them out.

Our paper-covered balloons drying in the sun. I eventually moved them inside and set them over our heater vents, turning periodically. Once they dried completely, I could feel the areas that were thin, and applied more strips of newspaper, and let sit again for a few days.

After the paper-mache dried, we sanded down the surface to smooth it out.

Painting gesso on to prepare surface for paint.

It was a nice day, so we took the acrylic paints outside, and painted the "Earth" blue.

Our Earths drying
After the blue paint was dry, I did my best to paint on the shapes of the continents green. This was harder than I thought! Next time I think I will sketch it out in pencil first before commiting with paint — my continents tended to cluster on one side of the globe...who knew North America and Australia were so close to each other? LOL. I then painted glue on with a brush on top of the green. Bode sprinkled green glitter onto the glue.
I let each side dry and then we turned it over to do the other side.

We drilled a hole in the top. My boyfriend found a spring hook at a recycled building materials store that attached. I wish I could tell you the exact name of it (my google search was unsuccessful). Although I think an eye hook toggle bolt would work just as well. I then attached fishing line, and hung it up! The glitterized hanging Earth now graces my art studio! It is about 6.5 inches in diameter. Later in the week I will post about what Bode and I did with the other paper-mache Earth that we made alongside this one — it was fun, as well as educational! Stay tuned!




Pin It!

14 comments:

  1. I really like this and have a blue mached bowl somewhere. We are learning G this week and love how you have used Green Gliitter :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. that is very cool, i didn;t get any sense of scale until i scrolled down, its huge! I thought it was the size of a christmas bauble. I would be very tempted to carry on and do the rest of the solar system now

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there! Thanks for letting me know that...I will edit the post and let people know the size! I thought of it when I wrote the post last night, but didn't want to get out of my comfy bed to go measure it...LOL! Have a good day!

      Delete
    2. I just measured it and it is about 6.5 inches in diameter!

      Delete
    3. Carolyn, I wasn't complaining, it was a great reveal. I was really excited when I saw how big it really was.

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  3. This is great. I love it. Visiting from the mama mia Sharing Saturday blog hop. You've won a new follower in me. Happy to also follow you on Pinterest. Have a blessed weekend.

    evescrochet.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pinned this to make for Vacation Bible School. The theme is "Avaitaion Adventures" and this would be darling to make and have a bi-plane flying around it!

    Check my Kitchen Fun Linky Party project!
    http://buggalcrafts.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/vintage-look-a-like-minihat-pins/

    ReplyDelete
  5. These look so beautiful! They mus have used a tonne of gliter but sooo worth it. They're stunning. Thanks for linking up with The Weekly Kid's Co-op.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, I have a love/hate relationship with messes, too! But that turned out beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Those globes look amazing!!!

    Thanks for sharing with Learning Laboratory at Mama Smiles =)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Brilliant! I love love love your glittery earth. How wonderful. And you managed to get yours so round (ours are ever so slightly balloon shaped). Perfect.

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy & Alissa

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is beautiful!! Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!! I hope you are having a fabulous week!!

    ReplyDelete

I value your comments! Thanks for taking the time to tell me what you think!