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beadyeyedbrat |
Tomato Cage Halloween Tree |
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So you take an innocent
tomato cage and decide it's
vaguely tree-shaped. You
have an idea and some paper
and glue, so this is what
you do.
click on images to
see larger ones
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You tear strips out of
newspapers, twice as many
as you think you'll need, then
twist them. It's easiest
to do a pile of them and have
them ready than to
twist them with glue all over your
fingers. Unless you
like that sort of thing.
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Once you've run out of strips, wash
your hands, take a break and grab a sandwich.
(sorry, no pictures of this step.
Let it dry for a day, then tear and twist another pile.
Connect smaller branches to larger
ones that you've already got. When it gets
to the point that everybody is
sticking to everybody else, let it dry again.
Now you decide how many more
branches you want, if any. If you want more,
see above. If you have enough, it's
time to mix up some pulp.
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Hers is green, you
say to yourself. It certainly is. I added 1/8 tsp. dark
green dye powder and a few sprinkles of yellow to 2
cups paste and as much glue as I needed to get the
consistency I wanted. Then I added dry pulp (white
paper, newsprint, toilet paper and bingo* paper) a
handful at a time to the mix and stirred until it was
the right consistency. Let it set for
a few hours so everything absorbed and stirred again. If
it's just right, start applying. If not, adjust glue or
pulp until it's the way you like it. Start applying the pulp to the large
branches and smoothing (or not), starting from top and
working your way down.
If you're like me, you'll find
that the smaller branches want to fall apart at this
point, so you may choose, like I did, to do the large
branches, let dry, then do the small ones.
This takes a long time, so feel
free to work in stages. I did the top section in
one day, let it dry for a day, then filled in the
smaller branches and did the middle section and let that
dry. And so on until all newspaper is un-see-able.
You can antique it or not, I haven't decided yet.
It's almost done now. You can see
white spots where the green pulp hasn't covered all the
newspaper. This image is
full size. |
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Then you start
making ornaments free-hand out of pulp. It takes several
hours for them to dry enough so you can pry them off,
turn them over and let the backs dry. Or longer if the
pulp is vy wet or the weather rainy.
Moons are made of mostly white paper
pulp with some newsprint and just a smidge of yellow
dye.
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And you make more. These are all
flat, made on the plastic circle you see above. Mix more
or less dye, mix and let sit to see how dark it will
get. Combine colors, whatever you like.
The white ghosts are just toilet
paper and glue.
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As soon as the last bit of pulp is
applied and dry, I'll start
attaching ornaments and take the
last pictures.
Page 2
Page 3 |
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*email me if
you wanna know about the bingo paper |
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