Tuesday 11 June 2013

Cheeky Monkey

Oh hello gorgeous people! How are you all?
I was very sneaky this week and managed to squeeze in a little crafty time. 
Having little moments of creative "me time" has been rare recently, I've just had too much going on. However as soon as I saw the opportunity, I squeezed in a little time for some creative chaos. This fun little project turned out to be not only a creative outlet for me, but also a fun work related task I could tick off of my list of "things to do"!  

Having been rehearsing with the new Tarzan cast members for the last six weeks, we had reached premiere date. An exciting evening when all of the new cast members go onstage for the first time. I couldn't let them go onstage without a little good luck token. 

I made a quick dash to the craft store one morning before our final rehearsals and bought myself a lovely stash of "super fluffy" modelling clay.


I bought a variety of colours. Colours that I felt would work well with a Tarzan/jungle theme.
That evening I got to work playing with this fun material, creating some cute little tokens to give to my new colleagues.


It was a lot of fun fiddling around with this clay. It reminded me of playing with plasticine as a child....Oh the memories! 



Rolling clay balls to be squished into faces.



Adding little button noses.


And making monkey ears by the dozen.



It was a joy forming these little lumps of clay into something magical. Slowly building layers of personality to each individual charm.


My favourite part was styling chunky over the top features. I was in pure creative heaven!


I used finishing touches of good ol' googly eyes and a plastic daisy here and there.


Shall I show you what I came up with?...



It's the whole jungle crew! We have apes, Jane, Tarzan and Professor Porter!
I was so thrilled with how they turned out! Cute, quirky and fun!

The modelling clay was so easy to work with. It formed easy shapes and the googly eyes stuck no problem with a little blob of glue from my glue gun.

Here's how I formed the cheeky faces of the monkeys:








Easy!! I added some extra detail by poking nostrils and a little mouth with the help of the pointy end of my compass.


How fun are they!?!


The great thing about this modelling clay is that it air dries firm. It meant I could leave all of my creations overnight and they were hard enough by the morning to add any finishing touches.

Using a very pointed darning needle I made holes in each of the firm faces and threaded some jungle inspired embroidery floss through each of them.
Of course I had to add a little extra crafty touch of beads and bells, just to finish them off!

All done....placed in a box and ready to give as a lucky charm and a warm welcome to all of the new Tarzan cast members.


Of course I kept one for myself! A little something to hang on my dressing table at work to remind me of how much I love being a crafty monkey!


Make your week creative and crafty!!!!! Until next time......

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