If someone said to you “I spent last night redoing a mannequin head” what is the first thing that comes to mind? “She’s gone mad!” Am I right? And then maybe “Why does she need a mannequin head anyway? Is she making hats?” If you did follow that train of thought then you would be right. I have become a mad hatter who spent several hours working on a mannequin head Saturday night. And there you have the title of this post.
But in all honesty where am I going to display the hats I have been making recently? If you said my head – well then that is just plain silly. If you’ve been to my annual medieval party you’ve seen my hat collection and know I can’t display them all on my head. (Well actually that’s just the portion of the collection that are less anachronistic than the others but who’s counting?) If you haven’t seen my collection I have about 20 different hats that I have mostly made for the purposes of the party (and wearing to ren festivals). This year sometime I promise I’ll post about the Medieval Party and how to throw your own crazy bash like that, but for today – mannequin heads.
So anyway, I can’t wear all these hats on my head all the time and the only mannequin heads I can afford (the white styrofoam ones) are ugly. And the ones that are more expensive are creepy. Its bad enough I have the ol’ girl (dress form) downstairs looming over me, what I really don’t need are a bunch of creepy heads staring at me too. So I wanted a head that was cheap, not ugly and not realistic. Enter decoupage! I have really been itching to decoupage something lately. (Yes, that is a real feeling some people encounter.) For those who don’t know – decoupage is the art(?) of covering something in glue, then sticking pieces of (usually ripped up) stuff to it. Weird right? And mannequins are weird too! I had envisioned a sort of plaid decoupage’d mannequin head. Here’s my first attempt – it is sort of what I was envisioning, so I’ll try again with another one in a few weeks and post it later.
The best part? That pretty little head only cost me 6.19!! I think I will eventually mount it on a stand (yes creepy head on a stand) but I haven’t gotten that far.
Here’s how I did it!
Materials:
- Styrofoam mannequin head
- 2 oz of mod podge ($1 at the dollar tree)
- tissue paper (about 2 -4 sheets) (also $1 at the dollar tree)
- a foam brush and paintbrush (or your fingers)
Take your tissue paper and rip up into uneven 1 inch x 1 inch squares. Variation is good, don’t cut the paper.
Apply glue with the foam brush to an area of the head.
Add a square of tissue paper – press down with the paintbrush or your fingers sweeping away any bubbles or folds.
Repeat gluing & papering, overlapping the tissue paper and alternating colors.
Let dry.
After it has dried apply an additional coat of mod podge as sealant.
Voila!
I know I promised to show you my craft room but it is now so full of projects that it may be a while before I can photograph it properly. Also the February winners of the Martha cookbooks are in! I’ll have to try out all the recipes! As always, thanks for reading and commenting! I love to hear from you all!
