TARDIS junk art

Today I was planning on showing you my fall mantel - all the Halloween decorations were taken down first thing Tuesday (I hate keeping decor up once the event is over, I have to grind my teeth to keep the Christmas tree up until after New Year) but no such luck - I find myself without a working camera - Grrrr!

My little point-and-shoot seems to have a wonky charger - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  This week it doesn't, even my pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes are trapped on there :O(  I'll keep working on it.

I would dearly love to buy a fancy big SLR digital, but it's just not feasible at the moment.  So, I had a look on kijiji yesterday and ended up with another little point-and-shoot, just to tide me over.  I picked it up today to take some pics and there is no memory card!!  I really wish the seller had mentioned this...

I am hoping by the weekend I will either a) have the charger working for the old camera, or b) an SD card for the newer camera, and I can show you my Autumn mantel!  In the meantime, this is the only thing I currently have pics of on my laptop, which you haven't already seen - junk art!

It's not much of a tutorial, but you don't really need one for junk art - just go with the flow!

Junk art is great fun, for kids and adults alike (although kids may be better with white glue instead of hot glue) - it's great to get the imagination working!  There really are no limits to what you can make, it doesn't have to be WHO related!

I had a plain wooden frame which I painted a dark red, and then the board which is the backing of the frame I painted directly with blue, getting lighter towards the middle.  You can see the texture of the board in the picture above.

I drew a rough shape of the TARDIS/11th Doctor Logo and raided my junk pile - I keep all sorts of weird garbage like pieces of plastic, zippers, broken things etc, just for this purpose!  I played around with the layout and broke out the hot glue.  FYI, you can see the logo better if you squint your eyes, haha!

Some of the "ingredients" for this were: broken crayons, pieces of kinder toys, broken beads, pieces from an old board game, marker lids, those black plastic thingys which have twist ties wrapped through them in new toy packaging, a plastic bubble blower, glass beads, zipper pulls and more.  I keep a box of empty ice cream tubs where I sort things by colour, I throw things in there as I come across them - I have even been known to pick things up off the street and bring them home to wash them!

It was finished with a silver sharpie which I used to write "Bigger On The Inside" (which, of course, it is!) and some random dots to represent stars in space.

And that's pretty much it!  I have another few pieces of junk art I'd love to share with you, when I can get some pictures of them!  Have you ever made juk art?

Nikki x

Linked with

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Doctor Who TARDIS finger puppet

Here's one for fans of the Doctor (who knew he would be appearing on my blog again so soon!) - finger puppets!  Easy to make with basic sewing skills, and the craft felt and thread are very inexpensive.  This tutorial is for the TARDIS, but if you have a look at the end, you will find another bunch I made too!

Here is the TARDIS pictured with a Cyberman and a Vashta Nerada (the three were my last order through my Etsy shop, which is now defunct)

You'll need some blue, yellow and white (not pictured) craft felt, and matching craft threads or embroidery floss - also a small amount of black thread.

The first thing to do is make a paper template - draw a rectangle measuring 4cm x 7cm, and then add the little extra piece at the top where the TARDIS light goes!  Pin the paper to the blue felt, and cut out three of these.  At this point, I also used a scrap of white felt to cut three small squares and a narrow band to go across the top.

 

Pick out which of your three shapes will be your front, this is where you will be doing most of the work!

Using your black thread, attach the narrow band (this is where it says "Police Public Call Box" on the actual TARDIS, the black thread represents the words in this case.  Once done, leave the black thread unfinished at the back for a few moments.

Thread your white thread and attach the three white squares - each is held with a stitch in each corner.  Then, re-thread your black thread and put the "writing" on the lower of the white squares.

Thread your blue thread and make the "panels" on the windows - each window has one line horizontally and two vertically.  From there, sew a line starting underneath the white band, almost to the bottom, which will be where the TARDIS doors meet.

Go back and sew on the outlines of the remaining squares in the same blue thread.

 

Take a tiny scrap of yellow felt and cut it to the same size as the little light piece at the top - put a couple of stitches in the bottom, the rest will be secured when you sew around to complete the puppet.

To finish it off, take the remaining two TARDIS shapes - and line them up all together with the front on top - pin them to keep them in place while you sew.

I used blanket stitch on my puppets as I like the way it looks.  Sewing through all three pieces, begin to blanket stitch around the shape - however, DON'T FORGET when you get to the bottom of the puppet (where your finger will go) to continue with the blanket stitch but ONLY through the front and middle pieces.  Pick up the back piece again when you reach the far corner.  This ensures your finger actually has somewhere to go, and all the messy thready bits that you sewed are now all hidden between the front and the middle pieces!  When you've gone all the way around, finish by threading through to the far edge and snipping off the thread.

Hours of fun for Who fans, big and small!  I have included some pictures below of the others I made, they are all based on that original 7cm x 4cm shape, with some shape adjustments to fit each character.

Here are Amy Pond (in her police uniform), a Dalek, the 11th Doctor (complete with Fez!) and a Cyberman...

Vashta Nerada, the TARDIS, Rory Williams in his hospital scrubs, and an Ood...

And finally, the 11th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, an Adipose, the Master and a Scarecrow!

Nikki x

Linked with

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