Monday, November 5, 2012

Pretty as a picture, decorated like a doll


If you read my last post, you already know that October's Eco Emi box has a Halloween theme. It's decorated with black and orange paper, tiny sparkling stars and moons, black cat and witch confetti, and orange paper "straw." Not only does it scream Halloween, but it also has me thinking about scarecrows.

For this month's first DIY (I did two this time; in case you missed my other Eco Emi DIYs, here's January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, my first September Eco Emi DIY and my second September Eco Emi DIY), I decided to transform one of Hayden's photos into a cute little scarecrow, although who could be scared of her adorable face (except maybe the kittens at my inlaws' house; she's playing with one of them in a box in the photo above)? Maybe that's why I ended up making her look more like a ragdoll than a traditional scarecrow.

Anyway, here's how I made this fall-inspired photo frame out of my October Eco Emi box (yes, I really did use the box) and the decorations inside (tissue paper, confetti and paper "straw"). Feel free to make your own as either a scarecrow or a ragdoll (I used a large gingerbread man cookie cutter as a pattern).

To start, I cut the Eco Emi shipping box into two rectangles and traced the body shape onto one of them. 

Then, I cut out the body shape, traced it onto the other rectangle and cut it out. 

Now, what's a photo frame without a photo? I selected one with the perfect size face for this project (and that I wasn't fond of the rest of the photo; Hayden looks cute in it, but I didn't need to preserve the shot of my backside). 

I cut out Hayden's face from the photo and glued it to one of the cardboard cutouts. 

Then, I drew a circle on the other cardboard body shape, cut it out and glued it on top. You can see Hayden's face through the hole. 

I started the decorating process by drawing on the shoes, coloring in the hands ...

... and gluing on a tissue paper "shirt."

Then, I decorated the rest of the figure with more tissue paper (I had to give her a tissue paper skirt) and confetti, making sure to glue the one piece of cat confetti to the center of the shirt (Hayden was really excited to find it in our box). I even braided the paper "straw" and glued it on like hair.

To make the frame stand up, I used a strip of cardboard from the box and bent it into the desired shape.

Then, I attached it to the back of the figure with glue and tape. 

Now, my little lady is standing tall. Isn't she a doll?

In my next post, I'll show you another Eco Emi DIY, using more items from the October box. It's a fun fashion accessory, inspired by a character that never grows up ;-)