Hello friends, in this post I will be showing
you how I finished this little Ginger! I hope you enjoy taking a peek! First two
pictures show this little ginger finished, scroll down to see him as he is being
worked on.
This is also going
to be one of my next patterns, there will be this little ginger and a snowman in
the same pattern. Stay tuned!
Here he is in all
his baked goodness, he does look like you could take a bite doesn't he? Okay,
lets get started....
Here is my ginger
sewn with muslin, stuffed and ready for painting.
You will need to
have three colors... Honey Brown, Camel and Light Cinnamon. For this color
meshing technique you will need a dampened sea sponge and a foam plate.
To get your sponge
ready for applying color, you will need to dip your damp sea sponge up and down
into your colors. I use less cinnamon, just dip a smaller area.
Before starting in
on your actual piece, you will need to dab up and down onto your plate to mesh
the paint into the sponge and get rid of any globs. When you are satisfied with
how the color is coming off onto your plate, you are ready to apply this to
your ginger. The mix of dark, med and light colors really looks neat!
Go to your ginger
and pounce on the color. Keep dipping into your paint puddles as needed to
resaturate your sponge. Don't forget to work it out on your foam plate first.
You might want to wear rubber gloves, my hands got awful messy doing this.
Once I have one
side done, I stop and speed dry it with my heat gun, be careful not to get it
too close to your piece or it will burn! Turn your ginger over and paint the
other side.
The sponge doesn't
always get every spot, so I pounce more color with a scruffy brush in the bare
spots. Let dry.
Now it's tme to
draw on the face! I bet you thought I had some fancy method of doing this didn't
you? Sometimes I even eye ball it, but this time I found the perfect sized
button to trace around for the eyes. I start by finding the center with my
caliper, put a pin in for reference and figure out from there where I want
the first eye and draw around with a pencil. You can always erase if you don't
do it neatly.
For the second
eye, I measure the distance from the pin to the eye on the first one and get an
idea where to place my second eye. From here I eyeball the mouth and
eyebrows.
Here is his face
all ready to be painted, he looks quite odd doesn't he? I also free handed the
nose, I guess it looks kind of like a jelly bean.
I have filled in
the eyes, mouth and eyebrown in black, the nose in a rusty color. I did more of
a sideload for the nose, making the color stronger on the outer edge. I might
add that because this ginger was completely basecoated first, there is no need
to use a textile medium at all, just water in your brush.
With some cinnamon
and burnt umber, I added some floated shadow around the eyes, lower lip and
upper nose. To see more detailed instructions on floating color, linework etc...
I have more painting tutorials here and more information on my website tips and
hints page. He kind of looks like an alien here and not a ginger.
His little cheeks
need some blush. Here you see Jo Sonja's retarder and antiqueing medium. I often
times will do a light sheen of this on the cheeks before I apply color so it
will come off soft and will be able to move. You can also just go on with your
dry brush on a dry face and lightly swirl, it will look great too!
Here I have a
medium sized Donna Dewberry scruffy brush, I left it dry for this application. I
pounced into some of my color and swirled it around the plate a bit.
I rub most of the
paint out into a dry paper towel until most of the paint is gone and only a bit
comes off the brush. I now go to my cheeks and in a circular motion lightly
apply the rosey cheeks.
He is looking more
alive here, color on his cheeks, some sparkle added to his eyes with some white
paint. His eyelashed were painted on with thinned down black and a fine liner
brush.
He needs his yummy
icing applied! I use a warm white and a long and fairly thick liner brush. I
really load up the brush good so when I do my strokes the paint actually comes
off crisply and you won't need to reload as often. If your paint is too thick,
just thin down with some water. Put icing anywhere you like. I speed dry with a
heat gun every now and then so I don't smudge.
Icing is finished,
now I add three rusty bells down his front with a double strand of button
thread. Since all his muslin was painted, he is nice and firm, fairly stiff like
a real cookie.
Next I mix some
water into some matte mod podge to thin it down a bit. I got this idea from my
friend carol of Buttermilk Creek Farms! thanks Carol. She coated her ginger and
sprinkled cinnamon and cloves, let it dry and coated the piece again in the mod
podge. This makes it looked baked and very prim. For my little guy, I am going
to do it a bit different. I will coat him in mod podge and then sprinkle a very
fine glass glitter on him to represent sugar and give him some sparkle. He will
also stiffen up even more with the mod podge. I did lightly sprinkle a bit of
cinnamon here and there with the glass glitter, but I did not want to cover up
my nice paint job so I did it really lightly.
I have him over a
foam plate to help contain the mess. I don't know what I would do in my craft
room without this handy dandy item. I also put my glass glitter into a glass
spice jar so I could sprinkle properly. Any loose glitter is dumped back into
the jar when I am done. Let this dry well, use the heat if you'd like. Tear a
piece of homespun and tie a bow around your gingers neck.
I took my paint
brush and painted on some fabric stiffener "stiffy" after I grunged up the
fabric with some coffee and cinnamon. I liked the fabric to be fairly rigid
since the ginger is as well.
Here he is again
all finished! With the mottled paint, mod podge, cinnamon and glass sprinkles,
he really does look like a ginger good enough to eat. How about adding a drop or
two of a nice holiday fragrance oil to his bow, he will smell delicious then! Be
looking for his pattern soon!
Thank you Jody for such a wonderful tutorial!
You can find Jody here:
9 comments:
What an adorable Ginger!Thanks so much for the informative tutorial!Hugs,Jen
This is an adorable project! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Excellent tutorial! I was blessed to win this little guy in Brenda's Winter Wonderland Giveaway. Jody's work is top notch!!
Kim
Such a sweet Ginger...I love Jody's creations and really enjoyed the tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing!
Judy
HollyRidgeCreations
What a sweet ginger, I love Jody's creations. Thanks so much for sharing.
Judy
Wonderful directions. Your work is great !
Great tute! i love gingerbread men, Valerie
Thanks guys!! I am glad you enjoyed the tutorial and appreciate the sweet comments too!
Hugs
Jody
Love your Ginger bread it is so sweet. How do you finish the back and may I post a little something on my blog about your wonderful blog? justalittleprim@comcast.net
The Joy of Needlework~ LenZie
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