GPP Street Team: Crusade 20- Casting Call

I have to tell you, this month's Street Team Crusade took a lot out of me. You can read about the Crusade details on Michelle Ward's blog here.

In my quest to stop buying anything new and use what I have, I refused to head to the local craft joint to buy a $2 pack of Sculpey to cast with. Of course, this was not required for the Crusade, but I had it stuck in my brain that I needed to make castings of some vintage keys for this crusade. I did what every mother of a toddler would do, I stole my child's Play-Doh while she was sleeping to start with.

Play-Doh took about 5 days to harden totally, but unfortunately it cracked and broke into smithereens when I tried to pick it up. Plan B.

For Plan B, I tore strips of scrapbook paper and whipped it up in my Cuisinart, grabbed a foam stamp, and followed the directions again. I waited about a day and a half for the pulp to dry completely and then went to seperate the new cast from the stamp. My dumb cast broke in half.

All of this could have been avoided if I would have parted with my $2 to begin with.

Since the piece only broke into 2 pieces, I fixed it up by using heavy gel medium to patch up the fault line. That dried for 24 hours.

The "tile" was still really fragile. I quickly decided to toughen it up with acrylic paint in a glazed tile like fashion. After adding the paint, I laid in a heavy coat (flooding the whole piece) with Golden's "Clear Tar Gel". The tar gel took about 2 days to dry up (it goes on with a haze and dries clear) and I am left with this embellishment that may make it onto the cover of a journal or into a bigger assemblage piece one day:

I think the tile is about 4x4". I am happy with it. Moreover, I am happy that the Crusades really make me stretch my brain muscles and think about what I am doing.

Update: You remember Crusade 19? Cut it out, Stencils? Check out my daughter's bike. Hit it with the spray paint the other day. Can't wait to take it to the park!

Thanks for stopping by and listening to all the jibber jabber today! I am really enjoying the Street Team- anyone can join. I hope you head over and take a look for yourself!