Mirror Mirror Pt2- How to Decorate Kids Mirror with Acrylic

The last crafty blog I showed what you can do with chalk markers on a mirrored surface to create fun moments with kids (and big kids like me).

This is just a simple way to decorate a kids mirror- my main aim is to see my niece's eyes pop out of her skull! 

We had a bit of a shop at IKEA of all places for some new furniture and found a great rug (below) and a plain mirror. We could have been boring old fuddy duddies and kept it that way- but being a kid's room we wanted COLOUR. It is always nice to see matching pieces of furniture in your room so I decided to continue the design from the IKEA rug. However for others wanting to decorate plain pieces in their home, the ideas are of course endless and freeing with kid's bedrooms- just remember to ask the little little person living in the room for their own special input! My niece said she wanted ALL of those colours in the rug, so being the awesome aunt I am, she only got one colour- just kidding! Follow the steps below to create this lovely new addition to our family.

1. Take a photo of your muse or inspiration. Here I have selected a very colourful prominent feature of her room- the new IKEA rug! See her cool purple ugg boot and violin on the floor! Future musician or ... Eskimo... perhaps?

2. Select your colour palette according to the design. All the colours here are all some of our higher quality dimension acrylic paints (nothing too good for my niece!).

3. The subject to be painted is this bare IKEA mirror. Look at it for a while, pull faces in it to get the best feel for the object. 

4. Tape the inner sides of the mirror to prevent getting paint on the surface after painting in those intricate areas and coat it with a base of cream paint.

5. In pencil lay down your motif. 

 

6. Using similar colours to that of the design paint on the mirror. I have used the acrylic brush range.

7. Enjoy the results!  My niece had great enjoyment picking out the designs from her carpet as you can see here, so I gave myself a pat on the back and a sigh of relief!

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Miss Fortune - Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Capers Ep.5

Hope you enjoyed that! Have you ever visited a Fortune Teller? I have, she told me I'd be getting lots of comments on my blog!

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Pickles Birthday Surprise - Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Capers Ep.4

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Mirror Mirror- Cool Chalk Markers

Our Chalk Markers have uses for a lot of different ideas like for shop front signs, menu boards, window signs, or display labels- but I wanted to use it for something much more functional and for everyday use. FAKE, FUN NOVELTY THINGS ON YOUR MIRROR. These novelty prank glasses allow me to wake up every morning and laugh at my new moustache and glasses combo. And who needs a hairdresser when you can DRAW a new style of hair everyday. In the bottom design I was going for more of a 'doll bob'. The black marker was easy to put on, quick to dry and easily washed off with my handy dandy soapy towel.  

What should tomorrow's style be - I'm thinking Mohawk??

 

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Not all Fun and Games - Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Capers Ep.3

Air Hardening Clay: SHAMROCKING

As part of the air hardening clay magnet making expedition in the previous blog I wanted to include this little creation on its own. When looking through my collection of 100 cookie cutter shapes I was 'over the pot of gold' to find  this 4 leaf clover. SO in spirit of the famous St Paddy’s day celebrations I have included a lucky four leaf clover for you.  

Here’s a fun fact for you; the four leaf clover is said to be lucky due to its rare existence. Each leaf represents either faith, hope, love and the fourth, luck. 

 

Happy St Paddy's day! Stay Green ;-)

What Will YOU be doing for St Paddy's day?

Air Hardening Clay: Cookie Monster

The introduction of the larger 2kg size of Air-Hardening clay, 

prompted another crafty idea on the Mont Marte blog. After a large session of cookie baking with my nieces recently it occurred to be that cookie cutter shapes shouldn’t only have one purpose in life, they really needed to get involved in the art world and become my next subject of craft sensation. I told the cookie cutters to give cooking a break and join me in the studio to make some clay cookie shaped magnets for the fridge. By the way I may have had to borrow my niece’s collection of 100 cookie cutters (I will give them back I promise... maybe). The great thing about these little creations is you don’t need to worry about getting the measurements right in the ingredients and you can keep it forever. This recipe however is not handed down from my grandmother, but just my MIND so read on for some great steps below- I’ll give you 10 points if you can tell me what I named my cookie cutter sparrow!  This activity is one of the easiest ways to play with our air hardening clay while being able to get the exact shapes you want as the moulds are already made for you! 

 

The air-hardening cookie pieces can be placed on your fridge, used as a paper weight, or if delicious looking enough, eaten (JUST KIDDING).

Material list.

• Air Hardening Clay – White 2kg
• Dimension Acrylic Paints (any colour you desire)
• Acrylic brushes.
• Small rolling pin
• Small magnet backs
• Glue or hot glue gun
• Your hands
• A smile on your dial :-)

1. Collect all your materials including any cookie cutter shape you can find. I am fortunate to have ‘borrowed’ my niece’s set of 100 cookie cutters. But you can get awesome ones like this http://blog.geeksaresexytech.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ninjacookiecutters.jpg. 

2. Use a roller to create a flat surface with your air hardening clay.

3.  Press in deep with your cookie cutter.

4.  Carefully remove the clay from the shape

5. Place flat on surface and leave to dry over night.

6. Time to paint our pretties! Select any colour you feel like, prepare your palette and paint! To make this ginger bread man I mixed Yellow Ochre with Red Ochre to get that ‘ginger’ colour.

7.  Leave to dry and gaze in amazement (very important step). Also very important to name your new friends. See if you can spot Pierre my new gentlemanly mouse, or The Tweetinator my new sparrow.

8. Glue on the magnet backs with Mont Marte’s craftglue or if it is a heavier item use a hot glue gun.

Place on your fridge for many hours of fridge-staring and character roll-playing perhaps with your own Pierre? Or gingerbread man? Just whatever you do, even though he looks delicious do NOT eat the gingerbread man, he will taste like clay.

Hot tips!

• When using a roller, make sure to lift after every roll or it will get stuck to your table surface.
• Use small portion of water to smooth out any rough edges.
• Make sure you wash your cookie cutters thoroughly.
• You can reuse the left overs! Just place it in an air tight container after use, awaiting your next creation.
• Wash your hands after clay playing. 

Would YOU eat that icecream?? answer below.

A Meal to Remember - Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Capers Ep. 2

Have you ever seen your pets acting strangely?

Body Art: Ahoy Sailor! I like your Temp Tat.

Mont Marte takes a look at another form of art which is often an extreme form of expression and always a lifetime commitment, tattoo art. Tattoos are a globally accepted form of expression and even incorporate symbolism in order to tell stories. Now, we weren’t going to go and actually tattoo a person for the blog, but I decided to replicate the imagery of a popular tattoo design in a TEMPORARY fashion using Mont Marte Body Art.

The focus, as you can see in the images below, is old-school sailor tattoos. Sailors and Tattoos are often seen to go hand-in-hand. Sailors would get tattoos every time they traveled on the sea and to also commemorate voyages and places. Their development of this nautical style of tattoo art is due to their cultural background and meanings they created around their tattoos. Mermaids, ships, stars, anchors, roses, pin-ups and swallows each have their own meanings.  It is safe to say that in the last decade sailor tattoos have also made resurgence in popularity and more copy-cat sailor tattoos are appearing in societal fashion trends.  

I personally have caught the nautical style bug and loved getting painted with Mont MarteBody Art. Mont Marte Artist Lily created these designs for me (knowing very well I love pin-up styled characters too). Lily went with pin-up, anchor, swallow and diamond designs. 

HOW TO:

1.      Drafting/ Sketching & rendering

 Lily drafted and sketched the outlines with black pen on paper first, making each temporary tattoo design, then she coloured and rendered the sketch to map out how the finished design would look. Keeping to the sailor tattoo style, she made bold outlines that were cartoon-esque and very simple. 

2.      Applying the outline

Lily used some of our finer brushes and a detailer to apply the black outline first. It is best to wet the brush and prepare a small palette to use for mixing colours. 

3.      Applying Colour.

By following her design, Lily painted the anchor with yellow and blue and highlighted with white, the sparrow she filled with black, the diamond with blue and highlighted with white. The lovely retro pin-up (I named her Maude) was painted with red lips and shoes, yellow for blonde hair, and a blue and white striped shirt. Even though skin colour is already there (my skin), to get a more cartoon look she mixed orange, white and yellow to get a tan tone.  

MORE TIPS:

·         You can apply with fingers or a sponge

·         Body art dries quickly and stays on for hours (or until you have a shower or get super soaked - in this case you may need to reapply!)

·         Soapy water is good for taking paint off, but Wet Wipes are a god send!

QUICK FACT:

·         Swallows were tattooed for every 5000 miles traveled by a Sailor. It also represented the ‘return’ of a Sailor and finding his way home.

·         Anchors are a means of security and stability for a ship; the anchor also became a symbol for being grounded. Tattoos emblazoned with ‘Mom’ or a loved one’s name represented the people that kept them grounded.

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What body art design would you like to see next? 

Cartoon Clay in Art Shed, Melbourne!

We were sent this photo from The Art Shed in Moorabbin. This lovely photo display is of the new additions to our family. It's great to see how much Ronnie knows his own price! Spitting Images of all the characters Penny Pig, Rasta Puppy, Tiny T-rex and Ronnie, good work guys!


What character would you like to see up there? 

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Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Capers Ep. 1

Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Capers starring Zoe Zebra and Tiny T-Rex 

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Introducing the Cartoon Clay Comic!

With the introduction of the Cartoon Clay Kits last week the Mont Marte Creative Team saw hidden personalities emerge and soon our Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Comic was born! We had a mini glamour photo shoot with the 12 new additions (as you do!) and just like a bunch of 10 year old kids playing with their toys we created kooky scenarios and back stories by roll playing- yes we included voices.  

The premise behind the comic lies with what secret adventures the characters get up to in the after hours when ‘The Monica’ (god and creator of the cartoon clay) leaves her studio. Very much the same as the Stead Fast Tin Soldier or even Pinocchio, yes? But these animals/ creatures have their own unique traits some characters even being based on friends, staff and family of Mont Marte. Kira Hedgehog, Bella Dolphin. Sarsha Kitty Cat and Sienna Unicorn for example are all names of children of Mont Marte staff and a family friend and adviser to Mont Marte, Curly has become our new Mont Marte Cartoon Clay Cow. Although some clay animal's character traits are similar to their muse, such as Sienna's love for singing or Curly's friendly nature, our creative team took over some creative license and expanded on these personalities. Sarsha the Kitty Kat being an example of this, even though a very cool ability, I'm fairly sure little Sarsha doesn't have telekinesis food stealing powers (stay tuned for that episode!).

Anyway check out the characters and see which one suits you best! Maybe you will grow fond of button nosed Penny Pig or find a relatedness to the career obsessed, book worm Zebra named Zoe (I know I did).   

Make sure you post which character is your favourite below. 

Want to know more about the Mont Marte Family Story? Click HERE! 

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