DIY - Revamp your styrofoam: the Paper Mache way!

I've been wanting to do some paper mache-ing for a while now... and couldn't decide what I wanted to make. Then I remembered that I wanted some pretty head forms to display my headbands. I looked on ebay and on kajiji for vintage hat forms and they were quite pricy and shipping fee cost almost as much the item itself. So I decided to get styrofoam head forms and DO SOMETHING WITH IT. and that SOMETHING became my next paper mache project.

As a kid, I remember making a mask using paper mache with my mom. We used balloons as the foundation and after a few days of drying, we popped the balloon by using a needle. We would then cut the shape in half, cut out eyes and nose and attached elastic bands on each side to "hook" the mask onto our ears. What I do not remember is the smell of the mask or what type of face I drew on the mask... it must've been bad (the stink and the mask face) because I don't remember!

Anyways, it's so easy to find a recipe for doing paper mache online, but I thought I'd share mine combined with a little tip I found to "cinnamonize" your paper mache. Here it is...

Ingredients:

1. flour (I used all-purpose)

2. a pinch of ground cinnamon

(Optional, but it is quite pleasant if you like cinnamon. If you're okay with the raw flour smell, you can skip out on this!)

3. water (hot water helps with dissolving the flour, but luke-warm water is fine)

4. Newspaper strips

5. Table cover:

I would have to say this is crucial, but you can spread newspaper to cover your area, or garbage bag. I found this table cover from a dollar store.

6. Spray Paint

7. Plastic wrap (optional):

I wanted to wrap my styrofoam to protect it in case I have to reuse the head.

8. Latex gloves (optional):

So unnecessary, but I wanted to drink my coffee while doing it and

I didn't want to get my coffee cup dirty... so I used them.

9. Foundation/Base form:

You can use styrofoam like I did, but you can make your own shape using chicken wire and tape the first few layers to create the surface for paper mache, or simply use balloons.

Directions:

1. Cut the newspaper in strips: Depending on how large your form is, you can have longer or shorter strips. I cut mine about 2" x 10" but during the covering I cut the strips shorter to do finer areas like nose and mouth.

2. Cover the head with plastic wrap: Mine didn't stick to the head so easily. I'm sure it would've stuck better if the styrofoam head was wet, but I didn't want any surprises with green fuzzy moulds in few months when I decide to revamp it again. Luckily the bottom of the head had a small hole (for inserting a stand) so I gathered all the loose ends of the plastic wrap and inserted it in there.

3. "Glue" solution: Dissolve flour in water. I used 1 cup of flour with 2 cups of warm water. I actually added 1/3 cup of HOT water so that it would dissolve faster (got impatient). This mix was enough for 2 styrofoam heads that I planned to cover. 1 part flour to 2 part water should generally work well.

4. Dip your newspaper into the mix and run the strip between your index and middle finger (the fingers you use to say "PEACE"... or "VICTORY"), gently, to get rid of excess "glue" off the strips. If you start to see your strips getting pulpy, you might want to add more flour to make your glue less runny.

5. Cover: I did 2 layers, 30 min drying time in between each layer. The last layer was just newspaper strips without the glue because I noticed that there was excess amount of glue on the surface. If you did not want to paint on it and wanted to use prettier paper to cover the form, I think this would be the stage to do so. Either skip out on the glue if there's excess on the form already, or just put glue on one side of your pretty paper. You can always adjust the thickness of the covering... do more layers if you're not going to have a support inside your paper mache... do less if you're doing it for the sake of covering an object.

6. Let it dry: I let it sit on a clean sheet of newspaper in my living room for about 30 hours, but I anything between 20-24 hr should be good enough.

7. Paint!!: I used Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Spray Paint in Satin Pistachio. I used it because I bought it on sale a few months ago and I've been dying to use it on something. Also it was the only spray paint I had in my house and I wanted this to be budget friendly :)

I took the 2 styrofoam head forms outside and sprayed lightly. I used a few sheets of newspaper to cover the area. This spray paint dries to touch in 10 minutes and after 1 hr it's dry to handle. I did 3 coats, and left it to dry outside for 10 minutes in between. After the last coat I left them outside for a few hrs. Even though it was dry after 1 hr, I really didn't like the smell... so I left it out to air out a bit.

FINISHED!!!

showing off some new LBT products you'll see tomorrow at Divas in the City 2!

I used tulle to wrap the head because the they looked a bit too plain. I think in the future when I find time, I'll do some stenciling or some canvas wrap... I'll keep you posted :) Until then, here are my 2 green LBT helpers... Thanks for reading!