Nutcracker 09

after a few months, I finally finished my mom's nutcracker today :D


Sep. 16
sanded and stripped down the store-bought nutcracker



sometime between Sep & Oct. (yes... it's a big gap, shaddup)
painted him a solid white and stared at my blank canvas for a while


Oct. 29
finally picked out a beautiful Japanese paper for his "clothes"



Oct. 30
painted his legs and... mouth knocker-thing. I really should know what that's called




Nov. 1
painted his shoes and faux marbled his pedestal


Nov. 2
painted his head and gold trim, and cut out a pattern for the paper to put on his arms and torso




Nov. 3

decoupaged the paper on his body

Nov. 4

gave him blush - doesn't seem like much, but it was a headache to get it to look right. finally went with real blush instead of paint


Nov. 5

gave him a clear coat of paint

Nov. 6

made his hat from a paper mache box I painted gold and put a little round knob on, and painted his face... which was easier after he was sealed because I re-did his face soo many times! I learned that trick the first time I make a nutcracker

Nov. 9

added gold trim and blue pearl-like beads to his waist and added my mom's initials and the year on the bottom... which I know you're asking "why not your name?" but when I lived at home, we had all our nutcrackers out together, and one year decided to start putting our initials on the bottoms to be able to tell them apart (we had too many to remember), so I still do that to hers for nostalgic reasons

Nov. 10

made a cape from a table runner, cut out the beard and hair from a rabbit pelt, glued red jewels down the front of his "shirt" and attached his cape, fur, and hat.

at some point I added a scepter in one hand, and then he sat like that for a while until I decided what to put in his other hand.

Dec. 2 - today! :)

I got up in the attic and found an old key I found as a kid, sanded it down, painted it and put it on a red ribbon and threaded it through the other hand

Finished!