Papier Macheniacs: Turning Lucy Into Heather

When McDonalds bundled their Happy Meals with Peanuts figures during the Peanuts' movie debut, the popular fast food chain never really got around to including the mysterious yet lovable little red-haired girl in the toy mix. Whether the reason was because she was overlooked, or McDonalds just wanted to preserve her enigmatic personality, is beyond us. And we don't really care.
Because...

We can make our own little red-haired girl! So there, McDonalds!

It's pretty easy as long as you have doubles in your Happy Meal Peanuts stash. And we kinda do. We have 2 Lucys. Now, who would want two of these sassy, cranky chicks, huh?
So off we go to transform one of our Lucys to Heather, the little red-haired girl.

We whipped out our handy dandy paper mache kit for this project. From there, it's all a matter of sculpting. The big challenge --and I mean, literally BIG-- is Heather's hair. The redhead's hair is all sorts of different compared to Lucy's. So we used a bunch of rolled-up paper to make that mane happen.
We also slathered a layer of tissue and glue for every part of Lucy that we'll need to re-paint to create the perfect Heather figure. You can tell Lucy isn;t exactly happy about the makeover. :P

PAINTEEEEED!
From a permanently scrunched-up face to a smile of complete and utter sweetness!

Just some quarter turns for your pleasure.

Look, even Charlie Brown approves!

Ah, we are such suckers for puppy love... :)

Do you have toy doubles? Are you tired of one particular toy? Do your own toy transformation with paper mache! You know you want to.

Papier Macheniacs: Something Original from 2D to 3D!

My boy came up with an original character for his comic blog. And I (being the awesome mom I am --haha!) decided to surprise the creative spawn with some paper mache goodness!

TA-DAH!
This is a mask and a top hat for Miro's self-designed character, The Storyteller. And they're both made out of paper, cardboard, glue, and... love.
(Oooohkaaay... that was way too cheesy even for this blog. Moving on!)

As usual, we went with our favorite basic tool for mask-making: The Unassuming Paper Plate. Just a little cut here, a little sculpt there, and we got a semblance of a face. A creepy one at that.

Slathering on the tissue paper and PVC glue happiness! This, by far, is my favorite part of the process.

And I think I may have said that fact a gazillion times. Hehe...

And then, paint! By this time, I got the boy in on the supposed surprise since I don't want to make any mistakes with the colors. You know these young artists and their OC-ness. Sheesh.

And then the top hat came in.

Followed by these interesting embellishments. A flower made out of strips of cardboard and a Pringles cap!

Paper bag vines reaching to the stars.

I think the top hat deserves a Before-and-After, so here it is! Miro did the flower's smiley face himself. I mean, he would know how yo do it than I would, right? :P

Okay, now that we're done creating 3D reality out of a 2D design --what do we do next? COSPLAY, OF COURSE! Believe me, he has a big smile underneath that mask, too. :P

If your kid has a knack for drawing original designs, give them the surprise of a lifetime by paper macheing that baby into reality. He or she will love you loads for it. And for that, we tip our hat to you. :)