Today is day 2 of 7 Days of Thrift Shop Flips in honor of National Thrift Shop Day and I used some vintage dolls and make little mermaids!





It started with these little dolls, a bag of paper mache mix, and some sculpting tools.


I also used some aluminum foil and old newspaper to make the base for the tails.


I folded over the top of my piece of aluminum foil several times to make it a little sturdier then started rolling up my doll in it to begin the base of her tail.


Then I added some crumpled paper to fill it out a little as I rolled.


Rolling, rolling, rolling... get that dolly rolling... 😁


And scrunching and shaping as I went.


Then I taped the tail in place.



Then I mixed up the paper mache following the directions on the bag and started covering the aluminum foil armature.

I'm sorry, I didn't take any pictures as I was doing this because my hands were covered in wet paper mache!!

This is after they dried for about a week. I thought it took an awfully long time for it to dry. I've never used this stuff before but if I try this again I would try mixing it a little drier I think.


I then painted their tails and started playing around with different trims to dress them up.


They got tiny little shell bras. My mermaids are modest 😉


And they got belly button rhinestones.


I made their crowns from an empty toilet paper tube. The collage below shows the steps. Once they were formed and glued I painted them and then added glitter.


I also added little pearl earrings.








Tomorrow's project involves these cool baking pans!