Lolly Whale - Donna Gray

Hi everyone,

Donna here today with my very first inspirational post for Rubber Dance and it involves using my current obsession....lolly sticks!

I love the lolly sticks as not only are they really cheap and easy to find, they also take paints and stamping brilliantly too, the possibilities are endless with them.

I painted the sticks with a mixture of chalk paints, dried them thoroughly and then sanded them back a little for a distressed effect. I then glued 3 sticks at the back of of my creation to make sure it stayed rigid. This is important as just gluing the sides will not be strong enough to keep them all together.

Next step was to stamp some of the designs from Whale Wishes directly onto the sticks with a mixture of Archival ink colours in green and blue.

Using a piece of Clearly for Art I stamped the cutest whale ever on there in black Archival ink after first colouring it with Alcohol Inks (you can just about see it if you look closely). This stuff is brilliant as you heat it and while it's still warm you gently bend it into whatever shape you want and it stays that way. If you don't like it, not a problem, just reheat and reshape!

I attached him (or maybe her) with a tiny dab of clear glue and set about adding all my embellishments which included twine, cheesecloth, nail caviar and buttons etc. Add whatever you have in your stash, there is no right or wrong.

I added another lolly stick as a finishing touch with one of the sentiments from the whale wishes set.

Can you tell how much I love the lolly sticks and the whale?!

Hope you like it

Donna x