Polished to Perfection

Directions for making the American Traditional Designs Paper Turkey

This is Step 1- engineer your Turkey Body...you will need a 3" Styrofoam ball, a  6" Styrofoam egg and a 5" Styrofoam heart and 2 -3" pieces of dowel. When finished your Turkey will stand 10" high including the hat and he is 11" wide. Using a bread knife cut your large egg as shown in the above photo. Use dowels to connect your Styrofoam pieces. Do not glue your Styrofoam pieces together. (You still need to airbrush or paint the head and airbrush the feet and cover it with paper)

Since this paper is not double sided, the first thing I did was adhere the plaid and the polka dot back to back to make my own double sided paper.  I highly recommend using a 4" Xyron Cheetah Runner to do this...don't skimp on the adhesive as you will be cutting these papers into 1/2" strips.  Start placing your feathers on the Turkey on the back end of the egg, where you sliced off the egg.  You will be using 2 lengths of 1/2" strips to make the body of your Turkey.  The strips with the plaid facing out are 4" in length the strips with the polka dots facing out are 3" in length.   The plaid strips are 1/2" x 4", and the Polka Dot strips are 1/2" x 3".  Unlike your Christmas tree each row you place on your body will have a 4" strip then a 3" strip - alternating. Place the strips adjacent to each other. The loopy ends will now be uneven - like architectural shingles. Placing your feathers in the right direction is the hardest part of the turkey.  When you get your Turkey dressed to about his waist, starting placing in his wings with Murdock Country Creations Autumn Striped Polished Stone Paper, these strips are all 4" x 1/2" and 2 pieces of Polished Stone Paper have been adhered back to back to make these double sided as well. Now continue working around the wings.

Here is the front view of the Turkey. When we got to the very front chest of the turkey (we ran out of plaid paper so we airbrushed the backside of the polka dot paper with E97 and Y  to give him a beard. From a design perspective this also tied the overall design of the Turkey together by balancing the airbrushed color in the back of the Turkey with the color in the front of the Turkey. Here is a closeup of how we placed the beard. We actually made 2 fans by placing the pin through all the strips and then gently fanning them out. The bottom fan for the beard has 5 - 4" strips and the top has 4 -4" strips.

(sorry for the blue type and the underlines...I seem to have a computer gliche)

Now airbrush the edge of the Styrofoam heart and the head with  E97.  I love how they both shimmer after airbrushing...who knew that Styrofoam could look so cool!  Now if you do not yet have a Copic Airbrush System you can paint your head and heart...However they will look very different painted as the color will be opaque.

Next trace around the heart onto the Sunshine Daisy paper from A2Z Essentials ( we used this paper for my large Pumpkin.)  You will need to buy special glue to glue your paper to the Styrofoam.  I used Aleene's Foamtastic -which bonds all types of foam.

Since this is going to be my Thanksgiving Centerpiece - I thought he needed a sign.  This great Happy Thanksgiving Stamp is from Hampton Arts..(and of course I love leaves).  I colored the sign with the following Copic Sketch Markers: YR07,R29,E97,Y35. Then I airbrushed around the edge with YR09 using the Chisel end of the marker..then for some added fun I also airbrushed the entire sign using the brush end of the same marker which gave me that great random splatter pattern.

To make the post for the sign - we stripped the ruffles off an hors d'oeuve's toothpick (since it is much taller than a traditional toothpick)

For the tail feathers we made cones - just like in Tree #2 and Tree #3 .  If you do not have an airbrush system, you may want to make your paper double sided since you will be able to see a lot of the inside of the cone.  I used 12- 4" squares of the American Traditional Designs PA0908- Nature Patchwork For the large tail feathers and 8 - 3" squares PA 0910 - Autumn Plaid also from TAD.

Use a 1/2 circle of chipboard to adhere the front side of your tail to. You will need 6 large cones and 3 small cones for the front.  Place the plaid cones between every other cone so the the patchwork print will be shown off when you look at the turkey from the front. 

Now adhere the backside of the tail to the other side of the chipboard.  You will need 6 large cones and 5 small cones as you will want the backside of the turkey to be extra full. Fill in the backside of the base of the turkey with additional 1/2" strips.  Before you assemble the tail airbrush the insides of the cones with E97 and Y35. Since Tom is a little heavy - My husband used a  2 1/2" drywall screw to hold the base of the heart to support the weight. (Place the screw, behind where you placed the original dowel)

To make the face I used movable eyes..I didn't have exactly the size I envisioned so I cut black circles from my smallest nestabilities circle die.  This made my eyes look large.  For the beak I cut out a elongated diamond shape.  For the waddle I took a scrap piece of lace doilies and airbrushed it deep red. Using a straight pin I attached the beak and the waddle.

From black cardstock construct a pilgrim hat.  My hat is 2 1/2" tall, The brim is 3 1/2" in diameter.  I used my circle nestabilities to cut the brim and to cut a 2" hole inside the brim for the hat to fit on my turkey's head.  I also cut a 2 1/2" circle for the top of the hat.  The buckle on the hat was a ribbon charm from Making Memories that I used a gold leafing pen to alter.

and finally Our Turkey is completed!!!

If you have any questions as you make your version of Our Turkey please do not hesitate to email us.

Thanks for your patience as we wrote these instructions today!!

My Thanksgiving Centerpiece- A Paper Turkey made from American Traditional Designs Papers

All week I have been dying to share this Turkey with you....I started making him last Saturday...I was trying to decide how to assemble him when my husband came home for lunch and pointed out that the current construction I was working on made him look more like a penguin then a Turkey...so low and behold four hours later my husband had totally redesigned my Turkey...Now in order for you to appreciate how truly gorgeous he is I am going to start my thanksgiving parade early...so you can see all the detail in him.. I will post step by step instructions on how to make him on Sunday November 4th.

The papers we used were from the Great Outdoors Earthtone Collection from American Traditional Designs PA 0910 Autumn Plaid, Nature Patchwork PA 0908 and The Polka Dots are from their Recipe Times - Earthtones - Recipe Time Dots - PA 0359.

The top back view as he ruffles his tail feathers (these are the same cones as Tree #2). These were made from 4" squares of Paper and 3" squares of the Plaid paper.  Since this paper was all single sided ...we of course airbrushed the inside of the cones.

The underside view of his tail feathers.

The side view of his body...these loops were placed on him like architectural shingles are laid on a roof. As you may have already guessed my husband is a carpenter and custom furniture designer!! (definitely a measure it kinda guy versus his wife who is an eye it kinda gal) Don't worry we took photos as we constructed this bird. The plaid strips are 4" x 1/2" strips and the dotted strips are 3" x 1/2" strips. The wings are constructed from Autumn Stripes Polished Stone paper from Murdock Country Creations.

We actually ran out of paper when we got to the chest of the turkey and decided that a little airbrushing  would fix that...I like how this broke up the front.  Now for his gobbler we used a scrap piece of paper doilies- airbrushed red.  His head is a styrofoam ball airbrushed with copic and I love the look...since the copic is translucent the whole head shimmers.  We didn't have exactly the right size eyes so we used the smallest circle from my nestabilities set and cut out black circles to mount the movable eyes on.

Here is without his hat.  The sign is a stamp from Hampton Arts!!

Now for you to get an idea of just how big this turkey really is here he is with my first pumpkins made from 3" balls:

A very special thanks to my husband who is an integral part of many of my creations...he gets it all...and is very supportive and involved in my creative process. I am so lucky to have him in my life ...and he certainly was worth waiting for....EVEN IF I WAS SINGLE INTO MY EARLY FORTIES!! It was worth the wait!!   So I guess it'll be okay if you have to wait one more day..for complete instructions including in progress photos.  I just love him!!  My husband and the Turkey..thanks HONEY!!

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you how truly spoiled I am  - my husband designs custom furniture for stamping, scrapbooking, and crafting. Since he gets it all..(what we do and how much stuff we have) he has designed some of the most functional furniture on the market....and its not cubes...it is real furniture custom designed for how you work- whether you have a tiny workspace or a whole room to play in.  He designs full furniture suites...If you have a dual office - play room - He can make it all function.  Check in on Monday as we nationally launch the first pieces of furniture.  Which you can add to your Christmas wish list!!