Getting Ready for DragonCon

Can you believe it's August already?!? And what comes after August? Why DragonCon of course! For those of you not familiar with DragonCon, it's a "...multi-genre convention held annually in Atlanta, GA" blah blah blah 30,000 people... blah blah blah $25 million economic impact in 2008 blah blah blah. (Check out the site here, or a brief synopsis on Wikipedia here.)
Surprisingly, I didn't know about DragonCon until I moved here, but if I was the teenager I was back then in today's day and age, I'd be all over DragonCon (and would lose whatever bit of non-geek cred I had!) Anyway, it's a 4 day convention that takes place over Labor Day weekend every year. It's geared toward sci-fi and fantasy, but really if you're into anything you can probably find it at Dragon. And that means comics, too. My husband and I usually work a day or two for our local comic book shop Titan Games and Comics which means we get free passes to wander around AND they let me set up my jewelry and such at their booth (they're good about taking pity on me!) So this year, with the success of the comic book bowls and decoupaged bracelets at Heroes Con in June, I've decided to get my butt in gear and make as many as I can for Dragon.

This was one of my first bowls

I already posted the tutorials for the decoupaged bracelets and the upcycled necklaces, so it's time to talk about the bowls.
I'm trying a bit of a different approach to the Dragon batch. The bowls I made for Heroes Con were made with paper pulp which involved a lot of strain and stress on my blender.

Not a great pic - but here's the Conan bowl

The ones I'm making for Dragon will be a more traditional paper mache version with comic book images decoupaged on top (I really do like to decoupage!)
I'm using old Previews catalogs as my base so the bowls are still made from recycled materials.

I use the guillotine paper cutter to chop up the pages into squares/rectangles - I'm experimenting with shapes and sizes. One site said to make sure the pieces were square and no bigger than 1/2"; another site said 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" rectangles, so I'm working somewhere in the middle.

I got a little overexcited last night chopping up pieces and came down on my finger. LUCKILY my paper cutter does not have a sharpened blade! It just caused a big dent on my thumb. My husband made me take a break for a while.
I'm using a 1:1 ratio of water and white glue. I started with el cheapo glue that I picked up at Hobby Lobby and then hit a back to school sale on Elmer's at Publix. I haven't decided which one I like better yet. I will say the cheap glue mixes better with the water, but the Elmer's seems to stick better.

I picked out several bowls from the cupboard with various shapes and sizes. I covered the outsides of the bowls with plastic wrap pulled tight and smoothed down as much as possible and taped on the inside.

Oh yeah, do yourself a favor and cover your work area with plastic - this gets messy!
Also, have some stands ready before you start mache-ing! It's not easy to go rummaging in the pantry with watery glue dripping down your arms! I used cans, but I found they rust when you leave them sitting to dry. As long as it elevates your bowl as you're working and then it's drying, you've got a winner!
I mixed my glue in an empty cream cheese container. It was deep enough and wide enough for what I needed. Submerge a handful of your paper in the glue mix and let it sit so the glue can absorb into the paper.

You don't want it falling apart, so a minute or two is plenty. Take one piece, squeeze it through your fingers lightly (you don't want it sopping wet) and put it on the bowl.

I overlapped the pieces and alternated which way I placed them (there's not a whole lot of science to this - well there probably is, I just didn't apply it!)
You will need to do a minimum of six layers (more like 10 for a sturdy bowl!) and I did 2 layers at a time, letting the bowls dry between my crafting sessions. If it's stinking hot (like it is here in Atlanta right now) you might want to put them outside. The big thing is to make sure it is COMPLETELY dry before you pull it off the bowl and do any decorating. If you seal it before it's dry you get nasty moldy ickyness.
Once your bowls are dry, it's up to you what you want to do next. Depending on the type of material you used to make the paper mache, you may like the way it looks just the way it is. You can paint them or do what I plan to do and use images from the comic books to decoupage the outside and inside of the bowls. I plan to seal it with some acrylic spray and will post the results after they're done!
I do have a dream bowl I want to make - I would use a Martha Stewart Living magazine for the mache and then find images of the Craft Diva herself to decoupage. I might even add some glitter glue crowns!

How would you decorate your bowl?

Next craft - (keeping in the comic book theme) recycled paper gift bows!