The Bethlehem Project (12/13/2009)

"Rosenthal's Inn" = my hubbin made the Inn from foamcore board spray painted with terracotta adobe looking paint. Details like windows were drawn in with a black sharpie marker & the different building outlines were made with black auto detail tape. The "Heavenlies" was a small platform and garden arch decorated to the left of the Inn for the angels to stand on for their announcement to the shepherds. One of my Sunday School kid's mom's decorated the trellis. The "Manger" scene was to the right of the Inn. It consisted of some hay bales & a wooden manger built by Carpenter John, a member of our church. I made the paper mache rock in which the lost lamb was found behind. I was only able to get three layers of paper mache on the rock as it took a long time for the layers to dry. I constructed the base of it from a large cardboard box, foam packing forms, & plastic bags taped all together. After it was paper-mache'd, it seemed as big as a mini-bus!

Here's the recipe I used for the paper-mache:

Whisk 1 ½ cups white flour into 6 cups of cold water in a saucepan until dissolved well. Place saucepan on stove & cook the mixture on medium high heat until thickened, stirring occasionally. When it is thickened & looks like white sauce (gravy), remove from heat. Let cool, stirring occasionally to prevent flour from settling on the bottom of the pan. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt (preservative).

Meanwhile, tear newspaper into 1 ½" strips. When paste is cool to touch, dip strip into paste at one end and push rest of paper in with fingers. I pull up one end of strip with left hand, stripping excess paste off by pulling paper between my first two fingers of right hand. (if you are left-handed, reverse directions). Lay flat on project and smooth down. Overlap slightly with next strip and so on until project is completely covered. Let dry. Add the next layer of paper strips cross-wise to last layer to make it strong. The more layers you add, the stronger the end product will be. On the last layer, I generally use layer of brown paper (like grocery sacks) as it is easier to cover with paint, but it is not necessary.