Heartless but not Tinless

The tin-man really needed oil for this project.

My oh-so creative sister asked if I had time to make her a tin-man for a 'pin-the-heart-on-the-tin-man' game. (She is working on a job for a client who's having a birthday party for her daughter. The theme is 'The Wizard of Oz". Be sure to check out all the incredible decorations and party ideas she's done for it. So incredible!)

http://sherricassaradesigns.blogspot.com/

I have a jumbo printer so it was going to be easier for me to print the larger size needed and piece him together. However, the only images of him full size available on the web were really low resolution. So no matter how large I would hope to get him, he would be grainy and look very blurry. Here is the low res tin-man that I used as my template.

This next photo was very clear. It would have been perfect. Easy, print, done.

There was one problem though. Not only was he lacking in heart, he was missing legs. And can anyone please explain the 'Lucy-Ricardo-clay-for-a-nose-lighting-a-cigarette-and-burning-the-tip-off' nose of the tin-man? Every time I look at him I think of Lucy trying to conceal her face with the clay nose. Remember how it starts to itch and she wipes her nose and accidentally pushes the clay off to the side? Oh, back to him...

I placed both photos in photo shop and began the puzzle. I began to copy and paste different sections of his arm and worked them into becoming his new prosthetic legs. In transform, I would use the warp and perspective tool to maneuver it into place. As you can see in the above photo, he is also missing his one hand. This was a simple fix. Use the lasso tool to duplicate the other hand. Make a new layer via copy, then in transform, flip horizontally, rotate until into desired position, use warp to pull in edges and voila! He now has two hands. For his thumb, I copied one of the finger tips. Worked it in with the warp tool. Anytime the tone was off, I would correct with image, adjustment, exposure, gamma correction or offset. Towards the end of this puzzle, I began painting what was too much to cut & paste. But, notice in the final photo, his crotch area is actually the elbow, and the upper thighs are the lower arm upside-down. The bottom part of his torso was easy, this is simply his chest area, copied.

Last, he needed to be printed. I sectioned him off, making sure my measurement remained accurate and printed each section on a 13x19 sheet of matte paper. I had six sheets. Then glued them onto poster board, cut each body part out, and glued together. Added oil to him and he was done! Squeak-free.

One other thing that I did simply for easy storage, his legs move below the knee. There is a board on the back of the entire tin-man, and glued onto the board is a piece with a paper fastener. Hole punched through the lower leg and it is attached and able to fully turn to shorten the length for storage.

The final Tin-Man shown by Vanna.

One ready to receive a heart, the other willing to stick one to him!~~