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Materials You Will Need
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Step 1: Shape the Sun
The primary structure of this prop is a wooden dowel sandwiched between two pieces of 4mm eva foam, and posterboard in the center for stability. I started off by printing a clipart photo of a sun off that I liked the shape of and I used it as a template for cutting out my foam. Dont forget to mirror the pattern so it will line up properly! I added some arrows to help me line it up for gluing. 
Step 3: Glue, Glue, Glue!
Tacky glue works super well on eva foam and posterboard so it was the only glue I used on this project. The only downside of tacky glue is that it takes a long time to completely dry. So after applying the glue I added lots of pieces of paint tape to keep it in shape and left it alone for a day. 
Step 5: Sand
I unfortunately did not take any photos of this step, but before painting I sanded the entire sun to clean up the two halves and make it look like one solid piece. I used a dremel, but you could also easily use sand paper to achieve the same effect. Step 6: Prime & Paint
I like to prime foam with mod podge, so I applied two coats of it and let it completely dry. Next I did basic color blocking starting with the lavender dowel and the eggplant end cap. Next I moved onto the sun. I like to start dark and then add in highlights from there when I paint, so I l painted the entire sun a deep yellow and then roughly added my eggplant outline using my paper pattern as a guide. After everything dried I cleaned up the eggplant details and added some highlights and dimension to the sun. You can see the before and after and how much a difference that paint detail makes. 
Step 8: GLITTER!!!
The final touch to this was obviously glitter, what says spirit more than glitter! I used some Folk Art "glitterific" paint in gold for this. The stuff is basically big chunky glitter in a clear gel so I actually did a few coats to get it to the level of sparkle I wanted it to be. I used it on all of the eggplant painted parts including the sun which I think added the exact amount of extra I needed. The final step was sealing everything with a few coats of mod podge and I am super happy with the results! |
Step 2: Inner Structure
There are two small circles from posterboard which will act as the stability layer in the middle, and keep it from making the dowel in the middle obvious. I also cut a slit in the middle for the dowel to slide into and then glued everything with tacky glue. 
Step 4: Shape the End Cap
For a little bit of flair at the bottom of the spirit stick I used some foam clay to add a little design. I did this in two parts because my foam clay was trying to merge into one blob. So I did the halo on the top a few hours after the initial end cap. I also used foam clay to fill the gap between the eva foam and the dowel. at the sun face.
Step 7: Stripes
To add some pizzazz to this spirit stick I decided to include some stripes. I did not have tape thin enough for what I wanted so I took a ruler and a marked our 1/2in on my paint tape and carefully cut it out. It actually worked really well! I then painted the gaps with my eggplant paint and after it dried I carefully removed the painters tape and touched up small leaks with my lavender paint. 
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