Okay per Hildas' request here's a quick tutorial
To start with you'll need a few items
Glue Gun
Glue Sticks (large bag of minis)
Paper Towel Tubes (3-4)
Masking Tape
Flower Pot
Artificial Plant (I grabbed mine at DT)
Small Baby Doll
Cardboard
Tan Paint
Dark Brown Paint
Bowl of Water
PREPARING THE FLOWER POT, using the cardboard u will want to cut the cardboard so that it will sit into the flower pot snugly (at least 1-2 inches down (this will mimic your soil line). Once you have that done you will want to cut a smaller hole in the center of the cardboard, this hole should be large enough to push your baby through yet small enough to keep her in place and upright. (My doll was purchased from Walmart for $5 and she had a fabric mid section which worked great for this application. Nows time to get your Mandrake potted...simply insert the cardboard/baby into the flower pot and hot glue in place.
PREPARING YOUR BABY DOLL, now that she's stable it's time to start removing some of her human features. Start by taking the paper towel tubes and sliding them over her arms (u may want to remove her hands), at the same time twist and shape the tube to mimic vegetative growth. When u have everything the way u like it use tape and hot glue to hold in place both to the dolls arms as well as your cardboard round. This same technique will b used for the shoots on her head, just twist, tape and glue in place (take note not to twist too tightly as this will allow u a small area to hide your plant stems). Now last but not least, start wadding up some paper to build up the neck...think sweet potato....just add and tape. I know this looks nothing like a mandrake at this point but if your doing it right it also looks nothing like a baby
FINALLY!!! MAKING YOUR MANDRAKE!!!! Nows when the glue gun and the bowl of water come into play. What your mission is is to cover every square inch of this baby in hot glue. DON'T RUSH, you are gonna want to tackle it just a bit at a time....after applying the glue I let it cool for a second then i used a wet finger to smooth out manipulate the glue. You will apply this technique all over, over the vinyl, over the cardboard and even over that cloth tummy. I took extra care to use the glue to change the shape of the nose checks and eyes too. When your all done, it's time to paint. I used a base coat of a tan color (any will do but I think I used territorial beige) then after that I simply used the darkest brown craft paint I could find, water it down a bit...and do the whole wipe on wipe off routine.
Time to hot glue your plant stems in place and add soil or moss to your base and your done
