Friday, February 13, 2015

The Christmas Ornament that Wasn't

A while back at a second hand store I was looking at post cards and old pictures. Sometimes something fun is lurking in the pile. I found one, well actually several of these really beautiful fairy picture postcards. Before leaving France I scanned them and put them in a file for me to play with later. I was unfamiliar with the artist and just lately decided to look the artist up and figure out when they were drawn and who the artist was. 

It turns out that they are English and were done by an artist named Cicely Mary Barker. Wikipedia has a nice write up about her (Wikipedia - CicelyMary Barker)

What I had bought, among others, was the Christmas Tree Fairy.

The Tree Flower Fairies set is circa 1950. If you do a search on Pinterest her work is everywhere! You will be astounded at the number of fairy drawings she did in her life time.

Alright, now for the Christmas Tree Ornament that wasn't...

Every year on one of my new groups I participate in an ornament exchange. The butterfly won out as the ornament only because I was not sure what to do with this and I did not want the ornament to be one sided. I needed time to think about how to make this fairy two sided. I thought about making both sides the front of the fairy, but it just was not working in my mind. 

Well I did it and I am pleased with the result. Working a little on the computer, I got the look I wanted. It is not perfect by any stretch, but it works. Here is what I ended up with:
Notice that her wand is gone? She looks to me  like she is sewing or holding something.?  A needle? A Quilt? She is definitely holding something...
Now, remember this picture?
Three days! Three days is what it took me to cut that center piece up. Grain is everything. But now that it is a work in process, there are leftovers:
At a craft store I found a package of wooden buttons
Construction is pretty straight forward now for me.This is what I ended up with. 
The center, base if you will, that the fairy is mounted to are two slightly overlapped yogurt metallic covers. 
The fairy design was printed out on a color printer using vintage cotton fabric (old pillow case) ironed to freezer paper the size of paper the printer normally takes.

The  fairy fabric was then Mod Podged (Mod Podge for fabric) to the yogurt covers, Embellishment added and here is the final result:

 I am very pleased with the result. I love the way her wings move. So what do you think? This years ornament?
(BTW, that van has not moved since we moved here over a month ago. I wonder who owns it)

This week I am joining Shabbilicious Friday Link Party 



7 comments:

  1. she is so lovely-you are so creative and talented

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  2. Oh how lovely! The buttons are so charming -I've never tried the printing on wax paper technique but will give it a try

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  3. That is gorgeous! My daughters had all the flower fairy books when they were small

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  4. She is beautiful. I have been blessed enough to have been in an ornament exchange with you twice and know how creative you are. I love this one. Definitely put her in the ornament exchange for this year.

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  5. I have to agree with the others here. She is beautiful..

    Hugs~

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  6. I have to agree with the others here. She is beautiful..

    Hugs~

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  7. So fairy! I love hand made ornaments. Your is really cute!

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