Fairy Couture At Anything But A Card. . . . . . .

The current challenge at Anything But A Card is to create a project with a 'Fairy' theme. Fairies are not a natural theme choice for me but luckily, I've been altering a charity shop purchase which hopefully fits the bill perfectly.

A while ago, I bought a rather sad looking papier mache dress form with a wooden stand. It was fairly non-descript but I wanted to have a go at giving it a new lease of life with some Timeworn techniques and DecoArt products. The only problem was I forgot to take a picture of the complete product before alterations began - so annoying! Luckily I have images of each section so I think you'll get the idea.

Don't forget that last week our challenge kicked off with part of the DT showing their inspiration so if you haven't been over to have a look yet, it's not too late! The remaining DT will be posting their work today too so do pop over to Anything But A Card and have a look!

I should warn you that this post does include quite a few photos so best get a cup or glass of something nice before scrolling down.

This altered art piece started out life looking like the following images:

The dressform was painted with two coats of DecoArt Gesso and the neckline of the 'dress' was established. The area above the bodice was given a version of a Timeworn rust finish.

Alternate sections of lower half had DecoArt modelling paste applied through a stencil. Traditions paint was applied in a selection of colours:

The application of the paint was fairly random.

When dry, the paint was covered with a layer of DecoArt weathered wood and allowed to become touch dry. A coat of Viva Croco crackle paint was applied and dried immediately. This enables wonderful large cracks to develop.

The sections without the gold paint were finished using DecoArt two step crackle and left to dry. DecoArt Traditions paint in raw umber was applied to the dry surface and then wiped away to leave colour in the cracks only.

The stand and base were painted with DecoArt Traditions in warm white. The metallic lustre was then applied in two areas and buffed to a shine.

Three sets of wings were die cut, glued together and covered back and front with gesso.

The base was stamped with versamark ink and mica powder was lightly applied.

The wings were stamped in the same way and a Krylon pen was used to give definition to the edges.

The wings and stand/base were treated with two step crackle and finished with Traditions raw umber as before.

The coloured layer was extended underneath the body section.

The wings are attached to the back using a glue gun for extra strength. The back view of the 'skirt' is also seen here (further details later).

The neck and chest area was finished with a layer of graphite. Rusted wire gives interest to this area too.

The top 'skirt' layer was created from die cut pieces. Modelling paste was applied through a stencil followed by a Timeworn rust technique and the addition of  'studs'. The die cuts were joined with rusted wire to form the skirt. 

Flowers have been used to decorate the project in various places. Floral shapes were die cut, painted in the same colours as the body and details were added to some of the flower centres. Two step crackle was applied as before on the wings and base/stand.

All the flowers were painted on the back so that they can be viewed from any angle.

The base was painted with DecoArt Traditions.  Three old nuts (naturally rusted), were glued into position to act as 'feet' to raise the stand up a little.

Back view. All the flower pieces were layered together and joined with a paper fastener which was altered using DecoArt metallic lustre.

Fairies may not be your favourite theme but I hope this and the work of the other DT members shows that you can approach the challenge from many different angles. You can make anything (except a card of course!), using any medium you choose - it can't get any better than that can it?!

It feels so good to be back and creating again. I'm pleased with the way this project turned out although as usual, my nearest and dearest continues to ask 'what is it, what does it do and what's it called?'!

If you managed to get down this far, thank you for taking the time to do so and thanks to those who left such lovely comments on my previous post.

Sorry To Be Away For So Long

It's ages since I was here last - sorry. In July, a very dear family member suddenly became ill and sadly, we lost our wonderful Auntie. These things are never easy and life has been rather upside down for a while. I have at long last finished a project which will be posted tomorrow for the current challenge at Anything But A Card.

Thanks for the well wishes from a number of you and in particular, Trace, Jenny, Alison and Laura.