Monday, July 11, 2011

Button Fairies for Free!

Some crafts are so fun, you don't want to stop at just one! Making button fairies was an instant hit with me since I have tons of buttons and a large collection of both digital and actual clipped (from magazines) clip art! The ladies on my scrapbook message board started talking about these so I just googled "button fairy" or maybe "button fairy tutorial." I'm pretty sure I worked out how to do it from looking at the pics. The wire that I used to string the buttons together was leftover from another craft so this was a NO SPENDING craft! Excellent. No trips to Michael's or Joann's, just start playing :)

This first lady looks like more of an angel and that's okay with me. The wings are Tattered Angels Foil Chip Chipboards. The body is clip art from The Graphics Fairy.



This lady is in a darker vein and already had her wings. I just had to decorate and give her a button body. The picture was cut from Dragon Magazine which is now only available online. Lucky for me, my hubby had many of these stashed away from his Dungeons and Dragons days :) I love going through and cutting out pics of mythical beasts and such. The buttons are decorated with a mix of Tattered Angels Glitter Glaze in Wicked (green) and Flirty (burgundy). I'm sorry I don't know who the artist is, though.



This sensuous goddess fairy is from a comic book! The figure was a dancing Mata Hari. The artist's name is Roy Allan Martinez and the comic was written by Rich Wilkes. I loved the colors as well as her pose and used that for the inspiration for the rest of the fairy. The buttons are decorated with Tattered Angels Glitter Glam Walkin' On Sunshine and Viva Decor 3D Glitter-Gel in Gold. I think I threw some red glitter puffy paint in there, too.


Last, but not least (because that would make her even more upset!) my sad, little pouty-face fairy ;) She is a photo cut from a magazine and stuck into my scrapbook long, long ago. I just liked the picture a lot. I wish I knew who the model or the photographer was! Anyway, she has some beautiful wings that I cut with my cricut and decorated with Star Dust Stickles. Her button body is also decorated with Stickles and Tattered Angels Glitter Glam in Chandelier.


Try it! It's one of those things that is so fun and really hard to screw up!
later,
Allison

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Princess Banner

Finally, after promising my niece Zoe a princess banner on St. Patrick's Day (because she loved my celtic banner) I nervously presented the finished product to her on Father's Day! I think I will blame it all on wanting to get it perfect for her :)
So, the papers I used are an assortment I received as a RAK, sorry I can't tell you who made them. I can share some of the other details though...
-Flower, butterfly and accent Die-Cuts from K and Company (Studio 112)
-Foil Chips Chipboard from Tattered Angels
-Glitter Alpha Punch Out letters from Colorbök






The box for the banner was created using this tutorial from Fabulously Artsy. It was meant for greeting cards but it worked out well for the banner. I just folded it up and put half in one side, half in the other.
At the bottom of this post, I will also include the .svg files so that you can cut some of the same images with your cricut and a make a banner for your favorite princess.
I'm really glad I set this challenge for myself. It's not too often that I give myself permission to dive headlong into pink, fluffy girly-ness with my crafts. The style of the banner is also very different from the celtic one I made for St. Paddy's day. I wanted it to be more layered and textural. Now, looking at the pictures, I'm wondering if it needs MORE glitter, MORE lace, MORE PRINCESS! Hehehehe, maybe not. Zoe seemed to like it and recognized many of the features of classic fairytales on the pendant. A glass slipper here, a royal crest there and of course, a unicorn who will only appear to pure-hearted young maidens.
I don't necessarily think our culture's emphasis on princesses is a bad one. It's a matter of which princess and which version of the story gets told. A princess is not far from a queen, who is not far from a legend who is not far from a goddess.... Disney is a great way to introduce one version of a classic story but probably needs to be followed up with literature, lore, folk tales and stories of real women who actually existed and did heroic things. In some cases, it's a matter of women who did they best they could under rotten conditions! Their stories need to be heard, too.
Well, that's all for now :) Except that I'm also excited that my Cafepress shop sold some new designs while I was in Hawaii vacationing with family! I did a series of three designs based on palmistry (one of my first loves in the realm of the occult...) and really loved how they came out. Here's the design for the heart line. Go here to see the other two for the head and life line.

Thanks for stopping by!
Allison
PS: Here are the svg files
Crown
Unicorn
Fleur de Lis
Glass Slipper
Castle
Pennant Base