Hen Night / Wedding Shower Invitations

I have been asked to produce eight Hen Night / Wedding Shower Invitations for a client's forthcoming wedding, and here is the finished result.... Using a vintage corset advertisement as the body of the invite I then added personalised wording to the front area spelling out "Lucys' Hen Weekend", the top of the corset was decorated with five vintage ladies all looking at their beautiful corsets, in a humorous pose.

The whole piece was mounted on to strong cardstock to give a sumptuous "expensive" feel and weight to the invite. The reverse of the card was a pearlesant lilac silky paper to which the invite wording was added. I used a pretty font, accented with birds for the wording.

All eight of the invites were then packed in tissue paper into a decorative box for presentation to the client.

Every Girls Worry.....

"Does my bum look big in this?" I've said it many a time to my partner and I'm sure you have. The image of this beautiful girl was just perfect for this phrase, and as I like to inject a little humor into my work on occasion, I thought this was just the thing.

Raising the little lady up on a sort of stage worked really well with the old fashioned gentleman looking on in the background, and I really liked mixing up the era's with the Edwardian Gent and the 1940/50s gal.
Of course it wouldn't be a Maygreen Fairies piece without the obligatory acetate wings, and these were real beauties, very colourful and sticking out from her back to give a 3d effect.

The little stage she is perched on was made from a small card box that I covered in vintage paper and decorated with sequins and fine fluffy trim to soften the edges... et voila!!

On a different note, I need to say a huge THANK YOU to the super talented Karen of Valentine Studios for this lovely award, it is always so wonderful to be recognised in this way by fellow artists and bloggers, it really does mean so much. Now, all I need to do is pass this award on to another talented person... so here she is...... Tammy Smith of Home Made Circus I am a huge fan of her art, she is soooo talented and has a beautiful blog too, please check her out if you get the chance, you won't be dissappointed.

The Secret Garden

If there were a secret garden,
What would it comprise?
Fragrant flowers, a babbling brook, butterflies?
Dragonflies, birds, and bees, there would be all of these.

But most of all, within ‘that place’,
Tranquil peace and serenity await;
Ever there for me and you to relax and renew.
So every morning before you start,
Visit the ‘secret garden’ of your heart.

Poem by Linda Wall Hall

Working With Acetate

I really enjoy using acetate in my art, I mostly work with it for creating wings for my fairies, but occasionally I like to create depth to my collages with acetate foregrounds, like those shown here.

The foreground for all of the pieces were taken from vintage Japanese art images, I think they work beautifully with the vintage fairies, they add a real wispy, whimsy feel to each collage.

Placing the vintage fairy image behind the acetate is perfect, it's like the fairies are hiding shyly behind the blades of grass trying not to be seen!

So if you haven't yet given acetate a try, please do, it's so easy to work with, and produces great results.

Altering Vintage Optical Lenses

A wonderful item to alter is the old vintage optical lens, you can purchase these through auction sites like Ebay, art supply shops and also at your local thrift shop if you're lucky. They were used around the 1900s and have different glass thicknesses depending on the lens itself.

I turn mine into pendants, which is very easy to do, first I choose the image I am going to use and then cover it in Diamond Glaze which protects the image but also adheres it to the lens. I then cut a piece of material or felt and fix this to the back of the image to create a decorative padding to the back of the pendant. Then all that's left to do is add a ribbon necklace and voila!

The Tooth Fairy

If you have "little ones" and it's time for the Tooth Fairy to call, then why not put out one of my Tooth Fairy Door Hangers to summon the little tooth collector?

I create these whimsical door hangers using acrylic paints, vintage prints, acetate for wings and a little bit of decoupage for added interest. I also have some Christmas styles that I'll be showing later in the year.

Here Comes The Clown

The wonderful *iTkUpiLLi* have been giving away FREE digital collage sheets, as she has only one small favour to ask; that you create something with her images and post it on your blog. So, here is my creation!

I chose her Pierrots and Clowns Sheet and used this clown from it as the centre piece for my collage. Thank you *iTkUpiLLi* your images are wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.

Tag It On Challenge

Each Wednesday at the Dragons Dream Blogspot you can partake in a challenge to produce a tag, with a different theme each week. This is the first challenge on the blog that I have taken part in and the theme was "Fairies at the bottom of the garden", right up my street. So here is my finished piece. Hope you like it! If you'd like to check out, or take part in, any future challenges click here.

Traveling "paper" Art Doll Symposium (TADS)

I have to share this with you as I am so excited to be a part of this amazing project and all you artists out there will love this idea I'm sure. I have been involved in Altered Book Round Robin Projects in the past but this is something else!! Curious??? Well let me explain; The wonderfully talented Paper Doll Artist, Kitty Kellie is the organiser of TADS, Kitty has created several unfinished paper dolls along with a blank Journal for each doll that she will be sending to artists who sign up for this project. Each Artist is set the task of designing something for the doll and entering their design story into the journal to accompany the doll on its travels around the world to the various artists homes/studios.

The first doll is already on its way to North Dakota in the US, so all eyes are currently on the first artist and what she will come up with! I am the next on the list to receive a doll, so I'm eagerly awaiting her arrival. I will keep all my readers up to date on my progress with this project and post photos of my design and journal entry. If you would like to know more about the project, or even sign up yourself, here are a few links to get you on your way;

The Artful Paper Doll Blogspot

Papercat Designs (The Artful Paper Doll Ning Site, where you can join the fun)

ENJOY!!

Chanel Darling!!

My wonderful friend and artist Debbie Overton of MMCA and Debbie Overton Designs, kindly sent me a paper mache bust form as a gift a year ago and I've only just got round to altering it now. At the moment I love covering items in vintage papers and I am lucky enough to come across some wonderful vintage paper finds as a volunteer at Oxfam, so it was only right that I cover this beautiful form in the same. I have several old books, in particular, Good Housekeeping Guides, and I thought articles from these would be quite fitting to use as a covering ensuring that I placed certain titles in key places so they would be highlighted on the form, for example the "Dressmaking & Millinery Made Easy" Title at the bottom left of the form.

Once I'd covered the form I then sealed it using Diamond Glaze to protect and give it a matt sheen. Then for the real fun part.... What was I going to "Dress" it up with??? I remembered that my Sister had given me some Chanel Ribbon a while back (really handy having a Sister who works with Dior and Chanel!), I used this as the main accent for my form and then took a black rhinestone button and added some fine peacock and plain black feathers to the base to add as a sort of brooch to the piece... et voila!! the finished product my Chanel Darling Bust!! She is now available on my website shop .

Inspirational Blog Showcase

I am over the moon to have been featured on this wonderful blog (Inspirational, click logo above to go there), if you get the chance please check it out, it showcases inspirational blogs from around the globe and there are some wonderfully inspiring Artists to be found there. I was lucky enough to be featured on Thursday's post, so you may need to scroll back a bit if you view the blog to find me. I would like to say a HUGE THANKYOU to Ruth from Altered Geisha's Crafty Musings, Ruth is responsible for getting my work onto Inspirational, please check out her site it is truly wonderful!

My Creative Day!

I had a wonderfully creative day today, the kids were at Playgroup this morning so I had several hours to indulge. I was pretty low on my stock of Whimsical Bookmarks so I needed to get some more made, and here they are...

These are really good selling items in my shop and make lovely gifts for friends or family. I often have repeat customers for my bookmarks so I try to change the images regularly to keep them interesting. You can purchase the bookmarks at Maygreen Fairies Shop.

Once the kids came home from Playgroup, they brought their best friend Morgan home for the afternoon, so we had a "Fairy Hunting" Session in the garden and here's the result (which Morgan was amazed at, she couldn't believe that the fairy actually landed on her shoulder whilst the photo was being taken... her reaction was priceless!)

I do produce Bespoke Digitally Altered Photos for many clients, so if you are interested please email me via my website.

My Little Pocket Fairies

When I came across a black and white vintage photo of these four little girls I knew instantly that I had to create with it, I adore their wonderful expressions and the gorgeous clothes they are wearing, they were crying out to be altered into cheeky little fairies.... don't you agree?

I'm really into working with little booklets or shrines as some artists call them, and decorating this one to pop my little fairies into was a joy! I had such fun with it.

Popping the little darlings onto decorated lolly sticks enables the owner to remove them from the booklet/shrine and play around with them, if they so wish!!

So there you have it..... My Pocket Full of Fairies.

A Fun Filled Family Weekend!

Gosh, what a fun packed weekend we've had!! Here are my boys on Saturday, busy helping to make a Birthday Cake for their Grandpa who was due to visit on the Sunday. They loved finishing off the chocolate mixture in the bowl.... I always remember doing this as a kid! LOL!

Well Sunday arrived with much excitement from the boys, Grandma and Grandpa were treated to lots of hugs and painted pictures from them and after lunch we presented Grandpa with the chocolate cake... yes, believe it or not the boys did leave enough mixture to actually make a cake!

We then took a two hour walk through our local woods. We are so lucky to have these beautiful woods on our doorstep. It is stunning at this time of year, full of bluebells.......

As you look across the woods it's like looking at a sea of blue, and the smell is glorious, my Mum just couldn't resist getting right into the thick of it for a photo....

And then we come to today; Monday, a Public Holiday here in the UK!! Well, it started out lovely and sunny this morning so we thought we'd pop down to a local beach... BIG MISTAKE! IT WAS FREEZING!! What were we thinking LOL!!! But we did manage to brave it for about an hour along with other crazy families.... good old British Weather!

Have You Seen A Pixie??

Pixies dance pixies prance. Have you seen a pixie by any chance?

A Pixie Shrine

The Circus is in Town

I seem to be drawn toward Circus Themed creations at the moment, I guess it's since I attended a small Circus last Saturday with my boys and hubby. It was the first time my twin boys had been to the Circus and they were totally amazed by the whole thing, from the moment they saw the Circus Tent they were fascinated and constantly asking questions, it was wonderful to see.

This assemblage has been created using various vintage Ephrema, from old Circus Posters to Vintage Pierrot photographs, lettering from old papers and even an old sewing pattern, all thrown together in the mix to create this little assemblage. Happy Weekend to all my lovely readers! x