FAIRY PAPER DOLL SWAP

Miss Turquoise Fairy

With all the talk of paper dolls, Elena of Scrapbook Royalty and The Traveling Princess blog decided to host her own small paper doll swap. And since it was "her" swap, she picked the subject and the players. There were six of us. What made it so interesting is that each one of us had not met nor knew at least one other artist in the group. (Please visit Elena's blog with the link above to read the various techniques each artist used to create their fairies).

Back: Pat, Georgia and Sally
Front: Diane, Elena and Carrie

On Tuesday we met at Milton's in Del Mar for lunch. Georgia had reserved us a table and we chatted and ate our lunches. Then began the exchanges. They were wonderful. The best part always with theses exchanges is that they are all so different. We had such a good time and met new people for the first time under the best of circumstances. It was a "win - win" for all!

The Dolls and their creators

So, Georgia, Pat, Carrie, Elena, Diane and myself had a month to create six paper dolls. The only criteria is that they should not be more than 10 inches tall over all.

Georgia's Fairy

Carrie's Fairy

Pat's Fairy

Diane's Fairy


Elena's Fairy

TENsecond Studio

What influenced my paper dolls? Well, Jlo (Jen Lowe) had just been out here teaching from Colorado and I had taken her TENseconds studio giant paper doll class. TENseconds studio provides a giant 1/4 thick form that includes head, hair, arms, body and legs. Jlo gave us the metal and taught those who didn't know how to emboss the technique.

Sally's TENsecond studio doll
Stands 18 inches

I had already taken a class up at The Art Bar in Santa Ana from the owner and fell immediately in love with metal and all you can do with it. That year, I had made 20 ornaments for my trees with a pattern from Christine Adolph's snowflake stamp.

The Process using the Pazzles

So, not remembering the KISS mantra, I embarked on my small paper dolls. Jlo had already made a Fairy pattern for a little girl in her class. I took that pattern and made it a lot smaller and scanned the line drawing into my Pazzles and did the auto trace.

12x12 cardboard cut by Pazzles

Now I got my cardboard (used the cardboard that is in the 12 x 12 packets of scrapbook paper). The Pazzles cut out all the pieces after I figured out the depth of the blade and the pressure needed. I then spray painted all the backs of the body parts with pink.

Pazzle cutting Humogus TENsecond studio adhesive

Now, I put the 8 x 10 Red Line sheets of the stickiest two sided tape in my Pazzles and they cut out the patterns again.

Pazzle cutting TENsecond studio metal sheets

Next came the metal for the Pazzles to cut. In hind sight, the only thing wrong I did with the metal was I should have made it a little bigger because it shrinks when you emboss it.

The embossing was fun. I used some forms and also did some free style embossing.

Now I had to put all the pieces together, meaning attach the tape to the cardboard and then the metal to the tape and hope I could line it all up correctly, The tape is un-forgiving because it is SO STICKY!

Now the sanding of the embosses areas on everything. Pretty messy but looks great after wards.

Miscellaneous Pieces

Jlo had also introduced me to Copic Markers and the aerosol can. I now started to color my little girls.

While I was in the midst of all this, the Del Mar Scrapbook Expo came. While at the Expo my friends noticed that their was a craft fair also going on next door. I had been thinking about dressing my girls and there for $3 I found a bag of mainly pink but one multi colored hair crunchy. I grabbed them and cut the band and pulled ribbon through them to make the skirts.

I needed a face for my fairy. In Jlo's class, you just embossed the metal and put eyes if you wanted or just a design. I didn't want that for my girls. So, I used my cousin in Poland, George's mother's beautiful face for my fairies. I colored her face a little with a copic marker and colored pencils.

While I was at the Craft Fair mentioned above, there was a lady with junk jewelry for sale. After you gathered your pieces she told you how much it was. What I bargain and some of the pieces ended up as necklaces on my fairies.

More of my fairies