eP Get Altered ~ Fairies Under Glass

It's time for another Get Altered challenge at eclectic Paperie.  The Get Altered Challenge is held on the first Thursday of each month and each challenge is an opportunity for you to be inspired by one of our eTeam’s creations, to share your work, and be entered into our challenge prize drawing! This time it's Donna-Marie's turn to set the challenge and she chose the theme Altered Bottle or Glass. The project I created is another first for me which I love. It's something I have admired and thought about doing but needed that extra push to take the plunge. I am a huge fan of the artwork of Nichola Battilana, a fellow Ontarian who has just been recruited to the G45 DT along with our own Annette Green from the eTeam.  Nichola makes the most amazing fairy related creations, among tons of other wonderful  projects, and I am smitten both with the results and her accompanying stories. That's why I decided to capture a couple of fairies of my own in response to the altered jar theme.

I started with an Artchix Studio collage sheet which featured these amazing fairy babies breaking out of their eggs. Look at that baby's face...does it not melt your heart? I fussy cut her, inked the edges with Black Soot Distress ink, and created a triangular stand for her. 

The other image is from Paper Whimsy. She was also fussy cut, given lovely blue butterfly wings, and mounted on a triangular base. Her wings have Icicle Stickles on them which gives them a lovely sparkle. That happens as the fairies grow up a little. Where the fairies are glued to the front of the triangular or tent shaped base, I first coloured  the base with Big Brush pens, and then wrapped them with raffia so that the cardstock  would not be visible. Both fairies were adhered to the  stands about 1/4 " from the bottom so that they would be slightly raised when the nest was added. Double sided Scor tape anchored the base to the bottom of the jar.

To create the nest area and give them a soft place to rest, raffia and brown fibres were fitted in a circle around the fairies as well as in between them. A few short pieces of raffia were also cut and randomly inserted.  A shabby chic cotton flower from Maya Road was inserted behind the taller fairy. Smaller mulberry roses were randomly scattered in their nest, as were red berries from my stash. Metallic stars cut from trim were also wedged or glued into place.

Because I didn't want the fairies to escape until I could capture them on film nor did I want my cat, Molly, to decide they were new toys, I needed to put a lid on the jar. I gessoed the wooden lid and then distressed it with Vintage Photo Distress ink, heavier on the sides than the top. The lid reminded me of a mushroom cap so I placed some dots on it using Wendy Vecchi's white Embossing paste and a Dylusions stencil. Once they were dry, I outlined the circles with black Micron pen, and then colourized them with Dylusions Postbox Red spray ink applied with a brush. I thought perhaps the mushroom cap would make these wee friends feel more at home.

I love the magic and whimsy of this make. It makes me smile every time I look at it. Thanks so much for stopping off to meet these little sweeties today. Be sure to check out the rest of the Get Altered projects on the eP blog. Donna-Marie, talented woman that she is, has an incrediblel inspiration piece on the blog and the rest of the DT's projects can be found by clicking the linky with their names underneath. I'm so looking forward to seeing all of the projects from them and from you. There are so many ways to alter  jars or bottles and play along. I know I'll learn lots :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

For a link to the goodies from the eclectic Paperie shop which were used in this creation, click on the thumbnails below.

Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Stickles - Icicle	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Neutral
Scor Tape -1/4"wide x 27 yds long (double sided)	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso	Dylusions Stencil 5x8" - Dotted Flowers	Dylusions Ink Spray - Postbox Red