Introducing Holly

     This is Holly, my little winter fairy. Holly began life as an idea some three weeks ago when I found a pair of Mother Of Pearl earrings that looked like wings.
    I already had the little figure, it was originally a jewellery stand with curly wire stuck in it's head and arms (ouch!) and wearing a rather tacky fabric dress. Once I got it home from the charity shop I striped it bare and used Stazon cleaner to remove the pink paint that covered the upper body.
    I started with the bodice, a piece of red velvet ribbon found at a boot sale, stuck on with Cosmic Shimmer PVA dries clear. Then I coloured the dress area with a gold marker pen from Steadtler, it looks brassy when wet but dries darker.
    All the holly leaves are die cut using my new Spellbinder die set - Little Leaf Sets. I have cut them from dark green thick paper (tried card but it was too stiff) that has been given a gold shimmer with a Cosmic Shimmer mister - Antique Green. There are three different sizes of leaf in the set and six different types of leaf to choose from. I have used the gold marker pen to edge each leaf to give a variegated effect.
    Each leaf has been stuck on individually with CS PVA, I was pleasantly surprised to find this glue really worked well as the figure is made from some type of dense plastic.
    It took a little while to build up the dress with the leaves. I have tried to keep the flow of the fabric within the leaves, this is why paper worked better than card as some of them are shaped to fit.
    Once all the leaves were stuck on I thought she should really have some berries on her dress, so there are several small red gems stuck at random over the skirt. There is one larger gem to the right of her waist at the point where the leaves spread out.

     Her wings are stuck on with Ultra Sticky Red Tape, this tape is amazing, it holds most things including metal. There are two tiny green gems stuck over the holes where the earring fixings were. She may look better with a smaller set of wings stuck below these ones but as yet I haven't found any that look right, so for now she will have one set.
    Well I hope you like her, she will have pride of place at Christmas on my mantle piece. If I find any more of these figures in the charity shops she may have a friend by December.

    I would like to enter Holly in the following challenges:

 Make My Monday - Christmas in July

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Christmas

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Use Something New
CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge - All Wrapped Up (thanks Hazel)