Peacocks for Christmas? Ornaments? Tree Topper and more?

Yes... I actually had the idea this year to create the window display in my little book store I work with and then someone told me "Peacocks and Christmas, those don't go together!". I should know better than to let someone squash my artistic vision too quickly... BECAUSE this season... PEACOCKS are EVERYWHRE... yes ... especially for CHRISTMAS! Pier1, Walmart, Michael's, Marshalls and other stores are decorating for this holiday in blues, teals greens and dark golds, mimicking the peacocks and feather type ornaments are all over the shelves... should have stuck with my gut. UGH!

Yet... prior to seeing these everywhere my daughter decided (about 9pm on Halloween night) she wanted a peacock tree in her room this holiday season. Making Ornaments is a tradition in our house... this year is the "year of the Peacock" according to my daughter who now want's everything Peacock. We discussed it some more and this is what we came up with.

Ornament #1: Helmar Gemstone Glue with a fine tip applicator was used to draw and glitter the eye feather on the outside of the ornament. 

Ornament #2: Helmar Premium Craft Glue was used along the back to glue all the pieces to the gold plaster filigrees.

Ornament #3: No adhesives used

Tree Topper plans: We bought one large clip on peacock bird ornament and we will be adding more feathers and some floral picks to spruce it up.

I will post more as we get the tree up and decorated after Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! Thanks for checking out my blog. Leave a message in the comments below. I love hearing if people like my work. If you have a question please make sure you leave an email for me to answer. Thanks!Fallow me here ---------------------------------------------------------------->

Helmar Educator - Education Team

Pretty Peacock Princess (with real working peacock tail) - Halloween Costume

This pretty Peacock Princess costume was designed and dreamed up by my 7 year old daughter. She sat down and drew up the design for her entire costume. She made the tutu, her choker necklace and decorated her trick or treating bag and gloves. Did I mention she is7?

"A real working peacock tail" was her vision. She wanted it to trail on the ground behind her and be able to be lifted up and fan out like a real peacock. Tall order, for a 7 year old. But in our house... maybe not...

Here it is in action!!!! Check out this video!

To have me help walk you though creating this step by step please see my tutorial on Etsy. It comes with full customer support in a group on FB allowing quick and fast communication and responses to your questions.

Research was done for many hours online and I never found what I was looking for to engineer this tail they were all stationary either up or down. So I had to engineer it myself, after all it's not the first time I have made costume pieces with moving parts (Angel wings, Transformer costume). After some discussions with the Hubby about the mechanics, we figured it out how to make it work. The tail is 66" wide... that is 1.5' wider then my daughter is tall!

 

I made the crown after she figured out which of her crowns in her dress up drawer she wanted to use. 

It was put together with none other then my favorite fast drying adhesive, Helmar 450 Quick Dry. Trinity also used it on her necklace to glue down the Velcro in the back and the large gem in the center and to attach the bows and trim to her gloves. There is no doubt she is definitely my daughter, no doubt about it! She also loves her Helmar too!

I have to mention while looking at these closeups... the shawl she is waring was made for me by my loving little sister. She knitted this for as my Matron of honor gift for her wedding. She is very crafty with yarns and fabrics. Check out her out on Facebook, Quilt Shakti. 

The obvious choice was to have it pulled back. We did a sweeping french braid from the front left to the back right. Touching it all up with streaks of turquoise blue.
Next we researched her makeup and she decided on a simple eyeshadow technique. I wanted more costume type makeup. In the end she was right. Just enough to make her look like an exotic bird and not to much to hide her innocence she still has at age seven.
She won first place in the costume contest for the girl's age group at our local city event "Scarysville" My son won his boy section for his age group too with his handmade Iron Man costume.
Here is one last look at the front of the costume. She had a blast as her dream of a "Peacock Princess".

 Which of our costumes did you like this year? Peacock Princess or Iron Man costume? Comment below or on my other post to let me know!

UPDATE:

You can order these in my Esty Shop for children sizes or you can special order adult sizes too. 

This item in an adult size was worn to the 65th Emmy Awards CHA Connected Gift Lounge. (Click on the link for more photos of this event.)

Please see more of our costumes in the following links:

Angel Warrior with Articulated Wings
Jack Skellington  - Disney's Nightmare Before Christmas Puppet Costume

Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope Wedding Gown Tutorial

Moon/Lunar Fairy - with articulated wings

Tron Lightcycle
Peacock Princess with articulated tail
Iron Man - 3D
3D Paper Doll Ballerina
Literary Work of Art

Angelina Ballerina - Party Invitations

THIS IS THE FIRST PAPER CRAFT PROJECT I HAVE WORKED ON SINCE OUR MOVE IN SEPTEMBER! **CHEER**

My wonderful daughter has decided to have a ballerina party for her fifth birthday. However not just any ballerina party... Angelina Ballerina... did you know they DON'T make party decorations with Angelina Ballerina at all... and very little selection with just ballet themes. So I am on a mission this next week to develop a very pretty Angelina Ballerina party. < click the link to go to the Angelina Ballerina birthday party post (updated)

I am going to share with you the invitations I designed or rather altered from a corset card template. I hope you enjoy!

Front:

TAG CLOSEUP:

OPENED:

BACK CORSET:

More Birthday Party Invitations I have created:

Boy Birthday Invitations:
- Minecraft Birtyday Party Invitations
- Harry Potter Hogwarts Birthday Party Invitations
-Lego Bionicle Mask of Light

- Lego Starwars Light Sabers

- Iron Man Mask Brithday Party  Invites

Girl's Birthday Invitations:

- Fashion-ista Pink and Black Designer Purse