THE WINNER OF DZFANTASY'S "LEAF FAIRY" GIVEAWAY IS.....

HEIDI OF CANADA!

CONGRATULATIONS, HEIDI!

Heidi's entry of March 23rd was randomly picked (by my husband), out of the 65 entries submitted for the above "Leaf Fairy" giveaway, which ended April 10th - at 12:00 Midnight CST.

A big "thank you", to all of you who entered and left such delightful comments. I always enjoy reading them. A new giveaway will be coming soon, so do stop back and enter. The next lucky winner could be you!

FAIRY LEAF SPIRIT GIVEAWAY by DZFANTASY!

100% SILK

FAIRY LEAF SPIRIT

by

DZFANTASY

If you'd like a bit of magic for your home or office, be sure to enter my giveaway for this delightful 100%, hand-dyed silk "FAIRY LEAF SPIRIT"! She is a wall accent, with a ribbon loop on the back for hanging.

START DATE: March 10, 2009

END DATE: April, 10, 2009, 12 MIDNIGHT - CST

VALUE: $30.00

PRIZE: 1

OPEN: Worldwide

HOW TO ENTER:

1. Leave a comment in this post

2. Leave your email address or a link to your email address. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, as winner will be contacted via EMAIL ONLY!

NOTE: Please don't forget this information! Many people are still forgetting to do this when they have entered my past giveaways. If I pick a winner and there is no means of contacting them, I have to go on and pick another entry.

3. A WINNER will be randomly selected, after the close of the giveaway, from all entries received. I will send the WINNER an email notifying them that they have won. WINNER will have 3 days in which to answer my email, sending me their shipping information. If I do not hear from the WINNER within the given timeframe, I will randomly select another WINNER from the remaining entries.

ABOUT THE PRIZE:

The entire creation is 100% silk fabric, which I hand-dyed/painted using silk fabric dyes. The leaf pattern was designed from a real popular leaf, which I enlarged to the size you now see. It measures 5" wide at its widest point, and 6.5" long from the tip of the leaf to the end of the stem.

The fairy's face is also 100% silk, which I dyed a lighter green. It has been hand-drawn, needle-sculpted and hand-painted. Her hairdo was designed from a really fun textured, sparkly Italian yarn. Her accents are Swarovski crystals both in her hairdo, and at the base of the leaf.

All giveaways running on DZFANTASY are listed in the right column under the heading DZFANTASY GIVEAWAYS! To enter any giveaway, all you have to do is click on the "giveaway" photo to go directly to that giveaway's post.

THANKS FOR VISITING DZFANTASY

&

GOOD LUCK!

HUGE MAPLE LEAF FAIRY TUTORIAL continued

In my previous post "HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A MAPLE LEAF THIS SIZE", I showed the steps of how I created this huge, silk maple leaf, whose template was created from one of the largest maple leaves I've ever seen....11.75" long x 11.25" wide, when I found it.

Above you see the completed creation, which I designed entirely of 100% silk. Below you will see the steps taken to complete this colorful, fiber fantasy wall art.

Dyeing the "face" fabric

Here I have hand-dyed/painted the silk fabric , which I will use for the fairy's face. I brushed on the Dye-na-Flow liquid paint using a brush, just as I did with the leaf. I watered down the colors so I wouldn't have too dark of a face. After the fabric was the desired color, I pressed it dry with my iron.

Preparing the fabric for sewing

After I pressed the fabric dry, I ironed interfacing to one side of the fabric so that I could trace the face template onto the fabric.

If you will note in the picture, I have a tiny "+" drawn in the center of the face. I cut this little "opening" before I stitch the face so that it is easier, when it comes time to turn the face right side out.

The face is now sewn with the tinest stitch that my machine allows. Next it is being turned inside out.

Now the face is being stuffed with acrylic fiberfill. I was amazed at how much fiberfill it took to stuff this size face. It measures approximately 3" long and 2.25" wide. Lately, I 've been making teeny, tiny faces for my butterfly pins, so this was a big change of pace!

My next step is to draw the features onto the stuffed face, using a .005 Micron pen. It is about this time that I think they look a bit like "aliens". In the photos below, I am doing the needle-sculpting of the features. After that is completed, I hand-paint the eyes and lips, apply blush to the cheeks, and before you know it....she is looking a lot better.
In this photo the fairy's face has now been completely painted, and is ready for her hair.
Her hairdo was designed from a gorgeous, wispy, sparkling yarn with a texture of wispy eyelash, and poofs of color.

Her hair accent is a charming glass dragon fly accented with a string of 8mm Swarovski crystals. They are rather hard to see in the photo. She also has the same yarn as an accent at the base of the leaf, and more 8mm Swarovski crystals hand-sewn into the yarn.

The entire sculpture is now completed!! She will soon be out in my DZFANTASY shop on Etsy.

DID YOU EVER SEE A MAPLE LEAF THIS SIZE?

Finished Leaf Waiting for the "Fairy Face" to be added

MY TUTORIAL ON CREATING

A

100% SILK "MAPLE LEAF FAIRY" WALL ACCENT

STEP ONE - The Leaf

What you will see here are the steps it took me to create a fiber sculpted "maple leaf fairy" wall accent using my original template of one of the biggest maple leaves I ever saw.

I designed the template from a real maple leaf my husband and I found while taking a walk two years ago during a gorgeous fall day in Lake Geneva, WI. It was the most amazing size maple leaf I ever saw!

This huge leaf, was laying among other regular sized leaves which had fallen from the tree. I was so thrilled at this find I had to rush back to our car and press it between paper towels so that I could perserve it until I got home. The leaf measured 11.75" long, and 11.25 wide by the time I got it home. It had shrunk just a little bit.

Below you will see the steps taken to create this 100% silk, leaf. In another post I will show you the steps taken to create the fairy's face, also out of 100% silk, and finally the completed creation! This is only the third "Maple Leaf Fairy" I have created using this huge maple leaf. There is so much work to it!

The photo below shows the template after I traced the actual leaf onto white posterboard. It was quite difficult tracing all the little peaks on the leaf without ruining the leaf.

The next step was to trace the leaf template onto the silk fabric which I used. I used "tussah" silk. Tussah silk is a silk that is derived from wild moths, whose main diet is oak leaves. I also use this same silk for all of my fantasy creation's faces, as well as the mermaids upper bodies. The natural color of tussah silk can be anywhere from a very light cream to a darker tan. When I plan on dying the silk, I use the very light colored tussah. In order to trace the template onto the fabric, I use an iron on interfacing.


Below you will see the leaf after I have sewn it. Let me tell you....it takes a LONG time to sew around all those little peaks, but the hardest part is yet to come....turning the leaf inside out!!

I think you can see from the photo above, where there is a tiny opening at the base of the leaf. That is where the trouble begins...trying to get the whole big leaf through that teeny, tiny opening. I use a long "alligator forceps" tool to manage this, but it still took me almost an hour to turn the leaf right side out! How is that for patience!

The next step is steaming and pressing the leaf to get all the many wrinkles out that were incurred pulling it through the tiny opening. The photo below shows the leaf after it has been stuffed with acrylic fiberfill.

The next step is to "top-stitch" a design onto the leaf. The photo below shows the leaf after I have completed this step. I always sew all of my creations using a clear quilting thread.

Now is the part I love best.....painting the leaf using Jacquard's liquid Dye-na-Flow fabric paint. It flows on so nicely, but you have to work very quickly with it so that you don't develop lines in the coloring. Below are several photos taken in the process of painting the leaf.

I used several different shades of Dye-na-Flow to achieve the colors I wanted for the leaf. Below you will see the finished leaf....waiting to dry! The next step will be creating the "fairy face" , which will go on the center of leaf. The final creation will be a delightful, colorful wall hanging. Be sure to stop back to see the how the whole Maple Leaf Fairy turns out. I will be doing it in another post later this week.

The center of the leaf and the stem are a bit off center, but this won't show when the creation is entirely completed. Be sure to stop back to see how the completed creation will look!