A Fairy Princess Crown...

It was a productive day in the studio Monday. I traced out the pattern pieces (for their respective sizes) for our granddaughters' birthday dresses onto my favorite medium, Swedish tracing paper. That part of the process is now officially out of the way.

Today I will lay out all the pieces on their own fabrics and then cut out all the components for each of their new dresses. This part (tracing and cutting) always takes me two days. Have I told you that I really don't like this part of the task? It's always been that way. I love choosing the fabrics and sewing them together, but the cutting...not so much.

So, not to get sidetracked here...I have everything ready to go for Phase II. Knowing that, I moved right along to my next project for this week...a Birthday crown for Granddaughter #2. I pulled all the materials out of my magic cabinets and set about creating something just for our younger granddaughter.

Because both of our girls' birthdays are in August, I've incorporated peridot crystals in each of their crowns. To this one, I also added sparkly blue seed beads, pretty, clear, faceted beads and a fairy charm. I happily spent the afternoon winding wire and beads and flowers until I was happy with my results.

I always leave the back of my crowns open so that they will fit from a child all the way up to the (adult) Queen of the Birthday Celebration. My fondest desire is that the girls will love my creations well enough to want to wear them for every single birthday - from now until they're little old ladies. To make sure that the crown stays, I've added tulle, both for embellishment and to secure the crown on the wearer, tied in back into a pretty tulle bow. Voila! A completed Fairy Princess Birthday Crown!

I've also chosen a special box, just the perfect size for the crown I've made. She will be able to keep it in her closet until it's time to take it out for another birthday celebration.

I packaged up the crown, safely nestled in a bed of tissue paper, and posted it for shipment today. All in all a good day, wouldn't you agree?

Just click on the images to see larger views.