Fairy Wings

While I do LOVE the dragonfly type fairy wings a lot of professional artists use, not only are they very fragile (cellophane or even real cicada wings), I can't replicate them for what I need to do here.  Making felt wings just turns out blah. And limp.  Using netting got the same results even if they were sparkly.  I'd LOVED to have the type posted below, but hey, it's just not feasible sometimes.

 

 

Best thing I came across was silk leaves off of the garlands you can buy at any Michael's or JoAnn store.  Look for the larger leaves like the fall oak garlands or the maple garlands.  They are easy to peel off the plastic support backing, you fold them in half (even use an iron if you want to keep the crease in them) and they can easily be sewn to the back of any fairy type doll you're making.  Here's the maple leaf garland I found on sale after Thanksgiving last year.  Some of the leaves are up to 5 inches long.  Even folded in half down the vein they have enough projections off the side to give visual interest. Don't use smooth leaves, the result just isn't the same.

 

 

To keep them in proportion, the doll would need to be 2 to 5 inches tall.  Perfect for window dangles, Christmas Tree ornaments, or whatever.  And they look great. You can add sparkle by doing a dot of Elmer's Glue/Aleens Glue and adding rhinestones on it (or glitter or even seed beads).