Little Dancer

I made this for the Graphic 45 Renaissance Faire contest. You were to make a project using that line of paper. I thought it went perfectly with the pictures we took last November at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. We walked into a room and suddenly I saw it -- Degas' Little Dancer! It was stunning!

The pictures just don't do it justice. If you ever get a chance, you must go see this amazing bronze sculpture in person. He actually used a green ribbon and bronze dipped fabric for her outfit.

Along with showcasing this piece of art, I wanted to add some of my own artwork to the page. I found this rose tutorial online and wanted to make some to put on this page. Here is how you make them.

First, punch out 8 flowers or scallops. I made them in two different sizes. I used the EK Success punches.

Then spritz with water. I spritzed with water and some bronze perfect pearls for a tiny bit of shimmer.
Then crinkle each one into a little ball.
They should look like this when you are done.
The flatten them back out and stack them into a stack of 8. If you have double sided paper, you might want to flip them over every other one so that you can see the other side. I didn't do that because I didn't want it to be too busy for this layout.
Then using an awl or paper punch (as usual I couldn't find my Tim Holtz paper punch, which is my favorite!)
Stick a long brad through the hole and open the back to fasten all the papers together.
Then starting with the top petal, pull it up and squeeze it tight in the center.
Then do the same with the second petal.
And once you have squeezed all the petals around the center, it will look like a rose bud.
Then very gently, take it and spread the petals out and down to form the rose blossom.
Here is one of the smaller ones.
And the larger red one. I added some Prima swirls to fit with the feel of the metal sculpture and the grace of the dancer.


Thanks Graphic 45! This was a fun challenge!