Elements of Dance

April for the Circle of Friends means Dance themed ATC's. I joined this swap at the last minute when inspiration thwacked me upside the head.

I have always loved Dance, Ballet in particular, probably because I am one of the least graceful beings to ever walk the Earth. So of course my ATC had to be all about Ballet. The colors I think of, the textures, the music...I could go on an on.

I started knowing that I wanted my Ballerina to be wearing a skirt/tutu. I used the same fabric most tutu's are made from, tulle. To hide where I inserted the fabric behind the dancer I added a very thin piece of rick rack. The other thing I think of when I think of a Ballerina's wardrobe is glitz so of course I added glitter. And one can not forget tights...so her legs are colored in a skin tone, which is what most tights look like.

After I had my Ballerina all set I kind of wondered where to go. Music, a Ballerina can not dance without Music. Actually that probably isn't true but I've never seen a performance without music. So I stamped a music score randomly all over the background.

The final element I knew I wanted to add was a bouquet. I have never seen a Dancer not holding a bunch of gorgeous flowers at the end of a performance. I got these flowers from Alpha Stamps, they have a fabulous selection of 3D flowers.

I know this picture is a bit funky, can you believe it is the same flowers as the ones above. It looks so good from straight on, not so much this way but I wanted you to get the feel for all the 3D elements and textures.

When I had all these elements on I realized I needed to fill some space so I added the text.

Believe it or not I am not pleased with this ATC at all. I don't know if it is because it seems simple when looking at it or if it's the colors, it may even be the subject matter (I've always had a terrible time when presented with the challenge of Dance). to try to make up for what i think is not my best work I decided to slip the ATC into a custom made envelope that I hope resembles a ballerina's shoe.

The way a dancers shoes lace up have always intrigued me. I think it is very elegant...and I hope that is reflected here. I selected the pink satin fabric because that is what I have always seen the shoes covered in.

Because the fabrics I selected are so slick I used fusible webbing between them to provide stiffness...it also helped hold them together when I punched the holes for the eyelets.

When I drew out my template I thought I took into consideration some extra but the fabric envelope is a bit tight for the ATC...the recipients will probably need to fluff the skirt and flowers on the ATC when they open this.

Well, they are all packed up and ready to head to Andrea, our hostess this month. But I couldn't send them off without doing a bit of mail art.

I stuck with my color theme of pink and green. Added some shimmer by stamping a background stamp with versamark and using Pearl Ex powders all over it. A bit of pink paper featuring a portion of a chandelier adds a bit of elegance (in my opinion) And lastly added the dancers.

Hope everyone likes what I have done...more than I do.