Midnight Masquerade Memories ...

When Leslie from Alpha Stamps contacted me about doing a special project for the new Graphic 45 paper line "Midnight Masquerade," I jumped at the chance - I love the colors in this paper collection, and the nostalgic 1930's images appealed to my sense of nostalgia and romance. I also knew nothing could give me the permission to indulge my love of over-embellishment like a masquerade! I decided to make a series of photo/memory albums of different styles and sizes.

 

The first one, which ended up being the largest (9" x 11") I made from a basic chipboard base and covered with the beautiful Graphic 45 papers. I used a plain, inexpensive half mask from the dollar store and went to town decorating it. I also used lots of mulberry paper flowers, ribbon, Relics and Artifacts Rhinestone Chain, and Artchitectures Feathers from Alpha Stamps.

Like all the photos, if you would like to see a larger photo to see details, just click the photo and you'll get a larger image.

 

I loved the dangling chains and strands of elaborately decorated beads with charms and decorations that embellish the spine of the album. They all hang from the Alpha Stamps lion head door handle. (Just a tip, screws do not come with this door handle, but there is a threaded hole in the back. To ensure strength, I took my lion head door handle to the hardware shop and found the perfect screw to use to attach the piece to the spine. Even through the heavy weight chipboard, several layers of paper and the binding system, my Crop-O-Dile went through like it was warm butter!)

The first 'spread' utilizes a paper-lace embellished belly band which holds 5 or 6 photo mats that will accommodate 6" x 8" and small photos or mementos. It is embellished with Sun Large Metal Filigree ornament and a Simple Silver Mask Charm which I heat enameled with Iced Resin Enamels (I love the way the dark crystals make the charm look old and worn!) The other side is embellished with more paper flowers, a handmade butterfly of waxed paper, a vintage piece of jewelry from my stash and lots of carnival masquerade color beads, large and small! Alpha Stamps has over 200 wonderful choices of beads - shop to your heart's content!

 

I had to go light on the embellishment and decoration on this next spread. I knew I was going to be taking up valuable 'real estate' room when I chose to turn the right side page into hidden 'door' behind which were stored five photo/journaling/memory tags. I loved the surprised of finding new places to display mementos, which you can see in the photo below!

I owe a debt of thanks to Kathy Orta King from Paper Phenomenon  for designing two fabulous ideas that I use all the time now that I've discovered them. The first is the 'faux' storage envelope. So many albums use envelopes to store loose photos and mementos, and I find they get just get forgotten about - and add bulky bulges to your album. Kathy created this terrific idea of making a page that looks like an envelope, but really isn't! As you can see in the photo below, when you open the flap, it's really another flip/fold, and hiding inside are more photo mats and a large mat that can be left as it or used for up to a 7"x9" photo! Such a clever and attractive idea! Again, I kept the embellishments to a minimum to save space. Though on the envelope flap, I did create a masquerade couple in a bezel layered under Ice Resin and finished with a gold tassel that I'm quite fond of ... also lots more paper flowers

While I'm thanking Kathy at Paper Phenomenon I also want to thank her for pointing out to me the  way people have changed taking photos in the past couple of years. For quite awhile, everybody was taking photos with their digital cameras, so most of their photos were landscape orientation (wide and short) and we needed photo mats that would accommodate photos in that proportion. Now, however, more people are taking photos with their phones, which means their photos are portrait orientation (narrow and tall), so there are more photo mats required in that style. I use a combination of both - and, of course, photos can be cropped to any size you like anyway. But I thought it was a great piece of insight!

I really like this pocket. It's extra deep and, though I have five photo mats in it, it will handle more with ease and not cause the book to bulge. The pocket itself is a 'fussy cut' (I hate that term - I always feel like I should be wearing a lace granny cap and half spectacles) image from one of the paper collection signature images. Also!, notice that gorgeous piece of purple glimmer paper on the little photo pamphlet I made in the front - isn't that color so luscious you want to eat it!

 The center spread is a double image of the same page. It's a paper lace decorated pocked, embellished with Arts and Relics Rhinestones Chain, Brass Mask with Scalloped Edge, more paper flowers, and silk screened feathers and some old jewelry from my stash.

 

A simple spread with a large silk flower from my stash which will enhance any photo placed on that page (it is only affixed in the upper left corner, so the photo will slide under the bottom right of the flower.) The other side has two portrait style photo mats, which are reversible, as seen below.

This large page will hold up to a 7" x 9" photo. The corners are trimmed in bronze filigree corner ornaments. 

I love this left page with its vintage ornate faux jewels, sparkly paper and elaborate stunning imported embroidery trim. The jewelry is only adhered at the top, so a photo will easily slide under the bottom edge of the metal to embellish the photo. The right side page has an ornately die cut pocket which will hold a large photo mat, and there is a pocket which holds two (or more) photo mats behind it.

 I decided it was time for another 'faux' envelope, and this time faced it with two landscape-style mats. The flap is, again, embellished with lots of papers flowers and some decorations that I created from some bits and bobs from my stash.

 

Inside the envelope, again, are hidden photo tags, this time larger, trimmed in Gold Stickles, and a bit more ornately shaped ... they make me smile because they remind me of the shape of the lady's hair!

 This spread features a large space for a photo layout, one large photo, a memento, or favorite poem. The facing page has a three page portrait-style 'waterfall' page which will accommodate up to six photos. The ornamentation is a chipboard piece from the paper collection, more paper roses, Prills micro-mini-beads, and a vintage piece of jewelry from my stash.

 Here are two landscape-style mats facing my favorite image from the portrait collection. I embellished the masquerade lovers with another waxed paper butterfly, some ribbon, lots of flowers, peacock feathers, feathers, miniature hyacinth and a crystal brooch from my stash. Tip: The orange roses at Alpha Stamps are the only ones I could find anywhere that came close to coordinating with this paper line!!! And, to beat that, they also have the most adorable teensy tiny orange rose buds that match them!

 More space for photos - notice that stunning reproduction Antique Bronze Fan Charm on the left page - charming! All of the text images are from the paper collection sticker sheet.

 The final page spread is another 'faux envelope, facing a back page with a belly band, decorated with a paper collection chipboard embellishment, feathers and flowers. It holds a red glittered festive photo mat - and there is room for lots more! The flap on the envelope is decorated with lots of flowers that have been 'glitzed' up using liquid gold leaf on the edges.

Inside the envelope are more 'hiding' photo tags - this time a page of six - and a facing page that will hold up to a 6" x 8" photo - or embellish your album just as it is - she is pretty spiffy, isn't she?! 

Before I started my next project, I took a little tour of my album and took some shots of my favorite embellishments and decorations and mini-collages...

After that album, I made the decision that I needed a break and should make something a little smaller and not quite so time-consuming. I work for myself. I can make those decisions.  😊

I decided to create a small staggered wallet / brag book / pocket folio / something-or-other that would be cool. By staggered, I knew that I wanted the pages to be all different heights and widths. I gave myself a challenge - of course, only I would know if I actually followed it - but I did! I made the whole thing from one piece of paper! (Not including the decorative paper on top, of course.).

The one thing I hadn't planned on was the amount of space it was going to take up when I started stuffing this little booklet (it's only 4 1/2" x 7"!), so it required a beautiful piece of vintage wrinkly gold silk French ribbon to hold it closed. I think that was a happy mistake!

 The front page is 3"x5" with a 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" overlay. On the panel I added a 3"x5" panel with a paper collection image layered under Ice Resin and surrounded with assorted beads in the festive colors of the paper collection. I added a white feather to which I glued some silver glitter, some of the paper collection cut-apart 'stamps' and a rhinestone embellishment. I added the tiniest flowers from Alpha Stamps. And finally, I add an ATC mask from the ATC Mask Set which I outlined with 3D relief paint, painted with fantasy paints, embellished with seed beads and a few flat back rhinestones, and added a few paper streamers.

 

 The second and third pages are 3"x5" and 3 1/2" x 6" respectively. The second page has a thin tie of silk ribbon which will hold several business card sized photos or cards (or a little larger). I have four in it now, and it could still take three or four more. The third page is a pocket, which could hold photos, mementos, tickets, poems - ata the moment, I have two 'fancy' envelopes with enclosures and a plain white tag in it. It is is embellished with a chipboard images from the paper collection, ribbon, small flowers, and a delightful teeny tiny masquerade mask!

The fourth page is 6"x3 1/2" and the last page is 5"x7". I put two pairs of waterfall sets on the fourth page. As you can see in the photo directly under it, there are bands to hold photos in place under each 'page' of the water fall. The front of each waterfall is decorated with a rhinestone embellishment. The final page is a pock which holds several postcards, a tag, and a photo mat. It is embellished with another chipboard image from the paper collection. More flowers, some ribbon, and another one of those teeny tiny masquerade masks finish off the pocket.

 

 

Here is the entire 'album' standing open on its own. As it's made from 1 piece of paper, it's obviously 12" wide, though measures shorter when 'zig zagged' to stand on its own.

This is the back of the album. I covered with various papers from the paper collection, and think they'll make a terrific spot to showcase another grouping of photos!

Well, I had a jolly good time with that one! So much fun, in fact, I decided to make another small and less elaborate album! Of course, 'less elaborate' from the Glitter King is not necessarily the same thing as 'less elaborate' from a more moderate artisan! 💫

This album is a simple 6"x6" album with no spine. The pages are created so that they actually act as a binding by themselves. Although, I personally prefer a spine and binding system, this is certainly a fast technique for a quick gift that won't take a week to make!

My front cover is one of the Midnight Masquerade papers and has been outlined with pearl and rhinestone rosary chain. An image from the paper collection has been inserted into a fanciful silver frame which I have embellished with clear rhinestones. I've also used white fabric flowers and various size beads. The finishing touch is the stunning Large Fancy Silver Mask Charm from Alpha Stamps. It's a beautifully detailed and almost 2" wide, not to mention, absurdly reasonably priced!

This album used one pieced of paper for each 'double' page spread - no cutting! Just fold, glue, and fill with your favorite photos, or mementos.

I have used some papers from my stash to coordinated with the Graphic 45 Midnight Masquerade paper collection. I wanted, of course, for the Masquerade papers to be the focal point - but I liked the idea of a few surprises here and there.

Each of these pages uses one of the chipboard images from the paper collection. There are also lots of paper flowers used that the links were given in the above album descriptions.               

 

My final album for this series is a book which was designed based on the Graphic 45 Deep Rectangle Matchbox Book and the Graphic 45 Rectangle Tag and Pocket Album. I knew all the embellishment and decoration had to be on the outside of the rectangular box, and almost everything inside the box would have to be flat, as there was no extra "real estate" to allow expansion - if the album got much thicker than it already is, it simply wouldn't fit back into it's matchbox book. So, this was challenging - and a lot of fun!

 

I started the Matchbox by painting all the corners with Lumiere Metallic Acrylic Paint - True Gold - oh, I love this paint! I then covered the top with rhinestone mesh so that the entire surface was a sea of sparkle! Sweeper Fringe was then run around the window opening of the box. Check out the different color combinations available - gorgeous! I used some silver glitter on white feathers and filled a 2 Inch Glass Bottle with seed beads and specialty beads in the same colors as the paper collection. A lot of paper flowers were used and really help to give an extravagant vision. Finally, I used an ATC mask from the Mask Set - ATC Size, outlined the basic areas and free-handed a few decorative spots with gold Cerne Relief, painted with two colors of Fantasy and Moon paints and installed a metal filigree ball.

When the box is slid open, the bottom stores a 7"x9"x3 1/2" photo album

 

I used various elements from the different designs from the paper collection to create a small collage-like cover. As previously mentioned, everything had to be flat, so that no depth was created.

These are the photos of each of the pages. They are all constructed the same way (the album is already constructed. Every other page has a pocket and in one pocket there is a white tag. I chose not to add any paper to the tag, so that any additional depth would be made with photos installed in the album. I chose to use a black tag on the opposite side of the page, which had been left empty by the company,

I have used some flowers for decoration, but all very flat, and not adding depth.

Thanks for spending time with me and my Midnight Masquerade! If you'd like to create your own Midnight Masquerade album (or other of the fab crafty arts projects that have been presented by the design team this week!), here is my supply list. Hope you have a great artisan day!

Now go make something beautiful!

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)(¸.•´

(¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥

 

ALPHA STAMP SUPPLY LIST

Midnight Masquerade 12"x12" Pad

Midnight Masquerade Patterns and Solids 12"x12" Pad

Midnight Masquerade 8"x8" Pad

Midnight Masquerade Journaling Tags

Midnight Masquerade Cardstock Tags and Pockets

Midnight Masquerade Decorative Chipboard 

Midnight Masquerade Ephemera Cards

Deep Rectangle Matchbox Box

 Rectangle Tag and Pocket Album

Relics and Artifacts Rhinestone Chain

Architecture Feathers

Ribbons (approximately 12 different styles)

Paper Flowers (approximately 18 different styles)

Lion Head Door Handle

Simple Silver Mask Charm

Sun Large Metal Filigree

Beads (various selections - pick and choose)

Gold Stickles

Antique Bronze Fan Charm

ATC Mask Set

Small Silver Mask Charm with Dots

Large Fancy Silver Mask Charm

Lumiere Acrylic Paint - True Gold

Sweeper Fringe

2" Glass Bottle

~Please Note: I did not include anything vintage or from my personal crafting stash in the supply list~

"Have you seen those fabulous craftsy goodnesses over at Alpha Stamps?!" 

Clap if you believe in faeries! ...

In 1920 a series of photos of fairies captured the attention of the world. The photos had been taken by two young girls, the cousins Frances Griffith and Elsie Wright, while playing in the garden of Elsie's Cottingley village home. Photographic experts examined the pictures and declared them genuine. Spiritualists promoted them as proof of the existence of supernatural creatures, and despite criticism by skeptics, the pictures became among the most widely recognized photos in the world. 

During World War I, ten-year-old Frances Griffiths, who was from South Africa, moved into the English home of her aunt and uncle, the Wrights, while her father fought in the war. She and her cousin, thirteen-year-old Elsie, often played together in the large garden of the family's Cottingley village home.

In July 1917 the pair asked to borrow the camera of Elsie's father, telling him they wanted to take a photo of the fairies they had been playing with all morning. Elsie's father laughingly agreed and showed them how to use the camera. An hour later the girls returned, declaring their project a success. And when Mr. Wright developed the plate that evening, he could see that there did indeed appear to be a fairy posing with Frances in the photo. However, he dismissed the girls' explanation, assuming the picture was some kind of trick. He asked Elsie why there appeared to be "bits of paper" in the photo.

The first of the five Cottingley faery photos

Even when the girls took a second photo a little over a month later, showing Elsie with a gnome, the father treated the images as a joke and filed them away.

The second of the five Cottingley faerie photos

However, Elsie's mother, Polly Wright, had a stronger belief in the supernatural, and was more intrigued by the photos. In 1919 she attended a lecture on spiritualism and following it, she showed the photos to the speaker, asking him if they "might be true after all." The speaker brought the photos to the attention of Edward Gardner, a leader of the Theosophical movement, who in turn asked a photographer, Harold Snelling, to examine them. Snelling declared the photos were "genuine unfaked photographs of single exposure, open-air work, show movement in all the fairy figures, and there is no trace whatever of studio work involving card or paper models, dark backgrounds, painted figures, etc."

 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Once they had received this stamp of approval, the fairy images began circulating throughout the British spiritualist community, and soon came to the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Doyle was a passionate believer in spiritualism, and he latched onto the images, convinced they were conclusive photographic proof of the existence of supernatural fairy beings. 

At Doyle's urging, the girls took three more pictures of fairies in August 1920. Doyle then wrote an article about the photographs that appeared in the December 1920 issue of The Strand Magazine, in which he passionately argued for the authenticity of the images. This article brought the photos to the attention of the wider public and sparked an international controversy that pitted spiritualists against skeptics.

  THE PHOTOS

Shown below are the five Cottingley fairy photos, in the order in which they were taken. The text of the accompanying descriptions comes from Fairies: The Cottingley Photographs and Their Sequel by Edward Gardner (published 1945).

#1. Frances and the Fairies. Taken July 1917. Camera: Midg Quarter. "The negative was a little over-exposed. The waterfall and rocks are about 20 feet distance behind Frances, who is standing in shallow water inside the bank of the beck. The colouring of the fairies was described by the girls as shades of green, lavender and mauve, most marked in the wings and fading to almost pure white in the limbs and drapery."

#2. Elsie and the Gnome. Taken September 1917. Camera: Midg Quarter. "Elsie was playing with the gnome and beckoning it to come on to her knee. The gnome leapt up just as Frances, who had the camera, snapped the shutter. He is described as wearing black tights, a reddish jersey and a pointed bright red cap. Elsie said there was no perceptible weight, though when on the bare hand the feeling is like a 'little breath'. The wings were more moth-like than the fairies and of a soft neutral tint. Elsie explained that what seem to be markings on his wings are simply his pipes, which he was swinging in his grotesque little left hand."

#3. Frances and the Leaping Fairy. Taken August 1920. Camera: Cameo Quarter. "The fairy is leaping up from the leaves below and hovering for a moment—it had done so three or four times. Rising a little higher than before, Frances thought it would touch her face, and involuntarily tossed her head back. The fairy's light covering appears to be close fitting: the wings were lavender in colour."

#4. Fairy Offering a Posy to Elsie. Taken August 1920. Camera: Cameo Quarter. "The fairy is standing almost still, poised on the bush leaves. The wings were shot with yellow. An interesting point is shown in this photograph: Elsie is not looking directly at the sprite. The reason seems to be that the human eye is disconcerting. If the fairy be actively moving it does not matter much, but if motionless and aware of being gazed at then the nature-spirit will usually withdraw and apparently vanish. With fairy lovers the habit of looking at first a little sideways is common."

 #5. Fairies and Their Sun-Bath. Taken August 1920. Camera: Cameo Quarter. "This is especially remarkable as it contains a feature quite unknown to the girls. The sheath or cocoon appearing in the middle of the grasses had not been seen by them before, and they had no idea what it was. Fairy observers of Scotland and the New Forest, however, were familiar with it and described it as a magnetic bath, woven very quickly by the fairies and used after dull weather, in the autumn especially. The interior seems to be magnetised in some manner that stimulates and pleases."

THE CONTROVERSY

Skeptics noticed many problems with the photos, in addition to the obvious one that the fairies look like bits of paper. For instance, in the first photo why is Frances not looking at the fairies? (The girls claimed they were so used to the fairies that they often paid them no attention.) And why does the second fairy from the left not have wings? In the second photo, why is Elsie's hand bizarrely elongated? (Frances attributed this to "camera slant.") In the fourth photo, why is the fairy dressed in the latest French fashions? 

 Despite these problems, the photos continued to attract believers. Much of this belief might be attributed to the context of the times. By the end of World War One the English were emotionally bruised and battered by four years of unrelenting bloodshed. They seemed to be in need of something that would reaffirm their belief in goodness and innocence. They found this reaffirmation in the fairy photographs of Frances and Elsie.

DEBUNKED

It was not until 1978 that James Randi pointed out that the fairies in the pictures were very similar to figures in a children's book called Princess Mary's Gift Book, which had been published in 1915 shortly before the girls took the photographs.

Subsequently, in 1981, Elsie Wright confessed to Joe Cooper, who interviewed her for The Unexplained magazine, that the fairies were, in fact, paper cutouts. She explained that she had sketched the fairies using Princess Mary's Gift Book as inspiration. She had then made paper cutouts from these sketches, which she held in place with hatpins. In the second photo (of Elsie and the gnome) the tip of a hatpin can actually be seen in the middle of the creature. Doyle had seen this dot, but interpreted it as the creature's belly button, leading him to argue that fairies give birth just like humans!

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the figures in Princess Mary's Gift Book and the fairies in the first Cottingley fairy photo.

CONFESSION

In 1983, the cousins admitted in an article published in the magazine The Unexplained that the photographs had been faked, although both maintained that they really had seen fairies. Elsie had copied illustrations of dancing girls from a popular children's book of the time, Princess Mary's Gift Book, published in 1914, and drew wings on them.They said they had then cut out the cardboard figures and supported them with hatpins, disposing of their props in the beck once the photograph had been taken. But the cousins disagreed about the fifth and final photograph, which Doyle in his The Coming of the Fairies described in this way:

Seated on the upper left hand edge with wing well displayed is an undraped fairy apparently considering whether it is time to get up. An earlier riser of more mature age is seen on the right possessing abundant hair and wonderful wings. Her slightly denser body can be glimpsed within her fairy dress.

Elsie maintained it was a fake, just like all the others, but Frances insisted that it was genuine. In an interview given in the early 1980s Frances said:

It was a wet Saturday afternoon and we were just mooching about with our cameras and Elsie had nothing prepared. I saw these fairies building up in the grasses and just aimed the camera and took a photograph.

Both Frances and Elsie claimed to have taken the fifth photograph. In a letter published in The Times  newspaper on 9 April 1983, Geoffrey Crawley explained the discrepancy by suggesting that the photograph was "an unintended double exposure of fairy cutouts in the grass", and thus "both ladies can be quite sincere in believing that they each took it".
In a 1985 interview on Yorkshire Television's Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers, Elsie said that she and Frances were too embarrassed to admit the truth after fooling Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes: "Two village kids and a brilliant man like Conan Doyle – well, we could only keep quiet." In the same interview Frances said: "I never even thought of it as being a fraud – it was just Elsie and I having a bit of fun and I can't understand to this day why they were taken in – they wanted to be taken in." 

SUBSEQUENT HISTORY

Frances died in 1986, and Elsie in 1988. Prints of their photographs of the fairies, along with a few other items including a first edition of Doyle's book The Coming of the Fairies, were sold at auction in London for £21,620 in 1998. That same year, Geoffrey Crawley sold his Cottingley Fairy material to the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford (now the National Media Museum), where it is on display. The collection included prints of the photographs, two of the cameras used by the girls, watercolours of fairies painted by Elsie, and a nine-page letter from Elsie admitting to the hoax. The glass photographic plates were bought for £6,000 by an unnamed buyer at a London auction held in 2001.
Frances' daughter, Christine Lynch, appeared in an episode of the television programme Antiques Roadshow in Belfast broadcast on BBC One in January 2009, with the photographs and one of the cameras given to the girls by Doyle. Christine told the expert, Paul Atterbury, that she believed, as her mother had done, that the fairies in the fifth photograph were genuine. Atterbury estimated the value of the items at between £25,000 and £30,000. The first edition of Frances' memoirs was published a few months later, under the title Reflections on the Cottingley Fairies. The book contains correspondence, sometimes "bitter", between Elsie and Frances. In one letter, dated 1983, Frances wrote:
I hated those photographs from the age of 16 when Mr Gardner presented me with a bunch of flowers and wanted me to sit on the platform [at a Theosophical Society meeting] with him. I realised what I was in for if I did not keep myself hidden. 

I don't care if the photos were real or not ... I still believe in faeries!

Now - go make something beautiful!

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)(¸.•´

(¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥

 

The 1997 films Fairy Tale: A True Story and Photographing Fairies  were inspired by the events surrounding the Cottingley Fairies.

 The photographs were parodied in a 1994 book written by Terry Jones and Brian Froud, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book.