Fairy Friday: When Life Gives You Cicadas...Fairy ACEO Cards

When Life Gives You Lemons Make Lemonade- 
When Life Gives You Cicadas...Make Fairies Of Course!

Toadstool ACEO, this one is sold already!

During the past spring and summer of 2011 the midwest was decended upon by a hoard of cicadas!  They danced with revelry through the air around our oak tree and passed into the next realm of natural causes, all over the place.  You couldn't go outside without hearing the endless humming and buzzzing and being dive-bombed at our house, they were everywhere.  Apparently they really like oaks, and we have tons in our neighborhood.  These were not the usual cicadas that we get every year, these were the periodical cicadas that emerge from the ground for mating in 13 and 17 year cycles. This particular brood of 13-year cicada is known as the Great Southern Brood.  They make chimney-like exit holes in the ground in preparation for their lives above-ground. Then they crack out of their shells with a new set of wings and fly all over the place.  They die off in about five weeks, at which time their eggs hatched, sending a brood of nymphs underground, to emerge in 2024.

I think their wings are beautiful...

...but this many is a little much!

I stood on my porch surveying the cicada shells and bodies that littered my yard.  What a summer!  I thought to myself, what to do about all of this?!  Then it occured to me that when life gives you lemons you should make lemonade.  But this time life had given me dead cicadas that had finished their lifecycle all over my yard!  Then it dawned on me, make fairies! 

I gathered up as many good ones that I could find and put them in a cauldron in the shed to await my creative energy that would allow them to be reborn with honor as fairies!

Drawing, painting, cutting, scrapbooking!

Here are the first of my new original fairy illustration ACEO cards featuring real cicada wings; created with Berol Prismacolor pencils on illustration board, mounted on scrapbook paper, accented with watercolor.  Each one is a unique one of a kind piece of art.

This one called "Morning Has Broken" is still waiting for a loving home.  Available in our Etsy shop.

What's an ACEO card?   For those of you new to ACEOs, they are ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals) measure 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches and are miniature pieces of art that make it easy for customers to collect original art at an affordable price. ACEO collecting is becoming very popular throughout the world. ACEOs can be kept in a trading card book with sleeves, or displayed on small easels in curio cabinets. These new fairy ACEO cards are all original, one of a kind, hand signed, and created in my studio by hand.

Each one has the title and are hand signed on the back.

Daylilly, this one is still available in our Etsy shop too.

What makes these ACEOs special?

They were drawn by hand by lil 'ole me, then carefully cut out and mounted on a piece of decorative scrapbook paper with glitter acents. I included included real insect wings as part of the design.  I'm having so much fun making these, I'm sure to have many in the future for you to collect.

In Other News:   A Nice Review for Voice of the Trees

Today there is a great review for my Voice of the Trees deck over at Tarot News Blog!  I was delighted and honored, I loved the pics the took of the deck in a tree!  Here is the link, she has a great blog, lots of wonderful posts about the world of tarot. http://tarotnotes-majorandminor.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-voice-of-trees.html

Also in Voice of the Trees news, I'll be at Pathways in St. Louis click for the link doing readings from 2-5pm, so if you're local and would like a Voice of the Trees reading before the new year, now it the time to stop in! Sunday, December 11.  $35 for 1/2 hour appointment, call to reserve your space today!

Bright Blessings,