Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker - Die cut decoupage and Match-Its

New in at Foil Play this weekend: Flower Fairies die cut decoupage sheets and Match-Its, featuring the beautiful and very well known Flower Fairies images created by Cicely Mary Barker.

There are four different die cut decoupage sheets, each containing three separate step by step decoupage projects. As the sheets are die cut, no scissors are needed, just pop out the individual design elements and layer them up with foam pads or silicone adhesive to create beautiful toppers for your card and craft projects.
Match-It sheets are something new and different! Each decoupage sheet is designed for use with matching embossed transparent peel off stickers (available in a choice of gold or silver). Place the matching peel off sticker over the printed design on the sheet to create a gilded and laminated effect, decoupage around the edge of the peel off and apply to your craft project.

The Match-It peel offs and decoupage sheets are available individually at Foil Play, so that you can select the colour peel offs of your choice to match with each decoupage sheet, you may also wish to use the peel offs on their own, without the matching decoupage sheets.

Cicely Mary Barker was born in Croydon on 28 June 1895. She suffered from epilepsy as a child and remained physically delicate for most of her life. She was unable to go to school, so she was educated at home and spent much of her time on her own, reading and drawing.

Cicely was influenced by the huge popular interest in fairies which developed from the Victorian enthusiasm for fairy stories and epitomised by the immense popularity of J M Barrie's Peter Pan in the early part of the 20th century. Published in 1923, Flower Fairies of the Spring was well received by a post-industrial, war-weary public who were charmed by her vision of hope and innocence, which seemed to evoke a less aggressively modern world. Queen Mary did much to encourage the vogue for fairy paintings during the 1920s by frequently sending postcards depicting fairies to her friends.

Cicely Mary Barker always used real-life models for her paintings. She always asked the child model to hold the flower, twig or blossom of a particular fairy, for she wanted to be sure of the accuracy of her depiction of the shape, texture and form of the plant. Her only alteration was to the size, she enlarged the flower to make it the same size as the child.

Cicely continued to paint until her eyesight began to fail her towards to end of her life. She died on February 16, 1973 at the age of 77 years old.