Frosty Autumn Crown

If I were a queen, I might have a selection of crowns like one would have a selection of shoes based on occasion and weather. A warm summer night concert? Maybe it would be the strappy high heeled pearl white sandals and the diamond and emerald tiara.
A frosty autumn evening ribbon cutting ceremony? Hm.....perhaps the fawn colored suede boots and this loverly thing.

 Not quite winter, but ready to usher it in.

I began with the a template which is available in the Winter Crowns Kit from the amazing Alpha Stamps.

I traced and cut three pieces from the template. my front paper, a thin piece of cardboard (for the center-to give the crown strength) and a white inside piece just to give the back of the crown a more finished look.
Next, I cut a generous length of ribbon, about 30 inches, centered it on the cardboard and glued it on with some strong white glue. (I used Aleene's Fast Grab Glue) I let that dry thoroughly.

 Using the same glue, I glued both the front piece and the back piece on.

While they were still damp, I gently worked a curve into the piece by carefully bending the entire thing section by section, making sure that I didn't crease the paper or bend it too forcefully creating a fold or bubble in the paper. It takes a little time, but it's worth it and if you go slowly enough, you won't buckle your inside paper.
When you can get it to a point that it's flexible enough for you to tie it on something head shaped (I tried my husband, but a) he didn't want to wear a girly crown and b) his head was too big.) In the end, I found a nice pottery jar with an average head circumference and tied the crown around the jar and let it dry there.

After the crown dried, I glued some Gold Tinsel
to the top edge of the crown and used some clips to hold it in place until the glue set up. Clothes pins or paper clips would work as well.

Since a large portion of the center of the crown is going to be a medallion cut from the Vintage French Ads Collage Sheet, I marked (with a pencil) where the collage image was going to go, and applied the tinsel only where it would show on either side of the image.
I also glued tinsel to the bottom edge of the crown.

Before I glued the image to the crown, I used a white Sharpie poster paint marker and painted out the center image. I glittered up a snowflake from the Chipboard Snowflake Shape Set, glued it to the center, applied some Mixed Size Ivory Flat-Back Pearls and piped some Stickles in Diamond and Gilded Gold onto the design.
After it dried, I carefully curved it and glued it on to the crown.
Next came the big leaves...two different colors, so pretty! Called Golden Night Wired Leaves.

 Then the snowflakes on the leaves. The larger of the two is called White Glittered Snowflake Embellishments and the smaller ones are Tiny White Snowflake Buttons that I cut the shank off of so they would glue flat.
I cut a couple dozen leaves off of the Stitched Leaf Ribbon-Silver and glued them on around the bottom edge of the crown.
I added some Pear-Shaped Pearl Stick Pins-Pearl and Pear-Shaped Pearl Stick Pins-Gold to the top of the crown (I love the drama!) and glued in some more silver leaves for extra pizazz. A few dots of Stickles here and there look a bit like frost to finish it up.
A pretty frosty crown for a chilly fall evening.
Now, what handbag should I use..................
For links to all the supplies from Alpha Stamps, click HERE.

Supplies
Chipboard Snowflake Shape Set
Golden Night Wired Leaves
Mixed Size Ivory Flat-Back Pearls
Vintage French Ads Collage Sheet
Crown Template
State Chic Cream Scrapbook Paper
Pear Shaped Pearl Stick Pins-White
Pear Shaped Pearl Stick ins-Gold
Tinsel Gold
Tiny White Snowflake Buttons
Stitched Leaf Ribbon-Silver
Stickles: Gold Gilded, Diamond
Ivory 7/8 Inch Satin Ribbon (substitution)
White Glittered Snowflake Embellishments
Twinklets Diamond Dust