Betty Crocker Angel

For my kitchen tree, I needed the perfect topper. I decided to make an "angel" using the first Betty Crocker portrait from 1936.

Artist: Neysa McMein

I used a seven-inch paper cone (from Michael's), the portrait (adjusted for size), a felt snowflake that looked like a halo (from Michael's), a photo of my personal copy of the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book (altered in Photoshop), paint, and hot glue.

I painted the cone red. Then I printed out different sizes of the portrait to decide which one I wanted to use. Making the wings was the trickiest, because I didn't want to distort the covers too much, but I needed them to fit the cone at an angle. The wings and portraits were printed on white cardstock.

Altered in Photoshop:
The finished wings are 10 inches wide and the widest point,
and the spine is 5 inches tall.

I spray-sealed the cover/wings, and her portrait and let them dry before I glued anything. I scored the wings so they would bend back slightly from where they were glued, and used the edge of my kitchen counter to gently round the spine where it would attach to the cone. That way I wasn't fighting the stiffness of the cardstock when I glued it down. I glued the snowflake-halo (off-white, so it fit with the cover perfectly) to the back of her portrait, then glued that to the cone, centered over the wings.

The jacket she's wearing in the portrait didn't print as vividly red as my paint, so I ended up painting a very light coat of the same red over her jacket, so it would match the cone. I also added a tiny bit of the same red to her lips.
 

The ribbon is held in place with tape, while I decide if I love it or not. I'm pretty sure I do, but I wish they were longer, and went to the bottom of the tree's branches. (I might get more ribbon to do that; that was one spool, cut in five pieces. I'll need two to make them as long as I want them to be.)

I want to include the other Betty Crocker portraits as ornaments somehow, but I haven't decided exactly how yet... As smaller angels? As cameos? I'll have to see what I find at Joann's when I go. (I need more felt for the candies and cupcakes.)

I love the way she turned out. The width of her shoulders in relation to the cone is perfect, the color of the cone is rich and wonderful, touching up the color on her jacket really made it blend with the cone, and the book cover wings are just awesome. Even the snowflake halo coordinates with the design on the cover smoothly. Everything came together exactly as I saw it in my head. And how often does that happen??