A visit to Burgesse Felt Gardens

My Homemade Christmas pledge this year was both difficult and rewarding, which I guess anything worth doing is. It was tough to come up with ideas that could be universally liked while still having a personal touch. But I loved coming up with these felt flowers for all my ladyfriends:

Flowers of the pouffy felt variety!

The backs have a hair pin on them so they can be put in your hair or pinned to a lapel. I haven't made any for myself yet as I'm still finishing off some Christmas presents, but I want to make a rainbow supply of them to go with different outfits. ♥




Some had button middles, some had seed beads,
and some had a combination of beads and sequins.


Alex pinned her charcoal flower to her shirt and it looked snazzy.


Leslie rocks the teal and purple flower in her hair. Pretty!


Did I mention I love felt?
Oh right. It's the name of the blog. Nevermind then.

Christmas Danglies, I like to call 'em.

In my quest for a Homemade Christmas, I made a pair of earrings for my Mother-in-law. I bought the beads at Sassy Bead, an amazing bead store here in Ottawa.

An 'earring making kit' I put together with supplies from Sassy Bead.

It's pretty inexpensive to buy the initial pieces (round nose pliers, posts, and the sterling silver hooks,) and once you've got the base pieces, all you need are the beads and a little imagination whenever you need an inexpensive gift.


Some snazzy earrings for Lyn in some of her favorite colours.


I made the box out of a piece of gold cardboard, then I lined it with some felt and origami paper.


I plan on going an earring making binge any day now. Wait for it. It's gonna be huge. No one with earlobes will be safe.

A Penguin for Ryan

I recently attended Ryan's surprise birthday party, but didn't know what to get him. I was told that he liked homemade things, and penguins. So I made him a homemade penguin. Notice how it covers both categories?

Here he is inside-out with his crazy eyes held in with toothpicks and glue. Sneeeeaky.


Penguin! We're buddies.


I think I may need to make one for me. I kinda ♥ him.

This cake *is* edible, I promise.

Happy super-late Halloween everyone!

I made a cake!

Vanilla cherry cake with chocolate filling and vanilla icing. The face and stem are homemade fondant, with silk leaves.


Ta-dah!!

It was a pretty tiny cake and served about 6. I baked it right inside my Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl, which I love.

Everyones happy when the wizard walks by...

In preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a couple of days, I've gone on a wand making spree:

From left to right: A traditional wooden wand with gold detail for my friend Matt, a Ravenclaw house colours wand for my sister-in-law Leslie, a Gryffindor house colours wand for my mother-in-law, and a Slytherin house colours wand for me. The last wand is for the young daughter of some friends of mine.


A close-up of the details on the wands.



We waited in line at Chapters for a geek-tastic 2 hours, wands at the ready. (You know, to scare off the Muggles.)

Thanks to Chris Barnardo at dadcando.com for the fantastic Harry Potter wand tutorial. Be sure to check out some of his other wizarding crafts!

Sweet without the toothache

Some tasty felt cakes I made recently. Well, maybe not tasty per-se. Actually I bet they'd taste like horrible. But they look cute. Just look at them, no eating.

Yum.


A drippy chocolate cake and a sequin-y strawberry cake.


A view of the tops.

More felt thingies to come. Thanks for looking! ♥