Felt Birds in the Spring!

Spring has well and truly sprung here in the UK and I'm so, so pleased because it is by far my favourite season! I love the light, the colour, the smell of fresh-cut grass and woodsmoke-everything!

There is so much colour at this time of year, after months of dull and dismal winter, so I always find myself in a great mood once the daffodils start making appearances and it's warm enough to leave the house without a scarf and gloves :-)

Found here.

In the spirit of Spring, I'm sharing with you, my lovely readers, a quirky little tutorial to create a felt bird garland.

First things first, this was SUCH a difficult project to photograph!

Not so much the process photos, but the final outcome-man, it was tricky! I think it's because this is a vertical garland rather than horizontal...there I was thinking I'd be a bit different, not realising how much fuss and bother it would cause me in the long run!

I do try and take decent photos of my projects but I think, in this case, I might have been beaten!

Anyway, I did my best and hopefully you will get the general idea of how it turned out :-)

This project was inspired by Kirstie Allsop's heart garland project from her TV show Kirstie's Handmade Britain. You may remember me mentioning her in my Christmas craft post and I have to say, I'm still a massive fan :-) Although I haven't really had time to try out half the ideas in her book yet, I have ambitious plans for the future!

So I decided to adapt the basic concept of the heart garland slightly to suit me more and came up with a bird-shaped tmeplate instead. This is a very versatile tutorial because you can come up with any template you want and turn it into a pretty, decorative garland, so get those imaginations working!

You will need:

-Felt, in colours of your choice

-Polyester wadding (I used some left over from old cushions)

-Needle and threads, in contrasting colours to your felt

-Pins

-Ribbon

-Haberdashery bells

Step 1: Cut out your chosen template from paper and pin to your felt. With my design, I had three separate templates for the bird's body, the large wing and a smaller wing. I used three different colours for each of these, as you can see in the photos.

Step 2: Cut your shapes out from the felt as many times as you want-I cut out enough shapes for six birds, so basically 12 pieces of each shape.

Step 3: In this case, pin the green wing to the blue and sew it on using a basic running stitch in contrasting thread. Do this for all of your shapes. Then pin the finished wing to the cream body and stitch on.

Step 4: When all of your wings are sewn on, pin the bodies together and sew around the edge in a different contrasting thread. It's important at this stage to leave a large enough gap open, to allow room to stuff the bird with wadding.

Step 5: Stuff your bird with wadding, gently pushing it evenly throughout the shape. It is up to you how much you use, but you don't want your bird looking flat and underfed, do you?! Once you've stuffed the birds, you can sew shut the gaps.

An entire flock of felt birds!

Step 6: Tie a loop at the top end of your ribbon.

Then, using a large needle, thread the ribbon through the body of the birds. The wadding should be enough to hold them in place, or at least, this is what I found :-) Inbetween each bird I knotted on one of the haberdashery bells for extra decoration, but you could easily use beads, buttons, anything else you wanted!

Step 7: I chose to weigh the garland down at the end so it would hang nicely, so I used fiver or six leftover bells, tied in a cluster. These were enough to sufficiently weigh the whole thing down.

Et voila!

I have hung my garland from my bookcase, alongside my fabric bunting and think it looks really cute :-) As I said before, the ideas are limitless with this technique which is just brilliant for our endlessly crafty imaginations!

Emily

xxx

Tasty Toblerone Cookies-and they're healthy(ish!)

I have been following the Weight Watchers ProPoints plan since the beginning of November last year and boy, has it been a rollercoaster!!

To date, I have lost 13.6kg/30lbs/2.1st (however you want to look at it!) and have dropped from a size 16 to size 12 dress and size 14 to size 10 waist. So I'm very pleased with myself although I still have just under another stone to lose to reach my goal :-)

Naturally, I have had the occasional craving for certain taboo foods, such as cheese straws and donuts-haha! But I've actually managed to do pretty well at keeping them under control.

I have, however, missed baking quite a lot-I used to bake a fair bit before I started WW so I decided to find a low-fat recipe from the WW community so that I could have a tasty, sweet snack without the guilt!

After a little online perusal, I happened upon this gorgeous recipe for

Toblerone cookies. Crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside? Just how a good cookie ought to be!

Don't they look gorgeous?! I can assure you, they are! Here's how to whip up some of your own:

Ingredients:

1: 1/2 teaspoons (as purchased) Baking Powder

2: 3 tablespoons (level) Syrup, Any Type, golden syrup

3: 90 g Toblerone, roughly chopped

4: 175 g Flour, Wheat, White, Self Raising

5: 50 g Margarine, Soft, Polyunsaturated

6: 1 medium egg, Whole, beaten

Not shown: 75 g Sugar, Light Brown, soft

I also added a few drops of vanilla extract for that extra yum-factor!

Instructions:

Of course, it is mandatory to taste-test certain ingredients beforehand *cough* chocolate *cough!*

• Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F. Line 2 trays with non-stick baking parchment.
• Sift together the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar.
• In a small pan gently melt the margarine and syrup. Cool slightly then add to the flour with the egg. Beat to a stiff dough and mix in the Toblerone pieces.
• Place 16 well spaced out dessert spoonfuls on the trays and bake for 10-12 mins until golden. Leave on the trays to cool for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack. Once cool store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

These are very simple, very quick and very tasty, so WELL worth a bit of  your time :-)

And for those of you who know and understand WW points, these are only 3 points a cookie! Yum!!

Emily

xxx

DIY Saturday-Wedding Edition!

I am super excited to say that it is my Mum's wedding next month!! So, in honour of that, I have put together a special DIY Saturday, featuring ten of the best projects I found during my months of browsing all-things wedding!

If you happen to be planning your own wedding, I hope you find some inspiration here-if you're not, just enjoy!

Favours:

So many ways to do favours but this is so sweet because it's personalised! It's fun and heartfelt-perfect for the celebration of a marriage!
Found here.

Another cute suggestion for favours is this idea from Martha Stewart. Have a bespoke tea blended for the occasion and give each guest a little bag as a thank you for coming. I think this is adorable! Just be sure not to get them wet!
Found here.

A fun way of presenting dessert, especially for a summer wedding. Of course, I'm biased because of the jars-you know how I love my jars!!

Found here

Centrepieces:

This is a very simple but certainly effective centrepiece idea. Your tables will look rustic and relaxed with these recycled bottles and wildflowers.

Found here.

I really love the thought of using teapots as centrepieces! A good excuse to trawl some charity shops for your some cute teapots that could then be filled with the flowers of your choice-gorgeous!

Found here.

Guestbook Ideas:

I love this idea for an alternative guestbook! Just make sure the kids don't get hold of the ink pads and ruin it ;-)

(Unfortuantely I couldn't find the link for the original image, so if you know the original source, do let me know!)

This is such a unique idea for a guestbook. Instead of just a big ol' book of writing, have your guests pop little messages inside mini envelopes for your reading pleasure later :-)

Found here.

Gift Ideas:

A very heartfelt gift for your bridesmaids. Personalised so they will never forget the day.

Found here.

This is very, very sweet. The lyrics from the first dance written around a photo of the happy couple. Perhaps a nice gift idea for after the wedding.

Found here.

These would be great to make as a gift for the newly-married couple. You could personalise them with the married name and play around with fonts.

Found here.

There are SO many more I could feature but I would truly be here forever if I tried! There are a whole lot of clever, crafty people out there who know how to put together an amazing wedding on a shoestring!

 I think the more personal touches you add to the day, the more special and memorable it becomes.

I really hope these projects have got your creative cogs whirring for your own big days. The beauty is that a lot of the ideas can be used for regular parties and events, not just weddings, so get crafting!!

Have a great weekend :-)

Emily

xxx