Felt Flower Pillow tutorial

I made a felt flower pillow as a gift for someone ( I won't tell you who because I haven't given it to them yet.) I think I might also sell these at the May 12 craft show in Peterborough. Below is a picture of the pillow in process. I am not going to show the finished product just in case the person I am giving it to looks at this post. At least there will be some surprise!

I bought a white pillow from JYSK for $3.00, cut the tags off and glued the flowers on. I used fabric glue which is a lot less work than sewing them all on. I made the flowers using felt from (hehe) the dollar store. The center of the flowers are little pearl like beads which are also from the dollar store. The whole thing cost me under $10 to make. My thrifty dutch side is coming out here.

So the following are pictures of how I made the flowers. Start by cutting out five circles, all the same size. Then you thread a needle in a similar color as the felt, I used gray thread. Then as you see below you pinch the one end of the circle and sew it shut which makes a pedal.

Next you take another circle and sew it on one side then sew the two pedals together. The third you do the same, the fourth pedal gets a bit tricky and the fifth is the trickiest but I believe in you, you can do it.

The fourth pedal you sew to the third pedal. The fifth pedal you sew to the fourth and first pedal. Try it a couple of times with scrap felt and see how to get the hang of it. Then you sew a pearl bead in the middle. Sew it a couple times on the back for support (I usually just make a knot.) Then voila you have your flower that you can glue onto the pillow. I made a bunch of different sizes so that there would be variety. I decided to make my flowers go diagonally down one side but you can choose to put them wherever you want.

February Kids craft

I haven't felt very creative lately. But I need to do a kids craft for February 3rd and that has gotten me in the mood to do something. Above is the craft we are going to do, but the words will be "Love one another..."  I got this idea off of Pinterest.com. What a great place for inspiration!

Spring Collection

I just received today my felt inchie card from Felt on the Fly [feltonthefly.etsy.com]. It is a sample of different colored felt. I asked her to match the Pantone Spring 2012 collection with the felt colors that she has and for the most part they are pretty well a match. I am going to be using this felt to make felted pins/ brooches and hair accessories for the May 12th craft show I am in at the Peterborough Library.

As you know I have also been making fabric rosettes. The more I make the better I get at making them, but it is tedious work. The one I did today is so cute. I ripped up a striped scarf, with pink, burgundy and purple in it.

Last but not least for the spring collection, is some spring Japanese paper pendants. These a just a few from the collection. I matched them to colors in the spring collection. 

Dreaming of Spring

I have started dreaming of spring as a cure for the winter blues. Which is quite appropriate for tonight when I had to stand at a bus stop with 57 km per hour winds, according to the weather channel. After I start dreaming of spring enough, I start dressing like it's spring, and inevitably get a cold. But in my mind, I think that I am helping spring come quicker by wearing spring dresses. Don't burst my bubble people.


I started my Spring garden ideas book once again, with my garden layout and ideas. They sometimes happen, but mainly it's for my sanity. I pull this book out every year and I always think this will be the year that I implement these ideas. During winter, I dream of geraniums with blue hyacinth in a planter that hangs on my fence, not just one but many planters. Or I see the below picture pinned on www.pinterest.com and I think I could do that against a brick wall, but then I reach spring and my budget only allows for so much. Oh well, dreams are still awesome.

There is something about early mornings in Spring that are so lovely. I am not a morning person, as my friends and family can attest to that. But in May, being up in the morning working on my garden is a true delight. Last spring I ripped up all the vines that have crept into the garden, but to my dismay they came back and by July the garden was a jungle. I live in a beautiful apartment in the back of an old house that has a perennial garden. I say it's an English garden, my sister in law says that another word for a messy garden. But I love it just the same. 

Fabric Flower Fun

I ended up making the fabric flowers that I found on Pinterest.com. If you would like to try it go to http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2010/09/fabric-rosette-tutorial-extravaganza.html I decided to sew them instead of gluing them and then I sewed them to a silver chain necklace. I wore it today at the mall and I actually met someone at David's tea who wanted to buy one. That was encouraging because I had made a lot of fabric and felt pins and Hi Ho Silver had no interest in them.

I met this guy on the Go bus that works for a marketing company. He gave me some free advice. He said put your time and energy into what sells. I think this is good advice because you can really like something and put a lot of time into it, but if it doesn't sell than it's kind of a waste. I will make up some more fabric pins because I have at least one buyer and hopefully more!

A pretty good day in the life of LA Vida Dolce

If you haven't caught on yet, my company name is LA Vida Dolce, which means Life is Sweet. I make jewelry and accessories and sell them here locally in Peterborough, ON as well as online. I started back in 2009 and have slowly been building. Check out my website www.lavidadolce.etsy.com for examples.


Today I got my large shipment of supplies in and also some new Japanese paper. I assembled some right away and hit the pavement. I sold 10 pieces to Hi Ho Silver and they are even putting them in their front window. I brought in the color swatches from the Spring 2012 color trending (you can check that out at http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr.aspx?pg=20910&ca=4) and showed how my jewelry matched the spring colors. They were impressed.

I also brought some to various other places. At one store I even bartered for product. I haven't bartered before so it was pretty fun. I ended up with a lot of nice bath and body items and also a gift certificate to boot. I even hit up my local bank and left some there for the tellers to look at. On Friday I meet with another potential client, so that should be exciting. My friend Jacqueline is taking some to British Columbia to show them to some jewelry stores there.

All in all it has been a good day. I thank the Lord for all his goodness.

Felted picture

I made a picture for my brother Stephen for Christmas. It was really fun to make. I used wool felt base and wool roving. It was like painting with felt. He really liked it, which was awesome.

Design seeds

I am really enjoying this website called Design Seeds. The designer (Jessica) takes a picture and then puts a corresponding color swatch next to it. Check it out at http://www.design-seeds.com/


I have always loved working with color and how color combinations can make colors pop. I love how this skill of color combinations can be put to use in all sorts of mediums. I used to do a lot of acrylic painting and now I am working with felt and Japanese paper. But I still use the same skills of color matching with felt as I would with acrylic painting. Working with color is never boring and it always presents new challenges.

I also love how different countries have different color pallets. I remember in my travels to Guatemala the colors there were very bold; mustard yellows, deep reds, sometimes even bright blues and that was just on the walls. The woman in the market would be wearing and selling the most colorful array of goods. Greece was a color pallet all on it's own, the seas were turquoise, and light to deep blues. The houses, particularly in Santorini were white washed walls, with red geraniums in pots. The soil was a rich black from volcanic activity many moons ago. 

This is my project for tomorrow. Thanks Little Bird Secrets.

Pinterest

        Pinterest.com is quickly becoming my favorite website. Thanks Elvira for the invite! (Checking her out at Loving your Life Photography.) I am especially enjoying the pins of different felted and fabric flowers. I made a bunch of them yesterday and today. I was trying to explain how Pinterest works to my friend Evan and he couldn't get how there were pins of pins. It was hilarious. He thought the whole website was about pins, like the ones you pin on your jacket.
         Has anyone figured out the supply and demand of a little company. I have discovered that I have purchased too much supplies and although I am producing a lot of product, I am not moving it. Check out my website www.lavidadolce.etsy.com for my jewelry and soon, my felted pins.
         January is the month that I like to experiment with different ideas. I found some synthetic felt and I am trying out different things with it before actually ordering the real stuff from Etsy. Feltonthefly on Etsy is sending me a card with all of the new spring colors. I found them on the Pantone website under the Spring 2012 color trends. http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr.aspx?pg=20910&ca=4 Felt on the Fly matched them up with their felt. I can't wait to get it in the mail.