It's Christmas, buy local (and handmade!)

Stressed about having to go to the crowded shopping malls to find the perfect gifts? Why not visit the local section of Etsy to find it?

Etsy has an easy way to find all the shops that are from your area with the clic of a button.

In Ottawa for example, you can find the great crocheted items of MonMinou or the awesome camera straps of Lilybug.

Your loved one is a fan of art? Check out the great pictures of Raceytay or the contemporary art of Laura Carter.

Just go to www.etsy.com, click on Buy and choose Shop Local. Then, enter your city et voila!

You will surely find unique gifts for everybody on your list!

And don't forget to visit my shop!

Happy shopping everybody!

Cupcake idea for a Baby Shower -Make a Rattle!

These are so easy to make and they look so good!

I basically made cupcakes and decorated them in pink (It's a girl!). I bought some lollipops at Bulk Barn and made a small incision in the cupcake wrapper to put the stick of the lollipop in the cupcake. I added a small ribbon in on the stick and sprinkled the cupcakes.

Very easy to make and sure to impress!

It's winter! Time for cute polar bear cupcakes!!

I made those cute little creatures last night. Almost too cute to eat.

It can be an easy and fun alternative to a birthday cake if your little one is born during the winter. Or a fun family project to do during a cold day.

So basically, you make cupcakes and you sprinkle the frosting with coconut to do the fur.

Then, you use candies to make two cute ears, the eyes and the nose. I got all my candies at Bulk Barn. I chose the white jujubes for the ears and chocolate covered peanuts for the eyes and nose et voila!

All packed up and ready to go!

Another fun craft sale!

Thanks to everybody who came out to St.Michael's High School in Kemptville on Saturday. I had fun!

Unless I find another craft sale for next weekend where they still have tables available, I am done with the sales for this christmas season.

I hope I will get a little bit of time to craft some more during the upcoming weekends and post the pictures here! I have a few projects in mind, like making cake stand out of vintage plates etc... Should be interesting so stay tune!

Salt water taffy favors

I love salt water taffy. It reminds me of my trips to the ocean when I was a kid. Could never get enough of these.

Using cute scarpbooking paper, I made those favors that would be really nice for a bridal or baby shower.

I can tell you that I could not wait to take the pictures to finally be able to eat those delicious treats!!!

Another option for the cute flower girl

If your church or venue won't let your cute little flower girl throw petals or if you want something different, I designed this ball of artificial flowers that looks really good.

The fun thing is that the little girl and keep it and play with it after. It is also cheaper and more sturdy than real flower and they will look good in the pictures.

Since orchids are so popular, I made this one with green orchids and a bright pink double sided satin ribbon.

I also made one with pink peonies and a pearl handle. I will take photos and post here soon!

Thank you to everybody that came to St. Mark's craft sale

I had a blast at St.Mark's High School in Manotick last weekend selling my bath stuff. It was a great crowd and it was very well organized. Probably the best craft sale in town and I definitely want to go back next year!

My friend Marlene from MonMinou sold so many of her gorgeous hats and original creations and I had a lot of fun selling my Monster sprays and Christmas soaps!

I am going to be at St.Michall's High School on Saturday so come and say Hi! The address of the school is:


St. Michael Catholic High School
2755 Highway 43,
Kemptville, Ontario
K0G 1J0
Telephone:
613-258-7232

I was there last year and the choice and quality of crafts was great.

See you there!

Warhol inspired favors for a 35th birthday

For Hugo's 35th birthday, we wanted something colorful and fun that friends could bring home after the party.

We settled on Warhol inspired portrait of Hugo in silver boxes. Each boxes contained delicious chocolate truffles in cute little bags.

It definitely added a little extra to a very fun and successful event!

Fall Vintage inspiration

I completed the WPIC course last weekend. I now need to write the exam to officially become a Certified Wedding Planner! Very exciting!

During the course, Tara from A Green Tie Affair mentionned that she loves a website called BridalCanvas.com that allows you to create Inspiration boards.

I tried it on love it!! Would be easy to get hooked on it.

Here is the first ones I made for a Fall wedding with a vintage flavour.

What I have been doing lately...

Ouf, life is busy these days, not a moment to stop and smell the flowers! But the positive side of things is that I've still figured out how to make some things along the way. Just did not take the time to take proper pictures. So here we go, some that I took this morning of some jewelery that I made. Kinf of the same style that I created for my friend Marie-Eve for her wedding, these are more colorful and can be worn with an elegant gown for a wedding or a special event or with a nice shirt at the office (i am wearing a green one right now. very cool)

They are made with some glass pearls and beads, freshwater pearls, metallic beads etc.

A pink and silver one...



and a green one...



I love doing special request! So if you want one of those of something in other colors, do not hesitate to email me!! I'll be more than happy to create something for you!

What?!?!?!?!

I've not posted in almost a month!! Wow, i know i was busy but this is not a reason not to come here and show you the latest stuff i've been making!

The most exciting thing that happened in my crafting world lately is that I bought a Yudu machine. Yudu is basically a personnal screen printing machine.

So far, i've done t-shirts for my office's team for the Army Race this sunday. I also did scarfs with the company logos on them. They look awesome but I still have to take pictures.

I'm getting ready for them Crafting season and I am very excited to announce that I will be at St. Michael's High School in Manotick on November 21 and 22. It is know as being a great and huge craft sale and I am really looking forward to it.

So, i need to go back to my crafting and I promise to upload pictures very soon!!!

An afternoon making Macarons

Maybe a year ago, a friend made me discover "Macarons". I was in love. These little things tasted like heaven!

Macarons should not be mixed with what the english knows as Macaroons. According to Wikipedia, the macaron is a traditional French pastry, made of egg whites, almond powder, icing sugar and sugar and dating back to the 18th century. This sweet pastry came out of the French courts' baker's oven as round meringue-like domes with a flat base.

So it was perfectly normal that on my recent trip to France, I was to try to eat as many as I could and find the best ones. As expected, the most fabulous ones where at Ladurée. They were magnificient. The waiting line was worth waiting that is for sure. The macaron equivalent of what Magnolia is for cupcakes.

Of course, Macarons are practically impossible to find them in Ottawa so last weekend, I decided to try to make them.

OMG!!! They were so good. Not Ladurée good of course but with some practice, I might just get there! :-) The only problem is that I have been on a sugar rush since Saturday :-)

Anyway, it just takes a bit of imagination to try different filling and flavours et voilà! And they would be nice wedding favors! I so want to try to make some with Champagne jelly in the middle!

Here are some pictures of the first day of baking them:

Lucky in love favors!

These little favors are for scratchers and lottery fans! I saw something like it in a magazine and decided to make them.

Just put a scratcher and a shiny penny in a glassine envelope, stick a personalized label et voila! So cute and out of the ordinary!

This is Phoebe...

A lot of people are asking me who is Phoebe. Well, here is Phoebe. She is my big fuzzy 3.5 years old Bernese Mountain dog. She is basically 85 pounds of love and devotion and a very important part of our family. Like all Bernese, she is a very social girl who is loving attention and will sit on your feet to make sure you have nothing to do but pet her.

I'd like to point out that she does not participate in the making of any of the products I make!

This is Phoebe at 3 months old

And this is Phoebe now!

Embossed napkins

They are a great way to add some colors to a reception and they are inexpensive. I had a custom made stamp done with the logo and then simply stamped the name on the napkin, used some embossing powder and my heat gun. They look very nice!

They can be made in all colors and with anything on them. I don't recommend only stamping the napkins because the ink is going to smudge and stain your face when you use them. By using the embossing process, you are making sure that the logo is going to stay excatly where it should be: on the napkin!

Trying my hand at silhouettes

I love those old school silhouette that are popping by all over these days. Very vintage and lovely. So I tried to make one sarting with simple profile pictures of myself and Steeve and using my (limited) knowledge of Photoshop Elements.

The result is interesting! There is so many thing that I could do with those silhouettes and just by changing the colors, you can change the look completely.

Check the result! Althought Steeve thinks it is a bit to "Hitchcock", I think they are pretty cute!

How to jazz up boring envelopes

I have a lot of those very boring envelopes at home and there is an easy way to jazz them up by adding a nice paper inside. If you find a nice roll of wrapping paper for example, it would be perfect to do this little project.

Favors for a Spa Bridal Shower

I made some favors for a bridal shower last week. It is basically the Hand Scrub I make but I customized the color and the label to fit with the event theme.

We went with the ever so popular Rice and Shea Flower scent. It smells so wonderful!!

Other than that, my weekend was not as productive as I would have liked but I'll catch up with the projects. I am currently working on a cactus favor (for the adventurous type...) and always looking for new ideas!

And another centrepiece for a kid's party!

I made this one using balloons, lollipopsand some giant butterflies)
Basically everything you see here comes from a dollar store. I like how it would fit perfectly in a princess themed birthday party! Just change the colors and you can also do it for a boy!

Original centrepieces for Kid's birthday parties!

I had fun last weekend making two different centrepieces for kid's birthday. Easy to make and sure to make an impression on the small (and not so small...) ones.

This one is basically skewers of jujubes of all the colors of the rainbow. They are simply stabbed into a styrofoam cone that I painted red to start with.

So voila! Centrepiece and dessert at the same time!

Favors for the Canadian Women Golfers

I've been working on centerpieces for Kid's birthday parties last weekend but I have to wait for next weekend to be able to take quality pictures to post online. Can't wait to show them! They are awesome and not very difficult to do, even fun!

In the meantime, I am also preparing little aroma beads bags as a treat for the ladies over at the Canadian Women golfers (CWGI). I was a member a few years ago and I loved it! I was able to easily find great women to play golf with and have a good time. It was so much fun to be able to play with women of all ages and background and enjoy the game in a non-competitive way.

All that to say that I am happy to be a little part of their golf tournament that will be at the end of September.

If you are interested to join them for 2010, contact Bonnie.

Here are the little favors I am preparing for them. They are available on Etsy but if you need more than one, contact me directly!

An original Seating chart for a big party or a wedding

I liked doing this project. I chose blue but it honestly looks great in any colors! Unfortunately, the pciture doesn't do it total justice.

The table with all the details in place

This is a picture of the table at Marie and Stephane's wedding. Other than the menu/place cards that you already saw, I made all those little napkin rings, the table numbers and arranged the flowers with the help of the fantastic bride's mother. We also found those colorful votives that were adding a splash of color with costing a fortune. We were very happy with the end result.

For baseball fanatics only!

These cute peanuts and cracker jacks favors were offered to a groom and his groomsmen by the bride. Let's just say that the groom looovveesss baseball and they were going on a road trip to see a game.... (starts at 3.00$)

Bath bombs and other fun stuff

It all started with bath bombs... I thought that I should try make those... and then I started making shower gels, room sprays, hand soaps and then body scrubs and hand and feet scrub...

Anyway, check out my little Etsy shop. Lots of fun and nicely scented stuff.

Those bath bombs make very nice favors for Shower and birthday parties! (starts at 2,50$ each)

Place cards for Wine Lovers

Place cards for Wine Lovers (starts at 1,00$ each)

Menu and place card at the same time

A wedding is all about details. For Marie and Stephane's wedding, we decided to make menus that would also serve as place cards.


Here is the result (starts at 2,50$ depending on papers):

And the Bride was wearing...

My good friend Marie got married last June. I was lucky enough to be part of her wedding and collaborate to make it extra special.

I made the necklaces and bracelets for the bride and the bridesmaids.

Here is a picture that showcase how beautiful the bride was. I was very proud to see her walking down the aisle wearing my creations!



Here is the necklace I made to match the bridesmaids green dresses. The colors of the wedding were green and orange.

A retro-looking fun Baby Shower

We covered chocolate bars for a retro looking feel for a fun Baby Shower. The host was looknig for a fun and festive look and we went with a Chillin' in my crib retro look.





Here are the chocolate bars (2,00$ each)





I also made Bath Bombs for the ladies at the party in the same theme. (starts at 3,50$ each)

Some of the projects I've been working on lately

I decided to post photos of some of the projects I've been working on lately.

I love working with somebody to create special little details that will capture their vision and make their events stand out. I am often disapointed in what you can find on the market. Wedding stores and gift stores often sells overprice and tacky favors. And then you open the Bridal magazine and everything looks too complicated to get and very expensive.

So I started doing favors and crafts that are "magazine quality" at affordable prices.

Here are some of the things I have done lately.

Do not hesitate to contact me and I'll be glad to help you add a thoughful and creative touch to your special event, may it be a wedding, a shower, a birthday etc.

Here we go...




I made these for a 40th birthday for another very creative women in Ottawa, Kelli from Daisy Blue . There is a handmade bath bomb in there! I have boxes in white, silver, red and brown and I match the ribbons to fit any color scheme. The stickers on top are made by me and I am happy to customize to your theme and tastes. We can put a lot of different things in those cute boxes... Candies, votives etc... (starts at 3,50$ each)

Why I which I could sew

SewVintageNow has so many great vintage patterns! So very Mad Men! I looked everywhere for that kind of dresses but cannot quite find what I am looking for... So maybe I should take sewing lessons. These patterns certainly motivates me to do so!! Her patterns are between 6 and 7$USD which is very affordable!

Haven't posted in too long...

Easter might be in the past but it is always time for cute little rabbits!!

From Ottawa just like me, LuvlyGurumi makes some adorable plushies and sells the pattern to make these nice single crochet rabbits. I wish I could crochet!!!

Cute as a button!

Who doesn't like cupcakes?? These little sugar buttons are so cute to decorate your latest culinary creations!

LayerCakeshop has everything you need to create the cutest cupcakes, from colorful liners to great sugar decorations like these buttons or vintage toppers.

Don't roll your eyes at me...

What’s that rolling along the floor? That’s right... an eyeball!

These capnip eyeballs are adorable and any kitten would play with them for hours and hours!!

Made by Hannapt from Vermont with locally grown catnip, I think they are the cutest little cat toys out there! (10$USD for a pair! 4 colors to choose from)

Retro fun aprons

I bought one of Boojiboo's apron from myself before christmas and I am so in love with it. The fabric she uses are so pretty and the details of her aprons are fantactic. I love the little rik rak at the bottom.

They make great original and affordable gift for a girlfriend or for mother's day!

This one is particularly cute for spring and summer baking! Only 28,75$USD!

Cuteness of the day!

Joannarutter has been on the front page of Etsy many times and for obvious reasons. Her jewelry is original and so cute. Her pictures are great and easily recognizable.

This Little Vixen Necklace is only one more example of why we like what she does so much!

For loved ones with a sense of humour!

I love what Dandee does. So much better than those boring and generic Hallmark cards!! Cards are suppose to put a smile on the face and her cards achieve just that. Superb! Check out all her clever cards!

Cutest plush toy!

Fellow Ottawa Team member Vivikas creates the greatest toys. This is Owlie in purple. I also like Zozo Zombie. Her toys are unique and affordable!

There should be more moments in life to wear stuff like this..

This is so pretty! I wish I could wear something like that every day... I'm probably just born in the wrong era...

Handmade (of course!) by DolorisPetunia. She makes gorgeous stuff.Check it out here!