Another Awesome Craft Cafe - Wet Felting

 A selection of Cindy's felted zipper pulls & beads

Craft Cafe has been going strong since March. We have had workshops in everything from chocolate making to tea blending to mail art to glass tile pendant making. One of the things that Sheena & I love about Craft Cafe is that we can involve many different people from the community in our endeavour to inspire people to be creative. From the support of Peter and Brooke, at the Wild Flour Cafe, who open their venue to us, to the use of a local designer and printer for our posters, to inviting local business owners and artists to lead workshops, Craft Cafe is meant to be a community collaboration. Last night, we were pleased to welcome Cindy Gibson, a good friend of mine, who is as a felt maker, knitter, writer, and mosaic artist. About 2 years ago, Cindy came to my home and gave me a private lesson in turning wool roving into felted beads. She makes larger beads and turns them into zipper pulls. With winter coming, and with people thinking about holiday gifts, I thought this would be a great workshop for Craft Cafe. We had a nice turn out of 9 participants, who played with the gorgeous colours of roving, and learned from Cindy. They squished and rolled their roving into beautiful balls of felt, added some lovely yarn, and wore them home proudly. My favourite things about Craft Cafe is watching people, some of whom have not been creative in a long time, leave with a finished project that they love. Stay tuned for the next Craft Cafe, to be announced soon....

Cindy showing everyone how to get started in felting... 

Wool roving in luscious colours...

 

Brooke, Sheena, & I up to our usual silly antics...

 

Wool roving from Custom Woolen Mills in Carstairs, Alberta

 

Some of our younger ladies rolling their beads...

 

My beads...

 

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

 

We hope to see you at the next Craft Cafe!!

Reminder: The Next Craft Cafe, Wet Felting, Is THIS Sunday, Oct 16th, 2011

I am up to my eyeballs in beautiful wool roving from Custom Woolen Mills in Carstairs. If you are interested in learning how to wet felt beads and zipper pulls, please come and join at at Craft Cafe, this Sunday, October 16th, from 7 - 9 PM, at Wild Flour Cafe in Banff. For all the details, and photos of the projects, please see this post
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The Next Craft Cafe - Felted Beads, Zipper Pulls, & Stones - Sun Oct 16th from 7 - 9 PM‏

Zipper pulls by Cindy Gibson

Have you ever wanted to learn how to wet felt? Come to Craft Cafe for just one evening, and you will be well on your way! Join Sheena & Tiffany, on Sunday, October 16th from 7 - 9 PM, as we welcome Banff local and felting/knitting talent, Cindy Gibson. Cindy will teach us how to make fun and unique felted zipper pulls, which also make great gifts. In the process of learning to make the zipper pulls, you will learn to make felted beads, which can be embellished with smaller beads and/or sequins and strung into necklaces or made into earrings. We will get your inspiration going so you can head home with lots of ideas on how to go even further with what you have learned. Tiffany will also give a short demo on making felted stones. The Wild Flour is located at 211 Bear Street in Banff, will be open for delicious snacks and drinks. Cost is 20$ which covers your supplies for making at least one zipper pull and several beads. Kids 6 and over are welcome to come with their parents and are given a $5 discount. Please sign up and PAY at the Wild Flour prior to the class. If you can't make it to Wild Flour, please contact Tiffany and she can send you a Paypal invoice. Space is limited. NEW THIS TIME: Bring a friend who has never attended Craft Cafe and you will both received $5 off the NEXT Craft Cafe you attend. You will receive a coupon that can be presented at any future Craft Cafe. Questions? Contacts: Sheena sheenz6@hotmail.com Tiffany oldesage@hotmail.com Or feel free to leave a comment below after checking out the images of what we will make...

Beads by Tiffany Teske

Zipper pulls by Cindy Gibson

Beads by Tiffany Teske

Zipper pulls by Cindy Gibson

February 17th - FINALLY Finished My Bird Nests

I started making these a LONG time ago. They started as a papier mache bowl project with my three year old. Then we painted them. Then I made the felt eggs. Then I put it all together. All in all about 6 months. Yippee! One set of UFOs (Unfinished Objects) checked off the list... Aren't they pretty? I will share a tutorial on this someday...

Blame is On Sheasy

So I am going to "blame" my latest creation on Sheasy. She was the inspiration so I will thank her rather than blame her.



I made this for my friend who just had a little girl. The current pic is of my daughter when she was a new babe. I am going to replace it with a gift certificate for a photography session for my friend's little one. As some of you may know, before moving to Banff, I owned my own portrait photography business where I went to the homes of my clients and shot black and white images of them. You can still see this on my website, which is badly in need of a revamp... Whoa, got off the subject there. Thanks, Sheas!