gifts from the heart, mollie from wild olive

hello and welcome to week two of our gifts from the heart series! hope you had a wonderful weekend and maybe even tried your hand at one of the wonderful tutorials from last week. i just created a new (and dare i call it, wonderful?) gifts from the heart flickr group, a place to share your gift-y creations of the heartfelt and handmade variety. if you were inspired by one of the projects here or if you have your own ideas to share, please add your photos to the group. i would love to see what you come up with!

today, we have the extra special pleasure of hearing from mollie of wild olive.  i mega-heart this girl and her love of things embroidered.  oh and don't forget the cute faces.  i am not even sure now how mollie and i connected on-line.  just that i thought her work was adorable.  but i distinctly remember her comment last summer on our homeschooling decision; she was homeschooled through high school and now helps with her younger siblings.  isn't that so cool?

mollie is a generous and talented crafty soul.  on her blog, you can find patterns, projects, and printables galore.  i would like to make these bookmarks sometime.  i can think of quite a few friends to make this for.  and in honor of my theme for the year, i think this would be a lovely reminder for my studio.  mostly i am inspired by her passion to use her gifts to benefit those in need.  isn't that just the way it is supposed to be?  i love seeing a sister bless others with what she has been blessed.   

i think you will love what she has to show us today. . . 

I am so thrilled and honored to be a guest here at Annalea's blog. This series may be about gifts from the heart, but I think it's safe to say that everything on her blog comes from Annalea's heart. I love that!

Even though I don't have any children, I do have young siblings, and I love making things for them. Today I'm sharing something that I made with my baby sister in mind. A cupcake felt board! It folds and ties closed for travel, and is a no-mess way for little ones to decorate cupcakes!

Here's what you'll need:

2 - 9 x 12 inch sheets of felt (mine were brown and cream)
recycled cardboard (a cereal box works well)
2 feet of ribbon, cut in half
craft glue
cupcake templates (download here)
small amounts of felt in assorted colors (mine were cake and pastel colors)
embroidery floss

To make the felt board:

Cut two pieces of recycled cardboard to 9 x 5 3/4 inches.

Apply a thin layer of glue onto one side of one piece of cardboard. Before you stick it down, place one end of a ribbon piece in the glue, then add a bit of glue on top of the ribbon. Now, attach this cardboard piece to one half of a piece of felt.

Repeat with a second piece of cardboard and ribbon, gluing to the other half of the same sheet of felt. There should be a small gap between the felt. TIP: If using light colored felt, watch out for the printed cardboard showing through. I used the brown felt to cover the printed side.

Apply a thin layer of glue to the back of both areas of cardboard, and smooth on the second sheet of felt. TIP: If your book wants to curl a bit from the glue, place it under a few heavy books and you'll be all set.

To make the cupcake pieces:

This is the fun and easy part. Use the cupcake templates to cut out a bunch of shapes from different colors of felt. Mine are more traditional cake and decoration colors, but you could make these really bright and fun!

TIP: If you have pinking shears or other shaped scissors, they work really well for the top of the cupcake wrappers.

And this wouldn't be a Wild Olive project without faces, so stitch some little expressions onto some of the pieces. (There are lots of faces in the template!) You could even embroider on some sprinkles!

Complete the felt board by gluing cupcake onto the front of the felt board.

This gift is all ready for little hands! My sister Grace was very ready for her cupcakes to be done...she kept coming to ask if it was all finished yet! Because this is soft, it is appropriate for even very young children, but you might want to leave out some of the very small pieces, just to be safe.

Now, I realize that cupcakes may be seen as sort of girly, but you could change this up by substituting pizza or ice cream shapes!

Thank you, Annalea for inviting me, and thank you for your commitment to giving from the heart!

oh my sweetness, thank you so much mollie!  i have a feeling there will be some felt-y cupcake making at casa hart sometime soon.  wouldn't this make an excellent birthday gift? 

be sure to visit mollie's blog and enjoy her creativity.  you won't be sorry.  and don't forget you can also find patterns and printables for sale in her etsy shop.  it's full of affordable cuteness.