The French theme continues on my blog today as I show you how to make a canopy for a quaint little shop front. I created a faux pâtisserie for my sister's birthday and this was just the finishing touch to set it off. I started out with two black tri-fold foam core display boards - the type used for science fair projects. It would be just as easy to start with white core board and then you could colour it any colour you want but black and white worked perfectly for my theme. To create the scalloop, tape a bunch of papers together to form a piece of paper the same length as the width of the core board. Fold the paper in halves, quarters and then eighths. Draw a scallop and then cut it out. With the board still in the flat position (sides folded in), place the pattern along one of the folded edges and trace around the scalloped edge. I used a white pen so I could see where to cut. The easiest way to cut foam core board is with a Stanley knife. Run the blade along the scallops in sever...

In my last post I showed you how I combined polystyrene disks and felt to make some really yummy looking faux mini gâteaux. But what would a cream sponge cake be without a strawberry on top? So today, I'm going to show you how easy it is to make strawberries from felt. All you need is red and green felt, yellow and green thread, stuffing, a needle, a sewing machine and scissors. You'll also need something round to trace around. I used a ribbon spool - the perfect size for lifesize medium strawberries! Begin by tracing the circle onto the red felt. Use a permanent marker so you can easily see where to cut. Cut out the circle, fold it in half and then cut on the fold line. You now have two semi circles. Fold each of these in half and then stitch the straight edge. You can see that I've just stitched a bunch of these semi circles and left them joined. I just cut them apart as I'm ready to make them. Once you've separated them, turn the seam to the inside. Fill the con...

One of the highlights of my sister's big birthday bash was the Faux Pâtisserie we put together to help dress the party room. It was filled with wonderful pastries, cakes and chocolates, all of which were crafted from supplies you can pick up from your local craft shop. Today I'm sharing the "how-to" for making your own mini gâteau like the pink one below. For this example, I've used polystyrene disks, acrylic paint (which sticks surprisingly well to polystyrene!), ric rac, lace, felt and a ribbon flower. I also used Aleene's Tacky Craft glue and some toothpicks to hold things together. If you've got white acrylic paint in your craft supplies then you can make a pastel shade of any colour paint you have. Pink seemed like a good idea for this cake. All you need to do is mix a little of your chosen colour into a LOT of white paint. You can see I had way to much pink paint here but it shows you just how intense the colour was before I toned it down with white....