It has been a busy summer creating wedding cake toppers for wonderful creative brides! It is so great to see that there are brides who appreciate the Garden Gnome as much as I do! Enough to have themselves and their groom represented with an adorable gnome couple on their wedding cake. It has been fun to add in special details, such as hair colors, side ponytails, clothing colors and flower types and colors. A couple of my creative brides sent me pictures of their beautiful cakes for me to share with you! A Canadian Gnome WeddingThis wonderful wedding cake belongs to Victoria in Canada. I love getting to see all the trends in wedding cakes, such as this one where the cake layers show through a very thin coating of icing. I love the fresh flowers too! These are pictures of Victoria's topper before I sent it to her. A California Gnome WeddingThis amazing cake belongs to Ellie and Mark in California. I love the succulents, mushrooms, butterflies and moss added to this beautiful cake. Also the sweet pennant garland. The tree base is great display for such a creative cake! It is so exciting to see how the cake topper I create for my brides, becomes a very special part of their day and it becomes a keepsake from the wedding day, that they will have forever! I am truly honored each and every time I am asked to make a cake topper for a bride.
Every day should be a Gnome Day! Tammy
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I thought I would share a little about my process of creating my butterfly pendants. The idea to create these necklaces happened one day when I was walking into the grocery store. As I was walking through the parking lot I came across a beautiful yellow swallowtail lying on the ground. I could not bear to leave it there, it had been hit by a car and would surely be destroyed if I left it laying there. I took it back to my car before I headed into the store. While I was trying to do my grocery store, I kept thinking about what was I going to do with this butterfly. I knew I wanted to honor its beauty and life in some way. I had always wanted to learn to solder and this lovely creature propelled this desire! I wanted to make a pendant to put one of the wings into and that is when I had the idea to put it between glass and add solder to the outside edge to encase and protect the beautiful wing. It took lots of practice and a couple of burned out cheap soldering irons, before I went to a stain glass store in Riverside, Missouri. It is Gene's Glass Studio and there I met Gene and he talked me through why I was struggling and gave me a quick crash course in soldering. First, I needed a better soldering iron and I needed to know how to treat it to make it work for me not against me. I bought several supplies from him and he made me promise to come back if I was still struggling and he would help me. I got all set up at home and started practicing! I was immediately hooked! Something about soldering just took hold and I felt ready to try and create a pendant showcasing my beautiful swallowtail. Then I ran across another hurdle, how to cut glass (without cutting myself!) to fit the shape of the butterfly wing. I had learned how to cut the glass to get close to the shapes I wanted by watching YouTube videos, but the the edges were sharp and the shape was not quite right. After some more research I ended up buying a grinder for glass. Another really fun tool to use. Now I have made many butterfly pendants and love sharing them with others and giving them as gifts. My butterfly necklaces really seem to draw peoples fascination, there is just something so mesmerizing about a butterfly. I believe my necklaces still carry with them the spirit of the butterfly and through my necklaces they live on. This is a statement from a site I get some of my butterflies from, Butterfly Utopia. http://www.butterflyutopia.com The First SightingThe Mourning CloakThe Mourning Cloak butterfly was the first butterfly I saw this year. My husband found one last year, so I will be able to create a necklace with this butterfly. I hadn't seen very many butterflies in my yard this year, until just recently. Now they seem to be everywhere! I planted a lot of butterfly attractive plants in my gardens and have a small water feature for them in my gardens. I love to be in my garden and just watch the butterflies go from flower to flower, it brings me such a happy feeling and a calming peace. My hope is that my butterfly necklaces will bring the same feeling to those who wear them. I create these necklaces to honor these wonderful creatures and as a way to preserve their beautiful spirit. A Few Wonderful Butterfly Quotes Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Nathaniel Hawthorne The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. Rabindranath Tagore May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun And find your shoulder to light on, To bring you luck, happiness and riches Today, tomorrow and beyond. ~Irish Blessing But these are flowers that fly and all but sing: And now from having ridden out desire They lie closed over in the wind and cling Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire. ~Robert Frost, "Blue-Butterfly Day" "Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." ~Hans Christian Andersen Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes. ~Author Unknown Butterfly Lifespan
Butterflies have a lifespan depending on the species from a few days to 12 months. The Monarch tends to have the longest lifespan. Where you can find my necklaces My butterfly necklaces can be found on my Etsy website https://www.etsy.com/shop/WorkofWhimsy?section_id=11039460 Hallmarket https://www.facebook.com/events/242985309076462/ Thank you for visiting my blog! Tammy |
Tammy HaddixI created Work of Whimsy as an outlet for my creativity! I create christmas ornaments on my day job. I had so many ideas that I wanted to bring to life and this was the perfect way. I can create whatever I want and if I am lucky there is someone out there that wants to buy it! So far it is going better than I expected! Archives
October 2018
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