One of my favorite booths to visit at every trade show is Clover's to see what new tools and products they have. At the summer CHA show the most delightful young woman was demoing Clover's new Kanzashi flower templates. Diane Gilleland or Sister Diane as she is known online is the author of a beautiful book Kanzashi in Bloom and the popular online blog CraftyPod, "a blog and podcast about making stuff".

Clover developed the templates to create the flowers from Diane's book. The templates are easy to use. The folded petal flowers are an ideal embellishment and a great way to use up very small scraps. In her book Diane has twenty lovely projects from wearables to home decor. A stunning black and white check scarf is punctuated with vibrant red flowers.

I took some scraps of fabric with me and the templates on vacation, it makes for a very portable craft! While visiting my good friend Marie Browning in her studio and who was also preparing for her daughter's wedding kitchen shower I sewed up several flowers. A plain oven mitt became a designer original gift package with the addition of a Kanzashi flower and buttons in the wedding color scheme of bright orange and pink!

Thank you Diane and Clover for your inspiration! Create JOY always! Debra, CEO!