Fircone Firelighters

When I saw Circle of Pinetrees share their Pinecone Firelighters a couple of years ago, they went straight on my to do list! Referencing both her tutorial and Walter and Me's tutorial, I eventually got round to making some in time for this year's Father's Day! My Dad has a chiminea in his garden, so I thought this would be a great unusual gift for him.

I dipped about a dozen fircones using mandarin and cassis scented tealights from eBay, which worked out really well as they were white in colour and I didn't need to add essential oils. I packaged them in a simple box, and made my own label featuring this drawing. Never forget the power of beautiful wrapping when presenting a homemade gift. They were delightfully received!

Deer Silhouette Father's Day Card

I don't know about your part of the world, but here in England it was recently Father's Day! Ah, the classic conundrum of creating a masculine card... I googled around for a while hoping to find some inspiration, and came across Moomah's Make It! Fancy Father's Day card.

Using their brilliant deer silhouette, and their templates for accessories, I cut out deer heads from black paper, and mounted them on brown parcel paper on my card. For the accessories, I used some sparkly card, and also leftovers from last year's Father's Day cards, using the paper from Craftseller magazine. I think they worked out well, without being too stereotypically "Dad", which never seem to fit my father and father in law!