Friday finish and Freebie!

I hope everyone is done with their holiday shopping and can enjoy some time to relax and enjoy the holidays. We will have the kids over on Christmas Eve, so dinner and gift giving, then on Christmas Day we go to their house. I always save a present for the boys and I will have a little something for guests. 

This week I wanted to try something new, a cookie cutter gingerbread boy. The first one I kept simple and the second one, I added a fun outfit and bells. I love doing these and I think it would be fun to make more as gifts for next year and make them in different styles to fit the person, who gets them.

Another item I made was a gift card holder. I needed something to put the kid's card in and made up a mitten with a nativity scene. The nativity is a design I found on the web and then fit it to the mitten. The mitten is a pale green and the cuff is a green roving that I needle felted, into the felt. The appliqué is all wool, and a few touches that I add as I go. My shapes were different than the original so I just added some facial features to fit. 

The  mitten is a little over 6" long. The stitches are done with a khaki wool thread, but it stands out more in the photo. It's a great, last minute gift idea, that can be done in a day. 

May you all have a wonderful holiday week, no matter how you celebrate, may peace and love fill your lives and homes this year.

Friday Finish!

This week I was in the mood to practice my needle felting. I wanted to try something with pipe cleaners to see who it worked. So, I made a simple stick figure for a base. Then I decided I wanted to try craft stuffing as a base to save on my roving. It worked and it felted together to stay on the pipe cleaners, but it didn't pack in and stiffen like roving does.

Next I wanted to try using wool yarn. I had some old yarn that had no tag, so no idea if it is all wool, but it has a nice texture and color for animals, so I used a method I say online. I cut pieces of yarn and then brushed them with my cat's brush, yes my cat's brush, I cleaned it first;) It worked nicely, it turned the yarn into a puffy roving that felted up nicely and quickly since it is coarser.

So, I started felting over the stuffing and what was going to be a person, turned into a bunny, then what was a boy bunny laying down became a girl bunny standing up. I just work like you might with clay, I just add and think as I go and I never know how it will turn out till I am done. I made her some clothes with a felted sweater and a few bunny features and this is how she came out. I made white boots since I wanted her to be a skater, but not sure about the skate bottoms, and for now I have decided that I want her to hold a garland. It will have four hearts that spell out love, so I can make that with wool and jute and it will be done this week. This way if I want, I can always change the garland and have a christmas one for next  year and use her for two seasons.

She stands about 9" tall to the pom pom. I have learned that stuffing is not good to felt with unless it is wool, it is too soft so I couldn't shape and form her the way I wanted and the pipe cleaners get in the way and don't really bend that well, too soft.

I hope you like her, it was a fun experiment and I learned some new things.

We got a lot of the snow from the storm, so we stayed home and watched movies. At the end of the day the sun came out just in time for a beautiful sunset and Bill got the fun of cleaning off the driveway. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and sunny days.

Monday This and That!

This weekend was a blur, I think the time change has messed me up again. Just when I get used to the fall back, it is time to go forward. I do enjoy the longer days though, and once the snow melts, I can get out for walks with Bean.

I really liked the bunny design and wanted to try it in a different medium, so I went with needle felting. I received some supplies from a friend and have been collecting roving and it is time to start using them. I made an egg shape and used wool felt to felt on. It was fun to do and I learned some things along the way to get better results in my next piece. I may try a felted eyeglass case next, I like the idea of making them for gifts and want to try something artistic with wet felting.

I used a light yellow felt for the backing, and it was nice since I could trace the design onto the felt, to have a guide for felting.

I also made a piece from the Buttermilk Basin hop and another design by Renee Plains, I just need to finish them. I got the idea of cutting around the heart and placing it on a wooden heart, then I found out it doesn't fit, so have to rethink that one. The bird stitchery will go in this frame, I need to do some trimming and get something for the back, then I can frame it.

And guess what I made today? Cookies! I really need my cookies, they are made with oatmeal, brown flour and grated apple. I add a stick of butter, but I figure the good ingredients out weigh the butter, lol. I found a counter top oven this weekend and I had a 30% coupon, so it was a good deal and I can use it now and save it for camping if we get a trailer without an oven.

The bad thing is, I only had the one small pan that it came with, so I could only cook 6 at a time, so it took a few hours to make them, lol.

Giveaway Winner!

I wanted to have my new, finished piece to show today, but I got lazy and still need to finish it.
Today I got a prize that I won from CT Publishing. I won a bundle of wool felt and the ebook, "Faniciful Felties". I got the ebook and have been having fun looking through the designs and trying to decide what to make first. There are so many fun characters with accessories, I can make a whole town of people and animals.

Today I got the wool felt so now I can start a project, it is beautiful felt, much better than the regular felt in the craft stores. Check out their Blog, there are lots of wonderful tutorials and great contests for all types of crafting.



Since I was in a lazy mood today, I decided it was a good day to organize all my loose floss. Most of it was a giant nest, so it took me all day to pull it out and rewind it. I thought it would be good to use on my new felt projects and also other ones for christmas ornaments to get a head start. Maybe this weekend I will try some items, after I finish my punch, the stitchery and ......;)

One box has loose strands still, but I use those when I need a small piece for an eye or something small, so not worth winding those.



And now for the winner! The winner was number 1 today, Linda of The Quilted Pineapple! Linda, please email me with your choice of an epattern, from my ecrater site. I should have showed you a better close up of Moki, my thought was, "Call 911, he's going into seizures". LOL, he is really funny looking in that pose with his tongue hanging out. Thank you all for participating and commenting.