Lavender Needle Felted Heart

I've been working off and on with this piece since June!  It's going to a very special person who is to be named maybe later!  :)

Here's some pics:

Sewing bag to needle felted heart

Back side filled with lavender

Front side & back side sewn together

Practice and Problems

While my pal was here, I gave her a quick tutorial on needle felting.  I made a couple pieces with her 'cuz I wanted to see if they'd fit on greeting cards.  Too thick!  Ah, well.  Maybe I can use them for something else!

Ron's Felted ATC

When my pal came to visit, my DH helped us.  He let us play in the studio while he cooked meals for us.  So I wanted to let him know how much I appreciated him.  I made him this felted ATC.  He said he liked it.  Hope so!

1.  Finish a felted ATC on craft felt

2.  Gather materials

3.  Iron Wonder Under to cardstock & ATC

4.  Trim excess

5.  Button hole stitch ATC to cardstock

6.  Write on cardstock

7.  Finished ATC

Needlefelted egg off to Matilda!

Used my first new business card to send the needlefelted egg

off to Matilda who won the Blogoversary draw.

Hope she likes it!

Happy Blogoversary to me!!!

Yea!  Someone actually reminded me it was my Blogoversary today!  Yahoo! 

I obviously didn't give very specific directions

as I have been getting emails,

as well as blog comments, on my hand felted egg give away! 

So what I'll do is wait until tomorrow

& pull a name from the hat to see who gets the egg!

Hope the rest of you enjoy both tutorials! 

Sorry for any confusion.  Here's that egg again:

I'll let you know tomorrow who gets it!

2nd Blogoversary Tutorial - Needle Felted Egg

I was trying to figure out what to give away for my Blogoversary.  I decide to give everyone 2 tutorials.  I had to do this early in case anyone wanted to make this Needle Felted Egg for Easter, or any spring holiday.  You have time!  It only took a few hours.  (And fellow bloggers, this is the tutorial to comment on if you want to win this finished egg!)  Here we go!

1.  First I gathered my supplies, tools and a sketched egg shape.  You can barely see it!

2.  Next I cut out the inside of the egg shape to make a template.  You could also use a cookie cutter if you have one.  Place it on your foam pad.

3.  Next I started to pull out pieces of the wool roving.

4.  Then I crisscrossed the wool over the template.

5.  Next I folded the wool roving on itself to an approximate shape of the template.

6.  Now start tacking the wool down with your needle felting tool.

7.  Be sure to check and make sure the wool isn't sticking to the foam pad.  You can turn it over and do the back also.

8.  This picture is hard to see, but I am checking for holes or weak spots that need more wool.

9.  Don't forget to felt the sides.  And watch your fingers!!!  The barbs on the needle are sharp!!!

10.  Continue felting until the background is done.  It should be solid.  Mine felted down to about 3/8 inches deep.

11.  Add Lincoln curls to make wiggly stripes.  (Lincoln curls are what I used.  You can use whatever kind of wool you want.)

12.  If the curls don't seem to be attaching well, you can place a "cobweb" over the background & felt it over the curls.  Don't worry about the curls going off the edge.  You can trim them later.

13.  Pull wisps of other colors to make some dots.

14.  Fold and roll wisps into dots.

15.  Start felting dots between the curly lines.  Smaller dots need just a teeny bit of wool.

 16.  Now it's all felted & ready to hang.  Add a floss hanger...or you could use the egg on a gift, or you could back it with regular craft felt so you could sign it.  Wherever your imagination takes you!  For the tutorial, I left the back plain & just added a hanger.

17.  And there you have your hand needle felted egg.

Now if you want a chance on receiving this egg for my Blogoversary, be sure to comment on this post!  I will inform whoever I draw that day.  Then I can get your snail mail to get your spring egg to you!  Happy felting.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

The Handmade Card & Needle Felted Heart

Here's what I worked on for my DH's bday.

Handmade card & envelope:

Hand Needle Felted Love Heart:

And he liked 'em!

Happy Birthday DH!!!

My DH had a wonderful birthday back in March.  He got a handmade gift from me, as we're watching our pennies, & ate all his favorite manly foods for dinner!  Here's some pics:

First Happy Hour out on our patio on his birthday!

A box with my gift and ribbon that says I Love You, & a small envelope:

Here's his little card with charm:

Here's his hand needle felted love heart gift to hang in his man cave:

A package from his pals in WA:

He was Spammed:

And the Prince said the shoe doesn't fit:

Here's the start of his meal:

He's a happy boy!

I hope all his wishes come true!

More new stuff

Here's some more hand needle felting I've done recently:

I've also been working on a friendship project. 

It's taking a long time since it's longer than a bracelet:

Seems I've been keeping busy with alot of different things!

Slowly but surely...

...I'm getting better.  Building up my immune system.  I've done a few things after I hit the wall, so I haven't been totally in bed reading books & eating bon bons!  :)  So here is one new thing I've started doing that's not too labor intensive.  Needle felting!

Doesn't take alot of tools or energy!  Just some sheep roving, a couple needles, a foam pad & some fancies to felt into the design.  Poke, Poke, Poke...but be careful!  Those needles have sharp barbs on them!!!

Here's a sample of a few ornaments I've been working on.  I added shiny threads, Angelina fibers & sewed on some beads.  Easy squeezy!