Felted Owls

Followed the Sarafina ornament owl tutorial and came up with these two little fellas. I used some of the locks I got yesterday from Sally Crowe to add to the wings of the right one and both of their heads.

These are how the fab locks came yesterday.

I'm just waiting for another parcel from Jo Prosser with some scraps in it so that I can make a nest for them.

 Parcel received and a couple of nests made - thanks Jo.

One of the owls placed in its nest.

More Lovely Wool

Look what arrived today, a fabulous gift from the lovely Pat Johnstone, a huge amount of Merino wool. I think this will keep me going forever! Thanks Pat x

Sleepy Mice

I wanted to make something for a friends birthday and when in conversation, she mentioned mice. So I decided to have a go following Sarafina's sleepy mice tutorial which I followed apart from the eyes as I wanted open not closed eyes, but I'm really pleased with how these came out. I used the NZ carded batts from The Felt Box which felted up really well. 

Sat up on the needle felted cushion.

I filled a shallow plastic dish with shredded tissue paper and placed the mice inside. I like the patterned fabric that I'd put them on, so I decided to cover the plastic dish with the fabric.

Once covered, I filled the dish with the shredded paper and added the mice.

I wrapped them with celephane and finished them off with a ribbon. Fingers crossed she likes it.

Experimenting Tiny Toes

So I decided to have a go at the tiny toes using wire and following the Sarafina tutorial. I initially tried with wire that had been covered in florist tape, but the tape just fell off, so instead I ordered some paper covered wire stems from Ebay. These were much easier to use and the paper didn't tear at all. The hands/feet measure approx 10 - 15mm, so are quite tiny.

Next I wrapped them. The two on the left with five digits were wrapped in flesh coloured Perendale batt wool (World of Wool). I have done nothing to them apart from a bit of needling once they were wrapped. The two on the right with four digits were wrapped in apricot coloured NZ carded batt (The Felt Box). The very ends of the digits were dipped in melted candle wax BEFORE they were wrapped and the one to the left of the pair, the ends of the digits were dipped again after being wrapped. The one to the right of the pair, so far right of the photo, was also dipped in the candle wax BEFORE the wool was wrapped and then I applied a very thin layer of transparent fabric stiffener on the ends of the digits. The fabric stiffener dries rock hard.

They all seem to be holding up fairly well at the moment and personally for the time being, I don't really have any preference.

Tiger

My sister loves big cats and last week my mum took the duck I'd made her to show my sister who absolutely loved it. So I thought I'd have a go at making her something in the big cat range. I was going to go for a black panther, but thought that would be cheating, so instead I went completely the other way and totally challenged myself. Am quite pleased with the results. Face could be better shape, but for my first attempt, I'm happy and I hope my sister will be too xx

Lynn Perrella is coming to town

Using my PA stamps designed by Lynn Perrella I created this collage. Once I'd completed the stamping, I coloured them in with gelatos and smudged and blended the colours. This is because Lynn Perrella is coming to the UK in September to take a 3 day workshop in Scotland so I thought I'd get in the mood.

Fabric Cards

I wanted to incorporate fabric into some birthday cards, so I created a background, added some happy birthday stamped words and a fabric image which has been stamped in black acrylic paint.

The background and the fabric image are machine stitched.

The background is a gelli plate print.

Background created using distress inks.

This background was made using deli paper.

And the inside of each of the cards is stamped with Happy Birthday.

These will be for sale in my Etsy shop.

Wet Felted Pod

All ready and set up on the dining room table.

Laid the wool over the template.

Wrapped the wool over on the other side.

Layers of wool laid on the other side of the template.

I massaged soapy water onto the piece and got more aggressive as it started to felt. I kept turning it over and also made sure I worked the edges.

Once I was happy that it had felted I cut a hole in the middle of the front and pulled out the resist.

And this is what I ended up with after I'd gone in again with the soap around the cut edges to felt them.

Then I stuffed it with dusters to the shape that I wanted it to take once dry and left it over night in the airing cupboard.

It is now totally dry, but I wanted to show how much you have to allow for shrinkage.

Jo Prosser very kindly sent me some locks still attached to the wool so that I could attach them around the outside edges of the opening.

I put toy filling inside to make it a bit stronger and to help it hold its shape better. I also made like a shelf at the front too with the locks.

I also felted some of the same locks at the top of the hole as were on the top.

And this is how it looks from the back. 

I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Tags & Atcs

Had a play with some backgrounds today and made these tags. I coloured the images with my zig pens which I haven't used for a while.

A couple more with Lynn Perrella Paperartsy stamps and a compass stencil I bought ages ago but hadn't used until now.

And finally a couple of Atc's. I cut the Teesha Moore boy with the hair image in half and used one for each atc.

Handle with Care

And for my final make using the fabulous ARTZONE stencils designed by Deb Wainwright I created this piece using the music stencil. The background has been coloured with a wash of magenta and dioxazine Decoart premium acrylics. I used titanium white through the essentials 1. The main image from the music stencil was stencilled with prussian blue.

All the stencils (and more) can be found in Debs online shop here. If you get chance, please pay a visit. They retail at £5.75 and are excellent value. They are made from a very robust material and because of this they are very to use and also easy to clean. They are also very versatile as they can be used either way.

Polar Bear

So today, being as it started to snow I decided to make a polar bear. In truth is was meant to be a tiger, but when I'd made the body I didn't think it was big enough, so the tiger went on hold for now!

I added a white dot to each of the eyes.

Then decided to add a darker eyebrow to define the eye a bit more, and also defined the paws a bit more.

I also added pads to the bottoms of the feet.

Here he is stood from the other side.

 

I think the nose is a little long but overall I'm quite happy with how he turned out as this is the first time I've used Merino as a top coat.