Second Time Around

You may remember me posting a while back about trying out needle felting.  While I enjoyed it, I didn't really get the feel of it.  I did pretty well adding details to things like birthday banners but, I just couldn't seem to get the hang of the 3 dimensional needle felting.  That all seemed to change last Sunday. 

I had run into the craft store for a few supplies (we recently moved to Frankfurt so I was craving something familiar.) and I came across the felting section.  I quickly snapped up a foam block, a few needles, and an assorted bag of wool.  (all for less than 15 euros)  That next day (Sunday) I felted the entire day.  I didn't really start out with a plan I just looked around on Pinterest for some "pinspiration" and started felting. 

Now first of all let me say...I'm totally not an expert in needle felting.  That said, this little project turned out so much better than I could have hoped for. 

The Wonky House

It also helped me see where I might have gone wrong before.  So here are a few felting tips based on my (totally unprofessional) experience.

1.  Use the material.  Seriously.  Last time I remember thinking "I don't want to use too much wool" and that was totally stupid.  You're supposed to use it.  Quit being cheap!

Interior detail.

2.  If you're making something 3 dimensional with walls and you think they're thick enough...they're not.  Double the thickness and you may come close.  With this house I realized after I attached the walls to the base that they were not thick enough.  I "cheated" this by making another wall section and adding detail for the inside and putting those layers together.  It would have been waaaay simpler to just make them super thick to start with. 

Two walls stuck together.

3.  Use quality wool.  Now, I'm not saying you should spend a fortune here (my wool was only 7 euros)  but you want it to look like it came off an actual sheep.  The roving I had purchased in the US was not the same quality I bought here.  It was too shiny and too "perfect".  This stuff LOOKS like it came of a sheep and was dyed funky colors.  I could have totally imagined this but the wool here looks less processed.

4.  The more you mess with it...the worse it looks.  Less is totally more with this free form stuff.  I like tightly felted beads as much as the next guy, but structures look better with less felting.  (again my unprofessional opinion)

I really like the furry little details.

5.  I think the most important thing to remember is that you'll probably suck at first.  How unfair would it be if you were just great at everything on the first try?  Try it again.  And again.  And again if you have to to get the hang of it.  The wool really isn't that expensive. 

Those are really the main lessons I learned with felting.  It was so much fun and I can't wait to get more wool (my house needs furniture).  And I'm thinking I want to try one of those play mats too.  I'll keep you posted of course. 

Oh and don't poke your finger! 

Kristin

Chess for Kids

Fair warning...I even surprised myself with this one.

I taught my sweet 7 year old how to play chess the other day.  He's a natural and we've played many rounds in the last couple of weeks.  Being a fan of the first Harry Potter movie he calls it Wizard's Chess and basically pounces on the pieces he's capturing.  That's what makes Wizard's Chess so fun!  Well, that also brought about casualties on our breakable chess set.

:(

I started trying to think of a way to save our pieces but still allow him his wizardy fun.  I also needed something more travel friendly.  (We're moving to another country in three days.  I know!)

Enter the peg person.  Now, these guys are no strangers around here.  We use them for all sorts of fun.  Game pieces, calendars, our gnome tree house, etc.  You can pretty much find one in any direction you look at our house. 

I have quite the stash of peg people so I dug around and actually had enough on hand to create one side of the chess set.  (I just got the other side finished last night)  I also had wool felt and all the necessary stuff to sew up little chess themed hats.  Since this is a kids set we chose their favorite colors and set to work.

It's so cute I can't stand it.

The purple side King and Queen have
purple stitching around their crowns.

 

 

Green side = green stitching

Now to tell you about our board.  I was inspired here by this book from my childhood.  (My mom let us borrow it on our last visit.)

yes it IS from the early 80's.

It has some really fun ideas in it but I especially remembered this one.

We have a HUGE supply of bandanas on hand.  I just grabbed one we had that went with our colors and used a paint pen and some acrylic paint to make the squares.  Now full disclosure here, if I had it to do over I would use a fat tipped sharpie (or the paint pen) and NOT the thinned acrylic paint.  It's a little too stiff but it works.  (and I may redo it one day)

When you are finished playing you just tie the whole thing up and toss it in your suitcase.  (or just put it on your shelf)

Cute. as. pie.  These would make a great Christmas gift for the young chess player in your life.

Kristin


p.s.  as I mentioned earlier we're moving soon so my posting here will be more sporadic as we get settled in.  See you on the flip side!

Good Knight Part 2: The Tunic

 

Remember when I showed you these arm bracers I made for a Knight's costume?  Well, I finished up the tunic a few days before the Knight and Princess party and thought you might like an update. 

  

The finished tunic.

 

A super quick rundown here.  I found an image the boy liked and set to work on the design.  I used Wee Folk Arts tip for cutting felt and it worked beautifully! 

 

It took forever to cut out but it was so worth it.

I then used spray adhesive to tack it down to the black part of the design.  After the glue dried (maybe 1 hour) I stitched around the Griffin with a running stitch.  Then I cut out a rectangle of fleece that was folded at the top.  You want your fleece to comfortably fit the length of your child front and back.

I cut an oval out of the folded edge for the neck and hemmed the neck opening.  Make sure it fits over your childs head before hemming.  I also hemmed the sides and added eyelets and lacing.  (honestly I'd have preferred black lacing here but Michael's only had brown that day.  Oh and use interfacing where you want the eyelets.)  The next step was to cut up the very center of the front and the back about 6 inches.  Hem that along with the bottom and add any decorative trim you'd like.  That's it!

This was pretty inexpensive to do honestly.  I already had the felt and eyelets on hand so I only had to purchase the fleece (about half a yard will leave you with plenty of extras), the lacing, and the red trim.  Less than $10 total.  If you have any questions about the directions please let me know.

An action shot at the party!  They had so much fun.  I'll try and show you more detail with the helmet and sword in another post (the helmet is my favorite part of the whole thing!).  I'll give you a hint though, the helmet is made from craft foam and the sword is a pizza box and some duct tape. 

 

The fair knight jousting!

 

Good times.

Repost: An Easter Craft

**This one was originally posted over at The Fipper Show on April 25, 2011 while we were travelling in Germany.  Sorry if I'm a little repost happy but they were all done before the crafty blog.  Plus...Easter comes around every year.**

While packing for this trip I realized we would be celebrating Easter while we were here. I talked a little to Fisher about it and we were trying to come up with a solution that didn't involve bringing their Easter baskets and eggs from home. I have really gotten myself into something here because any time we are faced with a problem like this his answer is always "you should just make it mom".  But this time we did. I had planned to bring some felt with me anyway for my mental health crafting. So here's how it went down.

Baskets? Check.

But what to do about the eggs? I refused to haul plastic eggs all the way to Germany!! So I decorated some felt eggs with embroidery.

I made the back out of two pieces that overlap like a pillow sham. Then they can be stuffed with candy.

All candy filled and nestled in the basket.

They each got 6. Here are Piper's.

Two of my favorite ones for Pipey.

Boy colors for Fisher.

Two of my favorites for him.

This one is my REAL favorite. Fisher did this one himself. His first time EVER sewing with a needle and thread!

Unfortunately I don't have any action shots for you. The way we are set up here they sleep in the living room. And the Easter baskets were set out for the Easter bunny in the living room. Late night pictures of filled Easter baskets + sleeping kids = bad Easter experience. But they enjoyed finding their "stuffed" eggs and eating all the goodies.

Happy Easter

Kristin

Be My Valentine

We hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day Nature table.

**These sweet little gnomes are pulling double duty today over at The Fipper Show.

How's the Weather?

You'll come to find sometimes our sewing is a little bit crafting and a little bit homeschooling.  This is one of those times.

I love the Wee Folk Art blog.  Like, love it.  They have fantastic ideas and free patterns.  Well, one of their applique patterns is a sunburst.  It got me thinking... weather flags.  I thought this would be a good way for the kids to consciously observe the weather.

They did a fantastic job with applique block tutorial so I'll just tell you about my changes.  I made these an inch bigger on one side than the suggested 6" square. (to allow for the pocket.)  So 6"x7".  You'll fold that top inch down and stitch across making the pocket.  You'll be back to the 6" square now.

Look around online (or freehand) for cartoon style clouds, rain, snowflakes, etc. Wee Folk didn't have these but they have tons of others.

Print the design off, cut them out of wool felt, and hand stitch.  Cut a dowel rod (I think I used 1/4") down to size  (7" or 8") and thread it through.  Make the hanger with yarn.

We look out each morning (sometimes more, sometimes less) and match what we observe outside to our flags inside.  The only thing I think I'm missing is wind.  So I may add that one later.  The kids love them and more importantly they use them.  I love it when blogland is a springboard for your brain.

It's Friday so that means it's Peek of the Week over at Happily Home Sewn.  You guessed it, I'm linking.

Keeping Time With Gnomes

Wait for it....

This is the current centerpiece for our table.  Kinda cute right?  Tiny pumpkins, a tree block, beeswax candle, a sea shell (from our honeymoon a million years ago), and the sweetest little perpetual calendar I ever did make.  Well, the only one anyway.  

A few weeks ago I was browsing around Rhythm of the Home Magazine (an online magazine found here ) and their Fall 2011 edition and loving it all.  I came across Mama Roots and her story tables which have inspired quite a lot of my current crafting.  Her blog is wonderful but I really loved this.  Her little calendars are so cute. 

Now, I inherited a healthy dose of "I can probably make that" from both my parents.  Naturally that's what I thought.  I can make it - but different.  So I rounded up some scrap wood, a peg person, a couple wooden cubes, and some wool felt.  Oh and I grabbed the wood burner.  I think she turned out pretty cute. 

I made 4 different hats, one for each season.  Orange for fall, an icy blue for winter, a leafy green for spring, and a bright blue for summer. 

Then I wood burned the little leaf pattern, months, and days.  I finished it off with a homemade olive oil beeswax polish to protect her.  I love her!  Really. 

I'm linking this to Happily Home Sewn and her Peek of the Week.  Her "peeks" are always adorable so go check it out!