Linda shows us via a video and pictorial tutorial how to make a Christmas Star with Felt the procedure is easy and very fast, you will need just a little patience in cutting the felt.There is no sewing and she assures us that within a half an hour we can have this Christmas decoration hanging on our door.  Visit her blog for complete  instructions for this amazing star.

About This amazing artist: Hello my name is Linda I have 29 years and I live in the beautiful medieval town of Ferrara since I got married. For now, my house is a mini apartment, but dreams of moving to a country house that has a garden full of fruit trees, perhaps with a pot of lemon next to the window sill.  My creativity  Even as a child I breathed in my family air creative: My parents and my grandparents were a great example for me and allowed me to develop my imagination and creativity. In a stimulating environment where I tasted a bit ‘of everything, I grew up and I appreciated the art of craftsmanship, DIY applied to the fields of early childhood education, but also in more specific areas such as the restoration panels.  I found myself with the maternity home to raise my child, becoming a mother made me rediscover my desire to create and so after some initial hesitation, I decided to open this blog to share with others my passion.

My blog: As you can see from my post I have a thousand different interestsFrom computer to crafting: I am always looking for new ideas and projects! In my blog I try to bring news I find the network, especially American creative ideas, Signaling the tutorials and creations that catch my attention and curiosity.

Sayra Adams of Idaho, United States creates the most stunning felted hats that anyone would look dramatic wearing. Sayra not only makes hats but she makes wool art batts, and spins yarn which looks like they would be lovely to work with.  Pay a visit on her Blog “Hat Diva” or shop her charming shops “Hatdiva Hats” and “Atomicblue fiber” and tell her you saw her on Craft Gossip Felting.  You can follow her on TWITTER too.

Take advantage of this special offer from the Funky Felter for holiday gift giving.

SPECIAL FOR THE WEEK OF 11/09 – 11/14 AT MY ETSY SHOP
FREE SHIPPING!!  All items ship for absolutely free this week!

From now through Christmas, I will be running weekly specials in my Etsy shop.  This week all items in my Etsy shop ship for free!  There’s just one catch – you must put the promo code “FREESHIPPING” in the message to seller at checkout.  After you’ve purchased your items, I will refund all shipping fees via PayPal.

I met Maureen Cracknell on Facebook and want to share this felting artist’s creations with you.  Check her out on Facebook and become her friend and keep up with all her new creations. She makes the most adorable “Heart Felt” dolls and “Felts Like Home” Dollhouse Ornament.  She just opened a ETSY shop called “Maureen Cracknell Handmade” and she tells me that she will be adding items daily for the holidays.   She also has started a blog called “Maureen Cracknell Handmade”.  Maureen is not new to crafting in felt.  Recently she finished up a toy line for the music duo Renee & Jeremy a unique collaboration and she thinks this is one of the coolest things she has gotten to make. All the items she created were inspired by the awesome animation for their music video for “It’s a big world” and the illustrations on their website, both done by artist Hsinping Pan. Check these exciting people and watch to the fun videos.

Maureen Cracknell Handmade is a home business she has recently started. With a desire to create and constant inspiration from her three children she began making clothing and toys and knew that if she was going to put anything out there, she wanted it to be green.

Isla Corbett Creates exquisite felted art in her home based studio in California. From Isla’s profile below you can read that she gets most of her inspiration from nature. She sells her items in her ETSY shop called “I S L A C O R B E T T”.  Everything is handmade and lovely.  She carries Bags, purses, pillows and accessories in her shop.   Do pop over and see her website and her shop. Isla is a very talented fiber arts designer, who works in our favorite media: 100% wool felt.   Isla Corbett is on Facebook and Twitter if you would like to follow her.

Isla’s Profile:

Welcome to my website! I design wool felt accessories for modern living and needle felted hair accessories, all of which is handmade by me in my home studio. My inspiration comes from my love of gardening and from nature in general. I love hunting for unfamiliar plants in our local nurseries, picking up seed pods and striking leaves etc on walks with my son. Whether it’s the shape , color or the three dimensional qualities of the treasures I find, I am so awe inspired to think that tiny seeds can emerge from the ground and produce such a diverse assortment of pleasing forms. So it’s with natures amazing palette of color and naïve elements which allow me to absorb and create products that reflect my interest.

Chrissie the shop owner of “Make Your Presents Felt” does some wonderful designs with felt.  I am totally in love with this Felt bead and wooden petal choker necklace.  Her shop has some lovely items you have to see.  I also love her Nuno felted vessel with burlap/hessian collar, it is so primitive and would make a wonderful conversation piece in your home. Sorry, I just bought both pieces.  Chrissie: “Hello and thanks for looking! I’m a time-served Scots crafter (living in England) who has for the last 30 years lovingly made gifts for friends and family, or to decorate our home. I was always getting told off for “skiddling” when I was little (that’s ‘making a mess with water’ to anyone who isn’t Scottish!) so I’m in my element wet-felting.

I bought these adorable acorns from Kim Buchheit of Wildly Woolly and I love them.  I have a small black bowl filled with them on my coffee table and people always ask where I bought them.  I always tell them where to get them but I don’t know if they buy them, but I hope they do.  Now Kim is offering a video tutorial on just how to make these darlings and the process is clear and doable.  If you are not into making them you can always buy them from Kim’s ETSY shop “Kim’s ETSY Boutique” along with some of her other fabulous felted art.  Thanks Kim, for the wonderful video tutorial.

Leah Adams of SpiderFelt is generously offering one of my readers a chance to win her lovely Verbena Felt Soap Kit, so fragrant and pretty. Leah is a talented felt designer who evolves daily in creating exquisite felted items to wear, hold, as well as kits for those who want to make their own felt items. She is an artist who has taken her felting art into brilliant realms. Her knowledge of felt is amazing and we are so lucky to be a part of her world. We would like you to become a fan of Leah’s SpiderFelt on Facebook. If you do not have an account, please think about signing up and joining us on Facebook. The giveaway will run for 10 days, from October 23, 2009 through November 1, 2009. To enter, simply go to Leah’s SpiderFelt Shop and select an item you like, then come back here and post about the item you love in the comment section here. This giveaway will end at midnight EST November 1st. Good luck to everyone.

Leah Adams of Spider Felt is offering some wonderful felting kits.  The soap making kits comes with three bars of Green Tea and Olive Oil Soap, three colors of roving and instructions. Leah is an amazing felting artist and is giving us everything we need to make soap or give a kit as gifts to someone who love crafting and has never tried felting.  She also has other felting kits, so pop on over and take a look at her lovely art felting and kits.

Leah enlightens:

“Why would I want a felt soap?” you ask. Have you ever dropped a sliver of soap in the shower and watched it slip down the drain? Never again. As you use your felt soap, the bar inside the felt package dissolves slowly leaving a hollow ball. Typically lasting three times as long as your average bar of soap, every last suds is used in this efficient conveyance. Plus, the felt gently exfoliates your skin as you wash.

Discover this amazing felting and fiber artist’s ETSY shop call pillowhappy.  She make the most lovely pillows and other wonderful felted items.  Maybe her shop will offer you some ideas for holiday gift giving or to dress up your own home.  Take a look and you will not be disappointed.  Shop owners profile: One day I was sewing a slipcover for my couch. One day turned into a week as I went a little “slipcover happy” and slip covered virtually everything in my house. In the meantime, I needed to get some ideas of mine on “pillow”, and this shop was created! I’ve gone pillowhappy people! I hope you do too.

Run don’t walk over to Beth’s Felting in Fibrespace for you chance to win this stunning felted brooch.  The contest ends tonight and the rules are simple. From Beth:  it is my little giveaway to celebrate the International Day of Felt. The theme for this day was the segment of the colour wheel yellow through to red. So I’ve made a little felted flower from merino wool and dyed it yellow using fustic. For your chance to win just leave a comment and I’ll draw the winner at random on Friday the 9th of October.  Be sure to check out all of Beth’s amazing felted items and her ETSY shop (fibrespace).  Pictured along with the brooch are two of her bags, one is such fun and the other is charming.

Taffy Knit’s has a very charming ETSY shop filled with enjoyable items to decorate with, wear or just for fun.  I love the witches brewing kettle, pumpkins and apples as they are all seasonal for the fall.  Check out this stay at home mother of four ETSY shop and offer some comments.  Her designs are unique, fun and practical. She offers felted knitted items because she feels that felted wool is such an efficient fabric for our busy lives. She also loves the fun and the shrinking process because it always brings the element of surprise.

Now is the time to think about your Halloween decorations and I thought it would be fun to see what the ETSY shop owners are selling for this trick or treat fun holiday.  I was taken in by “Two Left Hand’s Shop” with its smashing array of adorably scary dolls.  Mrs. Two Left Hand’s lives in a little cottage on a little lake in Michigan with her husband and their two adorable dogs. Muffie is a Shitzu and Poker is a Cocker Spaniel. They have three grown kids and nine beautiful grandkids, five boys and four girls. She has been sewing for as long as she can remember and because she has never been good at taking instructions (she always does first and reads later) she never know exactly what she will come up with. She loves doing needlework and experimenting with different embroidery stitches.  Most items are made from wool felt, wool roving, gauze, bead, pearls, glue, floss.  Every holiday is celebrated in this shop, so visit often.

I am impressed with the craftsmanship and quality of Sandra’s beautiful art.  Her pieces are useful as well as attractive. You can distinguish her Industrial Designer skills in her work.  Sandra is a freelance Industrial Designer living in Boston’s South End. Although she enjoys designing products for larger scale productions, she also loves taking a crafters approach. She brings her profession ideals to her handmade items, and makes pieces that compliment an urban aesthetic. Sandra’s ETSY shop is called Inbound Thread and I encourage you to visit and see what she is offering.

Chrissy, the proprietor of the Felted Chicken is making the most incredible needle felted Angler Fish and it is a must see. She is journaling her day-by-day process with visuals of what she has done and it is fun to see heaps of fiber evolve into a remarkable piece of art.  Chrissy’s blog is Felted Chicken and her ETSY shop carries the same name.

Chrissy:

“I’m in love with the process of creating things. It doesn’t matter what I am making, as long as my hands are busy. It could be Christmas presents for my family, large foam scenic sculptures for movie sets, hand-made needle-felted sushi, or the daily To-Do & Grocery lists I am constantly making. Currently I am making many things out of felt. I love the fabric; it reminds me of craft projects I did as a child. My sculptures are 100% hand-felted wool made by Needle-felting. Needle-felting is the process of matting and compressing animal fibers into felt by stabbing a barbed needle into the fibers over and over and over and over again. It is very time-consuming, but also amazingly fulfilling. It allows me to hand sculpt fabric without having to use a sewing machine. It combines many of my favorite things – sculpting & stuffed animals – fine art & toys – innocence & craftsmanship”.