This little Polar Bear take a small amount of white roving, felting needles and pipe cleaner.  This is the cutest little bears to hang on a nature tree or a gift topper. These little Bears will be delightful around the holidays. A pictorial tutorial is available on Martha’s web site.  Enjoy this project and show us the results.  This incredibly soft polar bear — perfect for a stocking stuffer — was made by needle-felting. The technique involves sculpting shapes from unspun wool called roving, by manipulating the fibers with a special needle until they interlock and become dense. An experienced crafter can make one in about an hour.  For each bear, you’ll need about two ounces of white roving, plus very small amounts of gray roving for the eyes and nose. For each bear, you’ll need about two ounces of white roving, plus very small amounts of gray roving for the eyes and nose.

This little pig is simply too adorable.  The instructions, template and sweater felting Instructions are clear and easy to follow.  This pig looks as if it were made with a patterns sweater which makes it cute.  But you could use a plain sweater and needle felt some embellishments using some wool roving.  Or you could felt a couple of sweaters is different colors and patch them together.  Find tutorial here.

I found this very unique and fun project on “Instructables” that I know I would not have thought of myself. Pencils wear down. You get stubs. You don’t have anywhere to put them. But this designer does, because they made a felt pencil case with different sized slots for different sized pencils. Now all your pencils, even your shortest stubs, will have homes. The flexible format allows you to hold all different sizes of pencils and keep them all easily accessible, and also allows you to utilize all the space in the case so you don’t waste and entire slot on one tiny stub. Here’s how they made it.  This is a “waste not, want not” project as you can write great pose with any size pencil. Materials: Felt (thin craft felt is better than thick industrial felt for this–those little squares of felt they sell for craft projects are the perfect size)

Get-a-jump on your holiday knitting and felting with the help of Knit Picks.  There are many adorable patterns and the yarns are affordable so you can stock up.   They also sell all the products for your knitting needs.   I know a friend that needs the oven mitts and I will be making a set for her.  All the free patterns are downloadable for instant gratification.  I love the lump of coal that could be placed in stocking as a joke.

This lovely pendent was found on “Resurrection Fern” created by a delightful artist who has been making things with her hands since childhood.  When not crafting she is a family physician in a small rural community.

This Snow flake Pendant Tutorial was inspired by the fresh fallen snow on the deep dark brown earth. It can be made in any color and with a simpler design. It could really be adapted to anything you or your children might be inspired to stitch onto felt.  Materials: box board, template for circles, pencil, scissors, felt, embroidery thread, needles and a length of wool, ribbon or trim.

Learn to make felted balls using a new twist.  Feltable wool scraps, Styrofoam balls (1-3″ diameter… smaller balls are easier), old panty-hose, rubber bands, rubber gloves, pot, stove, dish soap, bowl, and slotted spoon.  I found this tutorial on Coco Knits who is talented knitting designer and teaching.  Take the time to read her bio she has a fascinating career.  

Julie Finn wrote this for Crafting a Green World and she shows and explains just how to create these adorable stockings.   Julie writes: Every Christmas Eve with my mom (you know about my mom, right?), she drags out these utterly godawful stockings for her grandbabies to use–quilted cotton with a printed image of teddy bears in bathrobes and slippers, bought sometime during the Reagan administration. From Wal-mart. On sale. Ugh. But how could I complain? I, who am obviously too cheap to pony up for non-teddy bear stockings for my own kids? All that will change this year. With four tacky wool sweaters and an easy-peasy stocking pattern, I sewed up a houseful of awesome, unique, sturdy and sophisticated stockings for the girls to…um, yeah, my mom? She always tells them to just set their stockings by the front door. So Santa can see them as soon as he walks in, you know?

There are so many incredible artists on deviantART and I love to introduce them to you.  This young person made this life-like Needle Felted Green Dragon for their mother and I think they did an amazing job. They tell us just how she made it.  Artist’s Comments: This is a very small needle felted dragon that I made for my mom, who wanted a dragon that could sit on the hand of a Super Dollfie. He also sits great on my fingers! More pictures of this guy to come as I take them. Needle felting, for those unfamiliar with it, is a technique that uses special barbed needles to essentially create a ‘wool sculpture’. It’s the same way they make the felt you buy in stores, except that by only using one needle at a time and adding wool as you go, you can control the shape of the felt. I’m still a beginner, but I’m working at it!

He is made out of natural wools from the Iron Horse Farm, a local fiber farm, and the Flying Ewe, a fiber arts website. He has a wire understructure through most of his body that makes his wings, legs, and tail moderately pose-able–the tail is extra long so that it can curl around the finger it’s sitting on. He’s got glass eyes held in by glue and wires, and his horns are made out of wire covered in epoxies sculpt, topped with acrylic paint and matte varnish. The wing membranes are actually white store-bought felt, which I then added a thin layer of pale green wool to. I thought it would make it stronger that way.

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.

This tutorial for this adorable felted sweater floral earmuff /headband comes from the blog “Maya Made” is a very interesting and fun blog.  All you will need is: a felted turtleneck sweater, a scissor, thread, and a needle.  There is another tutorial and template from “Wise Craft” on making the flowers.  This is such a quick and clever idea that was made out of necessity.  Take a look at the blog and you can read how our designer was forced into making this headband.

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.

These hats would be adorable for young children for Halloween.  Shown are an Owl and a Butterfly hat for a boy and girl.  There are downloadable templates and a video with step-by-step instructions.  Before starting this project, you will need to felt an old 100 percent wool sweater. Simply wash the sweater in a washing machine with plenty of detergent and hot water, and dry in clothes dryer on high heat.  The soap, agitation, and heat will cause the scales of the wool fibers to open up, lock together, and condense. Washing the sweater with something made of heavy cloth, like a pair of jeans, will speed the process. You may need to wash and dry the sweater a few times — every sweater’s different. Test your sweater for felting by snipping the edge — it should not fray. If it does, wash and dry again.

Here is a very diverse felted Oak Leaf tutorial that can be used this fall and into the holidays. Now is the perfect time to collect your leaves to use as patterns for this project. Lisa suggests that you scan the leaf to create your pattern. I know my yard is filled with beautiful leaves for this purpose.  Lisa of 5 Orange Potatoes, suggested that you can find any type of leaf for this project in your own backyard. I know Martha Stewart has and oak leaf templates on her site.  The headband that Lisa has made is just adorable and would be gorgeous to wear on Thanksgiving.   She also sewed one onto a bag and it looks smashing. Enjoy this tutorial and stop by and tell Lisa you found her on craft gossip felting. About Lisa:  I am a stay at home, nature lovin,’ felt lovin,’ vegetarian earth mama! I have two lovely daughters, a hard-working husband and lots of animals- turtles, cats and dogs. We love the outdoors and nature…which inspire us daily. I have a BA from Ohio State University and my Masters of Arts in Teaching from Mary Baldwin College. I have taught elem. ed. and preschool for about 20 years in schools and parks, my focus has always been science and env. ed. I have a great love of herbs and their medicinal qualities have been studying them for a long time and continue to learn all I can about them. I have been asked numerous times how I have raised such nature lovin’ and creative little ladies. This site is dedicated to those questions; this is how I do it!

These are the cutest and warmest looking mittens I have seen.  Easy to make in any color you would like.  “The Purl Bee” tell you all the supplies you will need and offer complete instructions.   They come from Molly’s Sketchbook, a person of many talents.  There are step-by-step pictures to guide you through this project.