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.

Edie of Edie’s Fashion Factory posted this wool flower how-to on Cut-Out+Keep .  She offers you complete instructions and I think you will be happy with the results.  Edie says: I love finding a use for every last scrap of fabric in my project pile. Here’s a bit of dyed wool leftover from a recon’d sweater creation.
Now it’s a happy little rose on my bowler of choice this season! With all due thanks, I based my flower on June Pfaff Daley’s sweet sweater rosettes tutorial. Be sure to take a peek ‘cause her flowers are truly adorable! Become a fan of Edie’s Fashion Factory on Facebook.

This is the cutest tutorial on how to make and felt a Jellyfishen.  The pattern is free and well as the felting instructions.  Stephen says: This felted jellyfish pattern was inspired by too many SpongeBob episodes and my insatiable need to felt high-end yarns.  The pattern is fun, easy, and fast.  You can make a jellyfish in just a few hours.  It is a great project for that skein of Point 5 that you just bought because it was pretty.
Check out is project and think of a Christmas tree filled with Jellyfishens, what fun.  I am sure you can make them smaller and use any felting yarn.

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)

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.

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.

I was looking for how to create a DIY scarf similar to the “Necklush” and found this tutorial on “NASH ON FASHON”. You could use an XXXL tee in two colors or tie-dye a white to get more volume in your scarf.  Nash grew up in Southern California where she was inspired by the diverse and laid back styles of the West Coast. She was later inspired by her aunt, who works as a fashion designer in New York City. Nash now attends college near San Francisco and works as a sales associate at the fashion-forward company Forever 21, where she puts forth great effort to help people look and feel their best, most fashionable and body conscious selves. She mixes pieces from high and low cost fashion designers (including her own DIY projects) to create her own eclectic looks. Nash asks:

“Ever look at a magazine, a runway, or a website and think “Hey, I can totally make that!” Well, you should! I love to be creative, save money and look fashionable. Plus, what’s a better feeling than answering “Oh, I actually made this” when someone asks where you bought it. So let’s get started on some DIY projects because there’s really no downfall to doing-it-yourself!

I was searching websites online and found this website with a really interesting looking scarf created on Etsy called a ‘necklush’. I figured out how to make this ‘necklush’ and it is really simple. All you need is an old t-shirt and some good scissors”.

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.  

I found this tutorial on FaveCrafts and think this is one of the most adorable and clever projects.    Not only are you saving the planet by recycling the cans, you will be using up all those pieces of scrap felt that we all  save waiting to use them on this or that.   Here is the (this) you can use them on.  My baby is going to have a baby in March and I will be making one of these for her little boy, we just found out the sex.   This tutorial is offered by Heidi Borchers of Inspired at Home.

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?

I have never used Noro yarns or knit these patterns, but this book is filled with wonderful and fun projects for the fashion knitter and I will try one using Noro yarn.   The colors are amazing as are the patterns.  I did read some reviews on this book and most were 4.5 Stars on Amazon.  I really like this book. Any yarn with the same gauge as the featured Noro yarn can be used for these patterns. Most knitters are familiar with Noro yarns by name and by look, even if they’ve never knit with them before. These yarns are known for their vibrant colors, individual dyeing techniques and doing as much of the production process by hand as possible. Fans of Noro love to use these yarns for a variety of projects, and Knitting Noro: The Magic of Knitting with Hand-Dyed Yarns by Jane Ellison (a specialist at working with the yarn) offers Noro lovers new and old a variety of simple clothing designs to try with some of the company’s products.  The beginning of the book reads a bit like an advertisement for Noro yarns, which I guess the whole book really is, if you think about it. “Compare a hank of hand-dyed Noro yarn with a ball of man-made acrylic yarn and the differences between the two are immediately apparent,” Ellison writes in one passage. This book is beautifully done with lovely clear pictures and some trendy patterns.  Some of the wording  here is taken from About.com Knitting, by: Sarah E. White who has a great review for you if you would like to know more about this book.  I received this book form Random House and they mention designer Jane Ellison presents more than 30 patterns to knit with Noro yarns. Designed to let the glorious colors of the long repeat variegated yarns take center stage, the garments are divided into six classic silhouettes with variations for each. From the Pullovers chapter, readers can make a striped sweater with ribbed details or a turtleneck sweater dress; from the Classic Jackets chapter, both a zippered hoodie and a long textured coat can be made.  From tanks to wraps, the patterns are accompanied by beautiful photographs and clear instructions. The figure-flattering shapes of these garments and the vibrant colors of the yarns are sure to make Knitting Noro a book that knitters of all skill levels will come back to again and again.  If any of you have used Noro Yarns please let us know what you think of them.   This is a random drawing book giveaway that will run from November 1, 2009 through November 14th 2009.  Please type “Enter Me” in the comment area and good luck.