This is an easy to understand video tutorial if you are just getting into felting.  I found it on Zazu Ta’s site who tells us:  I have recently fallen head over heels in love with felt. Everything felt.  Especially, felt flowers. I was browsing through You Tube and came across some really easy to follow, creative tutorials. Thought I’d share them with you. Please note, the tutorials are NOT mine, I have posted them here from You Tube. The first tutorial is really easy , and perfect if you’ve just taken a fancy to the craft as I have. Also, using recycled sweaters… very cool!! This tutorial was made by Craftside.”

After running across planet fur I knew it was a place I wanted to share with you. There is a wall bunny that I have my eye on in their shop. What an imagination this felting artist has. She has so many beautiful and innovative designs it is hard to say which piece of art is my favorite. How adorable is her fun dimensional wall art for any child’s room. As I said, I am in love with the wall bunny and would love to buy it for my new grandson’s room but my daughter has to give the okay. She is very picky about all decorations that go into the little guy’s room. By the way, he is not yet two weeks old and I get to see him today on this day where we will all be wearing the green. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone, whether you’re Irish or not. Take a trip over to planet fur and check out all their beautiful items ready for you to buy for yourself or as a gift.  Check out her Two deer – wedding cake topper (Pictured) She does custom orders.

Once you watch this video and hear the price the artist Jenn Docherty  charges for her adorable creations you will want to try one yourself.  Do pick up her book http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Needle-Felts-Projects-Wear/dp/1600610390I want to make the bunny or the chick.  “Sweet Needle Felts features all the techniques and information you need to begin needle felting. Crisp photographs cover the basics of needle felting in addition to the clear step-by-step instructions for over 25 whimsical projects. Included are wearable items such as hats, scarves and jewelry along with home décor, dolls and toys like the quick-to-make Woolly Critter T. Jenn also teaches you how to create her signature bear complete with movable joints – a technique that can be applied to other various felted animals. Her use of striking, colorful wool gives each project a bright and cheery look that is guaranteed to inspire gifts for dear friends or special treats for yourself.”

I received a link suggestion and there were two different URLs and think both are worth our attention. The first one is for a lovely wool flower boa scarf pattern courtesy of Marcus Brothers a wonderful fabric supplier. The other is dolly donations, sending love one dolly the time. Sarah of dolly donations it is a mother of a beautiful daughter and the wife to a brave fireman, and she is an artist (Sarah L Hanson) who has a passion for sewing. Her mission is to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate, especially orphaned children around the world and to provide them with a source of comfort by sending them love, one dolly at a time!  Each project page has complete instructions for the scarf and the adorable dolls. What a lovely gesture on the part of Sarah to encourage us comfort children around the world. Each doll pictured on this site has its own precious expressions. You can even make up little accessories to go along with each doll.  This posting is a offering you two wonderful patterns for your crafting enjoyment and at the same time an opportunity to spread your love around the world. The beautiful scarf can be made in different wool colors and lengths to fit your needs. What a spectacular addition for all your spring fashions. 

Decorating with this adorable banner is sure to bring the luck of the Irish to your home this St. Patrick’s Day! They have provided the complete instructions and template so you can easily create this banner yourself.  Also try the adorable Lucky Shamrock Charm both are posted on Holiday Craft Creations.  Each project has templates and complete tutorials.  Check out their other project tutorials, really a great blog.

JACQUI IS THE OPERATOR OF A BLOG CALLED HAZELNUT. She is an archaeologist living in Auckland New Zealand. Since she has received her PhD she is trying to finish up many crafting projects and create new ones.  Her bunny is adorable and there is a complete downloadable PDF file for you to print out with a pictorial tutorial and the pattern for cutting out the bunny parts. As pictured above you can make an entire family of bunnies and all types of colors and decorate them any way you choose. Be sure to stop over to visit hazelnut and see all her projects and musings.

Kim of The Inadvertent Farmer blog created this amazing bag out of a felted wool alpaca sweater. I love the decoration of her creative roses on this bag. She offers you a step-by-step pictorial tutorial on how to re-create this beautiful and useful bag. So save those old sweaters and make yourself a stunning bag like Kim’s.  She also has a shop on ETSY called sweetgrace, where she sells her designer clothing for children (now empty) but I hope she fills if soon because what she did sell were adorable young girls clothing. Check out Kim’s blog is filled with fun and unusual projects and just plain good living.

Her name is Kim, and she lives on a small 10 acre farm in Washington State (Gardening zone 8). She raises organic produce, animals, and kids, she has 5, 4 boys and 1 girl. She seems to specialize in attracting unwanted, abandoned, lost, and unusual animals.  The humane society has her on speed dial! They have a camel, 4 llamas, a pygmy goat, sheep, chickens, geese, and an occasional turkey now and then  She has a design business making custom clothing for little ones called Sweet Grace Designs (sweetgrace on etsy) that supports her fabric habit and keeps her only daughter in clothing as colorful and one of a kind as she is!  She gardens; home schools, farms, sews, designs, photographs, mothers, prays, and votes.

What I like most about this flower from Whipup.net,  is that you cam use any colors you want to create a pretty bouquet to decorate a jacket or a hat or anything that suits your fancy. Think of this flower in gorgeous shades of green for St. Patrick’s Day. This is something you could do with the children if they are old enough to handle a scissor. Don’t worry about what shape they cut it will be their own unique design and you can explain to them that they are saving the planet.

What makes this flower so grand? It’s simple to make and crafted from sustainable products: eco-fi felt made of recycled plastic bottle and sweet vintage buttons. In no time at all, you’ll have a new felt posy for your wardrobe by following this simple tutorial. In fact, you’ll just have to be patient enough to allow the glue to dry between steps.

What remarkable felt designer.  Raewyn Penrose is a New Zealand based felt-maker. She operate a gallery and teach extensively both in NZ and overseas, particularly Australia. They have launched small group tours to New Zealand, specifically aimed at felt-makers – group size no more than 5, 5 days of high quality workshops plus a variety of interesting travel in their beautiful country. Their $NZ is quite weak vs. overseas currencies, therefore very good value. There is a slideshow of some of Raewyn work on her web-site.

Raewyn operate a gallery/studio in Te Aroha, New Zealand, 90 minutes drive SE of Auckland, our largest city.  CreativeVacatioNZ introduces an exciting new small group tour option for those who share a passion for fibre arts. Our standard 12 day tour offers 5 fun days of their creative felt-making workshops supplemented with a variety of personally escorted excursions to some very special areas of their beautiful country. As a destination, New Zealand will not disappoint!  Check out Raewyn tour dates for 2010 at CreativeVacatioNZ.  There also a blog filled with the most stunning felting called Felt-makers’ Convergence 2009.

Salina of Moonflower creations is giving away the most adorable nest-like felted bowl and 3 felted eggs.  I did not see what the ending date of the giveaway was but she will be announcing the winner on February 28th at about 10:00 pm Pacific Standard Time and she will accept entries up until 9 PM. If you want to join in her giveaway go over to moonflower creations and read the rules for the giveaway. Be sure to check out her ETSY shop and see all the lovely items she has for you to purchase.

Amanda is an artist from the great northwest with an extraordinary knack for the art of felting. She has done a series of mushrooms that are amazing. Her last posting on her blog is gilled mushroom that is mounted on a beautiful natural branch. She is an experimenter in felting and is producing some outstanding work. Do visit Amanda’s blog and look around her ETSY shop and visually get a taste of her extraordinary talent. The shop is called “Amandafiebing” I think you will enjoy looking around her shop.

I am very pleased to announce that Feltplanet has offered my reader’s 2-10 piece bags of their amazing 5 mm thick wool felt Shamrocks to 2 lucky winners. I ordered a bag of Shamrocks yesterday along with samples of this luxurious wool felt made in Germany. Their shop is filled with the most stunning felted items created from all different grade of wool felt. I am particularly fond of the gorgeous bowls.  They also offer these bowls still with beautiful felted gift tags or   they are amazingly absorbent beautiful coasters. What a remarkable house warming, shower gift or wedding gift these packages would make. If you would like to enter this giveaway go to Feltplanet’s ETSY shop and select the item you love and come back here and leave your remarks about the item you selected in the comment box. Due to the fact that St. Patrick’s Day is nearly upon us I will run this contest for 10 days beginning today, so the felt planet will have time to ship your prize to you.  This giveaway will run from today February 17 through February 28th. Good luck to everyone and I know you’re going to be impressed with feltplanet’s amazing products. This contest is for everyone not just the US so all you internationals join in this amazing giveaway.

This is Lolly’s very first video tutorial and she did a marvelous job. In this tutorial she shows you how to create adorable little flowers to decorate a picture frame. She uses felt and craft paper and other types of paper. Her blog is called LollyChops and this is one of the most interesting blogs I’ve seen in a long time. She makes the most adorable items and she also has downloadable PDF designs for you to use. There is a whole family of Chops when you read about her and it is very sweet the way she describes her family. One of the things that I thought was really neat is that she offers beautiful recipe cards in a PDF format with the recipe and pictures on them for you to download and try some of her goodies. My mouth watered when I saw her carrot cookies and homemade strawberry yogurt. you will what to watch her  informative video and you will also want to check out her entire blog, so take a trip over to  LollyChops and find out what she’s up to. Enjoy!

When I found these knitted and sometimes felted darlings I fell in love. This new Hugs + Squoze pattern is been making its way around the internet to the delight of many knitters.  Anna sells pattern but also has several free darling patterns for you to download. 

Mochimochi Land was launched in early 2007 as a place where knitted toys and people can live together in a spirit of tolerance. The toys that inhabit Mochimochi Land are at once cute and strange, and they appeal to adults and children alike. They are all original designs by Anna Hrachovec, a knitter who lives in New York. Anna finds inspiration in Japanese kawaii culture and illustrators like Dr. Seuss. Anna’s toys have been featured on The Martha Stewart Show, around the web, and in print. Her original knitted creations have appeared in galleries in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tokyo.

If you are looking for a stunning accessory to update your wardrobe look no further. This shop carries a heavenly array of beautiful felted florals for your clothing and hair.  This is a gorgeous shop to visit and select the perfect item for yourself or a gift. When I look at these creations I think of a beautiful wedding or special occasion. But how amazing would you look if you wore one of these delicious flowers on a blazer to your place of business or on a T-shirt with your favorite jeans. Lily and Susanna operate an ETSY shop called “Crafts2Cherish”.  They are twins and they like the freedom of felt in its shapes and colors .Creating and designing is their passion! Most of the items in their shop are made by using the old tradition of wet-felting.  Due to the wool’s fresh, natural and a live character, the finished products are soft and flexible. The entire collection is created using the highest quality of materials. They are paying loving attention to detail, striving for original and subtle color combinations so the work becomes original and timeless.