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.

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.

Martha’s Stewart does it again.  These pumpkins are amazing and easy to make.  Assembled from yarn, rope, and foam balls, these homespun pumpkin decorations are simple to make. For each, gently press top and bottom of a Styrofoam ball against a work surface to flatten ends (so ball doesn’t roll). Wrap orange roving around ball. Insert a T pin into top. Tie cream or orange mohair yarn to pin and cover ball. Cut a length of rope; place over pin, and attach with a hot-glue gun, pressing to secure.

These are the cutest pumpkin pencil toppers for you and your children to make for a Halloween treat for school or to hand out as treats.  This project is simple and adorable from Roots & Wings Co.  There is a printable pattern and complete pictorial instructions to make this a easy and fun project.

I was so excited when I opened my latest issue of Martha Stewart Living and as I thumbed through the pages I came across a wonderful 6 page spread on new and fabulous felting ideas.   The September issue is on sale at your newsstand now, so don’t miss out on this issue.  Introduction to the article: Wool may be soft to the touch, but look at it under a microscope and you will see a tangle of rough fibers and you’ll see a tangle of a rough fiber covered in tiny overlapping scales.  A little coaxing makes the scales catch on one another and locked together with a craft called needle felting, you can take advantage of that quality decorating wool pillows, scarves, blankets, and other items with wool accents and no sewing or gluing is necessary. Just take a simple tool called a felting needle and moved it up and down through two layers of wool. Then watch as they fuse. Start with any woven wool as your base fabric and for embellishments use the fiber and in another of its forms yarn, felt cutouts or loose wool known as roving. The result is a stylish one-of-a-kind accessory to cozy up to this fall.

This pattern is just too adorable to pass up.  The folks at American Felt and Craft have several different felted food projects and tell you just where to buy the supplies you will need.  This tutorial has great templates and wonderful pictures for you to follow from start to completion.  This looks like such a fun project, so take a look at their tutorial and other projects.   These veggies would make the greatest play food for your children; I know I would have loved this type of thing when I was a child.

No matter what your fiber of choice, you will stockpile inspiration from Karen Bartolomei’s “Paperie for Inspired Living”.  First off this book is a beautiful hard covered addition for your library and brilliantly illustrated.  Each page holds divine designs from stunning invitations, awesome decorations, gift tags, place holders and so many ideas even for the budget conscious crafter.  If you have never created a card this book will force you to make one or several and you will never want to buy a card or invitation again.  Karen shows us how to customize and coordinate fabulous paper products for any occasion from the most elegant event to your most casual outdoor picnic.     Each chapter contains several projects, from the all important invitation to smaller touches like labels, tags, and keepsakes. How unforgettable your personal stationary be when Karen demonstrates step-by-step how to make a monogrammed, Thank-You cards, Mailing Labels, Business Cards, Letterhead, and Note Cards. The chapter on New Year’s Eve projects includes Invitations, Menus, Resolution Sign-in/Postcards and Drink Signs.

Karen also offers us vital advice for invitation wording and etiquette, and provides tips for throwing unforgettable parties, like choosing a color scheme and ideas for breaking the ice.  She has also thoughtfully included several useful templates and source ideas as to where we can purchase your materials for these paper fiber creations.  I am sure you all have some of the materials needed for many of her projects in your craft areas.  Have this book on hand as the summer fades and fall explodes into radiant colors signifying holiday parties are close at hand and the gifts and cards desired that will bring you back to this book over and over for ideas.  Maybe you saw something in the book and stored it in your mind for a special occasion and you know just where to find it and put your own spin on Karen’s idea.

Are you getting married in the near future and need invitation and planning ideas?  Well, you do not have to spend a fortune using ideas from Karen’s book.  “Paperie for Inspired Living” can be pre-ordered today at Amazon.com or nay of the favorite book stores.  The release date is July 7th 2009 so put your order in today. 

Karen Bartolomei’s 

Here is a lovely video by Karen Bartolomei of Grapevine grapevinepaperie.com, she designs elegant and expensive wedding invitations. This video will offer a little about Karen and above is also the link to her site.  Now you can reproduce some of her stunning ideas by using this book.

For this giveaway, in the comment area, tell what event you are planning and why this book would be a money saver for you.  This giveaway will begin July 1, 2009 through July 12, 2009.  Good luck!

Did you ever look at a project and think “Oh no, I have to get out the sewing machine!” and you skip the project.  Well, Jeanette of Lit’l Brown Bird understands this dilemma.  “Not everyone owns a sewing machine or even though they do and are fairly familiar with using it but when it comes to sewing with felt, they still prefer to ‘hands-on’ like me.  Understand the types of stitches and their uses here for sewing pieces of felt fabrics together,” explains Jeanette.  I love her Chinese Takeout Box Tutorial it is so charming and she offers a complete tutorial so you can create this fun projects.  She has many other felting tutorials for you to try, so check out her blog. Thanks Jeanette!

 

I was looking around the internet for some cute ideas for summer felting you can do with the children.  These adorable crafts will be fun for the entire family and make neat gifts.  Let’s all make something with our kids this summer and keep handcrafting alive for the new generation.  Gather up all your felt and old wool sweaters and have them ready for that rainy day.  Your kids will love creating something to use or wear.  The Onies idea can also be done on a child’s tee.  All the patterns for these crafts can be downloaded from the site.

Felted Fish for Kitty

Precious Pincushion

Simple Tote

Retro Owl Artwork 

Whale Onesie 

Letter Ornaments 

Custom  Photo Album 

Birdy  PillowSimple 

Flower Brooch 

Simple Pouch