Needle felted pin cushion

After needle felting my abstract picture I kept loosing/misplacing my felting needles.  I do have a nice little case for them, but often it's effort to locate and open it!  I realised I needed a pin cushion and decided I wanted to needle felt one.  I browsed the internet for inspiration, there were several pin cushions that were animal's but to be honest I would struggle to stick a pins in a cute animal, I even have trouble needle felting them, especially the eyes! hahaha.  The following pin cushions gave me inspiration for my eventual piece.

I loved all the above idea's.  I liked the idea of a pin cushion in something like a cup or pot.  Unfortunately I did not have any pretty cups left as I had made candles in all of them for Christmas presents, so I found a small terracotta plant pot.  I liked the idea of a little scene like the ones with the rabbits etc, so this was the result:-

A little dinky scene with a little cottage with flowers, trees and a river at the back.  I love it, and had lots of fun making it :)

Needle felting on polystyrene/styrofoam

 I was searching online for inspiration for making more needle felt Christmas ornaments when I came across a tutorial for making these baubles.  They are covered styrofoam balls.  I was unaware that you could needle felt into this medium!  The tutorial for these baubles can be found here it is a lovely site with many ideas.

I had no sytrofoam ball's to hand, so found a piece of polystyrene that had come in the form of packaging and had a go at needle felting it.  As I was just having a practice to see how the two medium's worked together I did an abstract pattern.  In all honesty I was just doodling with wool! This was the result.

Crafting companions.

When ever I am crafting I always have loyal companions.  The older dogs are usually happy with just a look and sniff at what I am doing.  The cat and the younger dog however are a different matter.

Often as I craft I feel a tug on my wool and turn to find the cat hanging onto the end of it.  Or I will go to reach for a certain colour of roving to find my deaf staffy cross having a go at wet felting it all on her own.

Needle felted Christmas ornaments

After mastering my new found interest of needle felting during the summer, I dragged the wool and needles out to make some needle felted Christmas decorations.  I used cookie cutters to get the shape, and just needle felted in them.

A needle felted robin and needle felted Father Christmas soon followed.

Crazy about needle felting.

I discovered needle felting this summer. I absolutely love it so relaxing.  I really wanted a needle felt penguin first.  There are many good needle felting tutorials out there on youtube.  I just did a search for needle felt penguin and got some ideas.  I bought my needles and first lot of wool off ebay.  You need wool tops or roving for needle felting, however my penguins beak is made from scrunched up wool yarn as I did not have that colour.  I am well pleased with him for my first attempt and he is really cute.

For my second attempt I decided to keep it simple shape wise, but with a bit more detail and blended wool.  Therefore I made this needle felt owl.  I didn't have to look up ideas for a needle felt owl as once I get the idea of something I am off.  This is a lovely little fellow and they feel so good in your hand being made out of pure wool.

Piddling crocheted frog toilet roll holder

To wee or not to wee, that is the question?!

We have a static caravan in Shropshire and in it I allow all things 'twee' that I would not normally have at home.  It's our place to relax and have a bit of fun.  In the bathroom we have a frog theme going on, so I decided to make something to go in there and this 'weeing' frog is the result.  Much to my 13 year old foster childs dismay!

Character painted hessian bag

I have just laughed whole heartedly at my last post.  Dated January 2012 making promises to do more blogs!  Fostering does take up a lot of your time!!  I will not promise in this blog to make any more, we will just see how things go.

I have not done as much crafting as I would like, but I have made some things, so I will show you some of the items I made this year.

I painted this hessian bag for my Sister In Law Shelley for her 40th birthday.

Rediscovered

I have rediscovered this blog and will hopefully be show casing some new items soon. My lovely mum bought me a sewing machine for Christmas, I have never used one before so I will be learning how to do that. Since I was last on here I have learnt how to knit. I have also learned an immense amount of patience as my husband and I have started fostering, hence no blogging for a long time as I just had too many other things to do!

Molly Weasley crochet sleeves

These are the only other crochet sleeves I have seen. Maybe this would be a good outfit for me to try to make for any fancy dress parties :)

Crochet inspiration

I saw this dress today, it is a vintage designer dress but couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sleeves. I am wondering whether I could do something like this with a sleeveless jumper.

Panda hats

I didn't blog before Christmas as a lot of my spare time was spent making presents for people and I could not show these on here before Christmas in case they saw them!

These are some of the things I made. These hats are very popular with the girls at the moment young and old.

The top one is Kirstie's that I crocheted from scratch the second on is Kelly's. It was actually a plain white hat bought for her for Christmas and I turned it into a Panda. Vintage buttons just finish them off. The great thing about making these is that no two will ever be the same.

Constant companion must be included too!

Whilst I am decorating my dolls house it has been placed on the table in the kitchen. Obviously this is too new and wonderous a thing for my constant companion Holly to resist.

I wanted to re-create a freize effect in the dolls house bedroom, so I started to have a look at what I had in the house. I had some wallpaper that I had bought for the dolls house, but had discarded as I thought the pattern was too large. After having another look at it, I decided that I could use it as a freize if I cut the design out.

I cut some pink card to fit above the wallpaper already on the wall, and then stuck the cut out motif's onto it, and this is the result.

I then pasted the card onto the wall. When the cornice and the picture rail goes up, I think it will give the desired effect.

Inspirations for dolls house decoration

Dolls house bedroom

I decided to concentrate on one room at a time in the dolls house. I am doing a bedroom for the lady of the house, in feminine pinks and greens. I want to be fairly true to the Victorian era, but I am not going to be too fussy about it. As long as it looks Victorianish I am happy. I don't think I would enjoy it as much if I was trying to be too strict with it. A bit of artistic licence is fine, as at the end of the day it is a dolls house not a scaled building!

The wall paper I used for this room is small pink flowers on a green background. This is actual wallpaper and not a specialist doll house scale wallpaper. Therefore it is thicker and easier to put into place. I am using a tub of border adhesive to paste it on.

Once the base paper was up, I turned my mind to the freize that would be up above the picture rail. I searched for some idea's and here are some of the ones that I found.

Head band

I noticed that these headbands were all in at the moment and had my usual 'Oh I can make one of them moments'. This is the result. I put a button on the headband so that Kirstie can change the flowers according to what colour she is wearing.

Crocheted beret

I am getting a lot quicker at knocking up these berets, I can complete one in a leisurely evening. This one I made for my daughter, it has stretched slightly so I have taken it back off her to tighten it up for her.

Dolls House refurbishment cont... 2

I have papered two of the rooms. The nursery and the females bedroom.

Dolls House refurbishment cont...

I have sized some of the rooms inside the house, prior to wall papering. I am still not quite sure which rooms I am doing. I think we are having kitchen and scullery on the bottom. Drawing room and dining room on the next floor. Mother and fathers bedrooms on the floor above and then nursery and maids room on the top floor. This may change as I work lol.

I did manage to find this house on the internet and I can buy a basement to go with it, so I may wait to do the kitchen, we will have to wait and see.

Dolls House refurbishment

Well I have finally got round to asking my husband to put my dolls house onto the table so I can start decorating it after three years!

I bought this dolls house from a flea market years ago, part finished and part furnished.

It is a large house, and although it is a Georgian style house, I am planning to decorate it in Victorian style then I can cram it full of little items :)

There is some damage that needs repairing. One of the pillars outside the front door has been knocked off and unfortunately one of the windows has been broken. Also some of the stairway has been broken and will need replacing. Other than that, the house is in fairly good nick, just needs decorating.