toadstool terrarium

so i made these toadstools months and months ago
and they sat on the mantle gathering dust

then i found this great jar in the charity shop

i'd wanted to try needlefelting for awhile
so i popped to the craft shop & bought two colours
of wooly stuff and a basic needle and had a go!

i did manage to wound myself a couple of times
but i think for a first attempt i made good moss!
i broke the needle right at the end so i need a new one
because i think i may have found my new thing!

the end!

"frankie and flora"

"flora"

"frankie"

"a handfull of owls"

my newest pair of owl brooches
they are listed in my shops
i'm not sure how many more i will make now
i get bored if i make too many of the same thing
which is why they are all slightly different!

flora reminds me of one of my favourite books as a child,
it was called "the owl service" and was very weird!

felt toadstool brooch tutorial

i have posted a tutorial for my felt toadstool brooch over on cutoutandkeep.net

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/felt_toadstool_brooch

i love the site as it has so many great projects on it - my robot brooch tutorial was on the front page as the featured project the other day, i was really proud!

i also made this vintage haberdashery hair-clip a few days ago

i think i have a felt addiction ,

yesterday i made a flower brooch and a super cute owl brooch and today i've so far made two felt oranges and have started on a plum! i'm running out of felt so may have to go shopping for some new supplies!

i've had allsorts of ideas for felt brooches and bought some fab new sizzix dies for super fast cutting! I wish i could design my own dies though . . . .

felting

so here is my first attempt at felting just to make things more complicated i thought i'd dye the blanket too!

for some reason i can't get pictures in right order . . . .gggrrrr

anyway i bought an 100% wool blanket from oxfam , then i dyed it @ 60c then again @ 90c to rinse excess dye [and clean machine] .The result is a little patchy but i'm guessing that this is down to:

a/ not enough dye

b/ to big to agitate properly

c/ the dye is not for use on wool!!!

so after all this i did a test cut and felt[ha ha] it needed more abuse as it frayed a little - so i whacked back in the washer @ 90c again.

i think it is now done!!! so what shall i make?

i will be looking at BETZ WHITE'S lovely website

oh yes and i emailed Betz White for advice on dying woolen items for felting and was very pleased [starstruck] to get a reply on the same day :0) [thanks]

and here is the side effect of all this faffing about - there is a mass of candyfloss pink fluff everywhere!!!

i really enjoyed doing this and i'm all for recycling but i used loads of energy and water doing this.

easter swap

gerry got her easter swap so now i can blog it !
i'm really pleased with it and happily so was she !
it took me ages to get myself motivated but i will definately be signing up for more swaps as it was great to have a deadline and a vague theme to aim for.