Needle felted acorns

Last year I collected lots of acorn cups and never got around to doing anything with them. So this year I decided to make needle felted acorns with them, which I have hung on my Christmas tree and used them in my Christmas displays. I used the same colours as my needle felted roses.

Needle felted acorns
Tools and Materials

• Acorn caps
• Undyed merino wool tops
• Antique pink roving
• Teal merino wool tops
• Pale jade merino wool tops
• PVA glue
• Martha Stewart crystal coarse glitter
• 8cm long strips of 3mm double faced satin ribbon

Equipment

• Small needle felting mat
• Pen-style needle felting tool

Needle felted acorns, How-to step by step

Start by lightly washing your acorn cups in soapy water and leaving to dry. Liberally coat them with PVA glue and immediately sprinkle on glitter and leave to dry. Gather a small ball of roving together and start to needle punch it, turning and twisting it as you punch so you keep it in a small ball.



Roll the felted ball in your hands to get the shape you want and continue needle punching the roving till you have a small, tight, felted acorn shape. Using a hot glue gun, place a small amount of glue on the inside of the acorn cup and push felted ball into the glue. Fold your ribbon strips in half and, using the hot glue gun, add a dab of glue to the top of the acorn cup. Push ends of ribbon strip into glue before it dries.



Now hanging on my tree...

Have a sweet day!

Needle Felting Wonderland

This week on "Wonderful World of Etsy", following on from this week's felt love I bring you some of the cutest needle felted woodland inspired decorations. I am still coveting the felted acorns I have shown here on Torie Jayne for the past few years and I just adore the pink owl!

• Felted acorns - honeysuckle
  
• Needle felted russian doll
• Fairytale toadstool ornaments
• Needle felted owl

Have a sweet day!

Needle felted roses

A few weeks back I showed you my Winter Wonderland craft supplies, including my pretty wool tops for needle felting. Needle felting is a craft that uses special barbed needles, where the barbs on the needles catch the scales on the fibre and push them through the layers of wool, tangling and binding them together to create a felt. It is a great technique for creating 2D and 3D felt shapes.

Today I share with you the needle felted roses I have been making to adorn my Christmas yarn wreath and decorate my Christmas tree with. I made them in various sizes by altering the number of felted hearts I used in the roses. I also made some leaves with green merino tops.

I used a pen-style needle felting tool with a guard on it, which prevents punching the needles too far into the mat. You can find the equipment you will need to make the roses for purchase in my Amazon store.

Needle felt roses
What you will need:

• Undyed merino wool tops
• Antique pink roving
• Teal merino wool tops
• Pale jade merino wool tops
• Moss green merino wool tops
• Paper
• PVA glue
• Pink, aqua, white & Teal glitter

Equipment

• Rose applique mould
• Small needle felting mat
• Pen-style needle felting tool

Glittery needle felt roses, How-to step by step

• Cut the wool tops so they are about 2-3 inches long and pull apart so you have tiny bits of fluff that look like cotton wool
• Place paper and mould on mat, fill mold with fluff
• Start by repeatedly punching needles into wool starting at edges

• Continue needle punching the felt until all loose strands are no longer visible.
• Remove mould and peel felted heart away from paper.
• Place paper and mould back onto the mat and place felted heart upside down in mould
• Needle punch the felt until all loose strands are no longer visible

• Repeat steps 1-8 until you have felted 2 small hearts, 4 medium hearts and 5 large hearts
• Place two small hearts on mat as picture above and push needles into felted hearts until they are felted together
• Fold outside heart in half and push needles into felt until they are felted together

• Fold second heart in half and push needles into felt until they are felted together
• Place inner rose to one side
• Now place four medium hearts on to mat, laid out as above
• Push needles into felt until they are felted together and place to one side

• Now place five of the large felted hearts on to mat, laid out as above
• Push needles into felt until they are felted together
• Place felted medium hearts onto large hearts, push needles into felt until they are felted together
• Place inner rose in centre of felted hearts, push needles into felt until they are felted together

• To make the leaves, use same technique as rose petals
• Place leaf in place and push needles into felt until leaf is secured
• Paint PVA glue to outer edges of petals on rose
• Sprinkle glued areas with glitter, turn rose upside down and tap lightly to remove any excess glitter

Have a sweet day!

Felted cute

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some needle felted treasures with these gorgeous pics. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The sweet mouse in needlefelted Lucy by Ola Smith
  
• The adorable acorns in IMG_31235 by truluxe_truluxe
  
• The cute look in Are you my mommy? by Kit Lane
  
• The pretty Natural white felted flower brooch by Jane Bo
  

Have a great day!