First Owl With Button Eyes
Happy New Year! I’m so thankful for more time to do art 🙂
So far the most notably new thing I want to share is this needle felted owl. I make owls regularly, have for a couple years now, but I usually use glass beads for the eyes. This time I gave vintage buttons a try and I like the outcome.
(available in my Etsy shop here.)
I’m definitely setting aside a lot of time this year to try new things. Watch out!
Tried My Hand At It : Felt Cat Bed
It was a challenge but turned out great!
What is it?.. It is a cat (or other small animal) bed made out of wool that is seamless, padded, made of an eco friendly material, easily washed and it’s great for going into or pressing it down and laying on top. I’m daydreaming of making a large one for myself..
How was it made?.. I laid wool fibers on top of a wet XL cloth covered volleyball about 17″ in diameter in many layers – thick – all the way around, then wrapped it in tulle fabric and wrapped it with string to keep the tulle against the wool, then wet felted it by getting it wet and soapy and rubbing it a lot. Once it was sufficiently felted (which takes awhile) I cut a hole, deflated the ball and removed it through the hole. I rinsed it clean, threw it on the counter top a few times to felt it more, stretched it into shape and set it to dry in front of a fan overnight.
I have been felting around my water bottle to make can cozys for some time now so this was not a new concept to me but the size of the ball once covered in my many layers of wool was pretty impressively large and hard to work with since the wool kept wanting to fall off the sides. Here it is with the wool all on there and rubbed while dry a little bit:
When I cut the hole, I cut it smaller than I thought it would need to be since it stretches larger when you continue to felt and rinse it. When I made my very first small one around a basketball I cut the hole a bit big so to avoid that with this one I cut a pretty small hole just big enough to get the ball out. Later on I ended up cutting the hole bigger so that a clearly well fed kitty could fit!
Group Of Owls
I made up a group of owls in time for Christmas. Having so many around at once was a lot of fun. It is hard to choose a favorite!
Rounding Out Another Year
Happy Holiday season! It’s a busy time of year and I love it. There have been many things going on in my little corner of the world, many artsy things and some darn good food things too. I’ve been stocking the freezer with homemade no-bake cookies (dark chocolate + nuts) on a regular basis, roasted a few seasonal squash (even a new one I had not had before), had the crock pot going with batches of beans for many days, and I believe I have mastered the art of stir frying broccoli in many different flavor variations (I love cayenne pepper flakes + powder, spicy hot!) so that I never tire of it and my meat loving companion says the same thing. That’s how I know I really succeeded. Some nights I am busy crafting so I don’t cook as much as I would like but that’s OK.. I have even more fun making things that don’t get gobbled up!
One of the projects that I wiggled in between other must-do projects was something I have been wanting to do for over a year…. A hollow book with a stash spot cut for a whiskey flask:
  
A few months earlier I ordered an 8oz flask and had it sitting in plain view so it was on my mind frequently. I figured the book titled “The Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor” would be appropriate to contain a flask and it is one of my favorite books to cut up. Â I chose to cut the bottom square and round the top so the flask would fit in there snug. AND HOW! Oh man! I did not think about it when I started so when I finished I was extra pleased, the natural angle that happens when cutting the books by hand keeps the flask inside without any other restraints! It pops out with your fingers and it’s easy to put back in too. I must say that I’m very proud of this one and will be looking forward to creating many more!
Besides the flask book I have been doing a few others.. The Goblet of Fire into an eReader case, Neverending Story, Pet Sematary, Dracula, and more..
Needle felting continues as well, here are a few things I’ve made recently.. I love them all :
 
And I started making pins out of single felt flowers!
2012 has been great but I am really gunning for 2013! The peaceful calm of January will be GREAT for starting new projects… and the summer ahead is sure to be one of the best ever.
New Handmade Felt Fashion Scarves
I have been very inspired lately! Here are a few of the beautiful new scarves I have created. Check their availability in the Scarf section of my Etsy shop.
Coffee Lovers Scarf – Silk hand dyed using coffee! Design of wool is of coffee beans and froth. Perfect gift for a java guzzler.
Scarves with adorable owls on them!
Vampire bite!
And now, my favorites!
Eee! I wish I could keep them all, sport them around town to the post office and back home! hehe. More are done but not yet photographed, a beautiful one is on my felting table right now and many more are on my to-do list. My goal is to make about 20 new scarves. I have so many designs in my head, I want to get them out. I know many will be going to people as gifts during the holidays so that is very motivational.. ’tis the season for scarves with a chill in the air!
New Business Cards For 2012/2013
Including a matching thank you card. =)
“What Inspires You?”
I answered a forum discussion on Etsy today with this..
“I find that I am most inspired right after I finish making one thing.. I want to make more, a different way, a different color! or even something completely different. Not being able to do one thing that’s on my mind because of being busy with others is really powerful. Other than that, inspiration comes from “everywhere” and also right out of thin air.. sometimes I’ll be doing something unrelated and all of the sudden I’ll “see” things clear as day that I should make.”
What inspires you?
Decorative Tape // Washi Tape
I am totally loving this stuff and I am one picky, thrifty gal…
Two awesome black and white designs are mine.. check them out:
The zig-zag one is Chinese and the diagonal grey one is Japanese. They are paper tapes that can be torn by hand. I like to cut them with my scissors at different angles/sizes and use them for ALL sorts of things but mainly for packaging up products very nicely or taping notes to my note board. In the future I might try some colored versions — as there are MANY! — but for now I’m very happy with these two designs that go great with every color of tissue paper or note card possible.
You know, I’m not affiliated in any way but this is the company I have ordered from happily : Pretty Tape.
Trick or Treat
Thought these photos of this abandoned “haunted” house that I found out in rural Missouri would be appropriate for the holiday of the day.