I think this third part of the “Felt Like It” Series can be summed up by saying, “I like color!” This is a wreath I made for myself, using lots of bright candy colors. Sometimes more is more.
A wreath for all seasons…
Felt Like It, Part 2
I’ve made a lot of felt flowers, as is documented by these two wreaths. This is the second part in a multi-part series about my adventures in felt land. This picture looks like such a bounty of flowers.
These wreaths ended up being Christmas gifts for my sister-in-law and my mother. Making them wasn’t very difficult, just time consuming. They are made just as you might imagine, by wrapping yarn around a wreath form and then gluing flowers to them. I cut each flower by hand and used glue only to apply them to the wreath. They are all hand-stitched with matching thread. (I had a lot of downtime around the holidays last year.)
I took two slightly different approaches to these wreaths. With the pink one, I went with the “more is more” idea. The base of the pink wreath is a straw wreath form. There is a lot of yarn wrapped around that. And there are a lot of flowers. The other wreath is a more minimal grouping of flowers, restricted to an all-red color scheme.
I used a foam form for the red one. This resulted in a much lighter weight wreath and a more uniform look to the exposed yarn areas.
Felt and yarntastic!
Felt Like It, Part 1
I can’t believe 2013 is almost over. This year has gone by so fast. It was almost a full year ago that I went a little crazy over felt. Yes, the fabric. The result is a multi-part series about my crafty diversion.
It all started with an image search for a Christmas wreath which resulted in a mild fixation on a wreath that wasn’t seasonal at all. But I’ll get to that later.
I focused my felt crafts on Christmas presents. I made two floral sashes for my niece. They can be tied around her head or her waist. (I like it when she has a bow on her head, but I don’t think she agrees.) The first one I made, I embraced some of the most vibrant colors I had found.
I used three different techniques for the flowers: a yellow mum, a blue rosette and a fucsia…um…foldy flower. There are tons of tutorials for felt flowers. I found most of mine from Pinterest. This is a good collection.
First I made the flowers, then I stitched them to a piece of felt. I sandwiched the white ribbon in the middle, stitching it to the top layer. You can see the blanket stitch I ran around the edges. I do love a blanket stitch! But we’ll get to that later, too! Oh boy, I’m really building the suspense for future posts, aren’t I?
I had so much fun making the first headband, that I wanted to make a more elaborate and softer toned version. I had fun experimenting with color combinations and flower types. At some point in my life, I hope to have a second (third?) career as a florist, but felt flowers have their advantages.
This piece was quite a bit larger, but structured in the same way. I packed so many flowers on there, the band started curving on it’s own, as you can see from this overhead view.
There you have it. Felt flowers on a ribbon.
Put a bird in it
Before I started my career in graphic design, I spent almost two decades cultivating a love for hands-on crafts. Yes, I’m counting all those macaroni and construction paper projects of my childhood. And doing craft projects makes me feel like a kid again.
I picked up a bare wood birdhouse from a craft store. I thought the shape of it was really cute, and any fan of Portlandia knows that things are better with a bird on it. Following this logic, I figured birdhouses must not be far behind. (Full disclosure: This is the only thing I know about Portlandia.)
Flowers, hearts and stars, oh my! Originally I had planned on covering the entire thing in line drawings and patterns, but I liked how this looked. It sat in this state for a while before I decided it was, in fact, done. Sometimes more is more, but I think this is a case of less is more.
A little birdie
When you spend 40 hours a week at a computer, you long for some hands on activities, and sometimes a good old fashioned craft project is just what the doctor ordered.
Last year I found two unpainted wooden toys at the store and decided to turn them into Christmas ornaments for my two nephews. I knew at 2 and 4 years old they wouldn’t appreciate them yet, but one day they would. I felt like one of Santa’s elves as I sanded out all the rough spots on a wooden train and a wooden propeller plane, and then lovingly painted each one and put their initials on them.
About a month ago my niece was born. What do you get for a month old baby who already has everything? It was perfect timing to make another ornament and continue the tradition. There are three of them now, that makes it a tradition, right?
I found a cute little wooden bird cutout with a wing detail at the craft store. It came pre-printed with some details on it, coloring book style, but after I primed it with gesso, they were all covered up. I winged it, no pun intended. (Okay, it was intended.) Each side is slightly different, with a lot of dots. I busted out some toothpicks for those. Doesn’t get much more arts and craftsy than that.
Just a simple and sweet little project.