This was inspired by the fact that kids grow out of clothes so fast, and while I was going to make a shirt or dress with a heart applique, instead I decided to make this pin (and a few others) so they could be used for a longer time. This looks adorable pinned on a dress or jacket, and would even work pinned to a hair elastic for a cute hair accessory.

You just need:

• felt – old felted sweaters work well for this, or even store bought felt. (Thicker felt will be less ‘floppy’, so use that for the bottom piece, if you can.
• A pretty button
• embroidery thread/needle
• safety pin

Older kids can make these themselves, too!

Here are the instructions and a step by step photo tutorial!

These are fun and easy, and offer a ton of possibilities.. Check out these that Joanne at Ready, Set, Craft made last year

And here’s another version I made, a flower:

In addition to the traditional felting techniques that everybody uses (needle & wet-felting, dying my own wool, accenting with tufts of colored wool)  I also use an Airbrush to add shadows & gradients to my pieces.  I’ve found this to be a super easy & fast way to give my felting that little somethin’-somethin’!!

Airbrushing some Chocolate Frosting!!!

Here are all the supplies you need to help paint & shade your Felted Sculptures!!

*Airbrush, Compressor, & bottles
*Watered down Acrylic Paint
*Yummy Felted Cupcakes!!

This is what the cupcakes look like BEFORE any paint has been sprayed. Just plain, white frosting all ready to be transformed into Chocolate!!

I didn’t want to get any over-spray of the brown onto the “cake”, so I put a little paper & masking tape to cover that part. First layer of color is a warm yellow!!

I like to paint in light layers of many different colors. I think this gives the colors more depth instead of just blasting a color onto the wool. Also if you get too much acrylic paint onto the wool, it tends to bleed & get a little crunchy.

Slowly getting darker & darker!! Going from the yellow base to a warm brown.

Starting to look like chocolate with the darker brown!! This could pass as a Milk Chocolate, but I want a darker frosting.

Working with the darkest (almost black) brown to add some dark shadows within the “twirl”.

Yummy Yummy!!! Looking Delicious!! Love the dark shading in the creases!!

Almost done just need….

Cherries On Top!!! Yea! All done!

Thank You Dabble.org for letting me share!!  I hope this tutorial has inspired you to take another look at your chosen medium & maybe think outside the box!  Never feel confined by the “traditional” way of doing things!!

If you are interested in learning more about felting, or seeing some fun Tutorials on the felting process, Please visit my Blog:

FeltedChicken Blog

Very cool, huh? I love the combination of airbrush and needle felting…

Check out her other cool felt work at her shop… I love the felt sushi!

1. Felted Sweaters, cut into fun shapes – I’m lucky enough to have borrowed a die cut machine (thanks, SomeArtMama!), but you can just cut them out with scissors. Trace around cookie cutters or look for shapes on the web to make a paper template (search google images for things like heart template and flower template).
2. Supplies: Embroidery floss, a button, 3 felt shapes in graduated sizes, safety pin(make sure you needle will fit through the holes in your button!). Felt shapes: for the 2 I did, this one was heart, then flower, topped with circle. The other was flower, star, topped with circle– be creative!
3. Use wire pliers to sprong out your safety pin – You’ll want to separate the loop at the end so you can slide your fabric around it.
4. Stick it in, centered where you want the pin to go, (look at the back – all the silver showing should be able to be covered by your next layer).
5. Slide it through until its on the other side, you’ll have to bunch up the felt and twist it to get it around your loop.
6. Close pin, If you’re giving this to a small child, you may want to dull the point of your safety pin so they won’t prick themselves as easily.
7. Stack your design, (well, you probably did this earlier!)
8. Ready to assemble, Start with the side without the safety pin closure.
9. Place first flower,
10. Sew it on, starting in the center of the flower so your knot will be covered by the next layer. Make as small stitches as possible on the back side. For extra security , you can stitch around the saftely pin so it’s held by the thread as well.
11. Sew on top layer and button, You’re just sewing these to the middle layer, so you don’t have to go all the way through to the back (hides most of the stitching)
12. Note you’re hiding most of the stiching in the middle.,
13. Tie off thread, hidden in the middle,
14. Completed Front,
15. Completed back,
16. Looking adorable! I gave this as a gift for a three year old, attached to the cute heart pink shirt.

Update:

A second version

I love to make homemade gifts, and I had some fabulous die-cut felted sweaters that the lovely Colleen had graciously allowed me to cut up on her die cut machine a few weeks ago. So I did a cute appliqued elephant onesie for the baby-to-be’s shower, and for the 2 little girl birthday parties I made pins.

I’ll have a tutorial on making the pins up later this week!!

I absolutely love to use felt to make crafts. Not only is it easy to cut and sew, but is super cheap! One 11 x 9 sheet of acrylic felt, which can be bought at your local craft store, costs around 20 cents a sheet.

My favorite item to craft out of felt is play food, especially sweets. I have done plenty of felt sweets over the past several years, so I thought I would share with you a super simple and fun felt cookie tutorial.

Felt M & M Cookie

Materials:
Acrylic felt – tan for cookie; felt scraps in brown, yellow, red, green, and orange for M&Ms
Embroidery thread in matching colors
Needle
Polyfil or stuffing
Scissors
Starbucks medium cup or a small mug
Lipstick tube

Directions:

1. Place your Starbucks cup or mug onto the tan felt. Trace around the cup to make a cookie circle (trace two) and cut out circles. If you are planning on making several cookies, it might be best to use tracing paper instead of tracing directly onto the felt. You can reuse the tracing paper shape for all of your cookies.

2. Place the closed lipstick tube onto the colored felt. Trace around the tube for M&M circles (trace five, one of each color). Don’t cut the circles!

3. With white embroidery thread, embroider an “m” onto each circle. Cut out M&M circles.

4. Sew M&M circles onto one tan cookie circle using matching embroidery thread. I used a whip stitch to attach the M&Ms but you can also use a running stitch or a blanket stitch.

5. Sew the two tan cookie circles together, stuffing with polyfil as you go.

6. All done!

You can personalize the cookies however you’d like by adding your child’s name to the M&Ms, omitting the “m” on the M&Ms, making the cookies different flavors, or cutting off a corner for a half eaten cookie.

Thanks, Dot for letting me share with the Dabbled readers this simple and “sweet” tutorial.

Don’t miss the other yummy and fun Guest Posts from this past week!