Tips, Tutorials & Projects

Create a Needle Felted Gnome Home

May 19, 2013 By livingfelt 2 Comments

By Joyce Hazlerig

www.gypsyharte.etsy.com

Materials

Approx 1 oz of core wool

.30g –.50g of various greens or earth tone wool

Locks, yarn, and sparkle fibers

Felting needles Tri 38 or Tri 40 Mulitools help a lot

First bunch or roll your core fiber into a ball or oval and needle all over. The denser you roll your core the less jabbing you have to do with the felting needles. You want to needle it until it resembles a conch shell. Multitool time! Make its go faster.

Now shaping the hillside as you wish. Mostly round, with a flat face on one side and needle the bottom flat. Make a front yard area by folding a section of core batt.

Needle it form underneath to attach, now it looks like a melted scoop of ice cream.

Now that we have a hillside its time to landscape it!

Gather all your green wools and layer them in thin sections, you can card them together if you like or simply layer by hand, either way works. I like to do different colors or textures of wools giving the hillside a mossy look, use a little firestar to add a dewy magical sparkle. This is only a thin layer it doesn’t take much wool. Neelde with a single or double 40 or 38 until all the core is covered. You don’t have to do the bottom, less you want to. I like to make my underneath earthy brown, like dirt. An alternate hillside, make one face very flat and fill in with earthtone wool for a cut away gnome home.

Detail time. Use a single felting needle and gather some mohair locks and fold in half about three short locks and needle at the fold into a section of the hillside. You can even “plant” the lock bush by adding a little green wool into the middle for security.

Add yarn foliage the same way. Next make a window!

Just a little wisp of yellow or white wool. Needled into the hill, do it firmly so that it is recessed. Then add a cross pane and frame.

Add a Door with a bit of brown wool or any color you want your door. I framed the door with another darker brown. And then added lines and a knob. Here’s a red round door on a different Gnomehome.

Add details! Novelty eyelash yarn needle felts into grass and paths.

Mushrooms and toadstools provide a chimneystack for your gnome. Just felt a stem from brown or white wool and felt a cone shape and attach together. An easy mushroom is to felt a dense ball and then cut it in half to form two mushroom caps. Outline paths and add stones or little lakes. The possibilities are endless! Now you have your own secret world!

Wet Felting Easter Eggs | Free Felting Pattern & Tutorial

March 15, 2013 By livingfelt 10 Comments

For this project, we used Medium sized plastic eggs, and Living Felt MC-1 Merino Cross Felting Batts,
knee high stockings, embroidery floss, embroidery needle, ribbon,
felting needles, earth harmony felting foam, olive oil soap, hot water and small scissors.

For the inside color, snugly wrap plastic Easter Eggs with a thin layer of fiber around the middle of egg,
then wrap a second layer going perpendicular to the first. The egg should be covered.

For the outside color, repeat by wrapping two complete layers. Lightly needle felt the loose ends if desired.

Place your hand inside the stocking and take hold of the egg, then pull the stocking so the egg is fully covered.

Since we are felting by hand (and not felting
balls in the washing machine) we do not need to tie off the stocking.

Fill a bowl or basin with hot water and use a vegetable grater to peel off some soap flakes.
The water should be slick in your fingers, and hot, but tolerable to your hands.

Dunk the wool covered egg in the soap solution and wet if fully.
Press, handle and roll the egg in your hands like a ball of clay, constantly massaging and rolling.

**Take care not to squeeze your egg too hard or the plastic egg may come apart and make your final product slightly mis-shapen.

The ball should be wet, but not dripping and a bit soapy. Do this for 5-10 min, or until the fibers
just start to peek through the stocking. Then gently peel the stocking off the egg.

The fibers have started to entangle and form felt. Now it is time for further shrinking and entangling of the fibers, also called “fulling”. Roll your egg
on a felting or wash board if you have one, and continue to wet it in your soap solution, and roll and squeeze it in your hand.

Once the wool feels snug around the egg and well felted, finish with hot and cold rinses, and more rolling/squeezing.
Roll the eggs in towels to remove excess water. Use fine scissors to cut most of the way around the egg,
leave approximately 2″ across the back attached for a strong hinge.

Set the eggs to dry overnight.

Finish the edges of your eggs with a blanket stitch.
Add embroidery or needle felted designs.

Sew a decorative ribbon to the rear hinge.
Time to add some prizes inside! Make a little bunny ball with our tutorial here, add some jewelry, candy in a bag, or make a simple chick below.

Follw the basic instructions for needle felting a small egg shape as shown on our free felting tutorial for an Easter Chick, Cheep.
Instead of sewing on a head,

use your 36 gauge felting needle to sculpt the head. Add wings. Ours are felted flat onto the body.
For the beak, make a small rectangle with needle felting, wet felting or use commercial felt.

Fold it in half and cut the open ends into a triangle.

Place the beak right on the face of your felted chick and needle felt right in the fold.
Add small tufts of wool or beads for the eyes.

Tuck your prizes inside and have a Happy Easter!

Share your ideas below and share photos of your projects by sending them
to submissions@livingfelt.com or posting them on our facebook page.

Filed Under: Easter, Felting Inspirations, tips, tutorials & projects Tagged With: free felting pattern, Free felting tutorial, wet felting easter eggs

Needle Felting Easter Eggs – Fun & Easy Free Felting Tutorial

March 9, 2013 By livingfelt 7 Comments

Have fun making a colorful basket of needle felted Easter eggs with
this quick and easy tutorial. This is 2nd in a series of 3 needle felting Easter tutorials. Previously we made “Dot”, our fun little bunny ball. For this project, we used Living Felt Brand CW-1 Core Wool, and MC-1 Merino-Cross Batts.

First start by needle felting your egg shapes out of core wool.
Below is our standard process for needle felting a ball. You can right+click
to save this picture and share it with a friend!

Tear off a small, thin strip of wool and wrap it snugly around the center
of your egg with the final edges overlapping slightly.

Tear off another thin strip and wrap it around the length of your egg. All
white wool underneath should be covered.

Needle felt the wool in place by poking your felting needle in and out, in and out. Work across the entire surface of the egg in several passes (vs spending too much time in one spot), and hold the wool in place as you work. Continue
needle felting until the surface is very smooth and evenly felted. You don’t want it to look bumpy.

For spirals and lines try this: Pull off a long, thin (but even) strip of wool and roll it into a tube by rolling it on your foam or even on your pantleg. Make sure it is an even thickness from end to end.

To wrap a line around your egg, needle felt one end in place and keep tension
on it as you needle felt it in place from one end to the other. Take time
to make the edges nice and neat as you go along, constantly gathering fibers
with your felting needle towards the middle of the line.

For flowers, hearts or similar decoration, pull off tiny tufts of wool and
needle felt each into place one at a time; taking time to needle felt all
loose fibers and tighten up edges before adding the next petal. If too many
fibers are loose when you add more petals, the design is more likely to fuzzy
because the fibers from petal to petal will get entangled.

To add tiny dots and even large polka dots (also a great technique for eyes),
pull off a small tuft of wool, center it over the spot you want it to be and
lightly needle felt it right in the center.

Next, gather the loose fibers by twirling them onto your felting needle.

T then just poke, poke, poke to needle felt them in place. This is an easy
way to make circles and dots!

Use the same line technique above to make spirals.

That’s it! Needle felting so easy once you learn a few basic techniques!
If its not new to you, we hope you will share with and teach someone else!

Filed Under: Easter, Felting Inspirations, tips, tutorials & projects Tagged With: needle felted easter eggs, needle felting Easter eggs tutorial

Needle Felting “Cheep”, a Chickie in a Bunny Bonnet

March 9, 2013 By livingfelt 5 Comments

Needle Felting “Dot”, our fun little bunny ball was first in a series of 3 needle felting tutorials based on an Easter theme. Next came our needle felting Easter eggs tutorial which shared a few more techniques. Now meet, “Cheep”, Dot’s best pal. This basic tutorial will utilize some of the techniques in the previous two tutorials, and will help demonstrate a few more fundamentals for needle felting little 3D animals and objects. We hope you have fun! For this project we used CW-1 Core Wool, MC-1 Mango and Canteloupe, Black Beads, Black thread, Pipe Cleaners, a skewer, felting needles, doll needle and needle felting foam.

Start by following the instructions below for needle felting core wool for the body into an egg shape and the head into a ball.

As in our Easter egg tutorial, cover the body and head with wool in the color of your choice.

Once the head and body are made, it is time for the wings. Draw a tear drop shape onto a piece of paper in the size of the wing desired. Err on the larger side, because once cut out, you can hold it up to the body and cut it smaller if desired. Pull off two equally sized tufts of wool about 2 1/2 times longer and 1 1/2 times wider than your template. Fold the wool in half lengthwise and begin needle felting in flat primarily right in the center. Let your pokes be shallow and do not attach the wing to the foam.

TIP: Make sure you have enough wool. If it feels thin when you fold it over, it may feel thin when needle felted. It is better to have a little more wool because you can really compact it down with needle felting.

Place the template on top of the wool and begin needle felting (sculpting) the wool by felting all around the sides towards the template. Continue working around and around, but leave the end towards the point loose and unfelted.
Flip the wing over and needle felt the other side as well. As your wing begins to get as small as the template, put your tempate on the foam under the wing and continue needle felting towards the shape of the template.

Now both wings are needle felted for our little chickie. Use straight pins to choose the position and needle felt the loose end onto the body.

Needle felting the ears. This is the same process used for bunny ball. Pull off two equal tufts of wool about 2 1/2 times longer and 1 1/2 times wider than the finished ears will be. Fold in half lengthwise and needle felt just
in the center to compact the fibers. Do not attach it to the foam.

Fold the sides in towards the middle and needle felt into place. Sculpt the ear to a point or rounded end as desired. Make sure to felt both sides of the ears, and leave the base unfelted for attaching to the head.

Add a little pink inside the ear if desired. Our black headed pins serve as place holders for the eyes. Position the ears and hold them in place with T-tacks or pins. Needle felt them onto the head. Add some more white wool
around the base of the ears, but do not finish the bonnet just yet, we have more to do. It is best to attach the head to the body before finalizing the bonnet so we can hide our joining threads. That comes soon.

To make the beak, pull off a small strip of wool and twist it around the tip of a wooden skewer or very small paint brush handle. Continue to twist the skewer and let your hands somewhat dry felt the wool. Slide the wool off the skewer and needle felt right into the widest part of the cone. This will compact the fibers by felting them towards the point of the beak. Because this piece is so small, we used our fine 40 gauge needle.

Now needle felt along the beak away from the tip at a very shallow angle. Do this all around the beak to make it nice and firm. Next, place the beak onto the face of your chickie. Needle felt it directly into the head. You
can compact the fibers into the head very well. Use your 38 needle for this job.

To make the feet, start by needle felting two very small balls. Next, twist a small amount of wool around a pipe cleaner, longer and slightly thicker than you want the leg to be. It helps to have the piper cleaner a few inches longer than needed so you have something to hold onto!

Using a very shallow angle, needle felt up and down and all around the length of the wool on the pipe cleaner. Make it very compact, even and firm. Stand the covered pipe cleaner up on your ball and needlfelt the two together as shown. If you have having challenges with the connection, wrap a small around the join like an Ace bandage and needle felt through it connect the leg and
the ball.

Repeat for the second leg to make both the same size then cut the leg to the desired length. Use your ball head pins to choose the position, and needle felt the legs right into the body. Our chickie is meant to sit, not stand.

Attach the eye beads to the head with strong thread. See our bunny tutorial for these steps if needed. Attach the head to the body with a string joint. Use a darning or doll needle and some strong button or uphostery thread, or waxed floss. We offer a little detail kit here with eyes, thread and floss. Start with a very long piece of
thread, and your needle single threaded. Enter the body from the bottom up and slightly off center, run the thread up through the base of the head and out the top of the head just behind the ears. Leave at least 4″ of thread coming out of the bottom of the body. Re-enter the head approx 1/8″ – /4″ from where the thread came out, and run it back through the head and out of the body. Pull tension and tie a very strong knot. Just as you did with the eyes, cut the threads and cover the indentation from the thread with wool and needle felt it in place.

To make the strings of the bonnet, pull off a long thin strip of wool and roll it into a tube. Get it soapy and wet and roll it on your bamboo blind or rigid mat to very firmly wet felt it. Once it is dry, tie the ends into a bow. We did this by leaving it in one long piece, and then wrapping it around small plastic bottle to give a surrface to pull bow tight. It was too small to tie on its own, so the bottle helped a lot! Once the bow is in place, cut the wool off the bottle and needle felt it around the neck of the chickie and into the bonnet area. Now finish the bonnet by adding wool and needle felting it neatly around the face.

Here is Dot and Cheep, two pals so happy to be together now. Send us pictures of your Easter creations!

Filed Under: Easter, Felting Inspirations, tips, tutorials & projects Tagged With: needle felt Easter, needle felted chickie, needle felting tutorial

Free Felting Tutorial: Needle Felted Bunny Ball, “Dot”!

March 2, 2013 By livingfelt 3 Comments

needle felted bunny tutorial easter felting project

Needle felt this fun litttle bunny ball, we call him “Dot”! More tutorials follow on needle felting Easter Eggs and needle felting his best pal “Cheep”! This project requires very little wool. We used Living Felt MC-1 Merino Cross Batts in Cotton, and Sorbet, some black glass beads for eyes and some button thread.

Follow the standard directions for needle
felting a ball, you will use this technique again and again!

This is the ball for our bunny head, which also happens to be his body! Our needle felted bunny is very small, yours can be as large as you like! Needle felt this very firmly. Decide which surface will the face and which the bottom. Use your felting needles or multi-needle
felting tool to flatten out the bottom. For this projectm, we primarily used a 38 gauge star felting needle and a 40 triangle felting needle.

Pull off two small, equally sized tufts of wool to make the ears. Making both
at the same time helps to get the sizing to match. You will find this true
for most “pairs” whether they be ears, feet, arms or slippers! While
your final bunny ears may be small, pull off more wool than you think you
will need. The fibers will compact as you felt them. It is much easier to
shape the wool when you have enough to work with. Starting with too little
may leave thin spots or tips that cannot be properly felted.

Fold them in half length wise and lightly needle felt right in the middle.
Do not try to attach it to the foam, just tack down the fibers.

Fold the sides in towards the middle and needle felt them in place.

Needle felt all around the shape by felting at a very shallow depth and continuously
shaping the ears as desired. Try to avoid felting them to the foam, make sure
to needle felt both sides and the edges.

If desired, felt some pink on the insides. Remember to make very shallow pokes
with your needle so the color does not come out the other side.

To help decide where the eyes go, we colored two white tipped straight pins
with a black marker and used these as temporary place holders.

You can use T-tacks or straight pins to select the placement of the ears and
other body parts as needed.

Once the position is selected, firmly needle felt the ears onto your bunny.
Spread the fibers out and take time to blend them in well. A fine gauge needle
such as a 40 Triangle works well for final blending.

Needle felt or embroider a bunny on your nose.

Sew on the bunny eyes by running your darning or doll needle from the back of the head and out where the eye socket will be. Leave enough thread dangling out the back to tie a knot. If desired, you can needle felt an impression for the eyes first, this is best done with your 36 gauge felting needle. String on the bead and run your needle into the eyesocket and out the back about 1/8th of an inch from the entrance thread. Pull tightly and tie a firm knot. This will slightly inset the eye. Repeat for the second eye.

Cut the threads very close to the head, patch with wool to fill any indentation
and needle felt into place.

Here is our finished bunny, “Dot” and his best pal, “Cheep.”
Watch for a tutorial on Cheep very soon!

Filed Under: Easter, Felting Inspirations, tips, tutorials & projects Tagged With: Needle Felted Bunny, needle felted chick, needle felted easter eggs, needle felting bunny

Felting an Easter Basket | Project Idea & Tutorial

February 23, 2013 By livingfelt 3 Comments

Felting a special Easter Basket is so much fun and really quite easy to do!

We used an Earth Harmony NeedleFelting Hat Form in size small, MC-1Merino Cross Batts, one quilting fabric quarter, sheer ribbon
in two widths, Mod Podge, emboidery thread, a sewing machine and a multi-needle felting tool.

If you have never used a hat form to needle felt a hat or vessel, you can ge ta kit of your custom color choices and complete instructions here: Needle Felting a Hat Kit

If you have needle felted a purse over a foam pad you have the basic idea, you can also see our primer video for needle felting a purse

Needle felt over your form in the colors desired. We made the inside white
because we will line our basket with fabric. Once needle felted, firmly wet felt
the basket to a smooth finish, cover your foam with stretch wrap or a plastic bag, and place the felted basket back on your foam to shape it.
You can leave it on the foam to dry mostly, and remove it for the final drying time – at least overnight.

For a really smooth finish, you can steam iron it while on your foam to block it.

Once your piece is dry, we can needle felt the final design.
Here is the basic shape for our bunny. Print it out if desired.
We used a simple tear drop body shape to get started.

Put your basket back on the foam. Place a patch of wool on your basket
and lay the body shape on top. Use your felting needle to trace an indent around the body shape.

Remove the template and continue to needle felt by felting all of the fibers from outside the line into the body area.
Add the head, feet and tail in the same manner, or just free hand the design.

Tie a wide ribbon and a thin ribbon in knots at both ends.
Mod podge them together with a paint brush.

Create a pattern for your basket liner by tracing around your hat form.
Leave 1/4″ to 1/2″ margin for the circular base.

Since the interior of your basket may be larger than the circumference of your foam,
give yourself a few extra inches to work with. Pin the templates to your fabric and cut out.

Place the long strip inside your basket for proper sizing and pin the short ends of the long strip together.

Sew these ends on your sewing machine. Pin the base on and sew that together.
We will not hem the top of the liner but instead will fold it down inside the walls of the basket.

Pin the liner in your basket and blanket stitch in place. Sew on your handle so it is nice and sturdy and fill with it with fun!

We hope you will share pictures of your felted Easter Basket and other items on our Facebook Friends page!

Filed Under: Easter, Felting Inspirations, tips, tutorials & projects Tagged With: needle felted Easter basket, needle felting Easter basket

Needle Felting: A Felted Heart Dangler to Brighten Any Room! Tutorial

January 18, 2013 By livingfelt 5 Comments

Supplies Used for this project: LivingFelt MC-1 Felting Batts,
NeedleFelting Foam, Feltingneedles sizes 38 Star and 36 Triangle,
Doll Needle, Assorted Beads, Yarn, Small Scissors.

Our project has 8 small felt beads or balls of various colors.
Start with a small strip of wool in a single layer.

Roll the end a few turns to create a tube,
then tuck one side over towards the opposite edge.

(I use two hands for the part of the process, but the otherhand is holding the camera!)

Then tuck the other side over and notice that a small ball is forming.
Now roll the ball forward, and continue to roll and tuck from side to side.
The more tightly you manage this process, the easier it will be to needle felt.

We have reached the end of our strip and have a small, tightly formed ball.

Use your 38 Star needle to firmly needle felt the ball into shape.
Start by needle felting the loose fibers from the end, ane needle felt
across the entire surface of the ball over and over. It is better to
needle felt the surface in multiple passes
than to spend too much time in one area.

Time to needle felt our hearts. We used a 3″ x 6″ strip of wool batting.

Fold the top right corner across to the opposite side,
creating a 45 degree angle along the top.

Fold the top left corner down towards you.

Fold the left side over to the right edge.

Fold the loose fibers over the triangle you have formed.

Use your 38 Star needle to needle felt the loose fibers down
and needle felt the entire shape on all sides and from all directions.

Our soon-to-be heart is really taking shape and firming up!

Use your 36 Triangle to compress the fibers into the desired heart shape.
We created 8 needle felted hearts in 3 colors.

Once all of your beads and hearts are created, you might plan
your arrangement.

String up your beads, baubles, beads and hearts with your doll
needle and yarn.

Our finished Needle Felted Heart Dangler is approximatley 44″ long,
and will hang from the ceiling to brighten a corner of a room.

We hope you enjoy this project and share your versions of this similar idea,
and as always we wish you Very HAPPY Felting!!

Filed Under: tips, tutorials & projects Tagged With: Needle felt hearts, needle felted heart, needle felting hearts

Felted Heart Valentine Treat Envelope Tutorial

January 12, 2013 By livingfelt 5 Comments

I really like to make most of the gifts I give, but I especially enjoy
making the wrapping or the container they come in. Here is a little
tutorial for making a Valentine’s Day Treat Envelope or pouch.

Here are our supplies:MC-1 Merino-Cross Wool batts in Tulip and Chili,
5×5 felting foam, felting needles size 40 and 38, pen needle felting tool,
pinking shears, hole punch, small heart cookie cutter, 12″ x 12″
scrapbook papers, parchment paper used for baking, gingersnap hearts as our treat, ribbon,
small scissors, pencil, ruler/straight edge and tacky glue or fabric glue.

Fill the cookie cutter with wool and needle felt the wool down firmly.
Use your finger to check for bare areas and add more wool as needed.
Make sure to needle felt close to the sides of the shape.
It helps to hold your cookie cutter
down firmly on the foam. See our video here

Use a single felting needle to firmly needle felt all along the walls
of the shape. This will give your heart very clean lines. Remove
the cookie cutter, peel the heart off the foam, and needle felt the
opposite side to a smooth finish.

Add a contrasting color on top of your heart or any adornments, beads, etc.

Cut your scrap book paper in half and then fold in even thirds.
Use your pinking shears to cut the side edges to a nice finish.

Use your straight edge and pencil to trace out the envelope flat.
We chose to make our shorter to accommodate the ribbon-tie.
For a decorative effect, also cut a V in base below the flap. We
did this so our cookies would show through a little bit.

Cut the parchment paper to fit inside the envelope, giving 1/4″ margin
on the insides. We will glue the envelope, but not the parchment, as this
will be our interior “food” wrapper for the treats. Glue your felted heart
to the outside of the envelope flap.

Press the edges closed, punch a hole in the flap and in the base
of your envelope and insert your ribbon. Add treats, sprinkle in
some love and deliver with a kiss!

~ You are creative and brilliant! I am sure what you do with
this simple idea will be unique and fabulous! We do hope you will
share pictures of yours with us as well!

Filed Under: tips, tutorials & projects Tagged With: needle felted heart, Needle Felted Valentine

Cookie Cutter Critters

December 9, 2012 By LauraB Leave a Comment

These cute critters are easy enough for preschoolers to make but fun for all ages! They make great ornaments for the tree, mobiles, and bath toys/sponges for kids. All of the photographs for the steps of this tutorial are of children from summer camp and school doing this project, ages 5-13.

Supplies:

- Cookie cutters (the kind that are just an outline without a top)

- Felting Needles

- Needle Felting Foam

- Mild dish soap (I prefer Ivory)

- Hot water

- Fast Felting Colored Wool (I find the fastest to felt is the Merino Top or NZ Corriedale)

- A surface to work on like the lid of a storage bin

Choose a cookie cutter and colored wool to work with for the base. Lay a thin layer of the wool going horizontally inside the cookie cutter.

Put a second thin layer on, but this time lay out the fibers vertically.

Continue in this fashion of alternating the direction of the fibers in thin layers until you have at least 3 solid layers. Don’t worry if the wool seems really thick at this point, once you begin to felt it will thin out.

Begin wet felting by sprinkling a small amount of water as warm as you can handle onto the wool inside the cookie cutter. Put a dab of soap on one finger and gently poke the wool while holding the cookie cutter down with the other hand so the wool doesn’t slip under the bottom.

Once it seems that the wool is tacked together sufficiently (at least 5-10 minutes) flip the cookie cutter and wool over to do the other side. Don’t worry if the wool gets misshapen during the flip, just fit it back into the cookie cutter and it will reshape. If the water on the wool has cooled during the process gently squeeze out the cold water with the wool between flat hands before putting it back inside the cookie cutter and adding more hot water. Remember the warmer the wool, the faster it felts.

**Watch that you don’t use too much soap or water, both will impede the felting process.**

When it appears that the wool is sticking together on both sides squeeze out the water as best you can while leaving the wool in the cookie cutter. Leave to dry overnight.

Once dry you can poke with a 36 Gauge Needle to further felt it if it doesn’t feel secure.

At this point you can needle felt details onto the surface of the animal using different colored wool. I also sewed on seed beads to add some sparkle and make it a more festive ornament.

Here are some examples of pieces adults had fun making at a workshop I led sponsored by Living Felt at the New York State Art Teachers Association conference in November.