Saturday, January 8, 2011

Needle felted owl tutorial




You can have fun with these owls, create as many as you want! display them differently as ornaments, sew a little ribbon onto the head for hanging ornaments or do what I did, needle felt a log and put as many as you want to display!
This is a beginner felting tutorial. I do not claim to know all, but just wish to share my knowledge and passion. Please let me know if you found this tutorial helpful
comments are read with pleasure. Show me your own owls when finished and I'll feature them on my blog email bluebellbunny at yahoo.com.au


Welcome to my owl tutorial.
You will need a handful of brown wool
small amounts of yellow wool
small amounts of black wool
small omounts of white wool
wooden skewer
feltng needle
felting pad

Wrap brown wool around the skewer, so it looks like a fat sausge.
Needle it carefully to secure any whispy bits but do be careful to
not hit the skewer with the needle and mind your fingers.


Take the rolled sausage off the skewer and needle it into an egg shape
by starting at the ends. make one end rounder than the other, leave one
end a little elongated and fluffy for the tail.


Take the egg and bend it slightly with your hands so its a slightly concave
shape or semi circle shape. Needle a dent in the back of the neck area to give
defintion to the head.




take two similar sized tufts of wool and hold one in your fingers, or on the pad
if your a beginner. I like to needle felt holding in my hands, I've learned quickly
not to poke myself too many times. But when you shake the wings you muss up
the wool so you can shape it into a half circle, imagine a birds wing as you make this and felt the shape so its firm. You can basically shape and felt on the pad its just like drawing or carving out a shape in clay in a sense.

Needle the shape at the end first so you create a point, remember to keep the wings flat so they don't bulk out too much.


Finish shaping the wing so it looks something similar to this





Find where the would fit the neck of the bird and hold the wing against it and needle gently checking to make sure it looks right for position. Do the same for the other wing.


This is what it should look like when you've attached both wings



This is what it should look like when the accent color has been needled flat



Take some eye accent color and needle a small disc. Do the same for the other side of the face.


Take a smaller bit of yellow and needle it inside the white of the eye so it resembles a fried egg a little. Continue to do the same to the other side.




Needle a dot of black in the center of the eye for the pupil and copy for the other side.

Needle a triangle shape and curve it a little to fit the beak area of the face and needle it to attach onto the face in between the eyes.



Take two similar lines of brown tuffy bits of wool to create the "horns" of the owl
roll it in your fingers to firm it a little but make sure they stay as lines.
Needle it on top of the eyes, like eye brows sticking up a little. Repeat for the other side.


Take your other accent color for the belly, and make a small dot, I prefer doing lines of three dots
then two, then one. Needle so its flat against the belly accent color in a triangle shape.




You are now finished congrats on following this tutorial!


Friday, January 7, 2011

Jimmy the naughty Quaker parrot

This is Jimmy my male green Quaker parrot, he's a brat when he's around me felting but normally he's on his stand next to me but sometimes he likes to have a closer look! here he is almost getting to one of my felties I'm making.


Here he is looking around as if wanting more felties to hurt!


This is Jimmy with his innocent expression, he's all what? I can't help but look and interrupt you when your not spending time with me!

Niles the greyhound finger puppet





I've been a busy bee
oh I'm totally stressing over this as I had a message over at etsy for my first sale!
a customer wanted a custom finger puppet of their dog, Niles, a greyhound who had
sadly passed away. I said I felt confident enough to try it for the customer but said it would
be whimsy, cartoonish but I'd still get the looks enough alike. I hope they will be happy!

my other half has been teasing me something senseless saying it looks more like a wolf! I told
him to go jump in a lake as he doesn't know how to wet felt or needle felt lol. I love that a custom has
been my first actual sale. My very first sale was through a friend so it doesn't really count haha

So customs are nerve wracking, I'm yet to message the customer with these photos to find out
their opinions. I used shetland wool roving as well as merino wool roving, and I wet felted the base
around my finger and then when it was dried I needle felted the head and features.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Happy Flowers and more


This is my latest fun needle felted creation! I was bored today because it was hot and we're into a few days of having hot weather here. But I've called this my Happy needle felted Flower. Happy because of its color! and the fact that it
can actually bend and move because of the pipecleaners in it. Even its leaves can bend and move. So this is the Happy needle felted flower!







Last but not least is a little guide on making a cute little peg deer! yes a bit late after Christmas
but such is life!

What you'll need
three wooden pegs
scrap red felt
scrap ribbon in festive color
red small pompom
wool roving or polly fiberfill
glitter
craft glue
small googly eyes

Take the two pegs and glue them side by side so that the ends of the pegs
are pointing downwards to look like feet. Glue together by putting a dollop of glue
in between each peg, hold together for a while so it feels like its set. Take the third peg and do the same though have the peg facing the other way so the "ends" can look like ears.

Create his face by gluing on the red pompom, and googly eyes, take a pinch of pollyfiber fill or wool roving and roll it into a fluffy ball and glue it into his rear end for his tail.

Cut out the felt into a semi circle so it resembles a saddle and glue it onto the middle of his back. Take the ribbon and cut it to desired length, and glue each ends under the felt saddle to hide the
snipped ends.

dab glue lightly onto the saddle and sprinkle glitter for sparkle!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Needle felted travel doll



This little girl took the form of a travel doll, she is needle felted, I used merino, alpaca and shetland wool roving. The clothing is needle felted, her hat and bag is wet felted. She stands at about 3 inches tall and about two inches wide. She is not a toy but can still be held in your hands.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Life around us

This little guy is baby Ele! elephants never forget supposedly but he's still very cute!


This is a flower that grows in our garden, my other half transplanted it about a month ago from his parents and its done so much better. It used to live in shade and a damp area but now it lives in full sun and is very happy! when it was at his parents it never flowered. And you can see it grow almost on a daily change. I believe its common name is Red hot poker, not sure of its Latin name but even if its a general plant or weed its still pretty to me!


This is Bert, he's our galah (Rosie breasted cockatoo) and he's a 20 year old boy
and is my baby. We recently put him out in the outdoor cage we've got and he's much happier. Even though the cage doesn't look like much he has plenty of branches to chew on and toys to keep him entertained.

letterbox findings!


This was found in my letterbox today, I had never seen one of these before and thought it was rather strange. I'm keeping it as a keepsake though... even if I don't know what it means! my fiancee's mother believes its some religion trying to convert me ^^ she's probably right though it looks certainly different to the ones I have seen but anyways I might turn it into a bookmark.

The words say your soul existed before time
...
then it is signed by the person who wrote it and dated but I cannot pronounce what the name is.

The envelope wasn't sealed, addressed but it was stamped with that green stamp