First Time Needle Felting!!

Yup! that's right! As if I don't already have enough hobbies or crafts I work on, I just had to go and add another one, right??

I've been hyping myself up all week with the idea of trying this medium out and just couldn't wait to try it out! So I headed to my local Hobby Lobby who stocks the basic supplies and spent $30 to start a new hobby:

I got 7 dual color packs, a basic kit to make a flower applique, extra needles (I know the kit comes with them but I figured I'd want more) and some wool yarn to use as base for other projects.
 

I started with the kit first. It included some white and black wool, 2 needles, a piece of felt with the flower outline to follow, instructions and the foam block.
 

 It started off easy enough, tear a piece of white off, round it in the general shape of one of the center dots and get to poking!!

Alright, all the dots are...well, sort of done. I know I could use some more wool on a few of those guys, but hey! I want to do the other color!
 

I got out the black and got to poking it in, around the white dots.
 

I figured it would happen with my being so naturally accident prone, working with such sharp needles with sorts of barbs, I poked my finger clear through on the edge!! Thankfully, it didn't hurt too much and I didn't get any blood on the felt....w00t??
 

This is about as far as I got before getting bored with such a 2-D surface project... I had been seeing pictures of people doing animals!! I was inspired by this tutorial:

Tutorial for making these can be found here.

 Aren't those guys CUTE?!?!?!

I started off with the dark purple I got and tried making a ball, but it was more of a button...it flattened out when I poked it enough. that's ok though, makes it easier I guess for my first try!
 

I got one ear made and attached...
 

I made the 2nd ear and decided to try putting an accent color on the inside...
 

I got the ears attached and got a mouth on him....
 

And there you have it! My first attempt(s) at needle felting!! What do you guys think?? I definitely need to work on this to get better and gt a sort of method down, but I kinda like the little guy!!

Have you guys tried needle felting before?? Anyone have any hints or tips to give?

Craft ya laters!!

Painted and Mod Podged Work Tray - Pt 1

I keep not wanting to work in my craft room on projects and opt instead to work in the living room, on the coffee table, so that I can watch tv, eat and spend time with my bf. This unfortunately sometimes results in my projects perhaps spending much more time than they should out and making a mess.

My solution? I'm going to get one of those trays with handles that I can just put my things in and pick up easy enough to take to my room to put away! Except I don't like spending $20-$30 on one when it might possibly get mussed up by my projects on occasion.... Solution!

I went to my local Hobby Lobby and got one of these bad boys for $3.49!! What a bargain!!

I went ahead and painted the whole thing using a mixture of a brick red, pumpkin orange and gold squirted on the wood, and mixed as I was painting with my sponge brush:

I already had some scrapbooking paper on hand (which is actually why I chose the colors I did, otherwise, it would have been blue ;) ) and used about 3 layers of mod podge on the paper, and 2 on the rest of the tray. 

You like the paper?? The sides of the tray aren't too rough with the multiple layers of mod podge as i lightly sanded in between layers.

The one thing I did very poorly though was to not actually measure the dimensions of the tray and paper; I free-handed the fitting and cutting process and the result?
 

Yeah, there was a gap... :( The best I could do at the time was put another piece of paper underneath the main one to sort of hide, but I'm not too happy with the way this looks so I will be trying to come up with a way to hide that before finishing this tray... I will be mixing a 3rd medium into this baby!! Check back later!!

Craft ya laters!!

Monthly All Girls Craft Group - April 2013

Hey guys! We actually had a pretty mild Craft Day in April as it seems it's just the 4 of us regularly showing with the exception of 1 guest along with my mom visiting for a couple hours, but not to make anything. I did get pictures of what we did get done however so...

First of all, this is a polymer clay brooch/hair-pin piece Michelle made to test the viability of use for bridesmaids in a wedding. The green is only tissue paper to hold up the petals during baking so imagine those gone, and the in center is a black button pressed in there.... Pretty awesome, don't you think?! We thought so!! Can't wait to see if she kept with this idea and made more! ;)


Leena was able to make a couple of pieces of jewelry I believe (pics to come soon!) but spent most of her time being an awesome hostess!!

Airon and I apparently decided it was time for more perler bead pieces!!

Mine

Airon's.. and no, the 'A' isn't for her, it's for a friend who's an Atlanta Braves fan :p

I know this isn't much to show for you guys, but it was a short and simple craft day for us. May's Craft Day should have a bit more going for it as attendance sounds much better this time (darn school and kid's schedules! :p)

Craft ya laters!!

Monthly All Girls Craft Group - March 2013

March was much more productive for all that showed, even me!! w00t!!

Airon didn't have to work on a paper (Yay!!) and after looking up a little last minute advice on best way to do it..

She was able to finally get her project finished she'd been dreaming about for a few months!!

Inspiration came from the lovely and talented Kristi Linauer at Addicted2Decorating.com only, in a much smaller scale than what she presented in her post.


Leena worked on a necklace:

 

As well as a very cute baby announcement/card for a friend:

After some discussion and brainstorming about supplies for other projects...

 And some playing with one of the pet attendants...

I was able to make some necklaces!!

As well as one that we mocked from a necklace Michelle had already and modeled by the lovely "Airon's neck"...

Michelle was working on a necklace for her soon-to-be sister-in-law:

Which was pretty enough as it was, then she had to top herself and make more for the bride and bridesmaids to choose from!!

All in all, this craft day was pretty good in terms of projects worked on/finished but again, was just great to see the gals and have a little wine and gossip!!

Craft ya laters!!

Monthly All Girls Craft Group - February 2013

I am really behind on this guys, I apologize, but just haven't had the chance to get this post up!!

We had our monthly Craft Group get-together for February on 2/23/13 and most everyone got work done!!

 We had Angry Birds masks being made for a son's birthday party....

Leena made a fox tail out of a braided rope base, then hand stitched pieces of frayed yarn down the length to create the tail....

Unfortunately, Airon had a paper to work on for class and was distracted working on that... Good news is, she got an "A"!! Go Airon!!

We apparently weren't entertaining enough for all present......

My mom showed up and was able to get a badge lanyard for work strung for herself, first one ever!! Yay!!! And of course, plenty of wine, and in my mom's case chocolate red wine, was enjoyed!!

 

 

Michelle turned a regular old hardback book cover into a Kindle case!!

Carrie made a perler yoshi (which is so freaking cute!!) and a couple of crocheted arm cuffs (of which I will try to get a picture posted later and you can kinda see if on the bottom left.. the blue one...)

Now, I wish I could say I was just as productive as everyone else that day.... unfortunately I was only able to attempt 1 thing (a little zippered clutch like the blue one I made before, I can try to get a picture up later of what it would have looked like) but as I completely screwed up the one actual stitch I laid down (the cross ribbon piece on the front), the only thing I really got done that day was....

Yup! that's it! I drank, ate and was sorta merry.... except for not getting anything actually made. To be fair however, I was helping my mom in directing her how to make her lanyard... soo..... that counts, right?...Right?!!?!

Anywho, on to next month!!