Wednesday, January 31, 2018

NEEDLE FELT 1ST BIRTHDAY CAKE TOPPER

Story time: I don't like candles on a cake, or more specifically I don't like the blowing out of candles. It seems just an euphemism for covering the cake in fine film of snot and spit. Lovely.

So, when the Kiddo had her first birthday in, er... October... I went for something different, wait for it... I needle felted the topper. You didn't see that one coming.
.
All joking a side, I wanted something simple and went for a plain sea green "1". You could totally do this with a cookie cutter (like I did with these snowflakes), but I just free handed it. It took quite a while to get right, and I felted it very firmly, so it would stay straight, but once i was satisfied with it I just stuck a toothpick in there. No glue or anything, just pushed it in there. I'm very happy with it! I think it was nice and plain for an innocent one year old. And I can reuse it when she turns ten! Wah, my baby!
This is a blurry still from a video I took. It's all I got, sorry.
Her smash cake was made following this recipe from treats with a twist. I substituted butter for oil and added one tbs of maple syrup, and topped it with whipped cream. I tried it myself and it was quite tasty.

Quite a few people who were at the party asked for the recipes for the things I made and I don't think I followed through... So, if that's you I'm sorry and here they are (mostly in Finnish unfortunately, definitely worth Google translate though). Every one of these is something I will definitely make again! My husband is allergic to eggs, so these are eggless and could be made vegan/vegetarian.

Cream Cheese Filled Rolls from maijalinnea.
Peppermint Chocolate Poke Cake from urbaanivegenda.
Queen of Coffee Cakes from urbaanivegenda.
Cookie Dough Bars (in English) from life's simple measures.
Banoffee, except instead of bananas I used strawberries.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

NEEDLE FELT SNOWY OWL - HEDWIG

Hoo.
Next stop in my needle felting escapades: Hedwig! Or a snowy owl, but I'm Harry Potter obsessed so I think of this as Hedwig.
 Hedwig from the front.
 Hedwig from the back.
Trying to show how Hedwig would look like hanging from the tree.

I think she turned out very nicely, although brown spot might have looked better? I don't know. I'll still call this a cute success.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

COOKIE CUTTER NEEDLE FELT SNOWFLAKES

This post is about... drum roll please... needle felting. Boom.
The first needle felting I tried was using cookie cutters as a mold. You take a cookie cutter, stuff it full of wool and stab away with a felting needle. I was inspired to try needle felting after reading this post on the Homesong blog, it made felting seem doable (she did it with her kids!). If you want a tutorial hop over to her blog.
The first few I made were stars for our Christmas tree, but when I went on to hang them on our tree they felt a bit thin and flimsy. I made a few white ones and then a gingerbread one, which you can see it here on my InstagramThe decoration or "icing" is a bit more complicated than what you see on these pictures.

Anyway, I wasn't satisfied with the way they looked and I decided to try again. I grabbed this pretty snowflake cookie cutter from the grocery store and felted away. This time I made the felt thicker, almost 1 cm, and I much prefer the chunkier feel.

I made the white one, was very pleased, and started to make another... and run out of white wool. Doh. 


So, I decided to make another gingerbread one. Luckily, I had a bit of white left for the icing. This time I made the "icing" thicker and design simpler and I much prefer it this way. I'm all about simple and clean.
Now, I want to buy all the cookie cutters and make a bunch of these! And order more wool. I so need more wool.

Sunday, January 21, 2018

FELT BALL GARLAND + OUR TINY NURSERY

My felting obsession continues. This time I made a short garland for the Kiddos nursery.
This was the most fun, addictive project. Making needle felt balls seemed intimidating; how to get them round and the same size? But you just keep turning them and poke them evenly at all sides. And if one turns out smaller than others: add wool, if larger: poke more. Needle felting really is one of those things that seems difficult, when really it just takes time.
The colors have really no rhyme or reason, except I wanted to add some color to our mainly white nursery corner (but just a bit, I kind of love the white and plain style, very calming). I showed here the huge box of rowing wool I bought and I just kept selecting colors and making another one and another one until it was long enough to fit the space I wanted it to. 
And here's the whole nursery. It's pretty much just a bed and a chair for nursing. I love the salt lamp, it gives such a nice warm glow without disturbing sleep. The night stand used to hold some supplies, but now that the Kiddo can open the drawers it's empty. I made the "shhh" banner before she was born. Then there are some books and Hard Rock Cafe bears my in-laws have brought from their trips:) And that's it. We keep diapers and the changing pad in the bathroom and her clothes in a chest of drawers in our room.

I just love this. Being a parent can be a hassle sometimes and just looking at this space calms me. And the garland fits there very nicely, adding a bit of color and whimsy, while still keeping things neat and calm.

Sunday, January 14, 2018

NEEDLE FELTED NARWHAL

It's a tiny narwhal.
It's official: I have a new hobby, needle felting. And I'm obsessed. 
Now I swim this way.
I still can't believe I made that, haha. I know there are amazing needle felt sculptures out there, but for me... I've never done anything like this and am just so stoked!
Boo.
I tried needle felting first about a year ago, doing a couple cookie cutter stars (you take a cookie cutter, fill it with wool and use it as a mold), and I loved it. There's something really soothing and addicting about jabbing with a needle... 

But I had a new baby and pretty soon I got overwhelmed with life. Anyway, babies and long needles don't really go well together. But the Kiddo got sick recently and pretty much slept the whole first day, and suddenly I had all this time, and I was like "what do I do, I never have any time!" So I tried needle felting again. And it's still so much fun
This is mah belly.
This time I just went free form, no cookie cutters. I wasn't sure if I could do it, doing a 3D sculpture seemed so much harder, but I'm glad I just went for it. Really, you can't mess needle felt. You can always add more wool or felt it tighter.

The horn, too. I thought a lot about how I'd get the horn to stay rigid and in the end the answer turned out to be: just felt it tightly. Doh.
Just swimmin'.
There are probably a lot of useful tricks and techniques that I'm  unaware of, but for now I'll just go with trial and error. And fun.

Really, i'm just so happy. I haven't felt this exited about a craft since my amigurumi phase.
Hello.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...