Miniature Felt Bird Giveaway!

                               

 This week is the week of Joy and a time to celebrate the light of animals. For our Advent garden  this week I wanted to make some birds and during a particularly bad Ehlers flair up this past weekend resulting in a sleepless night... I made some. Not to shabby for a sleepless night. Hopefully this will be a reminder for someone that you can always turn something bad into something good (or in this case, felt) if you just open yourself up to the possibilities..They are stuffed with wool and the details are done with a mixture of really bad embroidery and paint after giving up on said embroidery (lol).

  A cardinal, a chickadee, and a blue jay, three of the more common winter birds of Minnesota that I would like to give away. A tiny bit of my home to you. You don't have to start following me or spread the word on your blog (but it would be nice if you did). Just leave a comment and I will put your name errr number in a random number generator on the first of the new year. The winner will be posted on the first of 2014 and will have one week to contact me (I'll do my best to notify you, but sometimes Email addresses are hidden). I just thought it would be neat to have something quiet and fun to look forward to after the holidays. Good luck, and Be well.
Update: This giveaway is now closed. Thank you everyone who left comments. Congratulations #2, Mrs. Bartos!

Cinnamon Scented Pillows

One of the scents I love best is cinnamon.  I have bowls of cinnamon scented pinecones in every room and closet, but I wanted a different look (and Bear has threatened to throw out my pinecones if he gets hit in the head with another basket of pinecones in the closet again) and so I whipped up this yummy batch of cinnamon scented pillows.

 I used a cinnamon broom from Trader Joe's, Burlap, and Autumn colored felt for this project.

I cut the burlap into 5X5" squares. Then I cut out felt letters and sewed them on (I wish I had left them like this, but I later outlined them in black fabric paint to make them stand out more; they camouflaged with the bricks of my fireplace pre paint). Then I sewed The squares into pillows and stuffed them with fabric scraps and chopped up cinnamon broom ( I used garden clippers for that part). My little pillows were meant for the mantle but look great in a basket and on the back of my sofa, The room smells wonderful. I might need to make another set for Christmas. 

I hope you like this project. Be well and Have fun!

Needle/wet Felted Wool Balls

 I've been needle felting and wet felting little wool balls lately. This is my farm ball. It is painstakingly decorated and one of my favorites. On this ball there is a barn, silo, rooster, hen, two chicks, a butterfly, flowers, apple trees, a cow, a pig wallow with two pigs, and sheep all under a bright sun.

 

Here is another picture from the farm ball of tiny sheep playing in a flower dotted meadow.

 The four seasons.

 I have many others and will post them at a later date. These will be posted in my etsy store soon. If you have a ball you would like custom made for you please drop me a line at applecratetoys@gmail.com.

Thank you for looking and have a blessed day.

Waldorf Puppet: Innocence

  Recently a young neighbor of mine (age 10) was visiting and saw my Waldorf table puppets. He asked me if they were difficult to make. I told him that they were not. Then he surprised me by asking if I could help him make one.

He asked if we could make a Legolas from the Lord of the Rings.

This is what my neighbor came up with. It was such a delight to watch him work. I helped him a little with the hair and some suggestions on how to connect things, but for the most part he did this all himself. Tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth and all ;) 

Have a blessed day today and have fun!

Felt Crowns

Crowns, crowns, crowns and more crowns. I've been fast at work spinning these out. 26 crowns made and I sure hope to make my goal of 60 before the end of August. Wish me luck. I love felt crowns. They are perfect for children. They are playful, soft, colorful, and open wide the doors to imagination. I've given several crowns away and have joyfully witnessed a multitude of different characters surface. There are of course the princes and princesses and birthday girl/boy persona's that emerge when crowned. Then there are the wizards, fairies, mad hatters, gas station attendants, magicians, pirate king/queens, and superheros that I've also watched emerge. My newest favorite happened this past Saturday when I gifted my niece with a new crown and she promptly tried crowning a very old and very tolerant cat. I would love to get a hold of some play silks to have on hand. They make wonderful tools for the imagination and would pair well with these crowns. Does anyone know a place online where I can get a good deal on un-dyed play silks? I've seen wee ones running around using them for butterfly wings, capes, doll blankets, forts; not to mention using them for seasonal scaping on the nature table. Take care everyone and have fun!

Ornament : Holly Leaves

First. Have a Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are. I had plans for a Thanksgiving craft but time and a nasty bug hit me hard this year. Christmas is coming and there are so many things to make still. This year we will be using handmade ornaments to keep breakage at a minimum with the new puppy. Over the next few weeks I will be posting the ornaments that we've made. The first ornament is Holly Berries and leaves.

For these ornaments you will need buttons, embroidery floss, felt, and a filling of your choice.

Using the green felt cut out 2 holly leaves and use a round template to cut 2 circles out of red felt.

Place the leaves on the red circle and stitch a vein down the middle of each leaf.

Sew on three red buttons for berries. They do not need to match; not matching gives it more character.

Stitch half way around and fill with stuffing of your choice. Cotton, milk weed silk, and the left over scraps of felt all work great for this. Then finish stitching around and cut a pretty ribbon to make a loop for hanging and your done. Give Thanks this and every week and Have Fun!