Thursday, December 1, 2011

It's looking more like Christmas in the Forest

I'm excited about my new festive packaging for holiday orders. I wanted my leaf to look like it was falling along with the snow so this vintage polka dot wrapping paper is a perfect background!
 I wish my tree was real. But at least the magical feeling is.

This little panda is going to make his cozy home in someone's stocking this Christmas Eve. 

  Check out my shop to see some of my other felt creatures. I also do custom orders so let me know if there's a special plush you'd like me to create just for you!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

halloween makeup

This look was inspired by my new favorite You Tube channel Leopsie. She is adorable and really informative about hair and beauty. I changed my whole hair regimen because of her! Lately she's been posting fun makeup tutorials for Halloween and I loved the Broken Porcelain Doll. This was a test run to see how it would look on me. Right now I'm making  a wig made of black yarn. It's pretty tedious work so I thought I'd take a break to make this quick post :) But back to work I go!

A second attempt. I like this one better because I think I look less clownish.


Make sure you stop by Leopsie's channel 
and if you have long hair, I recommend watching Sock Bun Curls. 
They are amazing and completely heat free!




Sunday, October 16, 2011

My Lil' Studio

With things finally winding down at the green house (only 2 weeks left before we close!), I had the chance to revamp my little art corner over the weekend. Now hopefully I can stay motivated and have a productive winter!

Things got a little messy over the summer so I did some major damage to a disorganized mountain of papers, bills, lost socks (yea), and unfinished projects burying my craft table. I'm the type of person who has to have order before things get done. It looks so much better now!



I had a bed sheet with all these brightly painted trees that I love but don't use on my bed anymore... 
I always thought it would look sweet hanging on the wall so up it went. I love it! It also makes a sweet hiding place for my giant portfolio that I never have a place for. 

And as a bonus the sheet makes an fun backdrop wall for taking photos :)


Some of my miniature animals. These little guys inspire a lot of the Felty Forest animals I sew. I have always loved tiny things and I have a pretty big collection of them.


I love this glass owl jar. He was a goodwill find last year. He has a twin jar just like him sitting in my kitchen.  The smaller bottle is full of tiny things I find on my nature adventures.



I love this wooden snowflake garland I bought at Target last Christmas. I thought it was too pretty not to leave up all year.

Putting the newly cleared table to good use! I had an Etsy order go out this week to a fellow Ohioan.


The Felty Forest Bracelet. Hope she likes it :) 


Cheers :)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

tacky or trendy?

I layered too much nail polish tonight but as I was removing it I thought it looked cool so I left some of it on my nails. Covered with a clear coat it looks pretty intentional... and so much easier than water marbling! Eh, I'm too tired to mess with it further so I'll find out if people like it at work tomorrow.
I like it :)


***Blog Update 10-31-11***

I just saw my nails pinned to a board called "Stupid and Ugly Crap People Pin" so that's one vote for tacky. Eh, it was a lazy manicure I probably would never do on purpose.


Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Painted Pumpkins


Today it finally hit me.... the desire to decorate for fall! Must have cute pumpkins!

Step 1. Take sweet time at store picking best pumpkins from the bin. Score!
Step 2. Go home and get crafty!


 
Hip Pop Art Pumpkins

I got this pumpkin painting idea from a picture on Pinterest. I love them!  I taped them up first to make the clean lines and removed it after the paint dried.  For the yellow and blue pumpkins I had to apply a couple of layers of white paint first so that the colors were really vibrant (as seen below). Spray paint would make painting a lot easier but I just used a brush. Do what you can with what you have, right? :)

 Taped up pumpkin... I learned that matte paint is not the best idea because it comes off the shiny pumpkin skin really easy. Never fear! 
Modge Podge is here! 
Seal it if you have to use it.

Art Nouveau Pumpkin 

 I'm a sucker for swirly doodles... I put them EVERYWHERE.
This one was probably the most fun to make. Just let your paint brush wander.

Twinkle Pumpkin

For this one I took a Philips screwdriver to poke the holes. Then I just stuffed a string of lights inside. Autumn cuteness and magical ambiance!!



 Ended the night with homemade "pizza," or as I like to call it, "Veggie awesomeness on french bread!" Which believe me, is much more accurate!

YUM.

I want to try blogging a recipe so we'll revisit this pizza deliciousness soon :)

Thursday, September 29, 2011

I love my job


I stopped to take some photos at work today.


I love working at the greenhouse... a small, local business run by a great family I've been working for now for 4 seasons. Because I get to spend the day surrounded by beautiful flowers....
my job is a wonderful thing.



Fall might be my favorite....Shhhh don't tell spring :)

...

I felt like sewing tonight

Tonight I decided to get my sewing machine out. It's been awhile... at least seven months! I went to the fabric store earlier today and bought some prints I really liked and a yard of something I've never used before... TULLE! The girl who cut my fabric warned that the Tulle would be fierce to work with but after a little practice...I tamed the Tulle!

Neon and Neutral is a big trend right now so when I saw some bright orange piping in the Halloween section of JoAnn's I just had to add it to my project. I think it is for a construction worker... it's that bright! So this project was my first tulle experience and my first piping project.


"Side A"
I made the Pillow reversible so each side would be interesting..


"Side B"
This is the side with the Tulle!I don't know which side I like best.


Here are the tutorials I used to make my new frilly, ruffly, tulley pillow (I love combining ideas from several tutorials) :

Pillow Piping Tutorial

Ruffle Pillow Tutorial

Ruffle Pouch Tutorial






 That neon piping really "pops!"




I love that this blog is becoming my art journal :)



Sunday, September 25, 2011

Crayons + Hair Dryer

Here's my latest project... melted crayon art! For this one I removed all the wrappers (a VERY tedious job) and broke my crayons into random sizes. Simply slap 'em to the top of your canvas with some glue, allow the glue to dry completely, and melt away to your heart's content. I like to turn my crayon art upside down after the wax dries so the wax looks like its running up the page instead of down. I also used my hair dryer to guide the wax in different directions as it melted. I was after a coral reef motif!

It splatters A LOT so use a backdrop! In fact, cover everything within three feet of your project and don't wear your favorite jeans!

These were Prang brand crayons, which I discovered melted differently than the Crayola brand.  Crayola melts evenly and quickly, drying smooth and shiny, but it's easy to mottle the colors because they mix together easily. I ended up with a lot of gray and brown areas.  Prang results in more textured, matte wax. Because it melted slowly, the Prang wax builds up a little forming neat looking drips that stand off the canvas, and the colors don't mix together as much. You should try both and decide which you like better. I really like both but loved the results from Prang the best.





Here's a look at my first attempt. I was thrilled with the results! It was extremely fascinating to just watch the colors swirl and move together like paint with a mind of its own. Melting crayons is highly addictive so be prepared to spend a small fortune on crayons.

Or just use the ones you have lying around the bottom of your craft drawer.




I use a few metallic crayons for added shimmer :) 

Melted wax is definitely my new favorite medium!!


Monday, September 12, 2011

Braided Scarf Tutorial


Lately I have taken up "pinning" as a new obsession hobby and today I saw this neat blue and yellow "braided scarf" (which is  kinda expensive for like $40! crazy!) and I just had to make my own... for free! I made mine from scarves I already had but my next one will be made out of jersey like the original.




 I apologize for the photo quality... all I had was my iPhone. This is my first time making a tutorial so please bear with me :o)









NOW... the only hard part is the "braid" which is actually a knot. A couple of knots. I knew exactly what they did when I saw the scarf because I always used to knot multiple hairbands to wear on my wrist in the same way. Explaining it is not as easy, however....

I just found this you tube video showing the knot being made perfectly.  Watch it and you'll be all set!



Wish I'd seen this before, but the method I used worked just as well :)


****


Lay one loop over the other so that the knots are opposite one another away from the center


Pull the loops through each other...

...so that the knots are now at the center. Repeat this step until you have the desired effect.



I completed the twist four times with this result.



Untie the ends.



Now the ends of the scarves must simply be sewn together. 



I wrapped one scarf around the other to conceal the fringe. 


Now just sew the last two ends and your done!

And now I need cute boots to wear with it.

Follow me on Pinterest so we can share ideas! I'd love to see what you've been making!