Personalize it for your Little Ones . . . Felted Ornaments!

Last post, I introduced my first felted Christmas ornament; today I am sharing my 2nd.  I love the fact that felt ornaments are unbreakable and don’t have the metal hook that typical ball ornaments have.  Because they are so kid friendly compared to most store bought balls, I decided to make one specifically to commemorate my child and her age this upcoming holiday season!

On the front of the ornament is her name “Chloe” and on the back is her age “2”.  She can hang this ornament up all by herself, year after year, with no worries of her breaking it or hurting herself.  She is quite adventurous and I constantly wonder what trouble she is getting into.  Now, with soft balls on the base of the tree, and no metal hooks falling off onto the ground, I only have to worry about her pulling the lights out of the wall, or pulling the tree down!  Much lighter load to worry about, huh?  Well, I guess there is no way to remove the innate dangers of this sparkly holiday, but at least I can make it a tiny bit safer for the little ones around.

And this ornament can double as a toy ball; so when everyone is hanging ornaments and the little one won’t stop getting underfoot, just play a game of fetch with her ornament until it’s her turn!  Genius!

I tried to get some decent shots of the ornament, but once it touched Chloe’s sticky hands there was no getting it back!  Here she is smelling it!  I told her to hold it close to her face while I took a picture and this is what I got.  Toddler photography is impossible!  Stay tuned for more holiday ornaments and felt toys.

Is it too EARLY?. . .A Felted Christmas Ornament.

Is it too early for Christmas ornaments???  No!  I’m right on time.  Anyone out there, making homemade gifts and decorations for Christmas knows that you should have already started masterminding the process.  With that said . . . I will share with you my first little Christmas decoration of the year and of course it’s needle felted!

It’s the typical red and green; well one of my ornaments had to be, so I started it off with the tried and true.  A green ball with red sparkling decorations and a neat little bow at the top. I sewed the bow on and then glued it for extra reinforcement.  I was so excited that I didn’t even wait for the glue to dry to snap a photo!

Making Christmas ornamnents for my families’ tree was my first real introduction to crafts of any kind.  I worked hard at it as a child and soon the tree was covered with ornaments that I handcrafted.  And this was no easy task being I was one of four children!

This, however, is my first needle felted ornament.  But it will not be the last;  I just love the idea of these, they are pretty and nonbreakable.  Perfect for the lowest boughs of the tree where little ones tend to gravitate.  The glass, delicate ornaments at the top out of harm’s way, and the soft ornaments safely on the bottom.  I have all kinds of ideas in the works, so expect more ornaments to show up in the next couple of months.

If you carefully perused the photos, you would see that I was not lying about the glue thing!  NO worries, it dries clear!!!  When I complete a few more, I will include this one in the pictures so that you can see it completely dry.  Also, you can see that I was not afraid to let my crazy kids hold it;  “It’s okay that you dropped it, threw it, stepped on it!  I’m not mad.  Really!!”  Now, get out there and make some ornaments, at least find some really cute ones available for purchase!

Ghostie Family

My felt creations this time are inspired by the creepy crawlies of Halloween!  It’s a little ghost family.  A mommy ghost, a daddy ghost, and a baby ghost.  You can decide who is who.  It’s like the three little bears but scarier because it’s ghosts!!!  I decided to hang mine up with some thread, so that they appear to be floating in thin air.  Just like real ghosts!

I think that the faces turned out pretty adorable.  These are my tiniest creations as of yet.  They are only about 1.5 to 2 inches tall.  They are little yet pack that scary punch.  They are great Halloween decorations.  Hang them near the candy bowl, on your kids’ bunkbeds, or under doorways.  They are also great little handheld toys for this time of the year.  Kids are sure to moan “woooo” when they are holding these little cuties.

Felted Fall Pumpkin turned Jack-O-Lantern!

Last post, I showed everyone my little fall felt pumpkin.  Today, I will show you that same pumpkin with a “scary face”!  Get ready! Hide the children!  This is one monstrous jack-o-lantern!

Alright, alright, he is actually not very scary at all. Doing this felted project brought back some cherished childhood memories.  Sitting at the table, assigned the task of drawing a scary jack-o-lantern face knowing that the scariest will win.  I was one of four kids and my chances were pretty low that my spooky drawing would win; throw in my dad’s drawings and I was sure to lose!  My dad could create the scariest jack-o-lantern faces.  And while he might would “use” my eyes, or nose as inspiration on the finished jack-o-lantern; everyone knew that it was my dad’s drawing on that pumpkin!  Perhaps I should have consulted him before felting my version of a “scary” jack-o-lantern, because after all these years I still can’t compare.

I made his eyes, nose, and mouth yellow to resemble that inner glow that all jack-o-lanterns seem to contain!  And he actually looks rather friendly, like a young child who has lost a few teeth!  Not intimidating at all.  But I love cutesy, so he will do just fine for me!  I hope you all were inspired to create “spooky” or “cutesy” Halloween decorations of your very own.