Valentines Day Box of Chocolates Felt Hair Clip

This one goes out to all you non-sewers out there!

Will need:

Bright red thick wool felt I used: Cardinal  a few layers of blend felt might work too.

Various Brown felt scraps, all the colors here came from the Chocoholics felt pack

Alligator hair clip

Hot glue gun

Felt Glue

Beads and cross stitching thread (optional)

Templates (at bottom of post)

Cut templates out of corresponding colors.

(for help on cutting small things from felt see: Andie’s Method for cutting small shapes)

You are not allowed to laugh at my stitching one of my New Years Resolutions is to learn proper embroidery stitches. If yours are worse than mine, which is hard to imagine or if you are just in a hurry you can substitute stitching with more beads or just leave the shapes plain.

1. Brown embroidery thread stitched lengthwise

2. Pale Yellow embroidery thread stitched in a zig zag pattern

3. Small bead felt glued

4. White  embroidery thread in an S shape

5. Brown bead glued down

6. Plain

7. Smaller shape felt glued to bigger shape.

Allow these pieces to sit while you cut out the felt heart shape and a strip of felt to cover the perimeter approx 1/4″ inch wide by 9.5″ inches long.

Apply felt Glue to edge of heart shape.

Run Strip of felt along side and pin to hold.

Let everything sit for about an hour.

Remove pins.

Glue chocolates into place, the easiest way to do this is to place a small amount of glue onto the tip of a pin and place the glue onto the heart.

Carefully put the chocolates into their spaces allow to dry for 30 minutes

Turn Clip over and hot glue clip to back

Give to your Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

Tags: felt, tutorial, easy, DIY, craft, chocolate, project, Valentines Day, hair clip, box, heart, no sew, felt glue

World Greatest Aunt . . .or not.

I have this obsession with being the worlds greatest Aunt. I have a lot of Aunts so it may stem from some childhood fantasy in which they all compete for who can sneak me the most chewing gum. Plus who wouldn’t love little people who find you infinitely interesting. The best part is you can fill full of sugar, tell them hilarious stories featuring their mother’s most embarrassing moments and send them on home.

My nephew Max is an intrepid explorer and fearless lover of life (as long as his mom is sill in sight) So I knew just what to make him for Christmas this year  -a custom made super hero costume complete with back story.

(A little background. Max is a head butt-er and we often call him Max a Moose.)

Box outside - Box contents

The letter inside reads:

The Max File:

AKA Max A Moose, AKA baby Max,

In 19XX president XXXXXXXXXXX   implemented a secret animal lab deep within Yellowstone Park. The program’s goal was to create the worlds most powerful woodland creatures. In 19XX due to reports of the animals mysterious powers the program was scraped and its subjects destroyed one animal A-520XX, listed as a large moose with an extremely hard head, and incredible strength remained unaccounted for.
While on a trip backpacking through Yellowstone Park young Max was approached by a moose matching the missing animals description.

Witnesses claim that the powerful moose moved backward, lowered his enormous antlers and ran towards Max who it is believed lowered his head to meet the oncoming Moose. It is now known that Max  possessed an extremely rare equally hard head, an amazing coincidence!  When the two incredibly thick heads met the magical powers of the Moose were transferred to Max. He now possesses the worlds hardest head and can defeat any foe with one head butt. He loves to eat all his vegetables they make him strong so can run like the wind. He bugles (makes a loud noise) for help from Mom or Dad if he’s in trouble. He is as smart as a moose and only plays in safe places. He is XXXXXXXXXXXX! He is brave and gentle and kind with a heart as big as the biggest bull moose. Perhaps you will discover more powers as you learn more about the superhero who now calls himself

MAX A (the A is for Amazing) MOOSE!
Enclosed you will find the authentic Max A Moose uniform, snatched during his last bath. Do with it what you will.

1 Good Listener Moose Mask (Moose have excellent hearing)
1 Official one of a kind Max A Moose Bull Moose Cape
2 Mane of the Moose 4-in-1 combination gauntlet, kneepads, elbow guard, Toupee.
Merry Christmas
This Message will self destruct (you’re 2 – it’s cardboard)

Made from Fleece, wool blend Felt, Faux Fur, Gold Lame, Elastic.

Once I finished the cape I noticed I had a perfect near  perfect rectangle of both felt and faux fur left over, my husband suggested a loin cloth but I just couldn’t be responsible for the pictures that put the kid in therapy for life.  I decided on knee pads, but then changed to gauntlets finally deciding to put ties on them so they can be whatever Max wants them to be, including a loin cloth.  (They also work well as Donald Trump hair, don’t ask me how I know this, I just know.)

Here’s where the picture of Max LOVING my gift WOULD  HAVE BEEN

But it’s late January and he still won’t even put it on!

(Turns out he’s more crusader than masked crusader)

That’s OK Max I’ll just stock up on chewing gum.

Tags: cape, DIY, felt, head butt, superhero, woodland creatures

Crinkle Material for Baby and Pet Toys now in stock!

IN STOCK NOW Crinkle material for baby toys

Our search for a high quality CPSIA and EN71 compliant crinkle material (often called crinkle paper or baby paper) has taken years, literally.

Why did it take so long?

Well Simply finding out where to buy crinkle material used in baby and pet toys, was quite difficult. Once we found a supplier many of the samples we ordered broke down in the washer, lost crinkle or  couldn’t hold a stitch. But most importantly we knew any crinkle material we carried had to be CPSIA and EN71 safety standard complaint making it safe for use in toys.

We finally found everything we were looking for with this commercial quality crinkle material, – made for a major toy manufacturer  and sold exclusively for resale to us-  perfect for loveies, stuffies, blankies, and toys. And knowing it meets CPSIA and EN71 standards will allow everyone to sleep well at night!

Machine washable, dryer safe, durable and SUPER loud!

(and drying in dryer normal heat)

Crinkle Material left exposed to demonstrate durability.

For maxumim crinkle sew your crinke material down on all sides.

Meets EN71 and CPSIA standards for safety.

Totally machine washable. Our Crinkle Material won’t shrink, curl or lose sound when washed.

Commercial strength made specifically for use in toys AFC’s crinkle will withstand vigorous playing.

Sold in 14″ x 36″ yards.

http://stores.americanfeltandcraft.com/-strse-434/Crinkle-Material-NEW/Detail.bok

Contact customerservice@feltandcraft.com for wholesale and bulk orders.

 

Tags: baby, baby toys, crinkle, handmade toy, krinkle, material, paper

And the winner is

The winner of our Color of the year contest is commenter number #20  Jen!

For all of you who aren’t Jen but are good enough sports to keep reading use this coupon code to save 10%: 93664

 (psst Jen you can use it too, I won’t tell)

 

Tags: contest

The super easy 10 minute Cherry on Top Cupcake Hat!

When I spotted my daughters pink knit hat the other day I knew I had to stop everything and fancify it.

10 minutes later I had this awesome cupcake hat.

You will need:

• 1 knit hat (the dollar section of Target’s version seen here)
• Matching thread
• American Felt and Craft Sprinkle beads (or beads of various color)
• Beading or thin needle.
• American Felt and Craft cherry, wool ball, or pom pom

The knit hat used was double thickness so I was careful to only sew through one of the thicknesses.

The trick here is to sew as few knit stitches as possible so the beads won’t be stretched with the hat.

Arrow points to tacking stitch knot

Begin by threading your beading needle and sewing a tacking stitch to 2 or 3 of the knit stitches, you can hide the knot by positioning the bead over it .

Tack down the opposite side. Since the second layer of knit takes most of the stretching the beads stay put without affecting the fit. Repeat until your happy with the look.

Tack cherry to the top by sewing through the base of the cherry and back through the bottom of the hat since the cherry is placed in the center you can go through both thickesses to help it sit upright without affecting the fit.

And there you are with an awesome hat!

Tags: beads, cherry, craft, cupcake, fast, gift, hat, winter

A Mystery Revealed

You may remember this most mysterious blog post from Dec 13th…

Well today I am so excited to show you guys the NEW American Felt and Kits and share with you the story behind them!

Just a few weeks ago I was contacted by a buyer at Zulily who was familiar with my work and asked if I would be interested in working with them to sell some of my kits.

My conversation with Zulily seemed like the perfect opportunity to revamp the kits, and add some new ones to the mix…and although my time frame was nail bitingly short I had to give it a go. After all all I needed to do was; Sew beautiful sample pieces, redesign patterns, take inventory, order supplies, literally cut THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of pieces of felt by hand, then package hundreds of kits in less than a month during the Christmas Season, while still doing all my other AFC stuff this…shouldn’t be a problem right?

My friend and graphic designer extraordinaire Maura Huston of Blackbirdie.com stepped up and gave my patterns the much-needed face lift in a matter of days. Aren’t they pretty?

And amazingly we’re still friends!! None of my type A nit-picking threw her off a bit it could be that she’s a professional or that she has built up an immunity to me and I have long since lost the ability to irritate her either way I think the patterns look great!

Meanwhile I sewed samples day and night!

(A little secret, the blueberry muffin, the Brownie Pan and all the shrimp you will see pictured on Zulily’s site this Sunday the are actually just snatched from my kids collection to save time, some of them are 3 years old.)

Then I  cut the pieces for the kit samples, printed off the sample patterns and sent everything off.

That’s when the real work began…I tried to remember to take pictures but as you might have guessed I was pretty busy.

Here are some of the thread cards, each one represents a kit.

Sorting through thousands of pages of patterns from the print company.

Empty cardboard inserts from felt bolts, which were hand cut into the correct sizes, we ended up with about 3 stacks of these!! Anyone know a great craft project for about 60 empty cardboard bolts?

Packaging hundreds of kits

There you have it!

And on Jan 1st you will have access to the new kits on Zulily at a DEEPLY discounted prices!

All 100% made in the USA!

If you’re not a member of  Zulily it’s free to join and here’s an invite: Join Zulily

I’m still getting the kits and pattern redesigns listed at the store so it may be a day or two before they are available there.

I’ll keep you guys posted!

Tags: bulk, felt, Felt Food, kits, pattern making, wholesale

Color of the year!

The color of the year for 2012 is Tangerine Tango!

Big Apple,  Lipstick,  Tangerine

I am not really sure how this applies to anything that might have to do with my real life but hey any chance to celebrate color and I am in.

I know what your thinking…is there a similar color available in felt. I cannot bear for my felt projects to be unfashionable.

Oh you weren’t thinking that? Well now you are so…I came up with 3.

Tell me which you think is the closest and you could win a $10 gift certificate to our store!

Just leave your choice in the comment field and one comment will be chosen at random on Jan 12 2012. How easy is that?

Tags: color, contest, felt, Tangerine tango