Easter Crafts

More rain, but some lovely crafts brightened up our day.  It was great to share some crafty company with kids, thanks to Kate and her two boys, and Cynthia and her two girls.  Surprise walnuts with ladybirds hidden inside and fabulous felted eggs were the order of the day.  Kate’s eldest boy was so helpful and a natural born felter! It is wonderful to see young children engage with what we do in their own special ways, and certainly helps to weave a little sunshine into everyone’s hearts.

wet felted eggs with needle felted embellishments

If you want to see more of our crafts, or pick up a little special something before the holidays, drop in and see Wendy in the front office where a selection of our crafts are on sale and display.  Beautiful painted silk cards, nests of felted eggs, hand stitched chicks, surprise walnuts and wee felt mice are all available, but they won’t last long!

hollow felted egg with hand sewn chick

Happy holidays to all our crafty friends, look out for updates next term for another fun filled crafternoon (or morning) …

 

Crowns and Kittens

As the term quickly draws to a close it is great to see some more projects being finished off for the fair. This week it was some lovely dress up or birthday crowns embellished and hand sewn in felt fit for little princes and princesses or even one for a deep sea Poseidon. Next week we hope to sew up some capes and simple dress ups to accompany them.

A felt crown fit for a princess

Diane was also on hand to sew some of our soft hand knitted squares and crocheted squares into bunnies and kittens. A big thanks to all who have knitted and crocheted at home (and in buses and on train trips…) for us this term it makes our production of items run so much more smoothly and quickly on a Thursday.

Softly stuffed knitted kitten

We are enjoying weaving a little sunshine, but right now would love to be gathering some raindrops too, here’s hoping…

Tutorial – Felt Flower Hair Bands

felt flower hair ties

Here is a very simple craft with beautiful results.

You will need :

small scraps of felt in the flower colour of your choice

small scraps of green felt for the leaves

soft elastic hair ties

small beads

needle and thread

small sharp scissors

The first step is to cut two flower shapes, one slightly larger than the other and some leaf shapes out of your felt scraps. Using small sharp scissors like nail scissors can make this step easier

Draw the thread up through the hair eleastic and all the felt layers,then the bead,

Knotting the end of your thread, sew up through the hair eleastic, then the leaves, larger flower, smaller flower, and finally a small bead.

sew back through down to the hair elastic in almost the same spot, and repeat, up and down a few times to secure all the pieces together.

Flower hair tie from the back

Finish off by securing your thread in a hidden spot at the back of the flower with some small stitches in the one spot.  Inside the curl of the hair elastic works well, or on the felt leaves close to your other through stitches.

Snip off your thread and you are done.

You could just make one for a lovely ponytail accessory, or make matching or complementing colour sets to use for pigtails, or plaits.

So many fun possibilities for such a quick little craft.

Have fun weaving a little sunshine in your life this week.

A  finished pair of flower hair ties in complementing colours