rosiepink

Felt Fish in Party Hats of Course! :)

 Where's the party?!

Annie

It was my Dad's birthday last Friday so another good excuse to make a felty stitchy handmade card.  He's always loved the sea and visiting harbours and used to enjoy a spot of fishing.

I love the look of watercolour and ink and have had a dabble with watercolours in the past but thought it would be fun to try to recreate the look in handmade felt. It's not a bad effort but is something that I want to play with further.

I created rough fishy shapes with loosely felted, very fine, pre-felt, then put them on a base of white fibres. After felting it all together I added a black outline and some colour details with free motion embroidery, and then added some further details with hand embroidery. I thought fishy kisses would make nice bubbles!

After I cut the picture out to stick it on the card I realised that where I had only loosely felted it, it decided to start falling apart a little bit around the edges - arghh!  So I had a think and I dug out my old iridescent medium that I had bought for watercolours years ago (I never did much watercolour but bought lots of bits at the time!) and painted it round the edge of the felt as a kind of "Fray Check" glue and it worked pretty well as a firm edging. And let's face it, glitter is always good!!

I took some of the photos outside and I lost the light quickly, but on the upside I love how some of these threads seem to glow in the dusk a little.

Some more pics:

I also made his Fathers Day card to give with a gift of a special cake and truffles. I decided this time to have a dabble with acrylic paints on paper. I painted stripes to resemble a seascape and didn't like it so I got more paint on a wet brush and scrubbed over it. And then I really liked it! I added some white highlights for waves and three red triangles for sails. I was pretty chuffed that it actually does look like sea. If you look closely you will spot that I also added the iridescent medium again! I do like a bit of glitter me!

He loved the cards so I am restored to 'Favourite Daughter' (a title I love even though I'm his only daughter!)

Thank you! And the winners are...

 

We made a Big Pink Flower to say Thank You :)

 

Gosh! Thank you for so many lovely comments!  We are wowed by such a fabulous response :)

 

All the comments for the giveaway were numbered then an online random number generator was used to choose 3 winning numbers.

 

And the winners are...

 

drum roll...

 

Sue

'I would be thrilled to learn how to make these! They are stunning. My fingers are crossed.'

 

Debbie

'Amazingly beautiful bowls. I would love to make some of these.'

 

Margaret

'Wow! I want to try this! I've recently become interested in working with felt. This appeals to me so much.'

 

(Message to the winners: Congratulations! The pdf bundle will be sent to the email address on your comment).

 

Many thanks again to everyone who entered our giveaway, the positive feedback is very much appreciated!  x

 

 

Giveaway! 3 copies of our latest feltmaking PDF

Handmade Felt & Stitch Bowls

Hello! We're giving away 3 copies of our new PDF 'Handmade Felt & Stitch Bowls'.  

To enter the draw please leave a comment by 10th June 2014.  (All comments are moderated so they do not appear immediately.)

No previous knowledge of making felt or free motion machine stitching is required to make any of the bowls - this PDF is suitable for beginners and established felt makers alike - there are clear step by step instructions and plenty of photographs.

Some bowls are made by cutting and stitching handmade felt and some are formed by just stitching into the felt.  

The bowls vary in complexity and design and we hope that the book will inspire you towards your own designs.  But if you want to make our designs exactly, with the purpose of selling the bowls, then you are welcome to do so.

Find out more about 'Felt and Stitch Bowls'

Good luck in the draw :)  Of course if you buy a copy then win, we'll happily refund you!