Little birdies on Etsy

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Thanks to the great response I had when I posted my little felt birds earlier this week, I have updated my Etsy shop to sell a few, including this one I made since my last post:

And in the process I figured out a way to get a better Etsy button on my blog side bar. (You can teach an old dog new tricks!)
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Thanks for the love and support you show me every time you leave a comment on my blog. It encourages me to keep moving forward!

xo

This little birdie...

When I find something I enjoy making I'll usually bust out a few of them before moving onto something else. A couple of weeks ago I saw this cute bird garland and was inspired. If I had had thick felt on hand I would have created one exactly like it, but I didn't so I had to improvise.

I decided to stitch two thicknesses of felt together. As I was stitching I thought, "I'll add a little stuffing..." Oh and then, "Some long strands of yarn with a knot at the end for the legs and feet..." I added an eye that I didn't like, so only the first bird got an eye...

I'd been wanting to try my hand at a fabric yo-yo and thought that would be a cute addition...and a button...and half of a large flower folded and inked for a wing...

Carrie wanted one in teal blue so this one came next:

I tried this one with no legs...decided I like with legs better...

And one more for good measure...

So, that's how my creative process works sometimes. I set out to make a plain and simple bird garland, and came up with something fairly different. I'm not sure what I'll do with these...the pink one went to my niece, Savannah. I think I might use the others to tie onto the tops of gift packages.

Doing this post makes me want to create a few more. I have an idea for stitching some with my machine using muslin rather than felt... ~sigh~ My mind just will not stop...

What do you think? Do you like them better with or without legs?

Happy Easter!

This little birdie has flown to Glendale, Arizona

to live with my sweet niece, Savannah.

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Happy Easter everyone!

Swirly flower power

I am loving these little flowers!!! I came across this video tutorial at Lollychops website. These are so easy and fun to make...I just had to share them. Be warned, they are addictive! I sat down and made 30 of them in an afternoon.

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The video at Lollychops is FUN and I encourage you to give it a glance, but in the meantime, I took a few photos of the process...

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You start by cutting a circle (I used felt for this, but you can use paper as well), then cut the circle in a spiral toward the center. This one is about 2" across, and I don't worry about it being a perfect circle...

Grab the end with a pair of tweezers and start wrapping it around...

Continue wrapping until you get to the end/center of the circle...

Slip it off the tweezers and add a good glob of glue.

Here's what the bottom will look like:

I free-hand cut some leaves from green felt and glued them to the bottom. Super easy. :o)

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I had so much fun experimenting with the two different styles. If you cut the spiral in a wavy line, you get uneven rose petals like this:

And if you cut the spiral in a smooth line, you get a flat little flower like this:

And they are also very cute made with paper...

I think I'll use some of these flowers to decorate a spring-themed picture frame.

:o)
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I ♥ felt.

Santa brought Daughter an iPod Touch for Christmas and I (being Santa's helper) whipped up a little felt cover to keep it pretty.

Simple.

Quick.

Practical.

...and a chance to play with felt. :o)