How did he get those cheeky cheeks? :)

Have you been trying to needle felt some cute bunnies but just can't get those cheeky cheeks right?  Here's a quite little 'how to' for you!

After you've felted the ball for his head, pull and mix the fibre for both cheeks.  Once mixed split into two balls and work back and forth, felting them down to the same size.

Here I've shown you how much the ball has shrunk as I've felted to give you an idea how much fibre to use for the cheeks.  It does shrink down a lot.  Don't felt them too hard though, just firm.

To attach the balls hold them both in place and 'tack' them on with a few deep pokes to check you are happy with placement.  If they look ok carry on.  Work slowly 

I'm happy with the placement so change down to a finer needle to keep working the cheeks until they are firmer and well attached.  As you work, keep the needle on the angle above, like you are felting one ball into the other.  This way you won't end up with a gap between them.

Want to needle a nose too?  Just take a smaller amount of fibre, felt into a firm ball and then attach, poking downward so that it sits snugly on the cheeks with no gaps.

I just love the way these turn out, they are also great for other animals like cats and dogs!

I hope you enjoyed this quick 'how to'. Stay tuned for more and feel free to make a request if you need help with anything.

You can also join our subscriber group over on facebook at just $10usd a month.  Live classes, and lots of fun.  Click here to visit my fb page  for more info.

 

Dougal joins the Little Handfuls Hug!

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for dropping by! I have a lovely new friend for you to meet. His name is Dougal and he is needle felted from the most gorgeous, natural New Zealand corriedale wool ever! I'm a big one for hand dyed wools so I surprised even myself recently when I fell in love with this beautifully carded fibre at a local craft show! It is a lovely soft cream with a beige ripple running through it!

I also found a lovely teal crochet thread at a thrift market and had been holding on to it for just the right bear!

The lighting isnt the best, it got dark before I was done!
Dougal has the sweetest nose and vintage blue and pewter coloured ribbon.

Don't you love his teal ruffle? (yes, you are supposed to see the stitches! lol)

I'm so pleased with him and I hope you enjoyed meeting him too! It's been a busy week of school holidays, playing pirates and trying to entertain 3 children! Next week it's the movies and the Zoo so it should be fun! Of course I am working all weekend so have to get through that first! I guess I can rest when my youngest starts school in October! lol

Happy crafting all!

New Baby Panda

Please welcome our latest addition to the Little Handfuls Den!!

Penny Panda

Penny is felted in gorgeous merino/alpaca. It is lovely to work with and gives a very good finish.

She is wearing her little diaper and bonnet, has a heart belly button and her little pacifier is tied around her wee wrist!

She has the most expressive eyes and is one of my bigger creations at 4 inches tall.

Penny is just adorable and will probably stay in the den a long time! lol

Hope you enjoyed visiting her!

Happy New Year to all!!

Gorgeous new Bears!!

Hellooooo again, finally!

Gosh I haven't written since before christmas! Hope you are all having a wonderful start to the new year! Things have been so up and down over here, but I am proud to show you some of my latest work! These bears are truly some of my best work and I do hope you will enjoy meeting them!

This little darling is The Toffee Fairy, felted from a gorgeous butter toffee merino wool, this sweet fairy is also smothered in beads of complimentary colours. Her wings are just wonderful too!

Maggie is felted from a wonderful hand blended and dyed wool in pinks, mauves and magentas. She has the sweetest little face with deep burgandy embroidered detailing. She has a lovely felted and embroidered ball as well.

Frankie is felted using some new ideas and tips from Barbara Allens new book through Ashfords. I highly recommend her book if you want to try some new techniques with your felting, lots of flat work in this book and great information.

Did someone order a Magician?? Here is Cadabra, felted from a wonderful merino blend, he has gem buttons, a wonderful purple cape and check out the wand!

Last but certainly not least is Arthur, this fine fellow is lovely and big, he is about 4 inches tall and so chunky. A gorgeous hand dyed turquoise wool and just a simple bear can be so effective!

Hope you enjoyed stopping by!

Who is available for adoption??

Hi all, because I have still not been able to update my website I thought it time to show you a few of my furry friends who are still looking for homes. Below you will find photos of some of my bears and their price in NZ dollars (please visit http://www.xe.com/ for exchange rates). There are many more bears but these are some of my best.
Let me know if you want more photos of any or more info. Payment is through paypal for those outside New Zealand.
YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOS TO SEE THE LARGER IMAGE WHICH IS A GOOD IDEA SO YOU CAN REALLY SEE WHAT THESE WEE BEARS LOOK LIKE!!

Ping Panda and his porcelain egg - felted in blue and white $55nzd
Ugly Duckling - felted in natural grey with black and his brown and green 'grass' $65nzd

Peaches and her goose egg box - felted in hand mixed shades to compliment her apricot egg with a vintage lace 'tutu' $70nzd

Glitter - felted in black berry wools wtih pink sparkly embroidered accents and bling in his belly! $45nzd

The White Rabbit - a large sculpt approx 6 inches tall. Complete with red waistcoat and blue blazer with a yellow bow tie! (Postage will be more for this size) $85nzd

Princess Jewely - felted in a deep plum with big stitched nose and gorgeous jewels $55nzd

Tamarillo - felted in blood red merino blends with gorgeous multi coloured embroidered accents $50nzd

Handbag bears - felted in merino and silk these bears are all available currently and come with their little matching bags. $55nzd each

Tang - felted in gorgeous orangey merino and silk, he is a lovely wee bear $55nzd

Oliver - a larger bear, approx 4 inches long. Very sculpted in chocolate wool with his blue and white knitted hat and scarf. $60nzd

More up for adoption!

Lurple - felted in lime green and purple $55nzd
Tibbs - felted in plum with a baby blue crochet suit and optional wire pram $40nzd bear or $60 incl pram

Katie and Kitty - felted in multi pastel wool and wearing a soft green crochet suit, comes with wee felted kitty curled up on wire wicker chair $65nzd

Hannah - deep blue and rose anime bear with pretty 'sapphire' necklace $60nzd

Fruit Salad - comes with his cake, he is felted in greens and sits holding onto a strawberry, he is removeable $65nzd

Filbert - sculpted in 2 shades of plum with fine features, he's a real stunner $70nzd

Floaties - comes with his air clay 'pool' and felted on arm floaties. He has sunblock on his nose and is just so sweet! $65nzd

Dress Ups - all dressed up in Mums pretty skirt and pearls, felted in soft pastels $45nzd

Blossom Bunny - felted in lavender and pink pastels with a pretty pink quartz star $45nzd

Alpie - felted in pure NZ Alpaca fibre and winner of a blue ribbon at his first show! $65nzd

Please mail me for more photos or information about any of these bears!

There are many more available and no time to show them all! :o)

Show's Over Folks!! :o)

Hi all!

Well I did it, and the show was really great! Even tho the weather was horrid, with gusts blowing my work off my table every 5 minutes! It drizzled with rain for most of the day but people still came out which was really impressive! It was a much bigger even than I would have guessed as I have never even come down to look at the festival before much less be part of it.

Set in our beautiful gardens it spanned across an entire feild, the pavilion area where I was and then further down amongst other gardens was a petting zoo and area full of plants for sale and kitchen produce, conserves etc.

There were artists, knitters, wood workers, beaders, wrought iron sculptors and more! And that was just in my area, I couldn't leave my table to look around unfortunately as I was on my own.

The day was from 10 - 4 and we arrived early to set up which didn't take as long as I would have thought so I started on a bear while I was waiting for folks to arrive. While I did finish the bear I also sold 4 bears, 1 large sculpt (my Mermaid), a felted egg, and bags of wool. I made the same amount in one short day as I have made on my best weekend at the bigger doll and bear shows! I was really impressed and will certainly be attending next year. The cost of the table was a fraction of what it costs me to do the bear shows. So if any of you are thinking of doing shows, I think that even if it's not a bear show it's still worth doing and probably cheaper too.

Here are some pics from the day, firstly my table. My poor sign was in tatters by the end of the day from the wind, and I've had that thing for 3 years now, laminated and all. :o) You can see my bag of wools and such at the end. The bears on the display in the middle were not for sale, the basket at the other end has my felted soaps and easter eggs in it.

This is part of the view from my table, I was under the eaves of the Pavilion and these are all the tents that were in the middle of the garden area there.

This is the view further along, there were 2 of these gorgeous gardens in front of me, what a view! Look how grey the sky was tho!

I had assumed these were Alpacas as an Alpaca lady approached me about making some bears for her store. I'm not totally sure tho, anyone know?

These fabulous stilt walkers wandered around all day in the rain and wind, I was so impressed with them! They looked great and they must have been cold getting drizzled on and then blown about by the wind!

Well that was my day! I'm so pleased I did it. Was a bit of a shame that no one came down to see me that I was expecting, but I was surprised when my Mum and Dad turned up as they have never seen me at any shows. Apparently they were dead impressed with my table so that was cool.

So now it's back to work for the Doll and Bear show in May. I don't really have a lot to do for it, but will just keep making at my usual pace and hopefully produce some really nice pieces. I already have a number of bears that I am really pleased with and hope to enter some comps! Yay, at last I may get to win something as I have nevered entered anything before.

Thanks for dropping by, hope you enjoyed my pics and waffling!

Happy crafting and huggles to all,

Liza

Handful of Handfuls

Oops, it's been a couple of weeks! But what a productive pair of weeks it has been! Having received new wools a fortnight ago I got stuck in to playing with new fibres and messing about with some new ideas. Here is the culmination of my experimentation!!

As I mentioned earlier I was working on my first polar bear!

What do you think?

I've made this guy for a friend of mine, and he was copied from a photo of a real polar bear so they do actually lay like this sometimes! :o)

Jinx

This little guy is felted from a lovely hand dyed mix of blues and violets. He actually has a top lip but it's a bit hard to see in the pics.

Minty is felted in a unique mint green, he's a basic little bear but still sweet.

Cornelius

Now here is a unique bear! Nothing quite like him has appeared in my work before.I do quite like him in his brick red and candyfloss hand dyes.

Tamarillo

This bear is felted from merino in amazing blood red hues. He's darker in person.

Titch

He's just a lil sweetie, look at that face! Fabulous sea green wool.

And of course I am still working on more bears, I actually just finished something a little different and I'm halfway through a baby bear which is coming along nicely! So there will be more to show again soon.

I hope you have enjoyed these new creations. I had so much fun making them. I also want to take the time to thank you all for visiting my blog, I know some of you pop in regularly and that is just so sweet of you. Thank you all for your kind comments and your high praise, I really do appreciate it!

Much love and happy crafting to you all,