Daiso Needle Felting Bunny Kit

So, once I'd gotten the felting bug, I bought several kits off of Amazon for relatively cheap. Several sets came from Daiso brand. I so wish there was a Daiso where I lived, but yay for those who do live near one and sell those items. Yes, I know, I am probably being ripped off, but...Daiso products!!! :-)

So one of the needle felting kits was the cute pink bunny you see here. I kind of think it's a he, even though he's pink. This little guy's face is just so adorable, and the packaging is super cute too. I just had to have it.

So when you open the package, you get the wool for the project, a felting needling, plastic eyes, and a chain to make this little guy into a key chain or you could just hang him on whatever you want. Right away, I noticed the wool in this set is way better than the wool in the Dimensions set I reviewed earlier. No icky debris to be seen, just nice pink wool. In the set you also get an instruction sheet that is in Japanese, and I want to say it was English on the reverse side. I know I didn't have trouble piecing him together, so there is either English on one side of the sheet or the pictures are very detailed and show you the steps well.

So, after much stabby stabby, this is what I got. Ok, so he's doesn't really look like the picture on the package. Ok, he doesn't look like it at all, besides the fact that he's pink, but I still adore him. Once again, I think the problem was that I used too much wool and tried to rush through this. Needle felting requires time and patience, and while I was taking my time, I so didn't want to stab myself, I still ended up with big ears and a wonky face. The face, I believe, is because I was trying to be precise and that caused me to keep felting and that changed the shape of my bunny. But even though he's kind of wonky, he's unique, and I love him. I would like to try this set again to see what kind of results I get now that I know what shape I am looking for, and I know to build up rather than just take a big hunk of wool and go at it.

Hummm, I think I need to name this guy. Hummm, I think...Fluffer McFluffybutt. Yep, perfect. LOL! I hope you guys like seeing my silly little guy. I have more to share, and this guy isn't even the worst one, if you can believe that. Let's just say, there's this dolphin and well...you'll have to stay tuned to see him. :-)

And on that note, I am off my lovelies. I have many things to do today, like take pictures of my 17inch girls to show you. I meant to take pictures when I got them, but I just haven't been up to it, nor had time, nor had a good place to take pictures. But you will see them soon in this space and I can't wait to share them with you. :-) Take care until my next post. Bye for now. :-)

Love always,
Mickey ♥

Let Me Introduce You To My Hedgedog. Wait? What?

Hey all! It's been a while. I've been busy working on some hobbies and haven't had much time to blog. However, speaking of hobbies, I thought it was time for me to share with you all one of my new favorite hobbies. Needle felting!!!


Now these pictures are from last year, and I have sadly worked through all my sets, but I plan to get more around the holiday time to do. Right now I just have too much on my plate, but I wanted to share my first silly attempts.

So the first set I purchased was the Dimensions Hedgehog Needle Felt Character Kit. I read everywhere that it would be easy, so I thought 'why not', and I ordered it. This is what it looked like fresh out of the package. He was too cute to pass up.

Well, after I got everything laid out and started

looking at things, I began to think this wasn't going to go so smoothly as I thought. I had read in the comments on Amazon that the set had some rust colored debris in the wool, and some said they didn't have that, so I took a chance on it. When I opened my wool, I was sad to see mine had the debris, but I decided to go ahead and do the set. I figured once it was all together you wouldn't notice it. So this is what I got in the package. The reason I got this set is because you got everything you needed to complete the set, which I felt was a plus. So you get a felting needle, you have to use felting needles because they have barbs on them that help entangle the wool. You get a bag of wool that is 'suppose' to complete the full project...more on that later. You get the thread to create the mouth and lines on the hedgehog. You get black plastic eyes, I believe you get four just in case you lose one. And the little white mat is your felting mat. Then of course you get the instructions. I was ready to start.

So, I started with the body first, and I think this is where I really felt this set was going to let me down. I did as the instructions said, but I never ended up with a body that said I should. I was suppose to felt until the body was firm and formed the shape suggested in the instructions. I got the length but not the width. I thought maybe after I got the brown on it would look different. Not so much. In all fairness to myself, this was one of my first attempts at doing needle felting, I believe I did this one last or second to last out of my sets. I think what I learned was to be more sparing with the wool, you don't have to use everything given to you. Instead of a hedgehog, I got a hedgedog. Hummmm....well...he is cute. Maybe even cuter than the hedgehog. LOL!

So, would I recommend this set? Yes and no. First of all, the rust particles on the wool were just disgusting. I felt that the wool was not properly cleaned. It made the finished product look dirty to me. However, besides the particles, perhaps if I had

more experience I would have been able to get a better shaped hedgehog. I wouldn't follow the instructions given to me about the size. I feel that the body would have turned out better following the picture for sizing rather than the instructions suggestions. A lot of the wool used in the legs could have gone to the body. I would use less wool than what I did use because those ears are massive and I didn't have any left over for the nose so I had to felt some black in for the nose. I would also take more time to form things and build up rather than grab a hunk of wool and go at it. Now, if you have more experience with needle felting I say go for it, but if you are new to it, I would say get something with less colors and pieces to deal with. Something that has more big pieces to connect together would be better too. There are some sets by Dimensions that I want to try, like their fox, and I honestly want to get this set again and try it again. So that may be a future post on me trying to get a hedgehog to form from the set.. Until then, I have Snuffles The Mighty Hedgedog...I came up with that just now, it's a working name in progress. LOL!

So tell me, have you tried needle felting before? Do you like it? I like it. It's fun to do. I had to wuss out and get finger and thumb guards. I have 'stabbed' myself with the needle, but the guards got the pokes instead of me. What can I say? I don't like pain, and I sure as heck don't want a barbed needle poking into my finger. Sure you can do it without them and just protect your fingers by how you position the wool and always know where your fingers are, but I just felt safer with the guards. Never be embarrassed by protecting yourself while crafting people. :-) If you have pictures of your needle felting crafts feel free to link to them below, I'd love to see them. I have pictures of my other sets I did that I will post about later. Spoiler alert, they all suffered a similar fate to Snuffles The Mighty Hedgedog, you'll want to check back for those gems. LOL! And on that note, I will talk to you awesome people later. Take care until then. Bye for now. :-)

Love always,
Michelle

Needle Felting Experiment 1

So, I thought it was time I got to my first experiences with needle felting. I admit, I am kind of bummed with how things turned out, but I know that eventually my work will get to a level I like. While I do like what I’ve created, I didn’t like that they didn’t turn out how the picture on the kits said they should. I have always had a problem following patterns to create something the way someone else says it should look. So I think from now on my felting adventures will be more from my creative eye and less from somebody else’s. I may still get a kit every now and again, but I want to try seeing what I can come up with on my own. Once again, I blame Maqaroon for giving me the needle felting bug. I really love her channel and videos. She inspires me in my future goals in where I’d like to take my hobbies.

So after getting bit with the needle felting bug I jumped onto Amazon and found some kits for relatively cheap to play with. The first kit I picked out was Dimensions Needlecraft Feltworks Complete Beginner Kit. This kit has everything to get you started needle crafting. Well, almost everything. I say this because, when I opened the kit to make it, I tried using the needle that they include in the kit and found it almost impossible to use. I stabbed at the wool lightly, hard, and somewhere in between but it wouldn’t felt together. I then took a needle from a needle felting supply kit I bought from a Chinese seller on Amazon, and it worked instantly. So if you do buy a kit, you may want to have some other trustworthy needles to actually put it together with or risk sitting there a long time stabbing at the wool hoping it will felt, see the needles below I got from the kit. They are very small and don’t have a lot of “barbs” on the end.

Once I got the right needle, the felting part went relatively smooth. I read the directions, put on my needle felting thimbles, and started. After a few minutes of stabbing, I got into the flow of things. However, being new at needle felting, I wasn’t sure how much pressure to put on the needle and how to angle it, even after reading the instructions, still found myself having to stab at weird angles to get the look I was going for. So I wasn’t too shocked when about a forth of the way through I felt a snap, heard a metallic click, and noticed my needle was no longer pointy. I looked at my project and noticed the blunt end of the needle poking out from the wool. I carefully pulled it out, replaced the needle, and took it much gentler with the stabbing. So from what I understand, when you needle felt, go directly up and down so you go strictly in and out. This means no stabbing from funky angles, at least not when you are a beginner. And don’t be to aggressive with your needles or they will snap. You can see my blunted needle and the underside of my work below. That pointy bit on the right part of the picture is the other half of my needle.

Once I thought I was done, I simply pulled the project up from the mat. Do this carefully and slow. I don’t know why the whole process of pulling the wool out from the foam mat gave me shivers. To me it was the equivalent of finding a plant growing from the rug, it was just unnatural to me. LOL! So I tried to pull up as quickly and as slowly as I could go. LOL! I took a quick video of me pulling up to show you what I mean.

As you can see, I like to watch, or rather listen, to things while I craft. That day I was catching up some on the Shaytards. I am still behind on videos with them. I need to have another crafty day and soon. Also, you could see that after I pulled the project up there were a lot of gaps I didn’t see while working on it. All I did was put it back on the mat and work on it some more. What you didn’t get to see was when I started working on the center of the flower I started putting the black in the wrong place, placed it where the white dots are instead of the surrounding area, and had to pull them out, pull the fibers free as best as I could, and then put them where they were suppose to go. Needle felting can be very forgiving on your mistakes.

So, what do you do with your appliqué after you are done? Well you can either cut close around it and attach it things like clothing or bags, you can frame it, or you can get another felt item like a little purse or bag and needle felt it onto that. The possibilities are endless, just use your crafty imagination. What am I going to do with mine? I think I may frame it to remind me of my first attempt at needle felting.

So what do I think about needle felting? I like it. I want to try it some more, try different felting fibers, try different needles, try different mats, and just see what I prefer to create with. As with any new craft I start, I went the cheap route in case I didn’t like the craft. I got a cheap supplies set that ended up working way better than the stuff that came with the kits; take a look at the first picture above, I got 5 kits to make, and I got some thimbles/ finger guards to get me started; take a look at the second picture above. Can I just say I LOVE the thimbles I bought. They are silicone and have saved my fingers many times already. I got some leather ones in the cheap supply set I bought, but they are a tight fit for me and I’d rather be comfortable, and part of me believes they won’t protect me as well as the silicone ones will. However I will give them a try again, after I get better at needle felting, and will report back to you on how well they are. Also, the mat that I got in the cheap set, although it worked better than the mats I got in some of the sets I got, it is still super cheap and after a few uses it becomes useless. So I want to invest in a better mat that will last me longer than the “packaging foam” mat I got in the kit. Seriously, if you are in a bind for a mat, the one I have is just like the foam you’d find in boxes that hold electronics. So if you have some laying around, BAM!, there you go, instant mat.

And that’s about it for my first try at needle felting. I enjoyed the motion of felting and no sooner I finished this I decided to jump into my next project right away, a felted bunny. Now that was a whole new adventure. Felting flat and felting round, though very similar, takes forming a new tactic on doing. You’ll see that blog post really soon. :-) And on that note, I will talk to you lovelies later. Until next time. Take care. Bye for now. :-)