Felted Artist Trading Cards

I got this idea from a magazine that I now cannot remember the name of or I would link to it here. This woman made the loveliest Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) from felt and wool roving. So I decided to try it out as some of my work has leaned me toward fiber arts and felting. The ATC biz is something I’ve been interested in as well.

Pink Flowers

This is the first one I made. Needle felted simple round flowers with French knot details and embroidery on a purple felt base. “Hey,” I’m thinking to myself. “This isn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be!” 

House

Needle felted onto black craft felt. Embroidered with glass beads. I added the little bird because the house looked lonely.

Bird’s Nest

I got a little wild with this one. The brown roving nest needle felted onto the cream was boring to my eye. My mother gave me some brown sparkly eyelash yarn from a project she had done. I wasn’t sure if it would stick, but I tried it anyway. I’m really pleased with the results. The green leaves and other beads just makes this one pop. It’s my favorite so far. 

All of these still need a backing sewed onto them with my information for an ATC swap I might try. I just cannot decide what fabric to sew onto them. Plus getting out my sewing machine is hard when my studio is such a mess.

Felted Bead Necklaces

Remember the felt beads Mom and I made? We created many pretty things with them!


Mom designed and made the Green and Black necklace.

Mom did most of the designing. I did some too, but I must say that I think her stuff is better. One of hers has little glass seed beads sewn onto the blue felt beads, and it’s so attractive and elegant.




We made this one together.

The necklace with the purple beads was the hardest to make. Figuring out how to get the filigree parts in between the beads to stay put was a challenge. They are sewed onto the felt beads with purple thread. The rest is strung on tiger tail. Mom did the sewing and I did the holding so they wouldn’t get away from her. It was a two-person job.

One of the necklaces I made is my favorite. The tiger tail is woven in and out of the beads in a fancy way. It has a delicate look about it that I find lovely. The other beads are glass. I wanted to do something different, something decidedly non-felt-bead looking.

This one is sold!

Please see my Flickr page for more pictures. There are a lot more things to see!

Some of these will be posted to my Etsy shop soon. Mom and I are still discussing pricing and shipping costs. I’ll let you know when we roll them out. If you are interested in them now I can set something up just for you.

Never Felt Better

My mom’s birthday was a few weeks ago. She mentioned wanting to make felt beads. I found this great kit from starathena at Etsy and could not pass it up. She loved it! The two of us have spent many days crafting at her house. I adore that we do that together. She taught me so much growing up, and I enjoy still learning from her.

For her birthday we had an old-fashioned sleep over! Girls only! Mom, me, my sister, my two nieces… we had a ball! Mom and I stayed up until 2 am making felt beads from wool roving. We rolled beads until our palms hurt! We started with a bit of wool in different colors and added hot water and dish soap to the mix. Then we rolled it between our hands gently and increased the pressure as the ball got firmer. We made big beads, little beads, red, blue, green, and multi-colored beads. She strung some together with beads from my stash and made a really nice red, black, and silver necklace.



She bought some wool yarn that week and we knitted and crocheted that together to make a felted bag. It’s fun to shrink wool in the washer on purpose! I got some yarn, too, and have been knitting away at a soon-to-be zippered pouch. I’m going to ditch the pattern that calls for kitting on 4 double pointed needles because I cannot figure out how to do that. I knit it too tight anyway. A big rectangle folded and sewn up on the sides will do just fine. Different colored flowers go on the front made from knitted squares that are felted. The flowers are cut out and sewn on with little beads for accents. I don’t really need any more new projects right now but this is too fun!



Mom is stitching the felt bag together.