Gru and minions

I have had a very busy week and just not had time to blog. It's weekend now so here we go.

A while ago I felted a minion from the film Despicable Me. My daughter loves them and once word got round I was asked to make a few more. Then my asked if I could make a Gru as well. Why not! 

It turned out to be a lot harder than i thought but here he is with his two helpers. What do you think? 

Lisa xx

A Womens Institute Easter.

I have such a busy week ahead, working more hours, dentists and hospital appointments to attend. I thought i had better start to get myself organised for a needle felting class i am doing at a local Womens Institute over the Easter holidays.

I did my first one for them before christmas and they said they loved it so much, they have asked me to come back.  For the one i did at christmas we made a felted christmas bauble, as it's getting closer to Easter and they already have a little experience, they have asked if they could make something Easter related and a bit more difficult.

After giving it much thought and doing a bit of research i made this.

I call it the bunny-egg!

So today has been spent making samples, tutorials and making wool packs up.

Making sure each lady will have the right amount of wool. Carefully weighing how many grammes are needed. Then packing them up.

I now have a box full of twenty packs and a tutorial ready for printing.

I still have more work to do but i feel better knowing i have made a good start.

I will blog the results later.

Lisa xx

Meet Rodney!

Sir Rodney as i now call him has been the biggest thing i have felted to date. He was also my first wired piece. I had no idea of what he was going to be or what he was going to look like. It was one of those ' lets see what it ends up like' projects. 

I ended up entering him in a local show and 

Not only did he win 1st in his catagory, he won best in show!. 

Clever Rodney!

Once i have finished my orders i will be making something 'made up' again!

No stress

Yesterday i wrote about blog frenzy and how its easy to get stressed about it.
Today i have been playing about with my blog trying to make it look better and adding a couple more things. It took me far too long and i should have been felting. I wanted to give it a go just to know a bit more. Now its out of my system.. For a while anyway.
From now on i am going to approach my blog the same way i have my felting.
One day at a time!
Let me explain and at the same time in keeping with the felting theme.
When i first found needle felting it was like i had found the craft i'd been looking for all my life. It was only by chance i spotted it on Pinterest and after buying some wool and needles i was hooked.
My first few attempts were somewhat terrible but its all about practising and trying and eventually i did get better.
I was only ever thinking of it being a hobby but after my neighbour saw some of my work, she (not me) booked me a craft fair at the local nursary school. It was a huge success and it not only encouraged me to start my facebook page but also made me think i could make something of this.

I wrote down loads of things i could do, from getting orders to making tutorials and teaching workshops but i promised myself i would do it one step at a time one day at a time.
And that is what i am doing.
I now have plenty of orders to keep me going slowly and steadily without panicking to complete them on time. I have more craft fairs and workshops under my belt with more booked with decent gaps inbetween them, to allow me to prepare for them in good time.
Each week my facebook page is getting more and more likes as 'word' is getting round without using 'likeme' pages.
I still have loads to ideas wrote down (one of them was a blog) and im sure i will get round to more of them all in good time.
After all its not a race i have plenty of time and hopefully by the time i hit (early) retirement  i will have a small business that will earn me what i need to get by.
So as for a blogging frenzy.....
I'm not stressing about it anymore it will improve in its own time.

Sweeper dog!

Its not a very well known character from Alice in wonderland but it was certainly the strangest felt i have ever made!

What do you think? 

Lisa x

Another learning curve

Ive been busy felting over the last couple of days and with more orders taken....yeah! I needed to concentrate on finishing and starting some more.
While ive been sat felting i have been thinking a lot about this blog and blogging in general.

Its easy to get caught up in the blogging frenzy i have decided.

I first set up this blog not having any idea what i was doing or why i was doing it. Or knowing if there was a difference between a blog and a web site? ...still not sure.. Then left it so long  i forgot my password etc etc.
It wasnt until i started reading my sisters blog ( the curved opinion on my followed blogs) that i even started to understand what a blog was!
Months later my friend and colleague at work started her blog ( extraordinary chaos on my following blog) and the frenzy began....
In our 'breaks' we talk blogs, stats and audience views. Its still all a bit of a fuzz to me ( im just happy stabbing a needle into wool) but we compared blogs and she ( who is really into itblogging ow) has shown me a few things to get me audience rating up as well as some more tips.  Hers is now topping 2000! Views! ... mine still trying to reach a mere 300 ( most of them probably mine since i cant turn the 'dont show your ratings' button off!)
I would like to think its because im only blogging about needle felting and she ( i dont like calling her she by the way so i will call her S)  S is blogging about lots of different things so maybe thats why?but then my sister ( who i will now call V see i dont even know if you can say real names on here! What am i like!
Anyway V only really blogs about  plus size things and reviews things although she does work hard at it and has put loads of time into it. So that cant be the reason can it.
I look at other peoples blogs and as well as thinking, 'they look nice' i also think 'how have they got the time to do all this?' I like to think i am an organised person, im married, have two teenagers to whom i am mum/taxi driver, a house to run, a dog ( soon to be two of them) ( maybe i should blog that too?) a cat, a snake, i work and i felt! Do i have time to blog too?

You know, yes of course i do!

And in my next blog im going to explain how im going to do it.

Queen of hearts!

She is finally complete. I only had to rip her head off a few times before i was happy with it. 

Here she is and a few more photos of her during her making.

I have started on the most strange creation of the wonderland characters and by far the strangest i have felted so far. The sweeper dog!

Here he is with Alice 

Watch this space

Lisa x

Im late!

A break from queenie, shes having her finishing touches still. I cant make my mind up whether i have finished with her face or not. Ill let you know.

Until then here is one i finished a couple of weeks ago. The white rabbit!

For now back to the queen!

Lisa x

Facial expression

Working on the queen of hearts again today. I should get her finished tonight i think.
I love watching the felts come together. By adding a single needle stab to one area can change the look as much as adding more wool.
Incrediable really!
I think thats why i love felting so much, wool is a most forgiving sustance to work with. If your not happy rip it off, restab or add more! Fabulous!
Heres a bit more of the queenie.
Lisa x

Still some work to do!

The queen of hearts is appearing slowly.......

Its the first time i have took photos of my work in stages and its really quite strange looking back at them. I suppose they will help me in the future if i ever made anything similar. 

Anyway here she is more photos soon! 

Thanks for looking 

Lisa x

Off with her head!

Said the queen of hearts!

She is the next one in my Alice in wonderland set ive been commissioned to do.

I thought id share with you the evolution of her head over the next few blogs, before you see her finished look. I find faces the hardest thing to do and usually end up ripping it off at least three times before im happy with it. In this case every time i do i shall say. OFF WITH HER HEAD hehe.

Here she is so far!

More to this than meets the eye.

Ive been inquisitive about blogging for a while now. My sister is an avid blogger and it made me have a dabble. Then my friend at work started blogging and has helped me get blogging again. She is rahter motivated and is spurring me on to keep adding to mine. So this week i need to look on how to add pages and links and change my page design. Its good to have a bit of competition hehe!

Todays needle felt since it is a needle felting blog is the caterpillar from alice in wonderland. He still needs a hookah pipe ... I am working on it.

Still learning

I was having a bit of a clean up today. I 'felt' in my conservatory and the more wool i get the more my other half calls it the fluff room.

It can get quite untidy at times and every now and again i will have to have a blitz.

Today was one of them days....

While cleaning i picked up Arthur.

Arthur was the first real character i had made. I based him on my grandad and although i have been offered money for him, he isnt for sale.

I had always been proud of him until today.

Today i realised how far i had come in the needle felting world. I looked at Arthur and for the first time thought ' blimey hes not very good' 

This is a good thing it shows i think i have improved which it hard for me to say. And although i have such a long way to go compared to some felters, i no longer 'feel' like a beginer.

Heres Arthur

The mad hatter!

This one was a real challange! 

I pulled his face off five times before i was happy with him.

That sounds awful if you take it out of the felting context! 

But i hope you like him.

Here he is

We are all mad here?

Another Alice in wonderland character, this time the Cheshire Cat!

I had great fun making him.

I cant help but smile at that grin! 

What do you think?