Pompom Easter Bunny: A review of "Adventures in Pompom Land"

Okay guys, I'm kind of excited about this bunny I just made :) Haha, it's really nothing great, but it's so soft and cute... And I think I've finally found something to do with my ridiculous stash of yarn, since I rarely ever want to take the time (or sit still long enough!) to knit or crochet. When I learned to knit and crochet, it seemed like yarn came from EVERYWHERE. So-and-so's grandma is getting rid of yarn, so-and-so found a huge yarn stash at a yard sale for so cheap... And I ended up with puh-lenty of yarn :) And it's just been sitting there. Anyhoo, Sterling Publishing sent me this book:

 "Adventures in Pompom Land" by Myko Diann Bocek. So freaking cute. Seriously. There are so many cute animals, a fox, a hedgehog, squirrel, birdies, a lamb! a kitty!etc. It was hard to pick a project, but I decided to make the bunny because Easter is soon, and I'd like to make some more decorations.

 The only time I attempted a handmade pompom was when I saw a tutorial on how to make one on a fork. It was cool, but not very puffy...kind of sparse. This book shows you how to make BIG OLE fluffy, dense pompoms that you can then shape with scissors to create wee puffy creatures. I didn't need to buy any new tools, so that was wonderful. A big trick is using A LOT of yarn :) Which is why I am so stoked about the stash-busting possibilities of this craft. This bunny is about 5'' tall and used up about 1/2 skein of sport-weight acrylic yarn.

 The techniques involve a little bit of needle felting for features like legs and tails, which wouldn't be super-efficient to make out of pompoms. And there is gluing, thank goodness. I'm all for shortcuts, and any glue is hidden in the finished product among all the fluff.

Now, when I initially flipped through the book and began to read some of the instructions, I got a little confused, but once you jump into the project, you can totally tell what they're talking about. There are pictures, and they help...but truly, I didn't get some of the ideas until I had the pompom in my hands.

All in all, I actually think I'm going to use this book to bust the heck out of my yarn stash and make things of yarn that are actually super cute. Things that I wouldn't be embarrassed gifting to somebody (unlike some of the knit monstrosities I've created in the past! Sometimes yarn can be so hideous when you do all the wrong things to it.)

Bottom line on Adventures in Pompom Land: I like it, I'm gonna get some use out of it, and BOOM, a new fluffy skill! I recommend.

Felty Red Fox and a book review: Wee Felt Worlds

 I have been sitting on this book review for a couple of weeks, then surgery stuff went down and my world just went loco (I'll write more about that in another post soon)... So I'm happy to say that things have finally calmed down enough for me to tell you about some wee felty worlds that aren't so centered around my own!

The book review this time is on "Wee Felt Worlds: Sweet Little Scenes to Needle Felt" by Amanda Carestio. I'll tell you, so many cute things to make in this book, and from plenty of different artists with lots of different but all wonderful style. I already love Aimee Ray (you've got to have seen her work already, and if you haven't, you must), and was pleasantly surprised to see her contributing a little forest scene, complete with squirrel.

 Okay, now the book is filled with eye candy, but also really valuable tips for novice felters like me. The first few introductory pages that tell you about "the basics" of needle felting had me saying "Ohhhh, that's so smart!" at least once per page. I particularly appreciated the tips that tell you to use stuff around the house to make this art easier. Like using a little bamboo skewer to wrap felt around to make your tiny shapes, then sliding them off once they're formed. Now that I know this little gem, I won't be stabbing the heck out of myself when I need to make tiny shapes. Another tip that I loved was using pipe cleaners (or "chenille stems" if you're fancy) as a base so you can pose your figures once they're done. The picture above is of the pipecleaner skeleton before adding the felt outside.

I chose to try out using this method from Heide Murray's cute cute Circus scene.  There were instructions to make a Ringmaster Penguin, Strongman Lion, and Fire-Breathing Elephant, but I really wanted to make a fox, so I followed the armature method instructions to make the body and then went off to fox-town once it came to the details.

 Felting around pipecleaners is tricky business. You have to be really careful to not poke the wire, or your needle can break... It was tricky, but my fox ended up being oh-so pose-able with that pipecleaner skeleton. The book did a really great job of pointing out little tips and tricks on how to do things the right way. You can tell that the contributors actually have the experience and the illustrations of the techniques are SUPER.

Overall, I really, really liked this "Wee Felt Worlds" book. I learned my needle felting basics from YouTube, but I was able to get a ton more specialized knowledge about technique from this book without having a search a ton. It was all right there :) I'm sure there's much more to felting than what's in this book alone, but dang, the possibilities! I learned how I can make moveable bodies, jointed arms and legs, blend colors, make wire armatures... So much. I recommend. I think this is one that I would have considered buying even if I just saw it at the store or if it popped up in my "You might like..." feed on Amazon. I mean, the title has the word "wee" in it. You know me... Anyway... I hope everybody has a great week.

More crafts soon.


Thanks to Sterling Publishing for sending me a copy to review. 

Tiny Whittling Book Review - I made a wooden robin!

Ever since I took a road trip down to Tijuana with my girlfriends in my crazy days, I have looooved Alebrijes, those tiny colorful Oaxacan wood carvings of an endless variety of animals. I have always wanted to make some. So check it out, an e-mail comes to my inbox about a new crafting book that I was so dang excited about. After clicking some linkage and doing maybe just a little bit of drooling over the author's Menagerie, I pretty much HAD to get my hands on a copy of Steve Tomashek's "Tiny Whittling", and IPG (Independent Publishers Group) was super kind enough to send me one.

The book came, and after reading through the first few pages, I found out exactly what I needed to get started. I got some leather finger guards, a big block of basswood, and a carving knife from treelineusa.com. The book says you can get by with cheapy hobby or XACTO knife, but I really wanted to go for the gusto, so I sprung for the real deal, and I think it made a big difference. 

There were a few ultra-beginner projects in the book carving soap and carrots, but I skipped right to one of the beginning wood projects, "Songbird" being a little over-confident in retrospect. This wasn't like...super easy... but then again it wasn't too hard for me to pick up. I think the main thing is patience, because it took a little longer than I had expected. The instructions in the book were good. They were simple enough so I didn't get overwhelmed and confused, but gave all the necessary info. Basically, I went into the thing staring at a wood block, having no idea where to begin to shape this thing into a bird, and the instructions tell you in steps just what to do to make the shape you want. And there were tips on what direction you want the wood grain to go, which makes the carving much easier. Plus plenty of other little tips about stuff a beginner wouldn't have ever thought about.

Here is my finished whittled birdy shape. It's a little rough, and doesn't look just like the book, but not bad, right? It took me about an hour and a half to go from woodblock to this. I made a giant mess of wood chips, and the basswood smelled a little bit like popcorn. One thing, the leather thumb guard was definitely needed. If you do this, get one of those. I like my thumbs and want to keep them, so I'm glad I got the guard. 

The book gives instructions on how to paint it like a goldfinch, but I went with my own little design and made a robin instead. Genius tip, it says to drill a hole in the bottom so you can put the figure on a toothpick for easy painting. Super smart! Worked like a charm.

 The little guy turned out super cute :) I glued on some plastic birdy feet I had in my stash and they were perfect. Bobby says that I should make little toothpick feet out of wood next time! Maybe I will! I am kind of hankering to make a little wooden toucan now.

 To sum it all up, I am actually really happy with what I've learned so far from "Tiny Whittling." Woodcarving is totally something I think I can do, even though I think I need some stronger hands to get into the tough stuff (I'll try to build to that...) and there's still over 20 more projects in the book I have yet to attempt, including a hen, a fox, a squirrel... All little things that I like. I loved learning a nifty unique skill in an pretty easy way, and the potential for making more cute little animals. You might have to buy some new supplies, deal with wood chip mess and concentrate for a while, but bottom line: I like Tiny Whittling and heartily recommend it :)