Monday, March 30, 2009

Have A Good Weekend?!?!?!

My weekends is starting today, but hope everybody had a great weekend. So sad that I missed my little niece's First Birthday party!! Can't wait till I get pictures, and I hear she loved the Dinosaur I bought her. I think every little kid needs to have dinosaurs (boy or girl).

YEA!!! They had a ton of fun & luckily both my Grandparents were able to be in town to help celebrate.

I had an uneventful weekend. We are having some "June Gloom" around here which is affecting my picture taking. "June Gloom" is a weather thing we have here in SoCal where it's cloudy & hazy every morning, but burns off by afternoon. I'll get my pictures in at some point in the next couple days.


I also experimented in some more kool-aid dying. I dyed a tuft of wool in every yummy color!! I'll have pictures and notes on this in the next couple days. I'm so proud of myself, I posted 1 item everyday for a while now. I'm coming quickly up on 50 items in my shop!!! Maybe there will have to be some sort of Give-Away to help celebrate!!!!!

That's all I got... I am so boring!!

Friday, March 27, 2009

FINALLY (a readable) FELT EGG HOW-TO!!

Sorry for the last 2 days of trying to post this tutorial. For some reason the HTML code I wanted to use for the nice & organized table format I made this with, doesn't work!!! It was really frustrating!!!! So then I had to go in and fudge it. So here is the (not as super fun & nice, but equally as informational) Hand Felted Easter Egg tutorial.


How-To Wet Felt Easter Eggs!!!

egg basket 1This is a collection of the Felted Eggs that I have made that are currently for sale in my Etsy shop. But if you are intested keep reading & learn how to make your very own Wet-Felted Easter Eggs. This is a great crafty projects that you can even do with you children!!!






making eggs 2Start out with some regular ¢99 Plastic Easter Eggs. I like to hot glue the center seams to help keep the water out (but if you don't the water should seep out eventually). I also add wavy hot glue lines all over the surface of the egg. In my mind I think this helps felt the wool from the inside out. With glossy plastic, the wool is all slippery, so this helps keep everything in place.





making eggs 1A group of Hot Glued eggs that are ready to be wrapped in wool & felted!!!









making eggs 3These are the supplies that you need to get you eggs ready to wet felt. I have some wool roving (pink dyed wool that you can get from some craft stores or online), the egg, a piece of nylon panty hose that is cut and tied off, and a twist tie (I stole mine from the grocery store produce aisle).






making eggs 4Pull off 2 tufts of wool from your rope of roving. The longer piece in this picture is about the length of my hand. These will be wrapped around the egg to be felted later.







The shorter tuft of wool will be wrapped around the width of the egg. This is the shorter distance.








making eggs 6

Start to roll the egg into the wool...







making eggs 7Finish with rolling the length of the wool. Be sure to hold this piece tight because it will unravel quickly. Keep one hand on the rolled wool at all times.






making eggs 8Now you will wrap the other piece of wool around the length of the egg. This will wrap in a perpendicular direction as the first tuft. This difference in direction helps in the felting process by having the fiber crossing each other.






making eggs 9

Wrapping....







making eggs 10A done wool wrapped bun-of-a egg. Be sure to keep your hand on this or all your rolling work will unravel.






**I guess you should do this step before you wrap your egg, but whatever.


making eggs 11Now's the time to add an accent color to your egg if you want. This tutorial will show you how to make "marbled" eggs.

Pull a small tuft of wool off of a contrasting color of wool roving.






making eggs 12Take a tiny wisp of wool and place in one hand. You will now slightly felt it into a "vein" of the marbled felt.








making eggs 13Roll the wisp of contrasting wool in your hand like you are making a clay snake. Remember you when you were a kid & you rolled clay between you hands really fast to compress the clay & extend it into a cylinder. Same idea!






making eggs 15Here's a thin line of slightly felted wool. If you left the wool wispy, it would be more blotchy and less defined.








making eggs 17Wrap several lines of contrasting wool around the egg in a random way. This is the fun part because you never know exactly how the different colors will come out in the end. You could add larger flat wisps to vary the base color, or chunky small pieces of wool, whatever you feel like adding to the surface!!!! HAVE FUN!!!!





making eggs 19Now place you egg inside the piece of nylon & tie it off with the twist tie. The nylon will keep all you wool in place while you start the felting process. It keeps everything contained, if not, you wool would just fall of in a messy, gross hairball.






making eggs 20

A bunch of super fun eggs ready to start felting!!!!





READY FOR WATER?!?!?!

making eggs 21Now's the time to start the felting process. Wool felts because of heat & friction. Think of it kind of like your hair. When your hair is dry, the microscopic scales get all flared out & it knots easier. Well, it is essentially felting it's self (think dreadlocks). And also think of how cold water helps make your hair shiny. Shiny hair has very flat scales which reflect light!!

The addition of hot water & dish soap just accelerates the process.



making eggs 22I like to use water out of my tea pot. The hotter the water, the faster the wool felts!! The heat helps expand the scales of the fibers.

***BUT REMEMBER wool will always, eventually felt, so you can use regular warm tap water with kids & it will felt just the same!!!!





making eggs 23Now dunk your egg in the hot & soapy water. Get it completely wet. Now's the time to scrub, scrub, scrub... rub, rub, rub....

I have better pictures of Scrub'n and Rub'n later without the nylon over the egg, but you will massage and rub the sudsy wool for about 5 minutes.




making eggs 24You will be able to feel when the wool is felted enough to be taken out of the nylon & directly worked with. The wool will not "inflate" or expand as much when you submerge it into the water. Also you will start to see the wool begin to pull to the outside of the nylon. The egg is really starting to felt to the nylon & it's time to pull it out.





making eggs 25Like I said the wool is starting to felt to the nylon, so be careful when you pull the egg out. Hold the wool taught & pull the nylon off, it might stretch the wool out a little, but that's o.k., we aren't done rub'n & scrub'n yet!!!




These are the pictures of how I "Rub 'n Scrub".

making eggs 26I use a move kinda like if you were scratching somebody's back, but without nails. Or maybe kneading bread dough, or playing and mixing different colors of Play-doh.

Scrub, scrub, scrub.... rub, rub, rub....





making eggs 27Adding a little bit of hand soap will help thing along quite well. I guess there is a point where you can add too much soap, but I haven't found that yet!! I just add a tiny drop of handsoap when it feel like the wool is starting to stick to my hands & isn't as slippery.










making eggs 29This move I love!!!

Because of the hot glue wavy line I added to the surface, I think using a twisting motion with the wool works well. Think about twisting the egg under the wool. The wool doesn't move in your hands, but the egg twists inside. This is where the hot glue ridges felt the wool and it tightens up overall.




making eggs 28


Twisty, twisty, twisty....






making eggs 30

Don't forget the ends!!!!







making eggs 31I think that the wool is done felting when I feel that it no longer expands when dunked into the hot water. If it still feels a bit spongy when you completely submerge it into the water, then KEEP RUB'N & SCRUB'N & TWIST'N!!!!

I find that I keep felting for about another 5 minutes.
When it's nice and tight, I like to rinse it in COLD water. This kinda shocks the wool & it tightens up even more. Rub 'n Scrub 'n Twist just a couple more times...



AND YOU ARE DONE FELTING!!!


making eggs 32YEA!!! You have just wet-felted your first egg. I like to dry mine on a cookie cooling rack. It lets air flow all around, but you can also dry on a towel (if you rotate it often) or outside on a sunny day.

Don't worry if your egg is a bit fuzzy. All the Rub'n & Scrub'n is good for felting the wool on the inside, but it also roughs up the wool on the very outside.



making eggs 33So to help with the fly-aways, I like to give my felt a little "hair cut" Just take a sharp pair of scissors & trim the very outside, fluffy, wispy hairs of wool.






ALL DONE!!!

making eggs 34


Congrats!!! Great job!!! Have Fun!!!!!






marble egg3And here is that Pink Marbled Easter egg with his friend.

(shameless plug) These specific eggs are available in my shop to buy & own if you are too lazy to make you own!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

Set of 6 marbled Wet-felted Easter Eggs - $18

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADY!!!!

This post is for my little niece who is turning 1 year old today!!!!! YEA!!!! I sent her a birthday present a couple of days ago, she should have gotten it, BUT I made her a crappy present. I wanted to make her a cupcake bag for her birthday, so I designed one & made it in one day. Well since then I altered the pattern & now it looks alot better.

So sorry Ady, you got the crappy Prototype cupcake, but I made this new one for you & I'll be sending it later this week, so just forget the old one & wait for the new one!!! I'm gonna have some of these bags in my shop soon!!

Here is another present that I just finished this week. I made these for my 2 Great Aunts by commission of my Grandma. Not my typical thing, but I think they are cute & very sweet.

Monday, March 23, 2009

ESTY MANIA!!!

So I've been busy, busy, busy!!! Just felting & sewing & trying new things. I have days worth of items to post in my shop, so check in everyday to see what's new!!!

I've got Eggs... Bags... I'll have some new sculpted stuff soon, too!!!

I'm also gonna dive into dyeing some wool today. I've tried the kool-aid dye before, so I'm gonna try that with some new white wool I bought last week. Going to try the "rainbow" dye technique, I'll post pictures soon.

Also posted a nice tutorial on how to felt your very own Easter Eggs on my Flickr account. I'm going to transfer & post the picts to my blog in the next couple days, so check back!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cprush13/sets/72157615665217800/

Here's a giant promo ad for my shop, easiest way to show off all my new stuff!!!

Friday, March 20, 2009

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!!

It's been so nice outside the last couple days!!! It's been like 85ยบ and sunny!! This morning it's kinda foggy & cool out, but I can still feel it in the air! I love how the day is longer, it's still light out at 7. I feel like I can get so much more done during the day.

In celebration of the first day of Spring, I'm unveiling my newest creations.....

Felted Easter Eggs!!!


These are hand felted eggs made by way of wet-felting. I wrapped some wool roving over traditional plastic Easter eggs, then with the help of some hot water, dish soap, & lots of rubbing and scrubbing... VOILA!!! I will be posting more eggs in the next few days, they will be available in sets & priced at $3.00 a piece. The marbled eggs are already up in my shop -

Set of 6 eggs - $18.00

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

KEEPING BUSY...

I've been trying to keep myself motivated & busy since my parents left. I'm doing a pretty good job, except for going to the gym thing, I need to work on that one.

So.... I've been....

Gardening... I have it started, but need to go back to the garden center to get some more mulch & maybe a plant or 2! I'll send out pictures when it's done!

Felting... Started some new and exciting spring/easter type felted pieces. I'm in the middle of making a tutorial about it, & will try and unveil it on Friday, the first day of Spring!

Cleaning... That's not really that exciting, but I am making an effort to clean a little each day, so it doesn't get too overwhelming later.

Sewing... I'm working on a completely new (re)GIFT BAG. I'm making the first one for my niece, her first birthday is next week. I'll have pictures soon.

Shopping... Gotta run out to Burbank & hit a couple stores today. Gotta do the garden center, Toys R Us, Joanne's fabrics, etc. Plus, since I sold a few items from my shop, I like to purchase something from a fellow Etsy seller. It was a total spontaneous purchase, I was gonna buy something off of my favorites list, but got sucked into looking at shop, & found this....

It's made outta felt. I like the design & goldfish. I know Lance will not like it too much, he's pretty picky about decorating, but I don't care, I like it!

Monday, March 16, 2009

i'm back......

HI EVERYBODY!!!

So sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been surprisingly busy. I have some outside non-union sculpting work that I'm getting ready to start, plus my parents were here all last week. We had a great time & I miss spending time with them. We were busy the whole week, took a trip to Las Vegas to loose money & see my grandma, grandpa, and aunts and uncle. On Friday we also went to Universal Studios, thanks to Lance's dad! We hadn't been there since I was little. It was fun & I recommend it.

Now that I'm back to the real-world, I've decided (yet again) not to obsessed too much about the computer thing, or promoting my Etsy shop. Instead I'm gonna start gardening & making more fun stuff. I did sell a few things this weekend, so maybe my new attitude is working!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures from this last week.....

grandpa & dad me & mom

grandpa, grandma, & me all of us in Las Vegas!!!

Top Left: Grandpa & Dad
Top Right: Me & Mom
Bottom Left: Grandpa, Grandma, & Me
Bottom Right: Everybody in Las Vegas

Monday, March 2, 2009

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES...

Am having some technical difficulties with the internet at my house right now. So blogging & posting new items in my shop will be a bit sporadic. Hopefully it will be all fixed in the next couple days!!!

Thanks!