Craft Projects

Nuno Felting

Last Christmas-related post …  I swear!

For Christmas, my dad gave my stepmom a nuno felting class at the Savage Mill. He bought two classes so she could bring a buddy, so Jill invited me along.

We went to a shop called Peaknits for the class and learned all about nuno felting. I won’t give a full tutorial because I am not an expert. But here’s the jist… first, you separate the wool. Then, you place it on a piece of chiffon in the pattern you want. I went for a mostly pinky/purple shade for mine. Once your wool is where you’d like it, you can add ribbon and all sorts of other things to the scarf. Wet all of the wool, then roll it up (there’s a lot more to this step…). You roll your project a bajillion times, which is activating fibers so the wool becomes felt. Then you get to beat the crap out of your project – my favorite part. Let the project dry out, trim the edges and you are done!

OK, wow… that was a really brief and not so great “tutorial” haha. But like I said, I am not a nuno felting expert by any stretch of the imagination. Here are photos of the process.

And here is my finished product!

Scarf

I am allergic to wool, so I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to stand this on my neck for more than a picture or two. The scarf is totally unique and I am still impressive that I made it from tufts of wool!

Scarf1

Ever felted before? I want my next felting project to be some sort of animal craft. I’m not sure if and when that will ever happen, but they are so darn cute!

If you are ever in the area, make sure to check out Peaknits and all of the other unique shops at the Savage Mill. It’s one of my favorite places!

Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday

Salt Dough Ornaments

Our main craft from last weekend’s craft night was salt dough ornaments. Carrie, Amy and I followed an east recipe for the dough so we could make our own ornaments.

IMG_2147

All you need for the dough is 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of warm water. I mixed ours together in my KitchenAid using the dough hook attachment, which worked great. When the dough was a little too tacky to roll out, I added a pinch more flour.

Then we set up these awesome SilPat mats and began to roll our dough.

IMG_2148

When the dough was an even thickness, we stamped our shapes into it. Then, we removed the excess dough and put a hole in the top of each one before putting them into the oven.

IMG_2149

I started to bake the ornaments at 200 degrees, but after a while I bumped up the temperature to 250. That worked great and the ornaments hardened in about 2 hours.

IMG_2151

Once they cooled down, I hung them on our tree using silver and red string.

IMG_2205

Here’s one for Remmy!

IMG_2202

And a little tree for our big, fat tree.

I saved a few to paint, but I haven’t gotten around to adding color to any of them yet. I don’t think they need it either. They look very pretty on our tree just as they are.

IMG_1963