Felt Farm Animal Puppets

Our sweet little firstborn grandchild just turned one.  Happy 1st Birthday Carson Davis!!

His Momma dreamed up a darling birthday party for him.  The theme was Old MacDonald's Farm.  So farm animals played a large part in the decor.

Being that I love crafting, my daughter asked if I'd come up with some kind of table centerpieces for the tables where the guests would enjoy eating a farm fresh lunch!  "Of course!" I replied.

I found some cute farm animal ideas online and settled on these darling felt puppets.  I found these at Just Another Day in Paradise and was so glad that Larissa provided the patterns for free as well.  Cute for the party, and reusable throughout the years as fun toys!

I tweaked them a bit for my time schedule, just doing machine stitching around the outsides of the puppets, leaving raw edges, and sewing wrong sides together.  I used fabric glue to attach the faces and other details.  I did sew Kitty's whiskers on, using embroidery thread.

And here is how we displayed them on the tables...we sat each one over a small plastic cup turned upside down so that it would stand up, and then tucked some raffia around the base, as if it was in the barn.

Puppy got to welcome the gifts on the gift table.  :)  Carson will be able to play with these puppets when he is a bit older.  Since he loves animals so much, I'm sure they will star in many puppet shows over the years!  One little hint would be to make the body of the puppet a bit wider (another inch?) if you want adult hands to be able to wear the puppet.

Carson had such a fun birthday party!  Especially since our 2nd born grandchild, Eloise Mae, got to come too!  Eloise and Carson are just 7 weeks apart, and are sure to have GREAT fun over the years as cousins.  :)

And that's me.  Mimi!  I'm the happiest Mimi there ever was, when my arms are full of my granddarlings and my heart is full from having time with them.  There is nothing better!

Thank you for stopping in!  You'll find the puppet patterns HERE!

Blessings,
Donna

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Felt Pumpkin

I've been a busy girl.  Making little felt quiet book pages for my etsy shop, Perfect Darlings.  So much fun!

I am making 10 or more page designs and my customers can chose any 5 of them for a custom felt book for their favorite little people.

This pumpkin page is one of my favorites, and I'd like to talk you through how to make one of these with felt or paper.  You could put the pumpkin on a pillow cover and have some new fall decor.  Or use paper and make this for the front of a greeting card.  The possibilities are endless!

This sweet little gourd is made with 3 identically-sized orange ovals.  So using a stencil or template, make a paper pattern of the size oval you want.  Next, using the pattern, cut out three ovals of felt, fabric, or paper.  Put 2 of them side by side or overlapping each other a bit, then the third one goes on top.  You can hand sew the ovals to your felt or fabric...or you can glue them if they are paper.  The stem is just hand cut without a pattern.  Now for the vine tendrils.  I used a green embroidery thread, all 6 strands together.  I sewed them onto the stem, leaving the ends of the thread unknotted and loose for the tendrils.  Then using paper to cover the pumpking for protection, I dipped my finger in mod podge, coated the thread, and wrapped the thread around a pencil.  Do that for the other one as well.  Let dry for a few minutes, then carefully slide the pencil out of your curly thread.  If it does not stay nicely in a coil, you can wet the thread with a drop of water and try it again.  Once you have the tendrills coiled, just let them dry.  When fully dry you can pull on them a bit til they are loose curls.  So so cute and the 3D aspect adds alot to the outcome.  

Wouldn't this make a cute piece of wall art, mounted on a mat and framed?  Or you could cut out a piece of felt the right size and shape to be the back of the pumpkin, sewing the front and back together with a bit of stuffing in the middle.  Let me know if you make this pumpkin and how it turns out!  I'm pretty sure I'll be making one for my house.  Cute, chubby pumpkins are darling!

Blessings!



Donna

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Fun Little Crafties

Fall, fires in the fireplace, and Fridays put me in a crafting mood. Fall is definitely in the air here in southern Indiana! We enjoyed our 'first fire' of the season in the fireplace last night...so relaxing and cozy. And today is Friday! Here are a few things I've made this week.Our little great niece, Ruby Jane, is turning one year old tomorrow! So I celebrated her little precious self by making the above Bear card for her. I used my new Cricut for the 4th time ever, and was delighted with how nice it was for quickly coming up with circles, stars, and ovals. I saw this Bear on BHG.com as a puppet...so I changed up the colors and style a bit to make it a birthday card for Ruby. Happy Birthday little girl!
Then last night as the fire was going, I had a terrible itch to stitch. Finally decided on this sweet little felt bookmark. It isn't perfectly proportioned or stitched as it was my experiment, but it was so much fun, simple, and relaxing to make.
It has a top (the flower) and a bottom (the leaves) in one of my favorite color combinations. I had a turquoise ribbon which worked too. I plan to make more of these and will purchase some grossgrain ribbon, alittle wider, to use for the next ones. This would be a simple gift to make and mail in a b-day card. I love flat little gifties that can be mailed in a card.
Did I put you in the mood to craft?! The internet is full of ideas you can copy, if so!

Enjoy this last weekend in October....wishing my 2nd favorite month wasn't nearly gone!

Simple Joys to You!