I’ve just started a new job and a BA in illustration, so I’ve not much time for needle felting at the moment. A few of these little chaps may appear from time to time ‘though, as I enjoy making them and it makes a change to work in 3D. They do go in and out of my shop pretty quickly so you’ll need to keep your eyes open if you want one. (I usually post on Twitter and Instagram when I make one.)
A quick round up of needle felt characters I made last winter, as I’ve taken them off my portfolio page.
These are all sold, but I’ll be making more this winter.
(Sorry I don’t take commissions for needle felting and I’m unable to reserve any items.)
…will have to wait.
“Today” thought the mole “would have been a good day to stay underground.”
…and is reassured that warmer days will soon be here. He may even take his scarf off. The crocuses and snowdrops are flowering and I can’t wait to get outside to tidy up and plant. This week I’ll be sowing tomato seeds. That’s always my first gardening job of the year and heralds the almost-arrival of Spring. And I’m looking forward to photographing my woolly characters without getting wet knees. 🙂
Print out and make this cute bear for free!
Click HERE to download the PDF
For personal use only. Copyright property of Julie Wilson.
For more cut out and make activities visit my shop http://www.bearsgetcrafty.com.
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I love prints as an art form, but apart from some basic lino printing and screen printing I haven’t done any myself. Print making seems a bit of a daunting thing to try, requiring expensive equipment and space. I’ve always particularly wanted to try dry point etching, so I got really excited when I saw an artist on Twitter talking about PRINTING AN ETCHING WITH A PASTA MACHINE! Gosh.
Naturally I rushed out to buy one. Luckily my local cookshop had a modest one on sale and I got some sheets of flexible clear plastic from a nearby model shop.
This is what I did:
The plastic sheets I bought were A4, so I cut them up so that they were small enough to feed through the pasta machine. They don’t need to be clear, but it’s handy if you want to trace over a drawing. I scratched my design with a pointed implement I found in an old box of tools. I’ve no idea what it’s really for. Any pointed tool you can comfortably hold should work.
I used block printing ink as it was available. It worked fine. I’m going to try printing with acrylic paint with a drying retardant mixed in. I found the best way to ink the design was to rub the ink into the scratches with a cloth, then rubbing of the excess with a dry cloth.
I printed onto cartridge paper, as I had some. Soak it in water for a few minutes first and pat dry. You’ll need to experiment with how wet the paper needs to be. Put the paper onto another piece of paper and some felt and place the inked plate face down on your paper. Fold the other side over. Be careful to hold the plate and paper together as you feed it into your pasta roller.
Wind the handle! You’ll need to guide the bottom end so that it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the machine as it emerges.
This is what I made:
There are several demonstrations of this by artists on YouTube. Worth a visit.
I’m looking forward to experimenting and printing lots more 🙂
There are a bunch of new greetings cards in my shop this month, including these dinosaur and space cards, which come with any age badge you like (I sold a 95 years badge last week). You can check out all my new cards designs at BearsGetCrafty: there’s one for lovers of GIN (with the choice of a super badge or magnet), something naughty, something nice, and bears, of course. 😉
Mr Fox Sewing Kit Prototype
As usual, I also have lots of ideas and work in progress. 🙂 Greetings cards with stickers and sewing kits will be arriving soon! I’m also thinking about cards with moving parts and pop-ups.
Over at BearsGetDigital there is lots of new art to download, digital drawings and watercolour paintings to use in card making, on websites….whatever you fancy. 🙂
I have several new illustrations, for poems by Dom Conlon, on www.inkology.co.uk. 
Enjoy his darkly funny stories while you’re there too.
In between all of that, there have been a few fun things appearing on my work desk:
To see more of what I draw and make you can check out my Instagram account BearsGetCrafty or follow me on Twitter. 
Printing on fabric with your inkjet printer! I saw a tutorial for this on Pinterest. I was slightly dubious and concerned I would end up with a printer full of tangled inky threads, but I tried it anyway…
The fabric I used was cotton and fairly thin. It worked beautifully and I covered some notebooks. I’ll be experimenting with coarser fabrics as well.
I used images from my sketchbook which I scanned and arranged in photoshop, but you could draw your artwork at A4 and then simply scan and print.
Now I’m thinking about all the other things I can use this technique for…watch this space.
Download and make a pug in a box. Then give it to someone. 🙂
Click here for the free PDF to download.
If you need help with how to make your Pug in a Box, visit my Hug in a Box page and follow the method there.
Please share, make pugs, give them to people, take photos and show me.
Copyright is the property of Julie Wilson. Download for personal use only.
If you’ve enjoyed this activity you may like to
Thanks x
