This summer we added to our outdoor play space mobile by making a sun out of a styrofoam ball, pipe cleaners, and then needle felting two shades of yellow wool over top.



Sophie (age 2.5) helped hold the pipe cleaners as I placed them around the ball.



Once we got them where we wanted, I started needle felting the pipe cleaners.



This is a project I was making up as I went along, so after I had one pipe cleaner felted I tested to make sure it would indeed poke into the Styrofoam.



Success!



It was a bit of a tedious process, but Sophie had her own project on the go. :)





The finished project…




At home with the cloud & the butterfly. :)

I would recommend that a layer of wool be needle felted over the entire body to make sure the pipe cleaner rays are in there good and snug.

Summer is quickly coming to a close & fall activities are just around the corner despite what the thermometer says! :)

Here is a quick felting project we embarked upon on a cloudy Tuesday Morning. I was yet again strapped for time and wanted to do something quick to add to our outdoor play area. We had previously made a felted butterfly for the space.



First I took two pipe cleaners & twisted them together to make a cloud shape.



I began to needle felt white wool around the frame.





Hello Kitty band aid to cover where I stabbed myself. Occupational hazard of needle felting. No matter how careful you are, you are bound to stab yourself now & again. :)



That’s it. It’s amateur-ish – but as I say time & time again, your kids won’t care. They are simply happy to have you make something for them/with them. Imaginations do the rest. :)

I recommend telling a story as you make the cloud to keep the event exciting for your child. I suck at story telling. But, the more I do it, the better I get. Making stories up on the fly is getting easier, as well.



Out comes the string so that we can put up our cloud.



We have been enjoying watching it float around just like the real clouds in the sky. :)

I needed a quick project to do with my 2 year old as our morning was cut short due to chore load. It’s summer so I thought it would be nice to break out the felt (Tuesday is felting day – in our weekly rhythm) and make a butterfly for the play house.

This project could easily be adapted to wet felting as young children love – however due to our shortened morning I decided to needle felt it and have my daughter participate by adding friction or simply touching the piece when she desired.

I also wanted to add that you don’t hvae to be particularly artistic or crafty to do these kinds of projects. Believe me I churned this out fast this morning and the butterfly is lopsided – the children don’t care! They simply cherish what you make with them.

All you need is dyed wool, pipe cleaners and your needle and mat for felting.



I took one pipe cleaner and folded it in half and twisted it together.



Then twisted the endos of the other two together, forming a circle



Twist your circle into a figure 8, and shape the wings as you wish.




I covered the body part with wool and had Sophie roll it back & forth in her hands. The friction starts the felting process. Then I ran my felting needle over it a few times.



Sophie is too young to use the sharp needle, but that doesn’t mean she can’t mimic the movement. I catch her “needle felting” in the play house with her bubble wand. Here she gives it a go on the body of our butterfly.



The body is now done.



Then I attached the body to the wing armature I formed, criss-crossing the wool around the center of the wings and body. I lightly felted this into place with the needle. I wanted to be able to loop string through here later.



I started to lay the wool on the wings to felt – weaving over and under the pipe cleaner armature – then felted it into place.





So as you can see, our butterfly looks more like a dragonfly than a butterfly! This is great too – but I told Sophie we were making a butterfly. :) I could have made a second set of wings, but again due to our short morning I simply snipped the body with scissors and felted over the bottom. We will keep the other half of the body to make another later.



Sophie of course requested blue for the body, and then I jazzed it up a little bit…



…adding fuschia & purple felt to the body.



Just one last apple green element added to the top – and our butterfly is ready to take flight.







Our butterfly now lives at the front door of our play house. Where he will stay all summer long. :)