Large Needle Felted Merlin, Blue Wizard Figure.

I have a few WIP photos to show you of my Needle Felted Merlin the Wizard Figure (but only a few, sorry!)

He began life as a wire armature, which I then felted the core wool onto. Once his basic shape was complete, I added his face. (You will have to forgive the crappy picture here, this is an action shot of me felting late at night on the sofa!)

So once I was happy with his face, I gave him a beard using some really fine, tightly curled locks. I wet felted his cape and hat using a rich, dark teal colour.



I then needle felted the white details onto his cape and hat, and I also used some tiny beads to add a bit of sparkle and make him look really magical. I used a gorgeous blue colour for his under robes and finished him off with some leather thong around his middle. I used Polymer clay over a long bamboo stick to make his staff. He's almost 14 inches tall & I think he's gorgeous!

I made a line up of my needle felted figures & stood a Barbie doll between them to give you a better idea of the scale. I think she's enjoying all the attention!

Merlin is available in my Etsy Shop.

Needle Felted Fairy Houses (Flowers).

If feels like it's been forever since I last posted any updates.
I keep promising myself that I will stay up to date, and show you all my new makes as I make them, and yet here I am again with a backlog of stuff. Argh!

So just to fill you in on what's going on.... Just after Christmas, I signed up to a programme called Etsy Resolutions 2016 via Facebook. It was a group aimed at new Etsy sellers, with online webinars & lots of really useful information on how to improve your Etsy shop & listings. It has been absolutely fantastic, but also very time consuming (as I had already opened my shop) to go back to the beginning & make lots of changes & updates. Throw in a young family, a part time job, a house that refuses to clean itself, and it turns out that my time has to be spread somewhat thinly amongst the rest.

It's been a great eye opener though, and it has given me a renewed sense of determination to really try to improve my needle felting & to be more consistent with my online presence.

Soooo, enough of the blah, blah, and onto the fun stuff! What have I been making??
A few new things to show you, so I'll pick up where I left off in my last post and bring you up to speed.......

Coming up first.... Needle Felted Fairy houses!

I've actually changed the door today on the pink fairy house. I used a dark purple for the door originally, and as you can see in the pic, it is horrendous to photograph. It looks really dark & I couldn't capture the colour properly at all on camera. So I have changed it to a lighter brown colour, which looks much better.

I decided to do these a little bit differently from the usual Toadstool style of fairy houses that I usually do & opted for flower roofs instead. I think they are really cute & fun, and they are free standing (I usually like to mount them onto a wooden disc, but these were a bit too wide at the base for the discs I have.) I added some 'grass' around the bottom so they still look like they are part of the forest floor & they look 'complete'.

These are available in my Etsy shop.

My New Blog; The Felting Lounge.

I'm so excited about my new project; The Felting Lounge.
This is a new Blog all about celebrating the art of Needle Felting in all it's forms. From interviews with some of the most highly skilled and talented artists from around the globe, to seeking out fresh new talent & providing a platform for artists of all backgrounds to showcase their work. I will be seeking out hints and tips from the masters themselves & sharing it all with you.
I will continue to Blog about my own work here at Heartfelt Creations by Lisa, but will be bringing you some really exciting stuff over at the Felting Lounge.
I hope to see you all over there!
- Lisa.

Needle Felted Fairy House, Tinkerbell Inspired.

Hello again!

This next piece that I am going to show you is one that started life very differently.
I originally made the roof for this house for a fairy house that I made from sticks & moss. It was mounted onto a tree stump & it did look absolutely amazing proudly displayed on my craft table. However, as it was so fragile, the frame of the house took a bit of an accidental knock one day & I could not fix it, so I decided to reclaim the roof & turn it into something even more beautiful, that was not quite so fragile.

This piece is very much inspired by Tinkerbell & the fairy houses in Pixie hollow.
It is a solid needle felted structure, standing approx. 19cm tall. It took absolutely ages just to felt the dome shape & make it big enough to fit snugly underneath the roof.
I then added the windows & door & other details before needle felting the roof securely on top. What I love most about this piece is the vibrancy of the green roof, in contrast to the white of the house.

This piece is available to purchase in my Etsy shop. Click here to view on ETSY.

Wet Felted Fairy House Jar Lantern, Night Light.

A very Happy New Year to you all!

My first post of 2016!

After being completely swamped with Gnome orders in the run up to Christmas, I decided to take a break completely during the holidays and take some time to relax. Silly me! I have a six year old and a baby who is almost one & teething. I have absolutely no idea what made me think I was going to get any time to relax! Anyway, thank god the holidays are now over & we can get back to some sort of normal routine.

Ok, so I would like to share with you now a commissioned item that I made towards the latter end of last year. This is a large fairy house night light/lantern, with a wet felted toadstool roof.

I wet felted around the jar & then added needle felted detail & some embroidery details too. I also learned how to do a French knot correctly, as they make great flowers! My customer specifically requested that there be a Bunny and a Hedgehog incorporated into the picture.



This was such a fun piece to make & I will admit that it was hard to let go & hand it over, as I was a little bit in love with it! But, knowing that it will go on to be loved by someone else makes me very happy indeed.

More Tomte Gnomes!!

Well, what can I say?

I had absolutely no idea that my little Tomte Gnomes would be so popular. I have been furiously trying to keep up with orders these last few weeks in the run up to Christmas & my Gnomes have become scattered all over the globe!

This has been my first Christmas selling my wares on Etsy & I really didn't know what to expect, so you can imagine how overjoyed I am to have had so much interest in them.

It's been a real eye opener for me and I have learned so much from it as a seller. I know that I need to start making Christmas stock way, way, waaaaay earlier in the year. So I'm getting my head in gear for 2016 & planning out a schedule.

I'm looking forward to creating some new items and have some ideas already that I'm going to start on straight after Christmas. I'm also in the early stages of putting together a new blog which will run alongside this one, but I'm not going to give anything away just yet. Let's just say that I am very, very excited about it!!

Anyway, here are a couple of new creations I have managed to squeeze in this last week.
They are Forest Gnomes, inspired by natural mossy greens & brown colours. They would look completely at home shuffling around in the undergrowth, going about their business & doing whatever it is that Gnomes do.

I really love the rustic, natural colours used in both of these gnomes & even though they do look quite Christmassy, I think they will make great decorations all the year round.





To view them in my Etsy Shop, please follow these links:
Holly Inspired Forest Gnome
Forest Gnome

Needle Felting Workshop. Santa Bauble Tree Decorations.

Hello again & welcome!

In my last post, I was looking forward to the workshop that was to be held in Settle, North Yorkshire. Unfortunately, on the day, Mother Nature had other ideas & decided to pour an unholy amount of rain down on us & flood all the roads in & out. And so we had to cancel the class and will re-schedule for another date in the near future.

Yesterday however, I ran a workshop in my hometown of Earby. This was the first workshop that I have ever run 'Solo' & so I was a little bit nervous, but it turned out to be a huge success!!! Yey!!

I had nine ladies, including one very little lady who is just 9 years old. She came with her Mum, who is a good friend of mine & fellow crafter, and I think she has passed her crafty genes on to her daughter who did an absolutely amazing job (pics to follow).

So, we were making Santa Bauble Tree Decorations. A few ladies in the class have done a bit of needle felting before, but for most it was their first time & they all made some cracking Christmas Baubles!

Here are some piccies of us working away (Yes, I remembered to take pictures this time!)



And here are our fantastic finished Baubles.



I feel this one deserves a special mention as this is the one that my youngest student made. I think he is fantastic & he looks so good hanging on the tree!!!



A huge Thank You and well done to all who attended.