Seasons: Felt Tree

Well here it is, finally finished as promised, the seasons felt tree! This project was probably the easiest of all the felt projects I've done for Cyrilla's birthday. Other than the tree and the rainbow I didn't have to bother with creating any stencils for the other smaller pieces, which makes things go WAY faster.
If you're looking to recreate this some tips are:

• Draw out your tree first and create a stencil (on paper or card stock) instead of trying to free hand it, you'll save yourself a lot of felt that way :) 
• Make your leaves simple. The oval shape is so easy to do and you'll be doing tons of them. I thought about trying for a maple leaf look, but that wouldn't be worth my time.
• Because your creating a nature scene things don't have to be perfectly uniform, as they aren't in real life, so don't stress about everything looking exactly the same.
• I created a stencil for the rainbow by cutting out a large rainbow size piece of card stock and then I cut that in half (in the shape of the arch of the rainbow) and then each half into arched thirds (there are six colors). I then labeled each strip as to what color it needs to be (to avoid mistakes and confusion) and cut them out of their prospective colors. I then put the pieces onto a larger piece of white felt and lined them up as a rainbow should look and glued them on one by one to the white felt (I peeled half of a color strip back, glued, pressed and then did the other side so that I didn't have to fiddle with trying to reposition an entire strip and the rainbow stayed intact the whole time.) I then cut the rainbow out of the white felt and trimmed the bottoms to make it look uniform.

Well without further ado here is the Seasons Felt Tree:

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

 

Felt Board Awesomeness

Before Cyrilla was born I got crafty and made a felt board for her bedroom, to hang over her changing table. I imagined myself writing out sweet little messages on a regular basis... but yeah... that did not happen. The only thing I had made for the board was the alphabet and a few lame shapes. A long time ago I took it down for Cyrilla to play with, but she did not get the concept and I considered it a fail. But lately... lately Cyrilla has been really excited about the board. She even knows most of the letters and can put them on the board herself! So I thought I should make some more things for her to play with on the board and give them to her for her upcoming birthday! Here are two of the three things I planned to make. The first is all the pieces to the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Cyrilla had not even read the book before, but I borrowed it from a friend to get an idea for my felts and luckily it's been a hit! The second is a felt dress up doll set. Much like a paper doll, but less rip-able. Here is what I was able to come up with for these two ideas:

(First I should talk about how I made the board. Basically I had a big piece of white flannel on hand and I took an old picture frame I had on hand that was not going to be used. I took the glass out of the frame and stretched the flannel over it, tapping/securing it to the cardboard on the back. I then put the frame back together and volia, instant flannel board!)

Here's my The Very Hungry Caterpillar flannel/felt board set:

Most of my inspiration came from Googling "felt board Very Hungry Caterpillar" and then just looking at the images. It's amazing what's out there!  

Next I decided to do some felt "paper dolls". I was really pumped about this one because I got an amazing template from this blog:
 http://racheldenbow.blogspot.com/2010/12/dress-up-felt-board-tutorial-and.html

And more fashion inspiration from this blog:
 http://fromdahliastodoxies.blogspot.com/2011/11/diy-felt-dress-up-dolls.html

I actually got so excited making these dolls and clothes that it would take me a long time to fall asleep at night because I'd just dream up more and more dresses I could make, but I think I've done enough... I mean, she likely won't even get the idea of this set until a bit later, but man oh man was it fun to make! 

My dress up doll fashionista felt set:

Next I plan on doing a big tree and working on all the seasons. I'll be sure to post that one too when it's done. The hardest part of all of this: waiting until April to give them to my little girl! Momma wants to play!!!