Crafting with felt and how I make my felt story pattern pieces (giveaway is over)

***Read on for a coupon code for my Etsy shop until Feb 14th and a giveaway to win one of my felt stories*** Giveaway is now over

I love felt and the rainbow of colours it comes in.

I love pinning felt ideas. Most I will never try but they are so pretty to browse through. You can have a wander through my felt, felt and fiber fun Pinterest board HERE.

I love crafting with felt.

Being a jack of all creative trades I find the creative process quite magical no matter which medium you like to work with. Taking a blank canvas and creating a painting, or taking a piece of wood and carving beautiful toys and bowls. It's an amazing magical process from raw to finished project...don't you think? The same goes for felt...taking a rectangular piece of felt and transforming it into a usable story or game is a wonderous process.

To make my felt pieces I first draw a pattern on computer paper.

 Next I make a tracing pattern from empty cereal boxes on to the inside of the box (we go through enough Cheerios that some days I think we should buy stocks in it). The cereal boxes are more sturdy than the paper and last through many years of use. I also like to write the name of the story on each piece so when you have a table full of scraps and patterns you can easily find the piece you need. I don't know about you but my table is always a creative mess (when finished I store each stories pieces in a small ziplock bag).

Next comes the fun part...choosing your colours of felt.

Once you have your cardboard pattern piece all cut out trace it onto your chosen felt colour. When it is traced on the felt, cut it out. I like to cut along the inside edge of my pattern pieces (approximately 2 mm). This ensures that all the ink is cut off and your pieces don't have inked edges...a pet peeve of mine.

This week I've been crafting up a storm creating felt (flannel) stories for Valentines day. I haven't made any felt stories since we sold the daycares and I honestly miss it. I know it's almost Valentine's Day but I added a bunch to my Etsy shop if you'd like to have a look. I will be busy making more stories for upcoming themes in the coming weeks so check back often.

Psst...I love to hear what you think of the stories I've added so far (keep reading to possibly win a story for yourself).

I have a special coupon code for my blog readers in celebration of Valentines day I am offering a discount of 14% to anyone who uses the coupon code " loveday " at the checkout. This coupon code is valid for my blog and facebook readers only; a small thank you for following along. Hurry though this coupon code ends on Feb 14th.

Sierra joined me in making some pieces of her own this week and she even made her own mini felt board. if you are wondering what the orange things are on her felt board; they are pizza slices...all orange because she only like cheese pizza.

She also enjoyed playing the lovebug game shown at the beginning of this post. A game where you hide the lovebug behind the felt hearts and another person has to guess which heart it is behind. Younger children can guess by stating a colour choice while beginning readers can read the words. The one in the shop comes with two different poems to use with it; a short version for younger kids and a slightly longer version for older kids.

Sierra and I played a few games while Aayla was playing at the neighbours but as soon as Aayla came home Sierra asked to have the pieces she made so she could teach Aayla to play.

If you'd like to make a felt board of your own HERE is a DIY I did a few years ago to make one like this with a storage pocket for the piece on the back:

If you are local to Barrie, Ontario I'm hosting a bead giveaway here. The owner could only donate a gift card to be used in store but I'd love to offer another giveaway open to everyone everywhere to make it fair. So here you go! Good luck and I look forward to seeing which story is your favourite.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Muscaria Mushroom Madness!!!

Today we went for a lovely walk at the Richmond Nature Centre and I was pleasantly surprised!!! I am always searching for mushrooms (incase you didn't notice in previous posts) to take pictures of but today I got to photograph Many Muscaria Mushrooms.

I am not sure why but I love these mushrooms and in all my years of beautiful fall hikes I have never been able to find any.

That changed today...Today we found many! Lots of them had imperfections but I didn't care...I just snapped and snapped and snapped until I was left behind and had to run to catch up with everyone else. I am almost tempted to go back tomorrow while the girls are at school/daycare and take more time getting better shots :)

We'll see...perhaps I have enough photos for now...I was just sooo excited!!!

Yes I did manage to take a few other photos as well...

Aayla Bo Bayla...with a mischievous grin!

Sierra, Grammy and Bluebell enjoying the stroll

As always...more mushrooms

Fall Foilage

Sierra giving us directions on which way to go

Sierra found these witch fingers on the trail and had so much fun with them

A little family of mushrooms

 Aayla enjoying Tic Tac Toad and Grammy Sue and Sierra testing out the feely boxes at the Nature House

Visiting the bees

I am so happy to have Muscaria mushrooms off of my list of things I want to photograph some day...(still working on Polar bears) and will still of course photograph more in the future :)

I've put together a little list of mushroom crafts that would all be great to go along with Elsa Beskow's Children of the Forest book. If you don't know this book...go find it! It's wonderful!

and if you want some wonderful wooden goodies to go a long with the book and crafts...check out these by mamakopp on etsy

 and these too by barefeetnfreespirit on etsy

Here is a list of some of my favourite Mushroom crafts. Enjoy!!!

Paperbag mushrooms at Mayamade

Spun Cotton Mushrooms at Martha Stewart

Footprint Mushrooms at Crafty-Crafted

Cork Mushrooms at Craftideas

Mushroom Math at Family Education

Adorable Mushroom fairy houses at Pink and Green Mama

and these adorable Mushroom Stools at My Mommy Makes It

Check out my own mushroom ornaments on etsy

I have always loved these mushrooms but feel so inspired now and have some cute tutorials of my own in the works so check back soon...Until then...

Mushroom LOVE to you all!

Another wonderful mushroom toy by Mamaroots on etsy

Happy St Patrick's Day! Crafts, games and sorting fun

Happy St Patricks day everyone! Today I made a cute little game your little ones are sure to love. It is great to use with a felt board or in a group on the floor at circle how ever you prefer.

All you need is to make a variety of different coloured pots and a gold coloured coin out of felt.

To start repeat the verse below while the children close their eyes, then the teacher/parent hide the gold coin under one of the pots. (while everyone's eyes are closed and the verse is being said)

Here are the words, it is one I made up many years ago for daycare:

Leprechaun, Leprechaun, Where's your Gold? (like doggy, doggy, where's your bone)

Leprechaun, Leprechaun, Where's your Gold?

Somebody stole it, they are bold!

Find your gold quick as can be.

Is it in the _(name colour pot)_, let's go see!

(above is a close up of the pot shape you could use as a pattern)

The charming little leprchaun pictured was made by Princess Nimble Thimble on Etsy. You can find her shop HERE. New dolls are added Wednesdays and Sundays I think so if the shop is empty check back soon or visit her sold area. We have many of these lovelies at our house :) I like to use the leprchaun as an added prop. You can give it to the child who is hiding the gold for added fun and to make it clear whose turn it is.

Above Aayla is searching for the leprchaun's gold

She found it so now it's her turn to hide it!

Our little leprchaun is also the perfect companion for sorting a rainbow!

Give your child at least 6 bowls and a jar of buttons, or pom poms etc and allow them to sort the items into the colour of the rainbow.

If your little ones want to be a leprchaun for the day click HERE for my past post on making leprchaun hats shown below.

Or THIS POST HERE for a fun Milk Rainbow.

And now I am off to go make one of THESE for snack. Doesn't it look yummy?