Felt Animal & Bird Brooch Craft Kits for Hawthorn Handmade

I've got some very exciting news to share today - I've designed some craft kits!

Hawthorn Handmade sell absolutely gorgeous beginner-friendly craft kits, and I am beyond thrilled to have been asked to work with them on some felt-y goodness. 

I loved working on these and am SO PLEASED with how they turned out. I hope you guys will be just as excited about them as I am. 

You can find the whole range of brooch kits here (they ship worldwide, hurrah!), but today I thought I'd show you half the collection: cute felt brooches featuring British wildlife. 

There's a hare...

 

 

... a deer...

 

 

... a wren...

 

... a hedgehog...

 

 

... a fox...

 

... and a tawny owl!

 

 

How nice are the photos they've taken of the finished brooches??? Oh my goodness. 

I'd love to know which one's your favourite (mine changes all the time!), and to see some photos if you buy and sew some of the kits xxx

 Click here to shop the whole range of felt craft kits. 

Felt Fox & Badger Brooches PDF Tutorial

UPDATE: these tutorials are now available in my shop and in my Patreon pattern library.

Subscribe for a small monthly fee and you'll get access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, with an email whenever I add a new project. You can cancel any time. 

Click here to check out my Patreon page and sign up!

---

Sew a pair of cute woodland animals: a fox and a badger.

The pattern download includes clear step-by-step instructions for sewing the fox and badger (including lots of photos!), plus three easy-to-print sizes of the templates (the size shown in the photos and two larger ones).

The tutorial shows you how to turn your finished felt animals into cute brooches to pin to an autumn sweater or winter coat, but I think these little guys would also make adorable ornaments for your Christmas tree! Just add a loop of ribbon instead of a brooch clasp and, ta-da!, one woodland animal decoration.

 

You could also use the fox and badger to embellish other things, either by using them as a patch or by sewing them directly onto a larger sewing project.

Felt Fox Brooch Tutorial

UPDATE: this tutorial is now available in my shop and my Patreon pattern library.

Subscribe for a small monthly fee and you'll get access to a growing library of PDF patterns and tutorials, with an email whenever I add a new project. You can cancel any time.      

Click here to check out my Patreon page and sign up! 

----- 

I've just sent out this month's newsletter project - a tutorial for sewing a felt fox brooch.

This is another old design that I used to sell in my shop which I'm now sharing as a pattern. I'm really enjoying revisiting these old projects and I hope you guys are enjoying sewing them!

Click here to visit my tutorial archive for lots of free patterns and project ideas.

Giveaway: Wooden Fox Necklace from Finest Imaginary

Today's giveaway comes from Kim of Finest Imaginary.


Finest Imaginary was born in the summer of 2007, cooing and batting her eyelashes at her new surroundings. The brainchild of Kim Lawler (Interactive arts BA, web designer and kitty-lover) Finest Imaginary has a serious obsession with stories, monsters and make-believe... an obsession that takes the form of sweet jewellery, clever notebooks and awwww-inducing accessories.


Over the Holiday period Finest Imaginary are offering free worldwide postage on all orders over £50!


You can view the full Finest Imaginary range in the online shop, and keep up with new products and offers on Facebook and Twitter.

Kim is giving away a wooden fox necklace:


"This lovely fox measures 5cm tall and 4cm wide. Complete with pretty eyelashes, furry ears and fluffy cheeks. Cut and etched into 3mm polished cherry coloured wood. Strung on an 18" gold plated trace chain."

For your chance to win, just leave a comment on this blog post. Kim is happy to ship internationally, so anyone can enter but please remember that you will be responsible for any customs charges if you live outside the UK. Leave your comment before 10pm on Thursday 17th November (UK time) and I'll pick the winner at random on Friday 18th November.

Please leave a name or pseudonym and include a blog link, Twitter or Etsy username, or email address so I can contact you (if I'm unable to contact the winner within two weeks, I will have to pick someone else so please make sure you leave a way for me to get in touch). I'll then pass your details on to Kim so she can send your prize.

UPDATE: this giveaway is now closed.

A Celebratory Shopping Spree

Most of the money I've earned from writing Super Cute Felting will be spent on sensible/boring things like paying rent and bills and taxes (I'm doing my accounts this week: ugh!) ... but I wanted to spend it on something special, too.

I always have a long wish list of prints from artists and illustrators I've discovered on Etsy or elsewhere online, so I decided to treat myself to some art:

A fox and a wren from KateFete.


Kate's work is so charming, if you're a bird fan you must check out her lovely brooches.

Seed and Sow from Swallowfield. Just gorgeous.


And three birdie prints from Geninne.
I bought some of Geninne's birds a few years ago, they're on display in our kitchen, I love them and they're always much admired by visitors.

As well as enjoying these prints for their own awesomeness I'll always connect them with that lovely happy "finished book" feeling. I can't wait for them to arrive!

Have you bought any art / discovered any artists on Etsy lately?

365 / 137 - an army of squirrels

Cute as they are, I wouldn't want to mess with these little guys...
... especially as there are four more of them around here somewhere (I'd temporarily misplaced them when I took that picture this morning!).

As you may guess, I made lots of squirrels yesterday (soon to be lots of squirrelly brooches). Wonderfully, there was just enough light outside this morning to take pictures of them and my other new designs. Unfortunately it was so cold (doing its best to snow) and windy that I only managed to get half my pictures taken before I had to come indoors again and warm myself up. Brr! If you want a squirrel of your own they'll be listed in the shop this evening, along with all of this lot: