Adding hair to a 3d cats head face painting

Have you seen the wonderful 3d cats head faces some clever people are needle felting
I had a go at them and wanted to share something that many people struggle with
What direction to add the hair to when making a longer haired cat

I created this diagram while I was felting my cat to help
You want to start at the outer edges adding the long hair and then work inwards towards the centre of the cats face overlapping each new layer slightly and radiating the hairs outwards as per the arrows

If you want to see the ful video of me creating this cats head pin then it is below. This was fun to make and although not perfect and realistic it still turned out really cute

Needle felting Tutorials, Cats Paw Beads

Want to make cute cat paw beads??

This is a great beginner level project and once you have the hang of it these little beads are really addictive.

Also check out the start of the video to vote on which large project you would like me to take you through step by step, in todays video I give you a close up at my needle felted dragon

Fuzzylugs Friday

Needle felting - quick fix - Oh no! The ears are too big

 Every had a felting disaster? Actually the great thing about needle felting is you can save just about anything
Here is my quick fix for a common issue I have
My cat is almost done but I just dont like the ears, I have pretty much reached the limit of how much smaller I can felt them and for me they are just too big.

I could take them off and make new ones, I could cut them off and remove some from the bottom - but let me share with you a quick trick I discovered to shrink them and still retain the shape

 Carefully cut a V shape into the tip of each ear so the centre is now lower than the edges
(poor thing, he looks a little odd now!)

 Pinch the edges together and CAREFULLY (dont stab your fingers) felt the edges together

Occasionally if you have felted VERY firmly you might find you need to add a tiny bit of fluffed up fleece over the top to get the edges to bond but usually with ears I dont find I need this

Repeat for the other ear and hopefully your ears are now shrunk how you like them
















Of course you can always just buy yourself some ready made custom felt animals from my shop - check out my sale section for some amazing discounts!

More Destash

Wow, Felix sold in less than 30 min of being listed - a new record for me.
He is off to his new home as I type.
As this seems to be a good way to make a little space in my house I have added a few more fuzzies to my destash section
One of the first is this kitten. She was a really early peice for me, and instead of felting her eyes I used stunning blue glass eyes.

Tiny cat

This tiny cat is 1 inch to her shoulder
She is a custom order and on her way to Russia.

It is exciting to think how well traveled my little fuzzies are - they get to more places than me!!

New listing - PDF instructions!

As I know so many craft people want a try at needle felting I decided to make my own tutorial.

The 1/2 splat bookmarks are actually a great beginners project as they are built from basic shapes and a bookmark can be completed in around two hours.

This listing in my etsy shop is for a 14 page pdf file of step by step instructions and photographs to make one of my bookmarks.

This is something a little new for me :) hopefully it is something people are interested in. I shall also make up some kits at a later date

Lynx

Another crazy challenge for me

A lynx

I have always loved these small big cats with their tufty ears

I decided no to leave loose fibers but to felt them solid more like a 3d cartoon

Not sure if it comes across in the photographs but as I was making him I kinda thought he looked like a cross between the pet from the cartoon thundercats and a kind of Manga sidekick

Why oh why do I keep going for the spotty ones? All those tiny spots have to be felted in individually - but I think it was worth it

Oh the weather outside is ......

Just horrible!! I never thought I could get fed up of snow but this wet mushy slippy stuff is just no fun!! (unless you are a dog)
So a bowl of hot lentil soup with crusty bread and then I am back to felting my fingers to the bone!

At the weekend my kitty splat was featured in the Etsy finds mail and the storque

and things went crazy!! over 100 shop hearts in a 24 hour period, 6 sales (4 of them custom orders) and as many requests for me to let them know when kittys are back in stock!!
Whew.
So I have got 3 of the 4 custom ones done. A long gray tabby for hardback books, and a orange tabby (I think these cats liked the photo shoot too much, they are full of mischief! and a splatted back end of a long hair faun pup


Oh sorry! Were you expecting fotos of doggies in the snow?? Its just too wet to take the camera out.

Also my Beagle project has been put on hold a little! Check back soon for more stage by stages