Make it: Felt Cards with Blooming Felt

You may have seen some of our posts with Blooming Felt and now we have another one for you.  Making cards can be a fun and simple thing to do for birthdays and celebrations.  Especially as you can be more personal to the recipient.

Make it. Spring Phrases DIY with Blooming Felt

Today, I have a really cute DIY to brighten up your day. These spring phrases are a great way to jazz up a blank wall or to fill in a gap in your art wall. 

You will need: Two sheets of felt (one bright and one grey/white) a template (You can download the ones I made for free at Hello Spring and Bunny Love) some freezer paper, an Iron, a pencil, a craft knife, thread, a sewing machine with a darning foot (embroidery foot), a trouser hanger and super sharp tiny scissors.

Take your template and trace it onto a sheet of freezer paper, then iron it on to your coloured sheet of felt. Use a craft knife to cut around the lines that you have drawn.  Don't press too hard you only want to cut the paper, not the felt. Then you can peel away the 'inside' part of your design.

Place your grey or white felt underneath your coloured sheet and pin it in place, or if your like me be brave and wing it with no pins, I'm such a rebel!  Sew all the way around all of the paper pieces.

Next you get to peel all of your remaining freezer paper pieces away to reveal your stitched design. 

Take your sharp scissors and cut out all of the fabric that is outside the letters (the parts that were covered in paper when you were sewing.)

There you have it, a fun, bright addition to your wall.  Perfect for adding a pop of colour to any space. You can totally customise this to make it say anything you like, in any colour you like.

What phrases would you make, and what colours?? Blooming Felt have LOADS of colours to choose from, Let us know in the comments which one you would choose.

Sammy xxx

We would love to see if you have a go at this. Like with all our DIY's if you do, take a picture and share it with us on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag #livelovemake

Make it: Easter Bunny Ears DIY with Blooming Felt

Today we bring you a crafty classic DIY for your Easter weekend... Bunny Ears!

With the help of Blooming Felt we are going to show you how to whip up a pair for you to wear for lunch on Easter Sunday or Monday with your family. These would also be great if you are hosting an Easter egg hunt for your little family members like H and I are. Lets get to it!

You will need: Felt, Contrast fabric, a Sharpie or vanishing marker, glue, bondaweb, Wire, Scissors and a Hair band.

We started by bondawebing two sheets of felt together to make it stiffer, then we marked out our ear shapes on the felt.  Make sure you leave room for two tabs at the bottom of each ear shape to attach them to the band.  Cut out your ears. Next make two loops from your wire and glue them to the middle of your ears, this will mean you can bend them into cute expressions later.  Take your contrast fabric and draw around your felt ears.

Next, cut around the ear shapes you have drawn on the contrast fabric, cut a little inside the line so you will be able to see the felt around the edge, but make sure it will still cover the wire. Then glue the fabric down over the wire and leave it to dry.

Once your glue has dried, cut a slit into the tab you left at the bottom of each ear.  Pop a dab of glue onto one side and flap the other side over it at 90 degrees. Again wait for the glue to dry before the next step.

Take both ears and play around with the position. Once you like where they are going to sit on the band, glue them in place. 

There you have it, the perfect Easter accessory.

If you like my glitter ears they are in exactly the same way as H's blue ears using my fave glitter fabric as the contrast.

Hope you liked our version of this crafty classic? As always we would love to see if you have a go at these, if you do, take a quick pic and share it with us on Twitter @livelovemake or on Instagram @Sammytvr or @h_a_sketch don't forget the hashtag #livelovemake

Wishing you all a lovely Easter weekend, what are you up to, are you taking advantage of the long weekend by having a go at some crafts of your own??  Let us know in the comments what you are up to. We read every comment and reply to as many as we can. 

Sammy and H 

Make it. Reusable Easter Pinatas with Blooming Felt

It's Easter, lets get crazy with some bright colours and egg shaped things, Yeh!! Traditionally Piñatas are covered in strips of fringed paper, but this means they are quite fragile, and you go to all that effort of cutting and sticking for it to be destroyed. So I thought if I made some in felt, I can use them over and over again. Plus they will look so cute on the centre of my dining table for Easter Sunday lunch.

You will need: Felt, a cardboard egg, glue, sharp scissors, ribbon, some chocolate goodies for inside.

Start by taking your felt sheet and cutting it into strips, it is best to do all the cutting before you start gluing. Cut your strips about 1'' wide. Next is to cut your fringe, cut up into each strip leaving about 1/4'' uncut at the top. Also cut yourself a small circle of felt to add to the very bottom of your egg, cut it in half so you have two semicircles. At this point you may want to try one of your chocolate eggs, you know, just to make sure they taste OK.

Once you have all your strips cut and fringed you can pop some glue onto one side of your egg, add your semicircle to the bottom. You may want to try just one more of those chocolates. 

Start layering up your fringe strips. trimming away as you go and making sure to overlap the layers by about 1/4''. 

Keep adding layers until you reach the top of the egg, munch on another chocolate egg, then repeat the steps to cover the second half.  You are then ready to add your ribbon, take some glue and stick it to the inside of one half of your egg.  Give yourself a little reward and eat another chocolate egg before you fill up your piñata with any that you have left. There you have it, an Easter gift that can be filled up year after year.

These were so fun to make and they look awesome... Although they may be empty before they make it to our dining table! I am going to have to find something else to fill them with before Sunday.
What would you put in yours??

Sammy xxx

We would love to see if you have a go at this. Like with all our DIY's if you do, take a picture and share it with us on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag #livelovemake

Make it. Felt Garland with Blooming Felt

We are starting a little series today with the lovely Blooming Felt. We thought we would start simple with the first of our collaborations with this super easy, spring time Floral Garland.  Blooming Felt has some really lovely felt shapes on their website, we just loved these retro flowers and thought they would make a great garland to cheer up some empty wall space.