How to make Blooming Cactus's with Kunin Felt

Welcome to the Kunin^®  Felt blog hop!
I, along with fellow designer friends have been asked to share with you projects you can make with Kunin^® felt.

(A little bit about Kunin® felt- Made in the U.S.A. This perfect all-around craft fabric comes in a wide variety of colors. Made from Eco-fi,^® a high-quality fiber made from 100% post-consumer recycled and BPA-free plastic bottles. Fade-resistant. Cuts cleanly with no fraying and can sew and glue easily.)
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Now about my project, I love all things to do with succulents and cactus.
I especially love their vibrant blooms!  Here I have created "thorn-free" cacti you can handle easily and display all year.
Enjoy!

Supplies:

1. Kunin®  9" x 12" Classic Felt in Pirate Green, Neon Green, Cotton Candy Pink, Red and Yellow.
2. Burlap
3. Embroidery hoop
4. 3.50 MM Crochet hook
5. Scissors
6. Black marker
7. Needle and thread
8. Doll stuffing

You can buy Kunin Felt locally at Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's and Walmart.
See more locations near you and online here.

 Cut your felt length wise into 1/4" strips.

Place your burlap into your hoop and tighten until the burlap is taught. I used a 6" hoop, but you can use any size as long as the burlap is larger than the hoop.
 Draw your pattern with the marker. I generally don't label the colors but I did for you here. The lines in the greens section can help you in the beginning until you get the hang of it.

If you have ever done rug hooking, this is similar. Always start in the center of your project. Here we are starting with yellow. Push your hook through the burlap.

On the underside, hook a piece of felt and gently pull it through. Repeat until you have filled in the circle for the yellow felt.  If it's hard for you to grip the crochet hook, try wrapping the handle with a few rubber bands as I did.

After each strip of color or felt, trim off the excess carefully with your scissors.
Continue with rest of the colored felt. You can make your loops tight or long. If you mess up. just carefully pull it back through and start again.

The pattern for the sides of the cactus are shown above. When you are done, remove from the hoop and trim the burlap 1" from the project edge. Cut along the dotted lines to the center.

Turn your piece over and pinch the raw edges of the burlap together then sew shut. Do this all around.

Turn your piece inside out and stitch closed any burlap exposed areas.
Eyeball the size of the base of your cactus and cut from felt.
Fill cactus with stuffing and begin stitching base felt to the bottom, tucking in the excess burlap as you work.

Done!
Soft, vibrant, easy to handle blooming cacti!
 Display in a dish filled with rocks or crystals!
 Please visit the rest of the Kunin ® Felt projects and enter to win an assortment of both Classic felt and Premium felt valued at $75 to use to make your own projects here!

How to make Rug Hooking Hair Clips!

 No matter if spring has started for you or you are still waiting for the snow to melt, these "Rug Hooking Hair Clips" are sure to brighten any day! 

 You will need:
1. A embroidery hoop.
2. Burlap
3. A small cup to trace and a permanent marker.

 4. A crochet hook- size00/3.50MM.  Wrap lots of rubber bands around the hook to make for a no-slip-grip!
5. Brightly colored Kunin Felt cut into 1/4" strips. The longer the better.
6. Hair clips.

 7. Sharp fabric shears. These are by Fiskars.
8. Crayons.
9. Aleene's tacky glue. 
10. Additional felt sheet.

 Place your burlap in the hoop. Trace your circle. Mine measured about 2".
Push your hook through the center of the traced circle. Catch the felt with the hook and pull loop through. Continue pushing and pulling through until you are happy with your flowers center. 

 Trim off excess felt strip and start with a new color.
Repeating the same technique, over and over.
If you make a mistake, such as spacing your loops to far apart or pulling up too much of a loop- simply pull felt strip from under the hoop to remove mistakes. 

 Change colors as desired.
Stop working when you have reached desired flower size. 

  Trim burlap to be larger than your traced circle.
Flip over and trim off any long felt ends.

 With your scissors, cut sections (as shown) into the burlap, right up to the very edge of the flower.
Add a ample amount of glue to the back side of the flower.
Fold the burlap sections over into the glue, pressing firmly.

 For the last to sections, add a bit more glue.
Now place more tacky glue over the pressed down burlap.

 Cut two same size felt circles. Place one onto the glue, pressing firmly.
Add glue to the second felt.

 Place the open hair clip in between the two glued down felt circles.
Place a crayon inside the hair clip to keep the clip from accidentally being glued shut if any glue seeps through the felt.
Leave to dry before wearing your floral creation!

See more "Flower" crafts by looking for this button on my right sidebar.

No Sew Burlap Table Settings!

Welcome!
The Designer Craft Connection members were each challenged to create with Burlap!
Everyone participating was given a variety of Burlap Fabric to inspire you in more ways than one!

The inspiration for my projects came from the fact that our kitchen table needed some fresh table settings. Now that summer is here, we can afford some extra time to eat together as apposed to rushing around School homework and such.
I have 3 projects to get you excited about Burlap!

1. Utensil/napkin holder.
2. Rose place card/magnet.
3. Table runner.

Enjoy!

 To make the Utensil/napkin holder, you will need the following:

1. 3"x4" Linen bags w/ Jute  Drawstrings.
2. Chevron Frog Tape® Shape Tape™
3. FolkArt® Bright Red Metallic Acrylic Craft Paint
4. FolkArt® Calypso Acrylic Craft Paint.
5. Foam brush