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16 Sept 2013

FELTED ACORN GARLAND & A GIVEAWAY!

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED* 
Congratulations to "Cape on the Corner"!

Today is a pretty exciting day!  I am participating along with eight other lovely bloggers in a fall project extravaganza sponsored by Coupons.com.  I have a great fall craft to share with you and Coupons.com is also giving one lucky reader a $200 gift card to either the Home Depot or Amazon (you can read the rules and enter the giveaway at the end of this post)!  That money would definitely help with your next fall project. :)  
Coupons.com is a great place to save on almost everything.  They have coupons/offers for all sorts of things and places including Home Depot and Amazon.  When I looked up coupons for my project, I was surprised at how many there really were.  It's definitely worth it to go take a look to see if you can save a little on your next purchase.

Now onto my latest fall craft and it also includes more pom-poms (sort of).  Someone is going to have to stop me soon or I'll be putting pom-poms on the dog next!  I made this cute felted acorn garland:

The garland is made from acorn tops that I picked from our neighbour's yard and felted wool balls.  I chose to go pretty neutral with the off-white wool.  For some reason when fall comes around, I crave a more neutral pallet.  Maybe it's so that the beautiful fall colours can take precedence.  

I really love how this garland turned out and I even loved felting my own wool balls (you can read the how to below).  I am planning to use it as a decoration for a special party that is coming up soon.  In the meantime, it has hung on our mantel and is now hanging on our bedroom mirror.  I like how the felted acorns look with the wood frame.  Co-pilot snuck into the room and the picture too.  Don't mind the diaper and the unbuttoned onesie. :)

Here's how I made my garland:

Felted Acorn Garland:

You will need the following:
I ordered my supplies from Amazon:  wool roving, felting needle mat and felting needle.  The twine I used was hemp and available at the craft store.

Directions:

Make your felted wool balls:

**you can also felt your own balls without any special tools.  Jenny has a great tutorial on this.**
1. Cut pieces of wool roving to make your balls.  Wool roving comes in a long hank.  I divided mine in two lengthwise and then cut pieces that were about 2.5" long.  (my garland has 20 acorns = 20 pieces of wool).
2.  Loosely roll your wool roving piece into a ball.
3.  Carefully hold the ball over the felting mat and start to poke the ball several times up and down with the felting needle.  Keep turning your ball around and repeating the needle felting until your ball is round and starts to feel firm.  **You'll want to be super careful with the felting needle as it's very sharp!
4.  Fill a bowl with water as hot as you can tolerate and a drop or two of soap.  Place your ball in the soapy water and you will start to feel the fibers contract/felt.
5.  Take the ball out of the water and roll it around in between the palms of your hands.  Repeat steps four and five until the ball is quite firm.  I generally only had to do this a couple of times for a short duration.
Once your ball is felted to your liking, rinse it under cold running water.  Try not to squeeze the water out of the ball too much.  Place the rinsed balls on a wire rack or other drying rack to dry (it will take about 24 hours to fully dry depending on the humidity).

Assemble the Garland:
6.  Drill two holes near the stem of each acorn top. **in the photo I am holding the drill up after I made my hole so that you can see where I drilled.  I don't recommend that you actually drill while holding the acorn this way. :)  Please use follow manufacturers instructions and safety precautions when using power tools. **
7.  The holes should look like picture 7.
8.  Weave your twine through your pre-drilled holes.  Once you have all your acorn tops spaced out and on your twine, use glue to secure your wool balls to the tops (I used hot glue).
That's my fall craft.  I hope you like it as much as I do and will stay tuned over the next few weeks to see the party where I plan to use it!

Don't forget to check out all the other great fall projects from these fabulous bloggers and enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post!

Stephanie - Sandpaper & Glue
Gretchen - Boxy Colonial 



This giveaway is open to residents of the United States and is open until 12:00 am, September 23, 2013.  To enter please follow Coupons.com on Google+ and follow each of the hosting bloggers on Facebook!  It's totally not necessary, but you would make my day if you would follow me on bloglovin, pinterest, and/or subscribe by email/rss.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

disclosure:  I was given a gift card by Coupons.com to fund this project.

29 comments:

  1. so neat!!! can't wait to see the rest of the party :)

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    1. Thanks Stephanie! I have to get to planning that party. :)

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  2. Wow, what a GREAT idea! I've seen this method used to create yellow ball flowers (not sure what they're called?) but this is stunning. Can't wait to see where you use it!

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    1. I put a link to a post where my friend made felted wool balls for billy button flowers. They are so cute and I'm tempted to make some of those too. :)

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    2. :) thanks anu :)
      go for it! i love how billy buttons look sweet for three seasons of the year... they can stay out and they'll never die on you ;)
      acorns are also on my 'list of things to do' ;) i remember someone gave me a few three years ago as i was expecting my own 'baby acorn' ♥

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  3. Awww this is adorable! I love acorns!

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    1. Thanks, there's so many acorns around here that I had to make something out of them. :)

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  4. Hi - well, this is a cute project and all, but you being a Canadian blogger, it would be nice if your sponsored posts and giveaways were open to Canadian residents too :) Katarina

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    1. I know, it's too bad that the giveaway is not open to Canadians. :( I will have to try and find some more Canadian giveaways soon! Thanks for your feedback. :)

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  5. oh my--that is absolutely adorable! Love acorns!

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    1. Acorns make the cutest fall crafts. :)

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  6. This is darling. I'm way to lazy to felt but this is ridiculously cute!

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    1. Thanks Michelle! I think you can buy ready felted balls as well: http://www.amazon.com/Felted-Piece-Color-Packs--Cream/dp/B00CBXA6L2/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1379341505&sr=8-11&keywords=felted+wool+beads. They would definitely save you some time. :)

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  7. This turned out so cute! I actually have a bundle of felted balls from a Christmas garland and I'm thinking adding the acorn tops for fall would be super fun!

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    1. I think using different colours would be fun too. I'd love to see your acorns when you make them. :)

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  8. This is to die for! SO CUTE! You did such a great job. I love love love it!

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  9. super cute. I've tried needle felting some years back but for some reason it didn't feel my kind of thing. I should give it another try. :) Cannot wait to see your party pictures. :) Happy planning!

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    1. Felting the balls went really quickly and I liked making them more than I thought I would. This was my first go at it. I'm not sure how a bigger project would go though. I really, really need to get to planning more for the party. I only have this garland so far. :)

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  10. oh! and just a note for needle felting: though you do need the special needle for it, you don't actually need to get a felting mat - any old piece of foam will do (like from an old couch cushion or pillow)

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    1. That's a great option! I like how the bristles on the mat held the wool while I felted. I think foam may be a little more slippery? Thanks for the tip! :)

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  11. I just love acorns and these are no exception. Love that you did them all in a neutral color! It looks so great!!

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    1. I'm really liking the neutrals this fall and acorns too. :)

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  12. This garland is so sweet! I love the acorn tops with the felted balls. I'd like to invite you to link up this fun project and any others you may have to our All Things Thursday Blog Hop going on right now. I hope to see you there!
    Blessings,
    Nici

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for letting me know about your party. I'm off to check it out now. :)

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  13. Such a cute acorn garland. I have quite a few acorn tops I've collected. Now I just need to find the time for a project like this.

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  14. OH MY GOSH, HOW INCREDIBLY ADORABLE! Wow, apparently my caps lock also really loves this! I would've never guessed the how behind this project, I seriously love it!

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  15. Cute project! Going to share this with my little ones.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Hope to see you on my blog:)

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  16. Love this project!! I've never felted any thing before but I'm thinking for an even cheaper version I'm gonna try it with cotton balls!! I would love it if you could come share this at my weekly link party, I would greatly appreciate it :)
    http://gracelangdon.blogspot.com/2013/09/making-monday-7.html

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