Felt Feather Topper

Wow.  It's been awhile.  I've realized that when I am under stress, I find it hard to be very creative.  Yes my knitting of leg warmers or socks actually helps to alleviate a bit of stress - or pass the time at coffee shops when we have house showing.  I even found the time to knit up a couple of monkeys for the shop.  But the creation of projects for the blog or anything else.  Forget about it.  And to make matters worse - I can't make a mess ... it's hard to be creative if you can't make a mess.  At least for me.

So... this project is my attempt at alleviating my creative frustration, and hopefully a little bit of stress as well.

I took a watercolour class in the spring and realized - You know what?... it's not as easy as you think.  That's why I love watercolour pencils.  They let you create a painterly effect, with some sketchy colours here and there, that is much more difficult to achieve with standard watercolours and brushes.

Ali had some watercolour pencils and during the house purge I came across one of my old pocket sketchbooks.

Just like I did for my spring project for Amy, I wrapped up a pencil, in this case a watercolour pencil, with yarn.  A dab of glue at the pencil tip and another at the base is all you need to hold it in place.  (1) With my pile of felt bits I decided a feather was a great shape to go with.  I just cut the feather shapes free hand and about 3/4 's of an inch wide and 2 inches high. (3)  Another dab of glue for each feather and you have a topper for your pencil. (2)   Two feathers each pencil seemed to work well.

Now, based on my feather theme, I continued with a label.  Just a watercolour pencil feather sketch ... add water to your scratches and it is pretty effective.  I actually really loved how my feathers turned out.  I think I will play around with this style of watercolour painting again.

This is an example of an inexpensive little gift you can put together for teachers, babysitters... friends of your kids.  I loved how I could use up my stash of little bits and pieces and create something new (I'm not allowed to bring anything new into the house when we are trying to sell it ... house rules :)   )

It all came together, wrapped up with a bit of yarn.  It doesn't scream holiday but sometimes that's good.

Stayed tuned later this week I will show a more fallish version of this gift topper.  But for now,  my gift giving is bright and cheery ... and quick and easy!