I found that I had two storage boxes for felt. One is a see through plastic bin that I thought contained my whole (limited) supply. The other was one of the sturdy, colourful shoe-box type that I can buy at our local Shiploads shop for about two dollars regardless of size. These boxes are great value as they range in size from match box to large dog kennel...only kidding, but almost! I like them because they fit so neatly on my IKEA Billy shelves where the plastic bins that I use everywhere else simply don't fit.
Anyway, I found one of them was about half full of felt pieces of very mixed aetiology...some thin and stiff as a board, a little of my precious pure wool felt, some thick, some thin, mostly all in odd shapes and sizes, and quite a lot of the synthetic felt pieces being self adhesive with a backing paper back.
I don't even remember exactly where or when I bought them. I think it may have been bought in a bag of felt pieces when i needed small amounts of random colours for flowers etc. to decorate hair clips I was making some time ago. They had not been suitable for that project, being too thick for the thin dies I had. I obviously then put the pieces away in the box, labelled it neatly as "Felt" and promptly forgotten all about it...that is despite seeing it every time I passed the shelving...ho hum.
Well, I was about to toss the odd bits, the colours, shapes etc. did not immediately inspire me, but I got a tad sidetracked with the beaded paper clips and brooches I made from the thinner wool felt over the weekend. I noticed them sitting on my work table late last night when I should have been catching up on some beauty sleep (believe me, I need it), so I got to work with a couple of TH steel rule dies and the Big Shot...here is what I made.
I only finished two as I really need some larger diameter magnets to make them more effective. I added three of my tiny paper magnets between the two back layers and used a fabric adhesive to glue the layers down, a bit quicker and easier than the invisible stitching needed on the brooches...they work pretty well, but the stronger magnets would make them much more effective for pinning down thicker items...they look nice though...
Plus I have a wheel barrow full of trimmings waiting for the boys to ram into the compost tubes once the get home from their allotment, along with a warm glow of achievement...it's not every day that I feel up to getting out there and doing what has become such physical work for me...
Big day tomorrow, #1 grandson turns 10!
Bye now,
Di xx