I had always been so intimidated by needle felting and never thought it was something I could just pick up and do. Then I saw these ADORABLE felted mushrooms for sale online and instantly fell in love with everything except the price tag. Don’t get me wrong, handmade items take so much time to make and I want to support artists, but sometimes (especially for my children’s toys) I just can’t afford to buy the incredibly beautiful handcrafted items I see all over my Instagram feed.
So, I decided to just give it a try- what’s the worst that would happen?! I quickly realized how incredibly easy needle felting it…like…seriously easy you guys. I know some of you are reading this and thinking well I still could never do it, and I promise, you can. The worst thing that will happen is you will stab your fingers a thousand times with a really sharp needle but IT’S WORTH IT.
You can get felt for needle felting all over the internet. Amazon has it, Michaels has it, or you can shop small and support businesses like @achildsdreamcrafts – you can get all different colors too so the sky is the limit! I ended up buying a little needle felting kit off of amazon eventually once I became hooked but to start, you don’t need anything fancy!
The best thing to do would be look at pictures for inspiration. I looked at some real life wild mushrooms to try to recreate and then some more whimsical ones just for fun. You can start easy to try to make a traditional dome shaped mushroom and then branch out as you get more confident on the funkier shaped caps. You can add wool easily to change the shape, rip wool off to make it smaller and just keep poking away until you see something you like- it is that easy.
I have a full tutorial saved on my instagram stories if you want to see how I make them and please reach out if I can help in any way!
Here is how I use them to enhance my children’s Spanish:
Seta (seh-tah) – mushroom
Hongo (ohng-goh)- mushroom or fungus
Sombrerete (sohm-breh-reh-teh) – cap
Tallo (tah-yoh) – stem
My children play all kinds of games with their little felted mushrooms! They are used for counting, cooking, imaginative woodland play and have even been used as cars for their little baby dolls.
I’ll keep posting more ideas of beautiful toys that you can make at home over the next few weeks and I hope it helps empower you to take that leap and believe in yourself!
The only difference between those that do and those that don’t is the belief that they can.
