Needle Felt Etsy Street Team

How to make an Etsy Treasury

2009-05-10T11:35:00.003-04:00

Orit of http://OritDotanDolls.etsy.com shared these great tips on how to create an etsy treasury on our forum thread over on etsy. I thought I would share them here so we can easily check back on them.

I have been asked about the treasuries-how do I know when the treasury will open?
Well-you need to count from the last one until you will see the 333
Usually it is on pafe 17
When you will find the time that it will be 333-you need to be at the treasury 10 minutes before as lately it does not fixed exactly at the time it is written and to wait
then, when the box open-do not dream-click the first letter if you do not want to loose it
Advice:
-Prepare the treasury on the sketch
-Also you can follow the instructions [at the buttom of the treasury page
-After you post the treasury-go to the promotion thread and open a thread or go to a thread that is already there
This way you will have more comments
Important -in my point of view-to comment on all the treasuries you see at that thread

Yes-it is a lot of work BUT we can have better sales-all of us -if we will create many treasuries

Also lately allow poeple to feature one item from their shop -so -that is one more good reason to make this effert

Sorry about my English, I guess I have many mistakes BUT i am trying to get better all the time..

Hugs to you dear ladies
orit
==============================
Here are the instructions of how to create a treasury
you will find there the poster sketch, you can add it to your favorites and prepare the treasury BEFORE you are trying to catch one so you will be able to create beautiful treasury
http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/how-to-...-and-bolts-688/

ruetabega
If you will prepare the treasury on poster sketch -it will take you couple of minutes to copy it to the treasury
I do it so fast now that most of the times I am the one that open the thread of the new treasuries
If I am not the faster one -I join thread that already open
Hope it helps

NFEST April Challenge

2009-04-13T22:09:00.002-04:00

The NFEST monthly challenges are back and this month's challenge theme is Happy Colors.
Entries are due by April 30th!

NEEDLEFELT TEAM work on FLICKR

2009-01-03T06:34:00.004-05:00

I tried to put this slide show of our team FLICKR group photos in the sidebar of this blog, but it was too wide. It is too beautiful, not to share. GREAT ARTWORK everyone!!! It's so fun to see how many different styles of needlefelt there are. If you get a chance to kick back and cruise through the slideshow, it's a lot of fun. You can click on pictures to go right to the flickr, too!

REPOST:How to Make a Painless Needlefelt Ornament!

2008-12-17T12:31:00.001-05:00

This "Painless Needlefelt Ornament" tutorial by Morgan of EwesYourImagination is so GREAT that I thought I would repost now at Christmastime for everyone to enjoy.

Hi! I am Morgan, a.k.a Ewes Your Imagination, a proud member of the NFEST team and the Felting Forum. I asked my mom if she would be the guinea pig for this tutorial, and she happily agreed! About 15 minutes into the project, we had already altered some things, and she was quickly tiring of the stabbing process! Now that I think about it, Dr. Phil was on, and she seemed to be listening less to my instructions and more to the television. I came home and realized there was no way of simplifying all the changes we made, so I sat down and start to finish did this tutorial like I originally planned.

If you have ever pulled out your wool and needles around people who haven't heard of needlefelting, you probably get the same question I get, "Can you teach me?" My answer is usually "No," not only because I am a lousy teacher, but also knowing how much damage a sharp, downward-barbed needle can do to one's fingers. So I hesitate to let the interested kids (and some adults!) I know start stabbing. How do you share the joy of your craft, without sharing the pain?

I wanted to make a Christmas ornament with my mom, who doesn't have any needlefelting experience yet, and thought a good template, or stencil, would be a cookie cutter! I remembered all the fun cookie cutters we used growing up, most of them in Christmas shapes. So we found the standard Gingerbread Man cookie cutter and started stabbing away! The high walls were perfect to run the needle straight up and down without having to put your digits in harm's way.

So if you want to get someone with tender, innocent fingers started in this fun and addictive craft, try some things you have in your house first, and in no time they will pick up the basics of needlefelting.

1) What you'll need: felting needle (I used a size 40), foam,
cookie cutter with no bar across the top, various colors
of wool roving depending on what you are making.

2) Put your cookie cutter on your foam work
surface, and start laying wool over the top, being
sure to lay wool over the edges, and in different
directions.

3) Push the wool down, and keep adding
more wool until the cookie cutter
is loosely filled with the roving.

4) Start pushing the needle straight up
and down along the perimeter of the
cookie cutter, and continue all the way around, leaving the middle for later.

5) Before you go any further, it's good to
lift up the cookie cutter, and pull the wool
off the foam, so it doesn't get too stuck in
the foam. If you've felted all the way
around the inside edge, it should
hold it's shape well.

6) Now, push the wool back into the
cookie cutter and felt all the wool
in the middle down until it is uniformly felted.

7) Now you can remove the cookie cutter and you should have a semi-firm felted shape.

You can start adding details any way you like, I chose to use
the standard Gingerbread Man embellishments.

You could embellish with beads, sequins, embroidery, or anything you feel like! To make these into hanging tree ornaments, simply sew a loop of thread near the top and tie a knot. Metallic thread looks good for this. The snowman at the top of the page was made using the same cookie cutter, but my mom added some length to the legs after step 6, then gently wet felted, dried and shaped the whole body until it was what she wanted. Then she and I added the carrot shaped nose, and the black eyes and mouth. It resembles a primitive snowman doll she found a while back, and I can't wait to make more!

Also, if you are helping teach someone who is either really impatient, or just really young, you could skip most of the time-consuming steps, and just have them trace the body from a piece of pre-made felt, then just needlefelt the details. They would make good easy hanging ornaments, or even special tags to adorn presents. Happy Felting!

NFEST November Challenge Collage

2008-12-07T21:13:00.006-05:00

November 2008 Challenge Collage

Well, everyone must be really busy with all those handmade, eco-friendly Christmas orders! We only had one entry for our November Challenge Theme of "Earth, Wind, Fire and Water". Gerry of Gourmet Felted created this adorable Jack Russell Terrier digging deep into the Earth to find his long buried bone.

Gerry's shop is http://gfelted.etsy.com and this cutie is for sale! To see him directly click here http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18103215

Gerry's work will be in the February "Teddy Bear Review Magazine" which is on shelves now!

Since we only have the one entry, we have some space to learn a bit more about this talented needlefelt artist.

Bio~ORIGINAL ARTIST SCULPTURES~~MADE FOR YOU, FROM THE HEART~~ONE OF A KIND~by GERRY I love textiles! I love dogs! Put them together = needle felting, which is sculpting with wool. I've always been most happy expressing myself artistically. When I was a little girl, I even painted seashells...and yes, I DID sell them by the seashore!! I love knitting and working with textiles of every color and texture. It is most fun to sculpt a fluffy pile of wool into a dog. When a dog is created in a few hours, it is like a miracle! They are made from the heart and I put much love into each one of my creations. I get so much happiness from making these little dogs, and also from the joy that it gives others. People have told me that they have tears of happiness when they open the box and see their little replica of their pet.

Thank you, Gerry, for sharing a bit about you and entering our Team November Challenge with this dynamic needlefelted wool sculpture!

NFEST Team News

2008-12-01T10:49:00.004-05:00

Hello! We have some team news to announce.

Orit started a new forum thread over on etsy to promote needlefelt items. If you get a chance, head on over to http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5932318 share your needlefelt creations and check out what our team has been working on.

Congratulations to our two winners of the NFEST "Find a needle in a haystack" Contest! AlpacaFarmGirl and Rosapatientiae successfully submitted correct entries and were the two winners in our drawing. A big thank you to everyone who participated. We hope you enjoyed the needle hunt.

We have a lot of new members signing up almost daily. Welcome to all you needlefelting newbies!

felt candy cane tutorial

2008-11-26T03:58:00.002-05:00

this is an easy and fast way to make felt candy canes, felting around pipe cleaners to create the shape. i first posted this tutorial on my blog, felt cafe; thanks gina for inviting me share it here!

no previous felting experience is necessary; this would be a lot of fun for older kids. for younger children, you could wrap the wool around the pipe cleaners and/or get them started, and have the kids do the last steps (roll them in soapy water).

this tutorial is a sneak preview of part of a holiday felt making kit that i will have in my etsy shop after thanksgiving. UPDATE 11/25: thanks to everyone who has commented, in response to popular demand, you can now purchase these felt candy canes from my etsy shop as a custom order. feel free to share this tutorial, i would like to please just ask that you credit me and the felt cafe blog, thank you!~

you will need some pipe cleaners (cut in half) and some wool roving. the amount pictured is about 1/8 of an ounce, which is enough to make at least 2 candy canes. you also need dish soap, hot water, a shallow waterproof dish, and a towel on hand.

take a strip of white wool. starting at one end, wrap the wool tightly around the pipe cleaner.

overlapping the wool, wrap the wool diagonally along the pipe cleaner, working your way to the other end.
make sure to completely cover the end.
wrap back in the other direction, making 2 layers. when you reach the first end, turn around and wrap a final 3rd layer of wool
completed 3 layers of white wool wrapped around half a piper cleaner. if you've wrapped it tightly, it will be easier to felt in the following steps. some unevenness in the layers of wool at this point will not be a problem.
take one strip of red wool roving, about 1 and a half times longer than the white wool wrapped pipe cleaner.
wrap the red wool once or twice around one end.

and then wrap the red strip diagonally along the length of the pipe cleaner, leaving white spaces that are the same width as the red spaces.
wrap the red wool one or two times around the end.
wool wrapping completed.

put a little hot soapy water in a dish, and roll the wool in it. using your fingertips or palms, roll the wool back and forth, as if you were making a clay snake.
the fibers will begin to join together. continue to roll the wool.
you can continue to work the wool: hold the stick in one hand as shown, and close your other hand around it. keeping your hands flat, rub it between your palms. you can keep working the wool as you gradually rinse out the soap.

your felt candy cane will probably have stretched a little past the wire and become longer. if you want flat ends, you can trip them off with a scissors, being careful to cut beyond the end of the wire.
bend to make a candy cane shape.

you can use the same process to make larger or smaller candy canes, or peppermint sticks (just don't bend them), or twist them into a circle for napkin rings or tiny decorative wreaths.

have fun, and i would love to hear any feedback!

SALE! Original Needlefelt Fiber Art 11/22 11/23

2008-11-13T11:28:00.067-05:00

The Needle Felting Etsy Street Team is proud to host their first Holiday SALE Great discounts all weekend - Plus,***CONTEST***WIN A FREE NEEDLE FELTING KIT OR AN Original NUSHKIE Fairy Art Doll! No purchase necessary. Everyone is invited to enter! Stroll through the shops on this post to find the Needle in the Haystack! More details at the bottom of this post.

Holiday Sale November 22nd and 23rd - All day.

Find the Felting Needle in the Haystack
And win the Needle Felting Kit Prize!
Just visit the shops with sales and look for the letters
N - E - E - D - L - E - F - E - L- T
in the descriptions of items for sale.
When you've found them, email the shop names in order
(example: fufukitty = N) to our team shop via etsy convo http://Needlefelt.etsy.com

Correct answers will be placed in a pool and
Two winners will be drawn at random. Winners will be announced on this blog. So stay tuned!

NFEST Oct08 Challenge "Things With Eyes"

2008-11-06T18:19:00.009-05:00

October's "Things with Eyes" Themed Challenge Entries are in! Beautiful, creative, and diverse. Thank you to everyone who thought about it, created these entries and shared your creations. The Needle Felting Etsy Street Team is proud to present this gorgeous collage. (To see a larger view, click on the image.) If you'd like to see more of these artist's creations, please click on the links below and stop in to see their shops.

Coraldee

Creations By Corina

Cutting Edge Creations

Fridays feature - ewesyourimagination

2008-10-17T18:50:00.001-04:00

Todays friday feature is

http://ewesyourimagination.etsy.com

From today onwards the friday featured NFEST artists will be cross posted in the NFEST blog.

http://nfest.blogspot.com
and in my blog

http://benmcfuzzylugs.blogspot.com

Any NFEST artist wishing to participate please post in this thread
http://feltingforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2669&start=15

What got you started needle felting?
I helped during the shearing of a local Shetland ranch, and was generously given a LOT of free wool, so I bought some needles and stabbed away!

How long have you been needle felting?
Only since March of 2008...I've come a long way and get better every time I poke!

Describe your style of work
Most of my things have oddly turned out sorta cutesy....that's odd because I'm more of a creepy, weird minded person when I start out on something. I've also just discovered how much fun wool "paintings" can be.

How do you promote your items?
I chat as much as possible on Etsy, in the forums, labs, and chat rooms. Then here on the forum, Flickr gets a lot of views, and I started a blog for fun! I just listed some specials on IndiePublic's Gift Guide too. Also, there are going to be NFEST members who will all hold a shop sale on the same November weekend which will be promoted in various ways.

What/who inspires you?
The huge pile of wool and my husband saying "Thats an awful lot of wool." Well, that inspires me to keep at it, but I have a wild imagination anyway to come up with most of my things.

Can you remember what the 1st thing you made was?
A very primitive looking sheep. Then immediately a grizzly bear that looked waaay better!

What are you working on right now?
A very creepy macabre vase, black and white with crimson red locks. I wet felted the main vase, and have needled "faces" into places. Creepy.

If you could only save one of your items from a fire which one would it be?
Yikes. We just installed a small woodstove, so I better really think on this one. Well, it would have to be my "Harvest HoneyMOONers" painting, and the "Crimson Passages" (they only count as one, cause they're stored together right now

"Autumn" NFEST September 2008 Challenge

2008-10-11T09:41:00.006-04:00

Collage of all the gorgeous entries for the Needle Felt Etsy Street Team's September 2008 Challenge of "Autumn". Thank you everyone who entered your stunning and diverse creations! (Click on the image to really zoom in on your favorites.)

Orit Dotan Dolls

Ewes Your Imagination

Stay tuned for our next challenge collage of "Things with Eyes" coming in the beginning of November.

Fridays feature, NearlyNoodle

2008-10-03T10:02:00.001-04:00

Todays friday feature is

http://dogfacegirls.etsy.com

From today onwards the friday featured NFEST artists will be cross posted in the NFEST blog.

http://nfest.blpgspot.com
and in my blog

http://benmcfuzzylugs.blogspot.com

Any NFEST artist wishing to participate please post in this thread

http://feltingforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2669&start=15

What got you started needle felting?
My friend and business partner Geri Williams

How long have you been needle felting?
15 months

Describe your style of work
Somewhat realistic

How do you promote your items?
Blog,website,etsy

What/who inspires you?
My three whippets

Can you remember what the 1st thing you made was?
A whippet

What are you working on right now?
A horse

If you could only save one of your items from a fire which one would it be?
A moose that I made

How-To: Make A Painless Needlefelted Christmas Decoration

2008-09-30T21:00:00.004-04:00

Hi! I am Morgan, a.k.a Ewes Your Imagination, a proud member of the NFEST team and the Felting Forum. I asked my mom if she would be the guinea pig for this tutorial, and she happily agreed! About 15 minutes into the project, we had already altered some things, and she was quickly tiring of the stabbing process! Now that I think about it, Dr. Phil was on, and she seemed to be listening less to my instructions and more to the television. I came home and realized there was no way of simplifying all the changes we made, so I sat down and start to finish did this tutorial like I originally planned.

If you have ever pulled out your wool and needles around people who haven't heard of needlefelting, you probably get the same question I get, "Can you teach me?" My answer is usually "No," not only because I am a lousy teacher, but also knowing how much damage a sharp, downward-barbed needle can do to one's fingers. So I hesitate to let the interested kids (and some adults!) I know start stabbing. How do you share the joy of your craft, without sharing the pain?

I wanted to make a Christmas ornament with my mom, who doesn't have any needlefelting experience yet, and thought a good template, or stencil, would be a cookie cutter! I remembered all the fun cookie cutters we used growing up, most of them in Christmas shapes. So we found the standard Gingerbread Man cookie cutter and started stabbing away! The high walls were perfect to run the needle straight up and down without having to put your digits in harm's way.

So if you want to get someone with tender, innocent fingers started in this fun and addictive craft, try some things you have in your house first, and in no time they will pick up the basics of needlefelting.

1) What you'll need: felting needle (I used a size 40), foam,
cookie cutter with no bar across the top, various colors
of wool roving depending on what you are making.

2) Put your cookie cutter on your foam work
surface, and start laying wool over the top, being
sure to lay wool over the edges, and in different
directions.

3) Push the wool down, and keep adding
more wool until the cookie cutter
is loosely filled with the roving.

4) Start pushing the needle straight up
and down along the perimeter of the
cookie cutter, and continue all the way around, leaving the middle for later.

6) Now, push the wool back into the
cookie cutter and felt all the wool
in the middle down until it is uniformly felted.

Needle Felt Etsy Treasuries-Page 3

2008-09-29T03:19:00.006-04:00

We have a couple of active Needle Felt curations in the treasuries of Etsy on page 3! We just need a little help from our friends now. Please use all twelve of your clicks and click on all the pictures in these treasuries and leave a comment which will drive these treasuries up the "Hot" list and in front of Etsy admin eyes and maybe onto the front page in front of all of etsy's eyes.

Treasury by Orit

Treasury by Gina

Needlefelt Team mates FEATURED!

2008-09-26T18:42:00.005-04:00

Check out all the ways our fantastic artist friends are being featured!

The Funky Felter Foxgloves and Intimate Forest are all featured in "Interweave Felt 2008" Magazine this month! You can get your own magazine in various locations or online at Interweave Felt 2008 Special Edition

Gourmet Felted will be featured in the February issue of "Teddy Bear Review" Magazine, due to hit stands in December.

New member Suzees Jubileez was featured on Beachcombers Cove Blog

There are even more of our outstanding artists being featured in the near future, but mums the word until the appointed time. :)

If you get a chance grab the magazines or stop by the blog feature and show your support for needlefelt and our artists!

CONGRATULATIONS to these hardworking and talented needlefelt artists!

09/17/08 NFEST Meeting Results

2008-09-18T10:17:00.006-04:00

Our first team meeting was a big success! We had about 10% of our group that were able to make it. Gina, the team founder, had a video debut in the Etsy Virtual Labs. At this time, there is no way to record the video portions, so she just said hi and then went to texting. We took minutes for those who were unable to make it or for those who would like to review them over time. You can read our first meeting minutes at the Felting Forum under the topic NFEST 091708 Meeting Minutes

There were many topics and not enough time, it seemed. But, we managed to get through the topics and some excellent suggestions were touched on. Due to the time constraints some of the suggestions require a meeting of their own in order to fully delve into. Those meetings will be announced in the future.

First and foremost, we got comfortable in the new environment of the Etsy Virtual Labs. We spun, laughed, threw hearts, lips and paper airplanes at each other. Featherheart stayed upside down. Someone pushed poor little gnomey out of the room (by accident) LOL. Even WhimsicalMom started throwing cookies! Delicious. But, no time outs were necessary, the gnome magically re-appeared, and the meeting forged on. Needlefelters were felting during the meeting, too. I'd love to see the creations worked on during the meeting, sometime.

We covered several topics; team communication, treasury exposure, team site management, trunk shows/craft shows, and flickr team profile.

Communication - ALL team information is found on the Felting Forum Needle Felting ETSY Street Team Section. Our team has its own little section within the larger Felting Forum. Kay Petal of Felt Alive just bought the forum and will be helping us to make this section even more organized and team information easier to find in the near future.

Sara of Sara's Texture Crafts suggested we RSS the team forum updates over here to our blog side column. I don't really understand the Near Circle WebRing that Rebecca of FaerieRebecca set up, but this also shows updates. I sent a request to her to see if it is possible to add this. If anyone knows how this might be done, please come forth and share your wealth so keeping in the information loop will be easier for all of us.

We made the transition from Google over to the Felting Forum in March of 2008. Due to team mates being deployed or otherwise unable to join the forum at that time, all team information has been duplicate posted in several places such as the google group, twitter, flickr, etc. Now, information will only be posted on the forum and links to that post will be spread to the various sites. The many other sites and projects that our team is involved with will stay open as outreaches to people who may never have heard of needlefelting and for places where individual team mates may decide to add to their own shop's exposure outside of etsy. For example, google gave us the ability to create pages about our shops with pictures and links. The google site gets many hits a day. So, while we will not be using it for team communications, it will still be open to provide the outreach and exposure for our shops.

List of Projects and Team Leaders

Dawn of Gnome Garden brought up the idea of a re-orientation letter going out to everyone on the team since there is so much information and it's been confusing to know where to go to stay in the loop or to help out.

Erin of Fufu Kitty asked if there is a way to see the most recent posts in the forum. There are two ways to see new posts. First, you will see a yellow blob over on the left hand side of the topics if there have been new posts since your last log in. To go directly to the new posts in a long topic, look all the way to the right hand side and click on that little piece of paper.

Treasury Exposure - Forum Treasury sharing link was brought up as the place to post the link to treasuries featuring needlefelt that we create or see. If everyone can go check this thread when they have time and then click on every picture in the treasuries and leave comments, this drives that treasury to the top of the HOT lists and is more likely to make a front page. Some treasury hunting techniques were shared, but due to time constraints, it was suggested this topic have its own meeting in the future. Orit of Orit Dotan Dolls has offered to share her successful techniques with any who convo her. WhimsicalMom of Whimsical Mom shared this Storque Article on Treasuries

Team Site Management - Our team has many group sites across the internet that operate as social networks as well as optional areas for additional exposure of each of our individual shops. List of Projects and Team Leaders This is a list of all the places we are. If any team mates spend a lot of time on one of these social networks and would like to take on the minimal task of monitoring/admin for our team group site, please convo Gina at RoseThistleArtworks or RoseThistleRanch@aol.com There is not much activity on these groups, but that may be due to the amount of attention they receive right now.

Erin of Fufu Kitty volunteered to be an admin for our Indie Public Needlefelters Site

Trunk Shows/Craft Shows - Trunk shows and craft shows were an unexpected topic, but a good one brought up by Lisa of Poor Lulu who went to the Renegade Fair in Chicago and saw the Plush Team had set up a booth. (This wasn't in the meeting but Etsy offers 2 Team Grants per year for teams to use as they wish. Maybe, either an online virtual trunk show or a live craft show may be the way we all decide to use one of our two grants this year?)

Virtual trunk shows were explained a bit since our meeting room is also where virtual trunk shows are held. The meeting rooms enable us to display item cards that show a picture of the item, description and a link back to the item and shop. In virtual trunk shows, the participants each get a chance to display their items this way to everyone in the room. These shows are heavily promoted within and outside of etsy, so buyers are present. Other teams have done these and have said the shows are successful. Organizing can be done by any team member. This was another topic that it was decided would be good for a future meeting to really delve into.

FLICKR Team Profile - This is our Team Flickr ID Every team member who has a flickr account should be listed as a contact with our team ID. Treasuries and features of team members are uploaded to this site and then sent out to various FLICKR group sites.

Also, we have a FLICKR Needle Felt Group Site where everyone is encouraged to join and share their photos. Also, add the tag "nfest" to all your needle felt items so they will be featured on our slideshow here on the blog.

This brought up discussions on FLICKR's rules. The rules are that NO SELLING is allowed in picture descriptions. You CAN put your link in your profile only. Do not put your shop link, "for sale", or "see my profile" in the descriptions or FLICKR can and WILL delete your account without notice. It's been a very traumatic way for people to find out. If you search the etsy forums, you will see this has happened more than one time. As long as you consider FLICKR a place to share your art and do not "sell" there, it is a lot of fun to meet people from all over the world and share the needlefelt love. People on FLICKR know to look in your profile if they like your style and are interested in buying from you.

We then ran out of time. So, stay tuned for more meetings where you can share your thoughts. And thank you to everyone who was able to make it and share your great ideas!!

If you'd like to add your thoughts to the meeting discussion, please post them as replies here at the Felting Forum

New Felting Forum Admin

2008-09-15T09:52:00.003-04:00

I want to extend a big thank you to Marie over at the Felting Forum for establishing and maintaining such a great site for felters to come together. And for creating a space for our team to share in all the warm fuzzies.

And congratulations to our team mate Kay Petal of Felt Alive on becoming the new owner/admin of the Forum! We know you will do great.

TEAM MEETING 09/17/08 2pm EST Virtual Lab Teams Room

2008-09-08T16:57:00.004-04:00

The meeting room is reserved!

We will meet in the Virtual Labs Teams Room on Wednesday, 09/17/08 at 2 pm EST. Bring yourself, your ideas, your questions. See you there.

Here is the schedule of events for the Virtual Labs in case you want to check out other interesting meetings. http://www.etsy.com/virtual_labs.php

Here is a world clock to figure out what time our meeting will be in your part of the world http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock

Here is where you can learn about how the virtual labs work http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/etsy-launches-the-virtual-labs/622/

Please ask if you have any questions. It will be great to have input from everyone on the team.

Needle Felter's Poem

2008-09-07T08:09:00.005-04:00

GFelted shared this post on our NFEST etsy PROMO forum thread

"someone left this lovely poem on needle felting on my blog for my best comment contest"
http://gourmetfelted.wordpress.com/

I sit here in my quiet space
Putting aside the day I’ve faced
Eagerly pulling my basket out
This is MY moment without a doubt.

So soft, the fiber between my fingers
I only wish this time could linger
For so many ideas run through my mind
If only I could find a little more time!

In and out the needle goes
What shape is next? Maybe toes?
Maybe eyelashes, or a tiny pout….
Alas, evening turns night…time has run out!

Yet tomorrow is another day,
I’ll do my work and then I’ll play!
I’ll sit there in my quiet space
and felt away the day I faced.
~cea~

Needle Felt Team Challenge Collage - Halloween Theme - August 2008

2008-09-02T14:20:00.012-04:00

Here's a compilation of all entries in the NFEST August Needle Felting Challenge. (Click on the image to see it in Large View). Please search for the "NFEST" tag at http://www.etsy.com to view more great creations by other talented members of the Needle Felters Etsy Street Team!

Featured Artists:
Ben McFuzzylugs, Candid Studios, Glass Dragon Bears Etc, Gypsy Harte, Handwork Naturals, Karen Krafts, Knits and Notions, Orit Dotan Dolls, Pit Bull Lady Designs, Shisie, Squeezles Galore, Tecopia, Tizib, Violet Moon Fairy

Check out our July Felting Challenge entries!

2008-08-09T21:54:00.003-04:00

Check out our June Felting Challenge entries!

2008-07-28T08:19:00.004-04:00

Check out our May Felting Challenge entries!

2008-06-06T16:40:00.002-04:00

Mini Monday: Mary Jane's Attic

2008-06-02T15:06:00.004-04:00

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
Maryjanesattic.etsy.com

Enjoy beautiful fiber and needlefelting supplies from Mary Jane's Attic!

Mini Monday: RoseThistleArtworks

2008-05-26T12:57:00.006-04:00

Etsy
Buy Handmade
RoseThistleArtworks

Welcome to our new feature--Mini Monday! Every Monday we will feature one shop owner from the NFEST Team on Etsy. Today it's our fearless leader, the founder of the Needlefelters on Etsy Team, Gina of RoseThistleArtworks!

Check out our April Felting Challenge entries!

2008-05-03T13:29:00.003-04:00

Needlefelting to Treasure

2008-05-01T19:49:00.004-04:00

Enjoy this terrific treasury of needlefelted goodies, curated by our own Thinkoutsidethebox.

Check out our March Felting Challenge entries!

2008-03-22T22:58:00.002-04:00

Neat new stuff

2008-02-11T09:13:00.001-05:00

A quick perusal of the NFEST tag at Etsy found...

A very cool needlefelted griffin by Blackberry Downs

Julie Persons' fabulous teal needlefelted flower pin

Lady Spring needlefelted sculpture by FaerieRebecca (hey, that's me!)

Rose Thistle Artworks' lovely custom horse woolitures, made just for you

A spooky needlefelted white pumpkin with a skull face by DraigAthar

There are many more talented fiber artists selling on Etsy--do be sure to check them out!

FREE Needle Felting Tutorial

2008-01-26T12:46:00.001-05:00

Welcome Needle Felters,
FaerieRebecca of http://faerierebecca.etsy.com/ has invited me to write some posts for the NFEST blog. Thank-you Rebecca!

Allow me to begin by introducing myself: My name is Linda Utz. My Etsy shop is http://needlefeltingfans.etsy.com/ I have been felting for about 6 months now and having a ball with it. It is so much fun to see a clump of fluffy Wool become a felted work of artistic creation. So much can be created with Wool as our medium.

I am a member of the Wonderful Google group called 'Needlefelters'. You can visit the group here: 'Needlefelters Group'

OK enough introductions. On to the good stuff... :-)

I was visiting a lot of our members websites and blogs yesterday and found some wonderful goodies for us needle felters.

Today I would like to share a Wonderful tutorial I found on Charlotte's Creative Web . It is called 'Needle Felted Mystery Critter with Wire Armature Tutorial'.

I don't know about the rest of you but I have never felted over a wire armature before. Charlotte's instructions and pictures are very easy to follow and make it look so easy. I will have to give it a go and see how mine turns out. :-)

Just a couple pictures to wet your appetite :-)

Charlotte says this basic wire armature can be used to create a wide assortment of critters.

Thank-you Charlotte for this Grrrreat Tutorial.

Charlotte has other wonderful tutorials and goodies on her blog. You can visit her blog here:

Charlotte's Creative Web

Charlotte also has an Etsy shop:

http://charlottesweb.etsy.com/

Shop Etsy shops for all your felting and crafty needs.

It's good etsy karma!

Have fun felting!

Till next time,

Etsy One Million Picture Challenge

2008-01-13T10:51:00.001-05:00

We all know that there are thousands of talented artists on Etsy with millions of gorgeous things for sale. Now there's a challenge to get us all to showcase our beautiful items through the Etsy One Million Pictures challenge on Flickr. The challenge is to see how many pictures each Street Team can upload to the pool. So, get your photos up on the NFEST Flickr site, then tag them with NFEST and share them with the Million Photo Challenge group. Let's get NFEST artisans the attention we deserve!

Welcome to Stab-a-Lot Lane!

2008-01-07T13:04:00.001-05:00

You've found us--the home for needlefelting artisans selling our creations on Etsy! This blog is just getting up and running, so come back often to learn more about our members, participate in NFEST contests, and discover the joy of needlefelting.