Tag Archives: gift

Blossom the baby bunny

Posted on April 19, 2019 by Amanda Adebisi

My first ever needle felted animal back in 2013 was a sweet little white bunny holding a carrot.

He seemed to just emerge out of my wool the moment I started stabbing away and sculpting with my barbed needles! From that day I just knew this was the hobby for me!

It has been a journey of joy in creating, therapy and relaxation through the tough trials that life brings and through my own experimentation it has hopefully helped others as I journal and share my techniques as tutorials.

Needle felting is such a wonderful art form as it enables you to just go for it with whatever you want to make, with no need for a pattern or sewing, just your passion and imagination. If you make a mistake it doesn’t matter – it is forgiving and each time you create something new the result brings a smile!

As some of you have come to know, I love to improve and challenge myself. This last few weeks I set myself a challenge to make an animal with fur that has been reverse needle felted. At the moment we are staying in a lovely house in the countryside next to open fields of corn and wild flowers and we often see the cutest bunnies popping up from their burrows and skipping and playing in the sunlight. They are a delight to watch, especially when they hop away with only a flash of a white fluffy tail to be seen.

So what better animal to choose to have fluffy fur than a cute baby bunny rabbit! To me they are a real sign that spring has arrived and summer is on its way!

I would like to introduce you to ‘Blossom’!

You can see from the photos that she is the perfect size to sit on your hand just like a real baby rabbit. She is 15cm tall from the top of her head down to her cute bunny paws.

As with all my needle felted animals, it took many hours of hard work and love to give her that playful character. Her core is made of undyed mixed rare breed sheep’s wool from Scotland. Her beautiful soft fluffy fur is a blend of merino sheep’s wool (non-mulesed) from South Africa. Her nose and eyes are made of wool too, so no glass or plastic. Her whiskers are made from Shetland pony horse tail hair.

She even has pink paw pad detail when you look underneath her!…and look at that fluffy tail! 🙂 aw!!

Here you can see that I made the front and back feet individually and left a tuft of core wool on each for easy attachment.

You might be wondering what reverse needle felting is?

Firstly I used normal barbed felting needles to sculpt her shape with the core wool and add the colour with the merino wool. Once I had added a layer of white merino wool over her body I then added a layer of ‘pewter’ (dark grey) merino wool. I then took a reverse needle (which has barbs going the opposite way to a normal barbed needle) and as I stabbed at the wool it pulled the white wool fibres (and some of the core wool) through the grey. This resulted in a fluffy light grey colour. I carefully used an eye brow brush to brush the fibres in one direction to mimic the look of baby bunny fur.

She is ready to hop into your life this spring time!

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think and if you have any questions about reverse needle felting.

I hope you have a lovely relaxing Easter!!

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Posted in Needle felt and tagged bunny, gift, needle felted animals, needle felting, pet, rabbit, Spring, wool animal. Bookmark the permalink.

Fox and squirrel ready for adoption!

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Amanda Adebisi

Looking for Christmas present ideas?

How about a one of a kind wool art sculpture from Fit to be loved?

I have just put two red beauties; the red fox and red squirrel up for adoption in my Etsy shop!!

Some of you may recognise the little red squirrel ‘Chestnut’ as she stars in my ‘adding head and limbs tutorial’ and I have posted about her before. The red fox has been nicknamed by a few friends of mine as the ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ as he is so strikingly red and looks like a real gent in character, ready to go on an adventure.

I absolutely adore them both but they are looking for their forever homes.

Have you ever seen a real red squirrel? Aren’t they adorable! Though they can be shy and hard to find. Thankfully I managed to get to see some at a British wildlife centre recently but unless you live in certain places of the UK and abroad you may never be privileged to see one in the wild. But you can now have your very own miniature in your own home..

Chestnut is a one of a kind sculpture, made through the art of needle felting. It has taken many hours to give her that unmissable joyful character! Her core is made of natural undyed Corriedale wool from New Zealand, her tail hands and feet are wrapped and needle felted over wire. You can see she holds a nut ready to take a nibble..

Her beautiful red coat is made of soft Merino wool (non-mulesed) from South Africa (Cape). Colours were blended and varying layers of wool were needled into place to create her natural fur texture. Her nose and eyes are made of wool too, so no glass or plastic beads.

Why not give her a new home this Christmas and keep her warm and snug?

The inquisitive foxes we sometimes see in our garden were the inspiration for making him. Although some find foxes to be a pest, it never ceases to amaze me at how we have such a beautiful wild animal of their size in the UK! I even had the priviledge to nurse a 5 day old cub once!

This striking red fox has been lovingly hand-made from 100% wool over wire.

He is one of a kind, and it has taken many hours of needle felting to give him his noble character!
His core is made of natural undyed Corriedale wool from New Zealand, wrapped and needle felted over wire. This natural wool was also used for his chest and tummy fur. The wire gives him stability and his head, legs and tail can be carefully repositioned to other standing poses.

His nose and eyes are made of wool too, so no glass or plastic beads.

His foxy red coat is made of soft Merino wool (non-mulesed) from South Africa (Cape). Colours used were rust, cinnamon, mink and raven. Colours were blended and varying layers of wool were needled into place to create his natural fur texture.
Dark brown Corriedale wool was felted over his legs and back of ears, used for detail on his face and also blended on his coat for shadow.

Could you or someone you know give him a loving home this Christmas? He doesn’t bite and costs nothing to feed 🙂

Please contact me if you have any questions about either of them.

Amanda x

Gift wrap ideas

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Amanda Adebisi

Today I want to inspire you with some gift wrapping ideas. I am sure you will agree that packaging is just as important as the product inside. Presenting your hours of work beautifully in something it deserves…not in a plain boring or tacky wrap or one that shows no effort was made…

But how could my Fit to be loved creations be gift wrapped in Fit to be loved packaging and at an affordable price?

It is really all down to your imagination and what you can get your hands on.

You could buy boxes and luxurious materials but the expense could really soon add up.

What I want to show you today is how I have been reusing basic brown cardboard boxes (in fact the outer packaging from the crickets I buy on line for my geckos) and upcycling them by adding ribbons, doilies, felt/ polystyrene shapes, string/ twine etc

Here is my most recent box….

So simple yet looks lovely!

You can get everything you need for way under a pound for each box if you look in charity shops, car boot sales and cheap stores like pound land, Tiger, Wilkinsons, the Works, sales at greeting card shops…. and the experience of grabbing a bargain is far too much fun to miss out on too!!!

Be creative not just in what you make but in how you package it. Wow your customers or bring a tear to a loved one’s eyes when giving them a gift from the heart…

So here are some more ideas to get you started…

Remember not to overload but keep simple, colourful and imaginative. That personal touch goes a long way…:-)

Let me know what you think….

If you are buying a bespoke felted animal or accessory from my Etsy shop…let me know what colours you like and I will ensure the gift wrap matches up.:-)