Needle Felting with Cookie Cutters
27 June 2012
Author: Holly Craft
Get out your cookie cutter collection and create some “warm fuzzies”. We are not speaking of the “warm fuzzies” that come from the aroma of home baked cookies, but instead from felting with wool roving! Whether you want to needle felt on fabric or to create an embellishment for your cards or to be used as jewelry, needle felting with cookie cutters adds ease and uniformity to the process!
The tools for this craft are simple. You need the following supplies:
- Felting needles and foam blocks
- Wool Roving
- Cookie Cutters
- A wool fabric such as wool felt on which to felt (or you can create a stand alone embellishment)
Cookie cutters are available in many shapes and styles today. For needle felting, you will want the style with an open face, available both in metal and in plastic materials. There are also stackable cookie cutters where smaller pieces or cutters provide even more detail to your cookies or felted items. Another option is graduated sizes of the same shape. The graduated star shaped fondant cutters, for example, could be felted in graduated sizes using red, white and blue roving to create a great patriotic pin.
Let’s look at some examples and some tips:
- Wool roving pulls off just like cotton candy. Place the wool inside the opening in the cookie cutter, taking care to cover the edges of the cutter so you end up with a nice crisp edge. With larger cookie cutters, it might be easier to work over two foam blocks rather than just one.
- The wool is then worked into the wool fabric using the felting needle in an up and down fashion.
- Layers of felting can be done to add detail to your design. Stackable cookie cutter designs are great for adding detail. The use of cookie cutters also allows you to rehearse your design to see if it is the look you had in mind.
- Work the wool roving into wool felt or felted wool to create a great purse.
- Another option is to work directly on the foam block to create a stand-alone piece that can be used to create jewelry or an embellishment for a card or layout.
- Create a three dimensional look by felting directly on the wool and then adding depth by adding a stand-alone piece of the same shape. The cookie cutters give you uniformity so that you can create the same shape as many times as you desire.
- For detail, mix the colors of the wool, use the needle to sculpt the wool felting and top it off with some stitching for the final touch.
Cookie cutters are a wonderful tool for needle felting, no matter the level of your experience. When someone admires your work and asks you for your template or pattern, imagine their surprise when you share the tool of choice. Needle felting is a fun and rewarding craft, but with the help of cookie cutters, it is even sweeter!