We made some pretty little wall hangings out of felted wool balls, sticks we’ve collected, bits of string and yarn, stickers, paper bits, washi tape and a little owl charm. They were gifts Penelope was giving to her teachers and, I thought they were lovely. If you have never felted before, no worries you can purchase felted wool balls at craft stores and Etsy or use pom poms instead. Pom poms come in different sizes and you can find them in any craft aisle or craft store. Dollar stores carry them as well. I needle felt (ouch! Those needles can be painful) and had a lot of these around from garland making. I love garland making, felting the balls not so much lol! We have made a variety of things with sticks this summer so I suppose this is Post number 1: Things to make with sticks! Let’s get this show on the road:

Tools For the Trade:

1. Sticks

2. String, Embroidery Thread, Yarn– For stringing the felted balls you will need a thinner thread such as Embroidery Floss or Sewing Thread so that you can push it through a needle and then through each ball. The yarn may be used for decorative wrapping but it would be too thick for stringing.

3. Needle– We used an embroidery needle with a large eye.

4. Felted balls or pom poms

5. Embellishments of your choice. We used an Owl Charm and little bits of Washi tape, a sticker, and paper bits.

6. Glue– We used Tacky Glue

The How To:

I always start out by just laying things down on the table and letting Penelope explore. Originally she wanted the balls hanging down in strands but that soon evolved into a single curve.

After lining the balls up she decided she liked the single curve so we went with that design.

I threaded the needle with embroidery floss, blue was her color pick, and she went to work threading.

Penelope wanted the owl bead hanging down the middle, so it was an opportunity for me to dust off my jewelry making tools and put in a silver bead to act as talons and use a head pin to make a hanging loop. It had been many years since I had used these supplies and it felt good to have them in my hands again.

She wrapped the ends of the Embroidery floss onto the stick and slathered with glue. She then wrapped yarn around the stick and hung the owl. An Ice Cream sticker finished it off and our gift was complete and ready for giving.

This is the second one we made later that evening, no owl just little bits of paper, tape, and a sticker.

I think they are just darling! And most importantly they were made with a lot of love and thoughtfulness.

I hope you enjoyed this craft, and I hope that it inspires you to go out and pretty up some fallen sticks! Happy Crafting from our home to yours!

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