Friday, April 1, 2011

Felted Mushrooms with a Secret

Secret Mushroom

Last December I made a couple of these wonderful little felted mushrooms to send to my seasonal swap partner and I have been meaning to make more ever since and I finally got a chance to do it :)

I found a lovely tutorial for creating a secret mushroom with a great hiding spot for a message or poem to be hidden within the wooden tree limb stem. I just happened to have some alder limbs that I had cut into smaller chunks drying in the basement and used hubby's power drill to drill the hollow spot in the center and it was just perfect for a rolled scroll to fit in :)

I didn't have any sheets of red wool so instead I used some of my dyed merino wool roving that I had and created a felted circular shape. To create the wavy mushroom cap I actually put the felted wool circle on top of the wood limb and wrapped an elastic band tightly around the cap about one inch from the top. As the elastic pulled tightly around the wool it created a gathered and ruffled sort of appearance and then I through the whole thing into the dryer for about 10 mintues *grin*. When I pulled it out the heat had dried the wool up nice and tight and held its shape perfectly when I pulled the elastic band off :)

Hiding Spot

Of course since we are jumping head first into spring and we spotted our first dandelion today I thought it would be very fitting to hide one of our favorite dandelion poems inside :)

O' DANDELION

O' Dandelion, yellow as gold, what do you do all day? "I just wait here in the tall, green grass, 'till the children come to play."

O' Dandelion, yellow as gold, what do you do all night? "I wait and wait, while the cool dew falls, and my hair grows long and white."

And what do you do when your hair grows white, and the children come to play? "They take me in their dimpled hands, and blow my hair away!"

~ by Marlys Swinger

Felted Mushroom

I can't wait to hide more little notes inside them for the children to find!

Hugs,
Rosina


PS. Looking for more crafty ideas or inspiration? Pop over to Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday and see what others are up to :)


9 comments:

Jess said...

Such a cool idea!

MissGinger said...

oh i love it so much! thanks x

eidolons said...

So clever! I bet those would make a lovely outside treasure hunt.

Grace said...

So cute!

Umatji said...

what a great idea and what a great way to felt that perfect shape! the poem is lovely and I will have to learn it as we have loads on our steps and we pick them to feed to our rabbits and I need to know that poem so I can say it as I pick!

Dakota Gal said...

Oh, I love that ... secret notes are so cool.

First dandelions already?? We haven't seen any yet. But there are plenty of little green things poking their way out of the ground ... hopefully we'll see some blooms soon. I'm excited for crocuses, hyacinth, and tulips ... but I think those first dandelions will be the most special and prized blooms around our house!

W-S Wanderings said...

SO wonderful! And it could be adapted in so many ways. And I must say, I love HOW you felted it. Quick & easy. Perfect.

Anonymous said...

What a precious idea...I love the poem...as I've always liked Dandelions!

Unknown said...

I LOVE this! I have love Chris's once upon a table idea with the felt but I think your roving idea adds a wonderful twist to it :) Each mushroom would be way more unique if creating a few of them!