Etsy Shop Coming Soon!

I finally found something fun and creative to make and have decided to open an Etsy shop. I'm hoping to have it open this fall. It will be called Fanciful Felt just like my blog. I will be selling hand-stitched felt hair clips. You will be able to purchase clips that are already made or choose your colors for a custom clip. Here are a few I have made recently:

(I apologize for the photo quality. I left my camera at my aunt's house. These are iPhone photos.)

Each one has a ribbon-covered clip on the back. You can see the clip on the heart one.

They just clip right to a headband. They are meant for little girls, but I didn't have a little girl to model for me! I was too excited to wait. My next post will have my adorable cousin Kaylee modeling. 

This is a custom flower for my niece Rowynn! 

And of course I have to do holiday themed clips. I love the fall and Halloween!!

=) !!

Other things I want to make: 

Seasonal Shapes: ghost, skull, candy corn, holly berries, Christmas tree, candy cane, heart, clover...Who knows what I will think of?! =)

Fruits: banana, apple, grapes, watermelon, strawberry

Animal Faces: monkey, frog, pig, puppy, bunny, cat

Animals: owl, butterfly, snail, chick, bird

When my shop gets opened up I will post a link on my blog. In the meantime, if you want a custom felt clip (or custom painted wall letters) just email me at artkristenb@gmail.com 

God bless all of you who read my blog. I appreciate your support more than you know.

Mr. Roboto

Robot Pillow for Jonah

The Robot Says: "Beep!"

 Natalie and Jonah posing with Mr. Roboto!

Monkey Mobile

I made this mobile months ago for my brother and sister-in-law's precious baby girl Rowynn. Her room is a sock monkey theme. =)

I found the monkey at Walgreens and made her a little piano and a tutu. There is a heart on the C#/Db key because her mommy and daddy used that as their wedding theme. They are essentially the same note, but can be written two different ways. Therefore C# = Db: it's a love metaphor. =)

These are the ribbons that hang all around the monkey.

And here is the assembled mobile hanging from my art room ceiling fan!  =)

A Wreath for Cohen

Back in December I bought this cute pink metal crown in Canton and planned on using it for my friend Lisa's baby girl. Well something was mentally blocking me. I just wasn't sure. I even made the wreath months ago. I don't know what my deal was. I finally went in my art room and just did it, and I think it turned out cute. =) Her room is pink and black and VERY cute. I hope Cohen likes the wreath!

Here is a close up of the cute cute crown! I really wish I had a plasma cutter.

My Taleted Mom

My mother is so talented!

I love spending time with her in her sewing room while we are both creating things. It is so much fun. Several years ago when I was in junior high or high school (I can't remember) my mom gained a new appreciation for the dolls she loved growing up in the 50s.


She still had one Dollikin that she had taken incredible care of. This is her Dollikin and baby from childhood.

That is where the collecting started. Collecting turned into sewing her own fashions for the dolls. I even helped her make little pumps for them. It was so fun.

She eventually discovered ball-jointed dolls and fell in love with their beauty and ability to model her fashions. :)

She now makes the most unique and beautiful clothes for her collection of ball-jointed dolls. She develops her own patterns and has also developed a style all her own. She makes mo hair wigs, hats, dresses, leggings, jewelry. It is amazing to see what she can do.

She recently sent me pictures of an outfit she made, complete with a handmade straw hat. She not only decorated the hat to match the outfit, but she actually made the hat itself. I was so thrilled and impressed by it, I just had to show her off on my blog. I will be doing more of that in the future! I am so proud of my mom.

Here is the hat and dress she made:

Bass Clef

I made this bass clef pillow this weekend. My husband sings bass so I am somewhat partial to this symbol.

The music notes are hand-embroidered and embellished with buttons. The treble clef and "music" are also hand-embroidered. It is stitched together with a blanket stitch.

This is a picture of it hanging from an iron shelf in my dining room just to show that it can hang quite easily and still look normal and cute.

This is a photo of it resting on one of our bed pillows.
The great thing about felt is that it is clingy!

Mr. Whiskers

Commissioned by Jane T

Mr. Whiskers is 100% hand-stitched. His eyes, whiskers, mouth and toes are all hand-embroidered.

Little Miss Tweet

I finally got my inspiration today and made two stuffed animals. It felt so good to let it out!

Little Miss Tweet has sassy eyelashes and feathers on her tail.

Wally Whale

He is so happy.

A for Anders

Bold Initials

These are the fanciful felt initials I made for KF. :)

(about 10 inches tall, hand-stitched with button and bead accents)

Here are some close up shots of the details:

Letters are some of my favorite things to stuff. I can't wait to make more!

Wise Old Owls

I have a recent fascination with owls. It all started when I found an adorable brown and ivory owl-printed apron with lime green accents at Anthropologie. I fell in love with it immediately.



That was about the same time I began loving Anthropologie. I registered for the apron and several other things that were perfectly unique. It turned out that Anthropologie wasn't a popular stop for our wedding guests, so I didn't get much on my list. I did, however, get the owl apron from a very good friend. Soon after I received the apron, my sister gave me a very cute olive green ceramic owl from Pier One. He is very sweet and sits perched in my dining room.




After living with this olive green owl for several months I took up the hobby of making stuffed animals. my sweet olive green owl inspired one of my first stuffed animals: Owliver. A very cute children's book inspired his name. :)


My next owl project will be a stuffed version of one of the little guys in that apron. They are too adorable not to create in stuffed form! I may even make them into a baby mobile.


What is the reason for my owl obsession? Perhaps it is the fact that they represent wisdom, which I often feel is being drained from today's youth. So many young kids are being raised in a lazy lifestyle. Parents don't want to put forth the effort to teach their children something or entertain their "burdens," so they end up ignoring them or sticking a video game in their hands. I just think too many parents do not give their children enough responsibility. Nor do they hold them responsible for things.


My husband and I watched a very small example of this type of parenting unfurl before our eyes last night at the mall. A little girl dropped a piece of plastic (trash) on the ground. She looked up at her dad with an expression of "what is he going to say? Is he going to make me pick it up?" on her face. The dad simply looked away and kept walking. This may seem like nothing to you, but it seems to me that these "small" things usually transfer to larger things and scenarios.






Or maybe I just like them because of Mr. Owl from the old tootsie pop commercials.









Hedwig from Harry Potter?

Keyed Up

Thanks to a bad weather day, I had time to make this today!

As a music lover I decided I would focus my creations around music to set me apart. (Thanks DF) After making two music notes, I decided this had to be next!

This is a piano pillow for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law and my brother-in-law....that's quite a few hyphens. They have this whole cute musical theme for their wedding, and the heart on the C-sharp goes with their theme.

I hope they like it! If not I can always keep it for myself. It does look quite adorable on our bed. :)

I think I'll make a longer one...maybe two full octaves...maybe a bolster pillow. Who knows? The sky is the limit.

The Buzz

I am recently married and my new last name starts with the letter B. I am a teacher and I figured bees would be the perfect theme for my room! I am now obsessed with bees. :)

I made this stuffed bee recently and I love her. She is perfectly buzzy and fun.

I found some other fun bee lovelies to share. :)

Adorable Hand-Felted Bee

From "fing" on Etsy

Bee Hairpins - Talk about CUTE!

From "abitOfColor" on Etsy

A very adorable felted bumblebee - I need to try felting

From 5erg on Etsy