Miniature Felted Christmas Scenes

While I was felting miniature Christmas scenes in walnut shells recently, (see my post here to find out how to make these cute little Christmas trees in walnut shells) I decided to try making a tiny wee mouse asleep in a walnut shell, waiting for Santa.

If you are new to needlefelting, check out this earlier post here, which gives you a bit more detailed information on how to felt and what you need.

This was a project where I began to have doubts as I was felting the mouse, whether I had made him too big for the walnut shell. However, as mentioned in my last post, there is a big transformation that takes place as you continue to stab the wool and the fibres begin to felt firmly together, causing significant shrinkage, which was exactly what I needed for him to fit. The mouse took quite a bit of time to make, but finally I was able to tuck the mouse into the walnut shell, wrap him with a bit of wool roving for a blanket, added a tail, and began to think about the best way to make a Santa Stocking.

I decided to needlefelt a stocking, so I began by pulling off a small strand of red roving, rolled it into a cylindrical shape, and began stabbing. Both the mouse and the stocking took quite a bit of time to make, as they needed to be firmly felted to create the required shape and size. I had to be patient and persevere to see both the stocking and mouse take shape. I then attached the finished stocking to the bed with a needle and thread.

The next day I decided to needlefelt a kiwi asleep in a walnut shell bed. The kiwi was much easier to make than the mouse, and just required making one very small ball and one slightly larger ball (for the head and body); and a small piece of yellow roving which I rolled vigorously between my fingers to make a small sausage shape for the beak, before stabbing lightly to felt it into shape. I tucked Kiwi into his walnut shell bed, and stabbed his head, beak and body into place. I wrapped a bit of coloured roving over him for his blanket, and made a tiny pillow for under his head.

I also made Kiwi a Santa Stocking, again attaching it through his blanket with a needle and thread.

I had bought salad from the supermarket for my lunch during the week, which came in these wonderful cardboard containers. I was reluctant to throw them away, and instead used them to create these mini Christmas diorama scenes for Mouse and Kiwi.

I kept Mouse's little room plain, with just a few little adornments to make it homely. The clock is cut from a bottle cap and attached to the side of the wall. I cut out a little window in the back of the container and covered it a ribbon curtain; and drew a little family photo for Mouse to put on his wall. I edged the container with a bit of green eyelash yarn to resemble grass.

Kiwi's scene is created from acrylic felt. I drew around the cardboard container onto green and blue felt, to get the size, and cut out. I cut the green circle in half (do not cut in a straight line - create a wavy line to resemble a hilly background), and sewed the green grass onto the sky. I then measured the depth of the container and cut two strips, one green and one blue, to cover the sides of the salad bowl, sewing the strips to the circular background and connecting them to each other.

The pohutukawa tree is made from three pipecleaners twisted together, and wrapped tightly with brown roving. I cut out tiny leaf shapes from the green felt and tied them to the branches with a bit of thread. The pohutukawa flowers were made from rolling a few thin strands of red roving between my fingers to create a tiny ball, felting it with a needle to hold it shape, and used thread to run through the middle of the flower to stitch to the leaves. The pohutukawa tree has roots to help hold it upright, which are stitched onto the grass to secure it; while the branches twist upwards and out.

 To see all my other Christmas tutorials and posts, please click on the link.

To see all my other craft posts, click on this link here.