mushrooms and flower brooches from felted stones

Since I shared my tutorial for making felted wool stones the other day, I thought I'd also share some ideas for using those stones that don't turn out exactly as you like.  Maybe the color isn't what you like or it it didn't turn out quite as smooth as you'd hoped, there's still lots of opportunity in that wool.

For this first one I've liberated the stone by making a cross cut through the bottom of the wool.

I needled the flaps down until I have a little cap.

I had a piece of felted "rope" on hand already so I cut off a piece, tucked it into the cap, and grabbed some roving.

I used the handle of my felting needle to tuck in a good layer between the stem and the cap, then needled it in place, being careful not to poke all the way to the outside of the cap.  That would make the white wool show on the outside of the cap and it wouldn't look very nice.

I needled on a few white spots and just like that I have a cute toadstool.

Another idea is to use the wool in a flower brooch.  You can see I've cut open the bottoms of the smaller stones but cut the wool off the long rock into two somewhat equal pieces.

I flattened the green piece and sewn through it to act as a leaf.  I've left the open end alone for now but once it's sewn to the other pieces, the open end will be sewn shut on the underside of the flower.

I took the two blue pieces, cut a few slits for the petals of the flowers, and turned the pieces inside out which causes it to flare out a bit.  I rounded the petals a little then sewed over them with a blanket stitch.

I cut the smallest piece with a fringe.

After stacking all of the flower pieces onto the leaf, I tucked a wool bead in the middle and sewed them all together down through the center of the flower.  I took a few extra stitches through the open end of the leaf and attached it securely to the underside of the flower. 

Stitch on a pinback and you have yourself a brooch, or sew it to a headband, or you could tie it to a present...

The best part is that you still have those rocks to work with again.

I keep a set of stones on hand just for this purpose.  You can make cute little pouches this way, or finger puppets, or the projects I've just covered...so much possibility!  So the next time your rocks don't turn out as you wanted, don't think of them as mistakes.  Rock your mistakes instead!  (I know, I'm such a nerd)

Have fun, everyone!