Felted Soap Tutorial By Kelly Corso

Christmas is only a few weeks away and Kelly is here to show us a fabulous gift idea that’s easy to make! 

Have you ever heard of felted soap? It’s soap that is encased in wool, pretty cool huh? There are many benefits to be had from felted soap.

-soap lasts longer

- you have a wash cloth and soap in one

-exfoliating properties

- wool has natural anti-microbial properties

- it’s also darn pretty!

I'm going to teach you how to make cuties like these for yourself or for a great gift for someone you love!

Material needed:

-wool- any wool of your choice will work. A lot of people like merino. You can choose roving or    batting. I prefer batting because the fibers seem to felt together faster and easier.

- a bar of soap, your choice. Preferably in a shape with rounder edges

- a stocking or panty hose

- water and friction

Soap, wool, stocking and a container for warm water

Step 1- Put enough warm water in your container to dip wool in

Step 2- Tear off strips of wool and dip in the water, then begin wrapping the soap. Tearing is better than cutting. Cut edges will take a bit longer to felt together.

Begin wrapping the soap while smoothing the fibers on the surface of the soap

Step 3- Cover the entire surface of the soap while keeping the fibers as even as possible.

Step 4-  The fibers will still be loose at this point. Enclose the soap in your stocking or panty hose.

Soap enclosed in stocking

Step 5- Immerse soap in warm water to get it completely wet and begin rotating it gently in you hands as if your were washing them. Be very gentle at this point because the  fibers are still loose and need to begin to felt together. 

Do this for approximately 5 minutes. 

Step 6- Take the soap out of the stocking and the fiber should be                 interlocked at this point as pictured below. At this point you can continue to felt without the stocking.

Final Step- Continue rotating the soap in your hand for about 5 more minutes or until you can feel the fibers tightening around the soap.

Place on a towel to dry. 

Drying can take 24-48 hours

Bada Bing! There you go! Felted soap!

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make felted soap and give it a try!! It is so much fun!

Happy Felting!!!

Until next time-

Find more of Kelly’s fabulous felted creations at: 

Bird In A Tree Creations

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Cre8ive Klatch

Cre8ive Kid Corner: Kitty Head Magnets

Today we venture into our Cre8ive Kids Corner!

Kitty Head Magnets by Kelly, Wren, and Willow Corso

In our family we are animal obsessed, especially when it comes to cats! 

We have 3, all of them all rescues. Some days my daughter Wren prefers to go by the name Miss Kitty.

This is a great project for all ages (even you moms and dads!). Younger kids may need a bit of assistance.  It is super fun and very tactile. 

Here are the materials you need: 

• Crayola Model Magic- an air dry clay in any colors you choose
• small magnets
• glue- I like to use Loctite super glue because it dries really fast (shown above)

First you are going to roll several different size balls. 

I usually make the head ball approximately 1” and the rest of the balls in proportion with the head ball. (As seen below) You can make them bigger if you like!  

1 head ball, 2 cheek balls, 1 nose ball, 2 ear triangles and a little tongue ball if you choose. Then stick them all on the head ball in their proper places. 

Once they have air dried for about 24 hours you can glue them onto your magnets. I really like the Loctite glue because it dries in about 30 seconds. 

Once you start to assemble it's a good time to talk with the younger ones and ask them questions. 

Where do cats' ears go? 

Where are their little cheeks? 

I encourage my girls to experiment with different colors or different shaped ears--to just go wild!. 

You will get super happy kids and lots of smiles if you encourage imagination. Tell them you love that blue cat, that you love those crazy ears and the added embellishments. 

Try not to limit them to the norm and realistic interpretations.

Now you have cool magnets for the refrigerator or little gifts your kids can give to their friends.  They'll feel so proud to have made them themselves! These are the kitties my daughters made.  Some of them are quite unusual and perhaps not that kitty-like, but how stinking cute are they? 

The time you spend with them and the smiles you get- priceless!!

Thank you girls!

Stay tuned for more from Kelly in the near future! In the meantime check out her other links.

Website: www.birdinatreecreations.com
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