Creative Play and Felting for Easter

Last weekend we made a deal with Hazel. We would all go through her toys and bag some up to get rid of and then we bought her two new ones to replace the three plus bags we will pass on to friends or donate. One of the toys she picked (we used Kohls dollars to pay for the new toys so it was like getting them for free) was the Melissa and Doug birthday cake. It is a wooden circle that is sliced and decorated as a birthday cake with Velcro to add candles or other decorations. She has been loving it. Remember it is my or Ducky's birthday every day at our house. Well the picture above is her dolls and animals sharing the cake at Ducky's birthday party the other day. I love how she puts them all in the high chair so they can all be sitting to enjoy the one piece of cake she gives all of them.

She has also decided that Ducky is now potty training, so she lets me know when he needs to go to the bathroom as well. We had gotten her a doll that takes a bottle and then goes potty with a potty seat. She never puts the doll on the potty seat but it is Ducky's now. (Did I mention our living room is now Ducky's bedroom since we have the cradle my father made when my oldest sister was born in there?)

Today got up to 60 so we spent some time this afternoon outside. Hazel spent most of yesterday outside between our Drumlin Farm adventure and the afternoon with a babysitter. Here she is using our friend's swingset (we only have it in our yard for about a month more since the friend is finally moving into their own house again).

She wanted to play boat again. She steers up in the clubhouse and I sit on the swing. She informed me she was bringing me to school. How exciting that I take a boat to school.

She also went on her own swingset. We also dug in the garden, played hide and seek and she brought a book out to read. She also pulled out her chalk and a few trucks and her small umbrella table (without the umbrella), but the plates on it blew in the wind.

The Hopscotch She Asked Me to Draw--She Told Me what to write on it

Her drawing of a house and butterflies

Oh, and she brought out her CD player so we could listen to Sesame Street outside. I of course was enjoying the fact that spring has sprung in the yard (oh and I brought out some wet felting to try).

It got too windy for Hazel so we came inside. Plus she was getting tired and hungry. Snack time! I just love how her imagination is developing and listening to her ideas. We also moved her small slide that we have in her family room so she could have a pretend pool. Basically all the stuffed animals and dolls are swimming in the pool all the time now.

I decided to try making this adorable chick in egg that I saw posted at Living Crafts Blog. I'm not sure I had the right size eggs and think that wooden eggs would probably have worked better, but I tried it. My eggs improved with practice. I did two of the chicks following their directions and the other two I did wet felted without using a plastic egg as a mold and then needle felted on the beaks and feet and eyes.

Egg felted around plastic egg (still inside)

A few comments I have is I definitely think the directions had too much soap. I have never wet felted with such a soapy mixture before. Also I really felt the chicks came out better without the egg unless you wanted to make finger puppets. Perhaps mine would have been better with more practice, but I found them easier without the egg as a form and a better size to get in the eggs.

Chicks following their directions

Chicks done as solids

To make my other chicks I rolled some roving to form somewhat of an egg/chick shape and then wet felted it. This method makes a solid chick so they are not finger puppets like the other ones, but I could control the size better.

Miniature needle felted chicks

I also needle felted some animals for Hazel's Easter basket (since I had the roving and needle felting tools out). To make the chicks, I made a ball/egg shape with yellow roving and needled it. Then added some orange to be a beak and feet.

I also did a rabbit and a duck. The rabbit was done similarly but added a tail and ears and tried to form a head a bit. The duck is slightly larger than the chicks.

View from top

I also made a pair of swans. I am imagining Hazel using the chicks, rabbit and swans and possibly the duck with her knitted farm mat that she will get from the swap I organized.

I also played with making some needle felted Peeps. They aren't perfect, but I'm happy with them. All of these needle felted animals will go in Hazel's Easter basket or in the plastic eggs for the egg hunt.

What are you doing for Easter baskets?

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