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Felt Painting Boards are the fifth project in a seasonal series of little, quick-to-make gifts we so often need for the holidays. For planned or last minute occasions, for tooth fairies, pocket ladies, and winter fairs; for classmates, neighbour’s and host’s children; for advent calenders and stockings! Tiny treasures that can be made with a small amount of materials and a small amount of time- 20 minutes or less!
Painting with wool roving is such a warm, tactile and pleasing craft. Washes of color or detailed images- they all look lovely made with wool. And, most importantly, they can be changed at any time to become a whole new “painting”. These little kits make fantastic creative gifts, not only for children! Make the felt board on a log cut, as we have, or on a piece of finished wood, include a little pouch of colored wool, and the wool painting can start! We’ve included instructions below on making a simple tree image. It can be helpful to show children how to make an image first, to develop a hand and head understanding of how to use the materials….how to build up a picture, enjoy it, and then take it apart and make another!
Materials:
a log slice or piece of finished wood, about 5 inches in diameter or a 5 inch square. Log slices can often be obtained from craft supply shops. If you are cutting your own, make sure the wood is dry.
5″ x 5″ piece of wool felt. A fluffy felt works especially well as a background to hold the paintings in place. A piece of felted blanket or sweater would work well, or National Non-Wovens wool felt in white dyed using this method. All felt will work for this though!
small amounts in a rainbow of wool roving/batting colors
tiny twigs
wood glue
Cut a piece of wool felt to fit on the wooden base. Cut to a size so there is a nice wooden frame left visible around the wool felt.
Apply glue well over the entire back of the wool felt piece. Glue onto the wooden base. You may want to weight down the wool felt while it dries to get the best adhesion to the wood.
To make the wool tree painting:
First we need to lay down some earth for the tree to put down it’s roots and grow…
This step sets up the basic painting with wool technique- Use only very small wisps of wool. Hold down one side and draw or paint the wool out, pulling it where you want it to be on your board.
Push your twig tree trunk a little way into the earth, and roll a little on the felt base to hold it in place.
Paint the branches on your tree. Hold the green woolly wisp at the top of the tree trunk and pull the wool out into boughs. Add a few on each side and down the trunk.
We can make some decorations for our tree by using just a few wool fibers and rolling them into a ball between thumb and forefinger. Drop them randomly onto the tree.
If it’s going to snow in your picture, pull out small white wool wisps of snow and have them fall in drifts across the ground and on a few boughs. When the snow melts and the holidays are over, the snow and decorations can be taken off the tree.
Or maybe the whole tree will come off and the wool and twig be made into something completely different. Here are some ideas:
These wool paintings can be hung on a wall, displayed on a table or mantlepiece, or hung on your tree. It can be changed through the day or the year to create new seasonal pictures. Ideal for travelling, during appointments, or family gatherings.
You can read more about painting with wool in Living Crafts- Fall 2008.
Watch for more in our Tiny Treasures series- we’ll be featuring at least one new tutorial each week until Christmas, including wooden castle blocks, and poppy pod people, plus other small and simple natural gift making inspirations.
Enjoy our earlier tutorials in this series: Tiny Toadstools, Rainbow Rocks, Frost Gnomes and Pinecone Gnomes.
Giveaway
National Non-Wovens has generously offered a wool felt assortment pack for the lucky winner! Their gift includes a collection of gorgeous colors in 100% wool felt sheets!
Please leave a comment on this post by Thursday, December 15 for a chance to win this wonderful giveaway.
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can’t wait to try this with my children and nieces and nephew!! What great possibilities!!
So beautiful, and what a wonderful tutorial. Thanks for posting these things!
gorgeous as always! can’t wait until the kids are a little older to try it!
So beautiful! We will definitely have to try making these. Thanks!!!!
Gorgeous! Great project to do with my daughter!
What a wonderful craft idea! Can’t wait to try it out!
Such a lovely idea! Thanks for sharing!!
love this project. would love to win the giveaway!
This is truly lovely. Great thing for children to play with and make their own stories. And they’re infinitely variable. So if you have a child who wants to save stories, you can create more than one mini-board. You could also felt little creatures/people to “live” in their stories.
Just gorgeous!! I love the way it looks finished and just a wonderful process too. I know my kids would love to have one as a take along kit for doctor’s visits, church, Grandma’s house etc. Thanks so much for sharing this! Thanks also for the chance at the giveaway
So sweet!
These are fantastic ideas! We would be thrilled to win this and start this neat project.
We had to do this right away! Thanks!
These ideas are absolutely lovely! I can hardly wait to get started! Thank you for the inspiration!!!
Dear Santa, please add this to my list. I’ve been a good girl all year.
So beautiful! Thanks for the chance to win!
This looks like fun! Wool seems like such a great medium I would love to explore more with my kids.
Love! My magazines are dogeared with more projects than we have supplies. Thanks for another terrific giveaway!
Nice project! I love felt and felting!
Gorgeous and easy to boot, thanks
I’ve been looking for what ornament to make as gifts for my family. These look like just what we can do. Thank you.
How beautiful!!
Lovely tutorial and generous giveaway!
So awesome!
I have always wanted to try this.
These look so beautiful.I would love to try and make one Thanks!
So cool! Wool works of art!
Great idea!
I love the versatility in this craft! My small class will love it as well!
What a lovely idea- and this is something that the kids could make for their teachers for christmas. Thanks so much for all your wonderful inspirations!
My small class of middle schoolers will love this craft! Keep the great ideas coming!
I really love this idea – of using a wooden base! Thanks for the inspiration!
Love it – would be thrilled to win!
So pretty. What a lovely craft.
I am so impressed by these. All natural and gorgeous!!! I love the tree base. good job
Such a pretty craft – and it’s so pleasant to work with the soft, cozy wool!
Beautiful idea. Thanks for sharing.
I feel warm and fuzzy just looking at them. Something for my children to do over the break!
So very lovely. Thanks for the giveaway!
so wispy and lovely. when my daughter’s a little bit older, i want to try this with her. in the meantime, i’ve been wanting to make her a felt crown. thanks for the chance to win!
What a great project. Thank you for all your inspirations.
Thank you for the tutorial! These are beaautiful
These paintings lookk amazing. I have loved the whole tiny treasures series. Please count me in for the giveaway
Sweet little idea!
Beautiful craft. I’ve not worked with wool this way before.
How beautiful. We have all of these materials sitting around, and my 3YO daughter will LOVE painting in this way. I’ve only done needle-felted or wet felting “painting” with roving before, which is not something we could do together. Looks like we have a lovely project for the weekend! Thank you!
Love the idea of these tiny paintings – they might make great coasters!