MAKE: Felted Acorn Ornaments

Materials:

Felting Needle

Wool Roving 

Felting Pad or Sponge

Acorn Caps

Thread 

Drill and 1/8 in Drill Bit

Glue Gun and Glue

The wool roving can be found online or at your local craft and supplies store. For you Denver folk, Fancy Tiger has a lovely selection of colors. Probably the hardest thing about this project is finding the acorn caps. I looked far and wide for mine back in the fall. If you do go on the hunt here are some basic tips: there are quite a few varieties acorns but they always grow on Oak trees-- to learn more about identifying Oak trees and the types of acorns that might be falling in your area this field guide is very helpful! Or just take a walk...you might get lucky, the best time for seed collection is during the months of September and October! And of course you can buy them online too, because we have everything at our fingertips these days, but what's the fun in that?! Unless it's 5 degrees and the ground is frozen--then you have an excuse.

MAKE:

Start by rolling the wool roving into a ball, this should be a shape similar to the size you'd like your acorn to be but don't worry too much about this because you can reshape it once you start the felting process. Using your felting needle work into the wool until it starts to harden and form shape. This video is ever so helpful if you are not very familiar with needle felting and also does what pictures can't in terms of seeing the whole process from start to finish. Once you have your beautiful felted acorn bottom you need to find its acorn cap mate! Before assembling the acorn, drill a small hole into the top, loop a piece of string through and secure with a knot-- cut off any excess string with scissors. Push the acorn into its cap and finish shaping if necessary. Remove the cap and add a bit of glue. Done! 

I like to make several in my favorite fall colors and put them on the tree as a set. They also serve as festive decoration if you want to skip the last few steps and just sprinkle them on your Christmas table, place them in a bowl, or use them to wrap presents