Acorn Craft: How to Make Felted Acorns
I've been wanting to try felting with the kiddos for a while now. When I saw these adorable little felted acorns floating around Instagram I knew this would be the perfect introduction. It's a simple enough project that we could start & finish in an afternoon. But it was unlike any other handicraft we've done so it held everyone's attention. It's the perfect little project for a chilly fall day. We just put on an audio book and got busy.
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We have a very large oak tree out front so finding the acorn tops (or hats as the kids call them) was not difficult. The kiddos collected handfuls one afternoon. We let them dry out for a couple of weeks, and then I sprayed them with a clear coat or lacre to seal them. Just an added warning here: Do not bring in the actual nut part of the acorn and expect to keep them as decor. You will find yourself with a collection of maggots before too long. So, just the acorn tops. You're welcome ;)
For the bottom half of the acorn, you will need to use wool roving, in an color you choose. We chose these for our first go 'round, and I'm going to use these colors for some Christmas ornaments next month.Now, we just used a glass pan of hot soapy water. The hotter the better. It helps the fibers bind together. We used just a couple drops of dawn dish soap. Then we dipped about a loose golf ball size of roving and rolled it around in our hands. You may need to dip a couple times in order to get the fibers intertwined. There are also some tools that would come in handy next time we try this. I purchased these for next time, which will really help us to make a tighter, shapelier ball. We found that if you roll the ball in your hand (kind of like Play-doh), switching directions helps to mix up those fibers. That's what you want to happen in order to get a good felting effect.
After we cleaned up our wet mess, we let our felted balls dry over night on a piece of cardboard.The next day you can add the tops to your felted balls, using a bit of hot glue in the cap. My little ones helped me here, but I worked the hot glue gun. You have to be quick with that glue, and you only get one shot at placing the caps properly. I held the caps upside-down while they got the balls ready. Then they picked the worst side (cuz when you're working with younger ones, things don't always turn out picture perfect, right?) and hid it under the cap.
Give your felted acorns a few minutes to settle in and then you're done! Use these cute little buggers for anything you'd like! Right now we use them as decoration under our Thanksgiving Tree. But you might want to make Christmas ornaments, garland, a necklace, or even use them as math manipulatives in your school day.
Aren't they're just too cute!?! Go ahead and pin it for later. Happy felting!-Heidi