Bee Happy Felt Art Work {Tutorial}

I love all the fun printable art work you can find on Etsy, so many colours and prints and ideas, it is all very beautiful. But sometimes, a plain print framed on the wall is a little boring, it has no texture and it often the frames have glass so you have to tell the kids not to play with it etc. But if something is on the wall in a kids room, you want them to interact with it, to be able to take it down and touch it and get that sensory response. Back in 2011 I made some felt art pieces framed but I left out the glass so that they were kid friendly.

And this week I made a new one, and took some photos along the way so you can make one too. And it is also super easy to change from my design to create your own felt art work, maybe even get the kids to make their own?

Materials

• Photo Frame – I used a 10″ by 8″, but you can adjust the tutorial to fit any size frame, just need to scale down or up my pdf pattern.
• Felt – You need one big piece for the background, and scraps for the design.
• Sewing threads, scissors etc.
• Bee Happy Template

Step 1
Download and print off the bumble bee pattern. It has two pages, first is the overall layout, second is the pattern pieces and embroidery shapes. I included the text in normal and mirror, depending on how you prefer to do embroidery work.
Cut out a background felt piece to the size of your frame, in my case 10inch by 8inch. (I traced around the frame back).

Step 2
Using the layout page, sketch the “bee happy” text, and flight path onto your felt. I sketched them reversed onto the back of the felt so the pen lines wont show, but you can also use one of those disappearing pens, or tracing paper, what ever method you are comfortable with.

Embroider the “bee happy” text with black or grey thread. and for the flight path use a running stitch, so you create the dash look.

Step 3
Take your bumble bee pattern and use it to cut out the pieces from scrap felt. Then stitch them into place onto your big piece of felt. (Use the layout page to help place it).

Order to stitch down: Wings, Yellow body, Black stripes, Eye. Then embroider the smile and antenna. (I forgot to sew on his smile!)

Step 4
Quickly go over your art with an iron to get rid of any wrinkles you might have made in the felt as you were sewing. And then to mount your felt art so it stays firmly in the frame without any glass, add some double sided tape to the backing board and stick the felt down. And then just pop it in the frame and admire 🙂