felted balls of love {aka DIY craspedia}

I saw a tutorial for DIY Felt Craspedia over on Design Sponge the the other day and was instantly inspired. Craspedia or ‘Billy Balls’ is a cool flower that has a chic, simple look that goes well with a mid-century modern style.

Dried craspedia looks like this..

via Faye Marie on Etsy

…which you can buy on Etsy or possibly find in a craft store. But I like the idea of felted ones.. Less likely to crumble, easy to get dust off of and I can make them any size or color that I want to.

Having never felted anything before I found the Design Sponge tutorial pretty easy to follow, and I suggest checking it out if you are going to do this..but a couple of things weren’t clear, so I ended up having to improvise a bit.

Supplies: hot water, ice cold water, wool roving, dish soap, towels, 18-20 gauge floral wire {I found packs of Clover brand wool roving at Joann’s for $3.99. There wasn’t a huge variety of colors, but there are a ton on Etsy, with some gorgeous color options.}

I set up a station at my stove. I had a sauce pan with hot water on a burner set on low {maybe a simmer}. You want the water hot, but you don’t want to scald your hands. Next to my hot water I had a tupperware bowl filled with ice water. In front of me I laid out a couple of towel..soapy water gets everywhere!

First pull off some of the roving and gently roll it into a ball. Add a drop of dish soap to your hand and rub some on to the roving. Dip part of the roving into the hot hot water and gently roll between your hands. Then dip the roving into the cold cold water and continue rolling. It gets sudsy. The Design Sponge tutorial says it’s okay to dunk the roving in the waters at this point, but I found it easier to just dip half of the ball. That way you don’t have to submerge your entire hand into the hot and frigid waters. Keep going back and forth between the two waters, rolling the ball in between. The ball will shrink and kind of start looking like a brain..just keep going. You’ll know your ball is fully felted once it feels dense when you squeeze it and the appearance is smooth..no cracks.

If you find your ball is getting too small, just wrap some more roving around the ball and continue with the process. Occasionally, you might find that you need a little more soap..just a drop though. Once my ball was felted and the size that I wanted, I rinsed out the soap under the faucet and set it aside to dry. It took a couple of days to get fully dry.

The yellow roving was my first attempt. See how none of them are really the same size. I figured it out the second and third time with the gray and the white. Funny how even though the yellow ones are smaller, each package was the same size and yielded nine felted balls.

Then take the floral wire and stick it into the balls. You will probably have to wiggle it in..but once on the balls stay put pretty well. If they don’t stay on tight, put a dab of glue from a hot glue gun on the ball, then stick with wire through it.

Arrange your masterpiece in some vintage bottles..

Or if you are a closet nerd {like me}..Erlenmeyer flasks..

I think the white ones look like dandelion wishes.

You can use an old wool sweater to make the balls too, using this tutorial.

Linked to: Addicted 2 Decorating, Whipperberry, Remodelaholic, 504 Main, Tatertots and Jello, I ♥ Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Nifty Thrifty Things, Homework