Helping Children to hear God’s Voice

Helping Children to hear God’s Voice

I had the blessing this January of reading Hearing God’s Voice: A Catholic guide to listening prayer by Jonna Schuster.

I’m a cradle Catholic with a deep love for the Lord and my faith. I love to pray, but still, this book was able to add clarity and depth to my prayer life. (I will add, though, that I think this book would be loved by anyone who is open to God’s voice or is seeking for God, even if not Catholic. So if you are a reader of another faith, this book is still for you!)

Jonna’s book helps explain questions like, “Was that God speaking to me, or was that just me thinking that thought?” or “Why would God, who is so big, want to talk to me, who is so little?”

Jonna so beautifully explains how to listen well to God, and the overarching message in the book is that God loves us so much and wants to speak to us of his love. When I finished the book, I felt like I had been on a retreat, and my heart was so full of that message of God’s love… weeks after finishing the book, that deep message of love remains in my heart and mind.

As I read the book, I thought, “I wish I could have had this depth of understanding of hearing God’s voice my whole life, rather than waiting until now.”

I also kept thinking, “I really want to share the ideas in this book with my children!” So, I decided to create a worksheet for my children to help to share the main ideas in Jonna’s book. We had such a delightful time using this worksheet and talking about how we can hear God’s voice, that I decided to share this lesson idea on our blog, so that you can share these beautiful ideas with your children too.

Our printable worksheets and lesson plan ideas are available in our Etsy shop. They are designed for families and faith formation classes.

The printable worksheet has a heart image and the words “God is love” because the main message in the book is that God loves us so deeply and wants to share his love with us.
Once you, the parent or teacher, have read Hearing God’s Voice, you can print out any version of the Hearing God’s Voice heart printable you like, and then follow our ideas about sharing it with your children (or use it in a way that works for your family or class).
Inside of the heart are a number of words from the concepts in the book of the ways that we may “hear” God. I tried to select many key concepts from the book, while keeping it at a reasonable number of concepts for children. You’ll find after reading the book that talking about these concepts will come naturally.
You can certainly add other words into the heart that you find important. As you talk about the concepts with your children, you can also explain that the opposites of these words would not be ways that God speaks to us. For example, God is encouraging to us – He does NOT speak mean and discouraging words to us that make us feel bad about ourselves (those things are from the evil one).
My six-year-old, ten-year-old, and I did this Hearing God’s Voice lesson this past Sunday in place of our regular faith formation curriculum (Into the Deep, which is wonderful, by the way. Definitely check it out if you are looking for a lovely faith formation curriculum!). The lesson went really well, and we are so excited to share the idea with you! 
Here is what we did:
  • We started with the sign of the cross and an “Our Father” prayer.
  • Then I told my children, “Today we are going to be talking about listening to God.” I asked, “Can you tell me about how you hear God?” They thought for a bit, but they were not sure how to answer. I then rephrased the question as, “When do you feel closest to God?” They said, “When I pray,” and “When I’m at Mass.”
  • I then told them about this great book that I read about listening to God and that I wanted to share the ideas with them because there is no need to wait until being an adult to have a clearer understanding of how to listen to God.
  • I let them each pick a version of the heart picture that they liked best, and I gave them some colored pencils.
  • I let them take turns picking the words that we would talk about (in any order). Once they picked a word, they colored in the block letters while I shared with them about that concept. I shared information I remembered from the book, as well as my own life experiences. I asked them questions about how they might have experienced listening to God in that way, and they asked great questions too!
  • I had thought that we might only get through a few of the words and continue the lesson another time, but to my surprise, they were really into this and wanted to keep going and talk about all the words in one lesson! (If you do this lesson with your children, listen to their cues… no need to finish it all in one sitting.)
  • At the conclusion of the lesson, I wanted to include a song. I thought about picking one in advance, but instead, at the end of the lesson, I asked my children what song they thought of after our conversation about hearing God’s voice. They very quickly said, “Ooo child, don’t you know I love you?” (the song is actually called, “Just as you are” by Ryan Stevenson). I love it that they thought of that song, as that song really captures the essence of the message in the book… how much God loves us! We had such a joyful lesson, that we actually had a little dance party to that song… so fun! 

Would you like to get the heart worksheets and lesson plans? You can find them in our little Esty shop.

Note: You can find the Hearing God’s Voice book on Amazon. Reading this book is essential before using this lesson plan.

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

A Year of Printable Garlands to grow in God’s love

A Year of Printable Garlands to grow in God’s love

Bring joy to your decor all throughout the year!

Would you and your family like to have a bundle of sweet and simple crafts ready to make to celebrate all year long?

In celebration of Sparkles and Sprinkles turning 3 this year, we put together a bundle of our holiday garlands we hope you will enjoy.

When our family started our little homeschool learning blog 3 years ago, our signature printable became garlands (we are not sure what inspired this, but we just kept thinking of ideas for more…). Our first one was a Valentine “Love is…” garland with scripture from 1st Corinthians. Each of our garlands has a message of God’s love. What a gift it is to have visual reminders in our home of how much God loves us!

For the first time ever, we have created a bundle (at a big discount) of all of our holiday garlands. Now you don’t have to pick and chose which garland you might like, you can download the whole bundle at once, and have it ready to print as each holiday arrives. The bundle includes Valentine’s Day (in French and English), St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

The garlands are easy to put together with simple supplies (cardstock, hole punch, scissors, and ribbon or yarn). All of the garlands are digital downloads, so you can download them all at once, and print them as needed, year after year. Most of the garlands have room for personalization, giving you and your family a joyful opportunity to gather around the table and color and talk together.

We hope you and your family will enjoy these garlands just like Kristine, who said in her review:

“I absolutely loved this. This is perfect for families, individuals, Sunday schools , children, and adults.” 

The 3rd Anniversary garland bundle includes the following garlands:

Individual garlands are normally $3.99, but the bundle has a special discounted price. The entire holiday garland collection is only $12.99 (likely less than buying just one store-bought garland). Plus, until February 14, 2025 the garland bundle is an extra 10% off (no code needed).

Wishing you and your family so much joy all throughout the year, with sweet reminders of God’s abundant love!

A Christmas Carol – printable quotes to grace your home throughout the Christmas season

A Christmas Carol – printable quotes to grace your home throughout the Christmas season

We love printable garlands, and we’ve been meaning to make one for the Christmas season. Today we are sharing with you some printable wall art and garlands with quotes from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

 

What inspired us to create these printables? Reading A Christmas Carol as a family this Advent season and spending the first 3 weeks in December doing the Read Aloud Revival Christmas School. Though we had heard of it before, we never took the leap of faith to switch gears from our regular curriculum and do Christmas School (which really takes place during Advent, to prepare for Christmas). We are so glad we did this year!

We so much enjoyed doing the Read Aloud Revival Christmas School that we were actually sad when it ended, even though Christmas vacation was about to begin. We hope hanging up these quotes in our home will help us to remember the joy of Christmas School… and if you did Christmas School, or you are just a fan of Dickens, perhaps you’ll love them too. You can find the printable quotes to frame and the garland in our Etsy shop

 

Thanks to Christmas School, as we headed into Christmas vacation this year, our hearts and our home felt so much more ready for Christmas than they normally do when Christmas vacation begins.

I felt inspired to spread the word about Christmas School because it was such a blessing for our family, and we imagine some of our readers might like to learn more about it. Christmas School is designed for homeschoolers, but it could be used (at least partially) by all families (perhaps on the weekends or evenings during Advent).

Christmas School is different every year, but this year Christmas School was based around Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Christmas School provided us with a complete curriculum (except for math) for 3 weeks in December, including writing, grammar, art, music, science, and history. I’m not usually one to completely follow a curriculum (because I like to go along with my own inspiration), but I was so happy to follow the Christmas School curriculum… truly a feast of beautiful learning!

We found ourselves looking forward to getting up every morning and reading from Little Christmas Carol (lightly edited and sweetly illustrated for children by Joe Sutphin), and then filling the day with things like learning about the history of nativity scenes, and then putting up our own… learning about conifers and evergreens, and going on a nature walk to find some in our neighborhood, and then heading out to pick out a Christmas tree… making punch to celebrate Dickens-style… learning about Christmas songs… reading and writing poetry… baking… doing art projects… and so much more!

 

Our 5 year-old says, “Christmas school is the funnest!” And though we might say it differently, we all feel the same! Christmas school allowed us to learn and grow in the typical school subjects, while also preparing our hearts and our home for Christmas. 

Because our hearts are so full of sweet memories of Christmas School this year, we decided to create printable wall art and a printable garland with some of the most beautiful quotes from A Christmas Carol.

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”

Whether you did Christmas School this year too, or you just love Charles Dickens, you might like to print these printables as a reminder to keep celebrating throughout the Christmas season. You can find them on Etsy. (Your purchase from our little Etsy shop helps us to cover blogging expenses. Thank you so much for your support!)

Once the printables are downloaded, you can re-print them whenever you like, year after year. You’ll want to print them on cardstock or printer-friendly watercolor paper. For the garland it is helpful to have a 1/8″ hole punch, a 2.25″ circle punch (or scissors), and narrow ribbon or twine. Complete instructions are included in the download.

After the stockings come down on Christmas morning, the garland could perhaps take their place along the mantel… as a reminder to always keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts. Little framed prints can be placed around the house as a happy reminder that Christmas continues as well.

To find out more about Christmas School, you can visit Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival. Read Aloud Revival is our go-to place to find peace and reassurance in our homeschool all throughout the year too.

Wishing you a joyous Christmas season!

You might also like…

Gluten-free cut-out cookies

Does Santa need some gluten-free cookies at your house? These are also low-carb, making them a bit heathier than your typical cookie (but still yummy!).

diy santons de provence

Make your own nativity

Learn about Santons de Provence (French nativities), and the many figures that surround the nativity. Then have fun making your own!

french valentine garland

Valentine Scripture Garland (in French or English)

Print and decorate this sweet garland for Valentine’s Day.

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Felt Christmas Bear Ornament – Free Pattern!

Felt Christmas Bear Ornament – Free Pattern!

Looking for a sweet handmade Christmas gift idea? How about a darling handsewn Christmas bear ornament?

This ornament was inspired by a handsewn bear ornament I received as a gift as a small child… it still hangs on our Christmas tree today (over 40 years later!). My name was embroidered on the back. These little bears can be personalized as well, with a child’s name or the year, perhaps. Who knows? You might be creating an heirloom!

Simply download our free pattern, gather your supplies, and watch the video to see how to make this easy project. New to sewing? No worries, our tutorial shows you all of the stitches from start to finish.

Making these bears can also be a nice mother-child activity. Little one can make some big stitches, and mama can do the more detailed stitches. They make a cuddly toy too (just leave off the ornament hanging loop).

 

Print the FREE pattern…

Download our free pattern, then print it on cardstock. Be sure to select “actual size” when printing the PDF.

Gather your supplies…

Wool or wool blend felt. (We do not recommend acrylic felt from a craft store for this project, as the quality of such felt is not great.) We used white and gray felt for our bears, but you could choose other colors if you like. Etsy is a great place to find wool felt. We used wool blend felt from OneOfTheFlock on Etsy.

Stuffing. For an all natural bear, using wool stuffing is a nice idea. We used polyester fiberfill. Only a small amount of stuffing is needed.

Embroidery floss. We chose white and gray-blue colors for our bears, but be creative – any colors of your choice could work. We love the DMC brand.

Embroidery needle. We think size 5 is nice. It’s up to you how many strands of embroidery floss you use, so pick a needle with a larger eye if you are planning to use more than 2-3 strands.

Sewing scissors and craft scissors. We like to use craft scissors for cutting out the cardstock pattern and sewing scissors for cutting the felt. (Sewing scissors may get dull if they are used to cut fabric.)

Cardstock (Using cardstock works better than paper for printing out the pattern).

Pencil (for transferring the pattern onto the felt).

 

 

Watch our video tutorial for step-by-step instructions…

If the video image does not appear, simply click this link.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

You might also like…

French Advent Calendar

Learn French this Advent season! Printable calendar and stickers to learn a French word a day from December 1 to 24. Includes audio files to hear the words.

Embroidery Sampler Tea Towel

Learn to embroider – and create a beautiful tea towel or cloth napkin. Step-by-step video tutorial.

DIY Christmas Essential Oil Candle Making

Find our step-by-step eBook and printable candle labels on Etsy. Perfect for gift giving! (Includes recipes for every season of the year, including Christmas!)

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

DIY Essential Oil Candles… made easy!

DIY Essential Oil Candles… made easy!

Ready to learn how to make essential oil candles?

We are so excited to share this fun activity with you!

We did not actually set out to write a blog post on candle making. We were really just thinking that making candles would make a sweet Christmas gift for neighbors. Fortunately, we were inspired to start early because we had no idea how much we had to learn!

We decided to write this post to save you time if making candles is something that sounds fun to you. While normally at Sparkles and Sprinkles we are all about your own creativity, this post will give you very specific information on making very specific candles… in the hopes that you won’t have to go through many wasted candles like we did.

This post tells a bit about our candle making journey and provides clickable links for supplies. You can find our printable guide to essential oil candle making on Etsy.

Luckily our “wasted” candles did not go to waste. We made some of them into a sweet little Advent wreath (and we will probably have enough to keep doing this for a few more years to use all of the candles… yes, we messed up that many!). 

We are frequent users of essential oil diffusers*, and we know our favorite essential oil combinations, so we thought it would be as easy as melting wax and mixing in our favorite combinations of essential oils. But this was not the case.

The first candles we made looked beautiful, and smelled beautiful before they were lit, but once lit, they had almost no scent throw and some of them actually smelled bad while burning. Did you know some essential oils can’t be used in candles, according to candlescience.com?

This disappointment with our first candles launched us into A LOT of research.  It turns out that many people have these problems when making essential oil candles, but there are all sorts of conflicting ideas on how to make the candles better. (Not to mention AI generated information, which is really conflicting… don’t worry, this post was written by real people.)
We share with you in this post what worked for us (after many trials!). Keep in mind; however, that essential oil candles are going to have a light fragrance (don’t expect a Yankee Candle or Bath and Body Works smell – these are generally made with synthetic fragrance oils, not essential oils). If you want a really strong smelling candle, fragrance oils are probably the way to go, but we wanted our candles to be all natural, so we stuck with the essential oils. Alternatively, if it is just a lovely scent in your home you are looking for, a diffuser* works much better than a candles.

(*If you are mostly looking for a beautiful and natural scent in your home, we recommend using an essential oil diffuser – it is so easy to add a few drops of oil and change the scent on a whim. But if you are looking for the ambiance of candles or a thoughtful gift to give, read on… We are sharing a plan that should make essential oil candle making fun and easy for the whole family!)

Recipes we love…

Here are our favorite recipes to make delightful candles for all seasons. Please read the entire post for specific directions on how to make the candles (it’s not quite as simple as melting wax and mixing in oils, but don’t worry, our printable eBook on Etsy gives step by step directions to make it a joy!). 

Sunshine and Happiness

A delightful candle for spring and summer, with notes of lemon and lavender and a touch of sweet vanilla.

3 oz. soy/coconut wax beads (measured by weight)

3/4 tsp. lavender essential oil

1/4 tsp. vanilla essential oil

1/2 tsp. lemon essential oil

 

Autumn Joy

A warm and spicy candles that works well for autumn and even into the winter months.

3 oz. soy/coconut wax beads (measured by weight)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon cassia essential oil

1/2 tsp. clove essential oil

1/2 tsp. petitgrain essential oil (a citrus scent)

 

Merry Christmas!

An evergreen forest, sparkling snowfall, and candy cane delights in one sweet candle. Perfect for gift giving!

3 oz. soy/coconut wax beads (measured by weight)

1 tsp. balsam fir essential oil

1/2 tsp. peppermint essential oil

 

Do you want to make all natural essential oil candles too?

We have a plan to make candle making a delight for the whole family!

Get our candle making eBook on Etsy…

***Please note that that candle making might be best for older children and adults. The hot wax and the essential oils that may sting the skin and eyes make it a little tricky (risky) for young children. However, younger children can be great helpers with some parts… attaching the wick to the base of the candle containers and/or helping to stick labels on to candle covers when the candles have cooled.***  

What you will need…

Below you will see a detailed explanation of the specific supplies you’ll need. But we have created a simplified shopping list so you can see everything in one place. It is a long list, but once you have your supplies, making candles is really relaxing and fun for the whole family.

Supply details…

freedom coconut wax

Freedom Organic Coconut Soy Wax Blend

This soy/coconut wax makes beautifully smooth candles, and can be melted in the microwave to make candle making even easier. Coconut/soy wax allows the essential oil scents to shine through. (On our first attempts, we tried beeswax, which itself has a powerful smell, so it does not work well with essential oils.) One 5 lb. bag of wax should make about 25 candles using our recipes (3 oz. of wax per candle).

food scale

Small food scale

To measure the right amount of wax beads, you’ll need a food scale. (We could not find our particular scale for sale at the moment, so we  have provided an alternative link.)

candle thermometer

Thermometer

Essential oils need to be mixed in at 185 degrees F, so you’ll need a thermometer. It does not work to just see that the wax is melted. We did not have a pot clip for our thermometer, but it would be helpful to have one to hold the thermometer in place.

Glass measuring cup

To melt the wax in the microwave, you’ll need a glass measuring cup (probably one that becomes exclusively for candle making, as cleaning it might be difficult). We got a few glass measuring cups so that we had one for each different candle scent combination we made.

Protected surface and potholders

You’ll want to have a protected surface on which to set your candle making supplies – hot wax can splatter even if you are being very careful. A large piece of cardboard works well (then you can throw it away when you are done). You’ll also need potholders to take the hot measuring cup out of the microwave each time.

Long-handled stirring spoons

It’s not so easy to get wax off of spoons, so we found it was best to get spoons with long handles just for our candle making.

4 oz. candle jars or tins

We used both 4 oz. Ball Mason glass jars and 4 oz. candle tins. Both work well, depending on the look you love. If you might be transporting or mailing the candles, a tin would obviously be less breakable, but the glass jars look especially lovely when lit and seem to be quite sturdy as well.

right size wick

Eco wick size 8

Wow! Who knew there were so many different types and sizes of wicks. Some wicks make the essential oil candles smell bad, and some wicks are too small or too big to make the wax melt correctly. We finally found that this wick (Eco wick size 8) is the perfect one to make the wax in a 4 oz. container melt perfectly, without leaving a ring of unburned wax (see photo above), and without getting too hot. The scent throw with this wick is great too!

Wick stickers

To attach the base of the wick to the base of your candle containers, you’ll need wick stickers. With guidance, placing the wick stickers and sticking on the wicks is a fun activity for young children (perhaps ages 4 to 5) who want to join in the candle making fun, but stay away from the hot wax.

Wick holders

To keep the wicks staying centered and tall, you’ll need wick holders. Getting a multipack is a good idea if you want to make more than one candle at a time (you’ll need to keep the wick holder in place for about a day until the wax has completely hardened).

Essential oils

In the recipes above (and in our printable guide) you’ll find a few essential oil combinations we have found to work well. The quantities of oil and the types of oils are quite particular with candles, so we are sharing some recipes that we have found to work, after lots of trial and error. Be sure to use good quality essential oils. We like the Now brand – it tends to be good quality at a moderate price: lemon, lavender, vanilla, cinnamon bark, clove, petitgrain, fir, peppermint

(When calculating how much oil to buy, consider that a 1 oz. bottle of essential oil provides about 6 U.S. teaspoons of essential oil.)

Teaspoon set

We measure our essential oils using 1/4, 1/2 and 1 teaspoon spoons.

Labels and Cardstock

We used Canva to make some sweet labels for our candles. You can find our printable labels on Etsy… or enjoy making your own by hand or with Canva (Canva is so much fun!). While you could get stickers to print your candle labels, we chose to use cardstock, cut with a circle punch and glued on to the cover of the candle container. Gluing on the labels allows them to be repositioned more easily than with stickers. (Our eBook on Etsy does have a printable sticker option set up for Avery circle stickers, but we think cardstock and circle punch works better.)

circle punch

Circle Punch

To cut the perfect circle label, we recommend this 2 1/4″ circle punch. Once we bought this, we have found so many other fun projects to use it for as well.  See our video on how easy (and fun!) it is to use.

Gluestick

Gluing on the labels is another fun way for younger children to participate in the candle making project.

Candle warning labels

Funny fact – I sent one of these candles to my sister, without letting her know that I had made it. It had a “handmade with love” label on the top, but when she saw the warning label on the bottom, she was confused and decided not to light the candle, thinking “Who knows what the real story of this candle is.” Luckily it eventually came up in conversation that I had made the candle, and she happily lit it. Whether or not to use these warning labels is up to you (I did not realize that they might make people think that the candles are not homemade), but one important thing they list is that the wick needs to be kept trimmed short – this actually helps the candle smell better when burned. Our eBook on Etsy also has printable safety labels that look more homemade – so as not to confuse the candle recipient. To punch out our safety labels in the eBook, you’ll need 1″ circle punch too. (The eBook also has gifting info cards that can but tucked in with a gifted candle, rather than placing a safety label on the bottom of the candle. These can be cut out with scissors or a paper cutter.)

How to make the candles – step-by-step…

Once you have your supplies, you’re ready to make some lovely candles! We scoured the Internet to find the best candle making directions, but we did not find any one source that gave us the whole picture of how to successfully make essential oil candles. Our printable eBook brings together essential information that we found from The Candle Journey (and yes, it has been a journey!), Oily Chic (all about essential oils), and Candle Science (we think candle making can count as a homeschool science lesson), along with lots of experimenting here at Sparkles and Sprinkles.
We hope you can skip the long hours of research and jump right into the fun part of candle making by following our recipes and guide. You can get our printable step-by-step guide, along with our printable candle labels on Etsy. Once the guide is printed, candle making becomes a screen-free activity – hooray!

Ready to get our printable step-by-step guide with visuals for each step and printable labels? Click here to find it on Etsy.

Happy candle making!

P.S. We like to pair activities with reading here at Sparkles and Sprinkles. May we suggest some lovely books about Saint Hildegard to accompany your candle making journey? A picture book for children by Demi and some spiritual reflections called Let There Be Light. ENJOY!

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

Cookie Cutter Needle Felting – perfect beginner project

Cookie Cutter Needle Felting – perfect beginner project

Thinking about giving needle felting a try? Follow our simple video tutorial for a delightful project that is perfect for beginners!

At Sparkles and Sprinkles, we love just about everything that might fit in the category of handcrafts. However, we had put needle felting in a category of its own – “too dangerous!” Fortunately a family in our homeschool group asked if we might be able to learn needle felting in our handcraft club. With this motivation, we decided to be daring and give it a try.

It turns out that needle felting is not so scary after all (whew!). We decided to start with the easiest type of project, as recommended in a lovely book about needle felting, Needle Felting for Beginners: How to Sculpt with Wool. This book describes how the wool just naturally weaves itself together by getting poked with a felting needle – so simple!

Needle Felting for Beginners recommends using a cookie cutter to help make the shape. With this method, one is much less likely to get a poke from the felting needle. These sweet little wool creations made with the help of a cookie cutter can be strung into a garland to decorate your home, if you like. We made a fall garland with pumpkin shapes, but you could use any shape (hearts, flowers, stars, Christmas trees….)

We also learned that finger protectors can be worn to make getting poked even less likely. Of course young children should we watched and guided carefully, even with these precautions. In our opinion age 5 would probably be the youngest age for projects like this. 

Are you ready to try needle felting? We’ve put together a shopping list with clickable links so that you can easily gather supplies. Then watch our video to find out just how easy and fun… and even, to our surprise, relaxing… needle felting can be.

 

Needle Felting Shopping List

Needle Felting Pad: We wanted to make a bunch of pads for our homeschool group club, so we bought 2″ thick foam pad and cut it into several 5×5 inch pieces. If you just need one pad, then this felting pad from Desert Breeze would be great.

Leather Finger Protectors: We needed more than one pair, so we chose this pack of 10 pairs of leather finger protectors. If you need fewer pairs, these leather finger protectors could be a good option.

Size 40 Triangle Needle: Needles come in many different shapes and sizes. The size 40 triangle needle works well for this beginner project. The authors of the book we read recommend a size 40 spiral needle for the finishing touches, but we have found the size 40 triangle needle works for the whole project from start to finish. Many people recommend using needles made in Europe for their superior quality. We have used needles from Felted Sky and from Desert Breeze. Both seem to work well and are European-made. (However, even good quality needles can still break, so be sure to use them only in an up and down motion – never pulling them from side-to-side in the wool). Felted sky has a variety pack of needles on Etsy, as well as a multi-pack of size 40 triangle needles (even if you think you only need one needle, it’s a good idea to have extras on hand in case of breakage).

(Or to keep things simple, you might like a kit that includes needles, felting pad, and finger protectors from Desert Breeze. This kit does not include the 40 triangle needle, but we have found that a 40 spiral needle can work for this project.)

Wool: We tried two different wools for our project. Desert Breeze has wool in a variety of colors that works well. We also were very happy with an Etsy seller from West Virginia (Bridget’s Farm Cart) who dyes her wools in beautiful colors, including an orange color that actually comes with a variety of orange shades specifically for making pumpkins. It’s lovely!

Cookie Cutters: If you plan to make a garland, small cookie cutters (about 1.5 inches in diameter) would be best. Any size cookie cutter can work, however. We use these sweet mini pumpkin cookie cutters from The Cookie Cutter Shop. If you are looking for another shape, consider this mini heart or mini star.)

Wool Felt Balls: If you are planning to make a garland, you could make several of your cookie cutter shaped creations, or you could add in some small wool felt balls to add variety and save time.

Embroidery Needle and Embroidery Floss: To string your garland together, you’ll need some embroidery floss and an embroidery needle.

 

Let’s make some felted pumpkins…

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