Felted Cardinal

This isn't exactly a full blown tutorial but more of showing how I made this cardinal for my mom. If you're planning on making your own, I hope this can be of use to you.

My felting fibers of choice are polyfil stuffing and acrylic fibers I make myself with yarn and a wired pet brush. I have no issues with wool, I'm just cheap and find it more convenient because I always have stuffing and yarn on hand.

Supplies I used

Barbed felting needle

Polyfil or wool

Fibers in red and black 

2 mini glass doll eyes 

Polymer clay

Brown embroidery floss

Tacky glue

2 Head pins

Red felt sheet 

Black acrylic paint

Orange acrylic paint

White acrylic paint

Scissors

I made an egg shape with a wad of polyfil. On the bottom area of the egg shape, I added more fibers to make the head. At the top of the head, I added a spot where the hairdo would be.

With a small amount of polymer clay, I made a cone shape and used a tool with a silicone point to make a line around the side of the cone and flatting the bottom to make the beak. After baking, I painted it orange and glazed it with gloss. I used tacky glue to attach the beak to where the fact of the bird would be. I use just enough to have it stick but not too much where it spreads to areas around the beak. Once dried, I added the eyes and started adding small layers of black fibers to complete his face. Then proceeded to cover him in red.

For his tail and wings, I added a little more polyfil to fill him out a little and cut out some felt then glued them on. After it dried, I felted around and blended them in.

Once he was completely covered, I took some a straight rove of red and started adding his little hairdo and gave him a haircut. Then I started working up his wings. 

I'm going to give him little boots, a scarf and earmuffs to give the piece a winter feel. The boots are also an excuse not to make bird feet because I'm not a fan of making them. To make the boots, I took two balls of even amounts of scrap clay and made long oval balls. Then I rolled two even smaller balls from, made them into a cylinder, flatten the top and bottom then add to the back of the larger oval piece. 

I used a tool with a pointed silicone tip and carefully smoothed out the connecting areas of the two clays, making them look like one piece. I stuck a head pin from the bottom of the boot and had it come out of the center of the leg part. I cleaned off the dirt and smoothed it out with alcohol and a qtip then baked.

Once done and cooled, I painted the boots black and glaze them. After drying, I then added glue around the rim of the boots and layered it with tiny micro pieces or cut up fibers to give them a fur trim. I wrapped brown embroidery floss around the head pin for the legs.

For his scarf, I crocheted with embroidery floss and a 1.0mm crochet hook. For the earmuffs, I felted the ear warmers and added a small curved piece of plastic I had on hand that I realized would work.

This is the final result:

Thanks for stopping by!