Monster Jam storms Feltland!
A friend and I made her daughter a felt barn playhouse for Christmas. It was a lot of fun to put together and her daughter seemed to really enjoy it, that I decided to make another one for another friend’s son. I had learned from doing the first one that my digital scrapbooking supplies came in really handy for making a lot of the decorations.
His mom happens to also be a digital scrapbook designer so I began my new felt playhouse by incorporating some of her designs into the plan. It was going together pretty well but when I saw Spencer Nugent’s Monster Jam stickers, I knew that they would be the perfect addition. What could be more perfect for a little boy who loves monsters and goes around saying ARRRrrrr whenever he sees them?! It solved my dilemma of what to do for the last side I had to decide how to decorate and made for some really fun, cool decorations.
The process of turning the stickers into patterns that I could cut out of felt didn’t take very long and used some basic selection techniques in Photoshop. I began by opening the sticker files which were just the straight colored versions not the versions with the white border being as I was going to deconstruct them into individual pattern pieces.
Next, I used the magic wand set to contiguous and selected the main body shape.
Once I had the main body shape selected, I created a new layer by copy (Control-J/Command-J on a Mac) and filled it in so it was a solid color.
Next, I did the same thing for the top body accent color section. You need to go back to the original layer to make each new body piece selections and then by using the new layer by copy option, each piece will be on its own layer.
And the same for the spine section. However, in order to make the spine section easier to cut out of felt and attach to the rest of the body, I expanded the selection around the spine by 50 pixels.
Then using a hard round brush, I painted in the bottom section of the spine so that it was all connected together. I picked 50 pixels as it seemed large enough to connect all the bumps together as well as provide enough fabric for overlapping making sewing it together nice and easy.
I didn’t worry about making pattern pieces for the eyes or mouth as for this particular monster, I decided I would add them in by freehand drawing them onto the felt and then using a tight zigzag stitch, follow the drawing and sew them directly onto the felt piece.
So now, I had my 3 body pattern pieces created on individual layers.
Now that you have your pattern pieces separated and ready to print, you can make them larger or smaller depending on your particular project. I transferred my pieces to an 8.5in X 11in document and enlarged them so that they almost filled the paper. I wanted the finished monsters to be around 5-6 inches tall. Being that colors arenʼt going to matter for the pattern pieces, I printed mine using a fast draft, black only printer option on regular copy printer paper.
Now to recreate the monsters in felt. Pin the individual pattern pieces to felt. Cut each body piece out of different colors of felt.
Work at recreating the monster by placing the main body piece over the spine so that it overlaps the spine enough to give you space to sew them together. You can either attach it by using a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch. I opted to use a narrow zigzag stitch in a thread color to match the spine. I chose the zigzag stitch as I was wanting to attach it right near the edge and wanted to be sure to have it well attached.
Next, I switched to a straight stitch and placed the accent body piece on top and sewed around its edges.
Then using a tight zigzag stitch in black, I sewed on the eyes and mouth shapes. That completed the monster and all that I had left to do was attach it to the felt playhouse side piece. I just attached it by sewing around the main body piece in a thread to match the main body. Being as the other pieces were already attached, I only needed to be sure to have the main body securely attached to the side of the playhouse. This also allows the edges of the bumpy spine to lift off a little bit and add some dimension to the monster.
By having the felt layers on top of one another, when you sew them together, you will get some slight bubbling and they will appear slightly stuffed looked which just adds to their cuteness. You don’t have to be an expert seamstress to do this. As long as you know how to do basic stitches, this is a fun and easy project. By keeping your thread choices as close to the same color as the felt you are sewing, you don’t even need to worry about how straight you sew as it will partially disappear down into the felt hiding any wiggles.
I repeated the same process for the different monsters and for the background, just hand cut flowing shapes out of alternating black & grey felt for the rock background appearance.
Upon seeing these monsters done out of felt in a 2D application, a friend suggested that they might make a really cute 3D toy made out of either felt or fleece and stuffed. I agree that might just be the next variation they take on.
If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out Gennifer’s tutorial on how these Monsters took over Cakeland.
What ideas do you have for other ways that these cute monsters could take over? They have already taken over Scrappingland, Cakeland and Feltland. What will be next?
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Tags: Design House Decorators, Heather Guenther, Hybrid Project, Tutorials
ahhh, so clever!
Heather, this has to be the cutest idea ever! You are so creative, I love it!!!