colorful felt acorns

After seeing felted acorns on etsy, I decided it would be a fun craft to do with the boys, as well as another opportunity to encourage fine motor skills. I gathered acorn tops of all sizes from the big oak trees at work and yesterday morning the boys and I made colorful felt acorns for our nature table. We had such a good time that I'm sure we will make many more. I used the wet felted stones tutorial from The Magic Onions as a guide.

We started out with warm water and dish detergent in the boy's water table and some wool fiber. I began by taking a small piece of fiber and soaking it in the soapy water and gently rolling it in a ball. (If you press too hard, the ball will have creases. I learned the hard way.)

After about 30 seconds of rolling the ball, the fibers began to interlock. At this point we soaked the ball in the soaper water again and turned the rolling over to Aidan. (A great way to encourage his fine motor skills.)

While we rolled the balls, Shane churned the soapy water with a hand mixer.

To make the ball bigger or cover creases, I added more fiber,

folded it evenly over the felted ball,

soaked it in the soapy water and rolled again. After about 2 minutes they were done.

When the ball was the size we wanted, we rinsed out all the soap and let them dry in the sun. (They can also dry in a mesh pouch in the dryer.)

After they dried, we glued on acorn caps and added them to our nature table.

They are so colorful, I'm sure we will use/play with them for quite some time.