Normally, spiders are these icky, scary things. And some of them are deadly, even.

But can you resist this spider?

It’s a wristlet/purse! Seriously! It’s probably one of the most creative-looking bags I’ve ever seen. And with eyes like that, it’s gotta be the most harmless-looking black widow spider you will ever encounter. It’s a useful spider, at that (and not just because spiders get rid of nasty other insects, you know).

This bag is from Felt at Home, based in the UK. It’s two sisters churning out some amazing-looking stuff.

Almost everything in the shop is a bag made out of felt, but all these bags are intricate and totally unique. They have other animals (take this skinny cow, for instance) and people too (like this mermaid.

It’s a lot of stuff that you never thought could be made into a bag!

Felt — it’s strong, fuzzy, and is versatile enough to make almost any shape you can think of.

Shalana of The Funky Felter turns it into this:

Felted wool dinosaur on canvas tote — great for kids!

Rosey Ring

What’s cool about a lot of the stuff Shalana makes is that it’s wet-felted. Lots of people needle-felt and lots of people do the fulling thing (knit or crochet and then throw it into the washing machine to make it felt). But wet-felting involves lots of hot water and suds. And a lot of time. So a lot of the products in The Funky Felter shop were lovingly labored over for a while, for sure!

And again, there really is quite a range of felt goodness in the shop: jewelry (lots of cool felt-bead earrings), pins, scarves, soaps, even bookmarks! And for even more variety, there are also several hand-dyed silks in the shop.

It’s rare that a pincushion could evoke some feeling of hunger or general want of something, but then again, not every pincushion in the world could look like this:

This sweet-looking cup o’ joe is from Betz White and can be purchased from her Etsy shop.

In case you didn’t think the coffee cup was cute enough, there are a wide variety of cupcakes available as well:

All these creations are made from recycled sweaters! Just another reason they are awesome … because recycling is always a good thing.

These are almost too nice to use as pincushions, but they do make nice decorations even if you do use them for their intended purpose.

I have extolled the virtues of mushrooms before in a previous post, but I couldn’t help myself again after seeing this:

It’s a felted shiitake mushroom! With eyes!

This little gem was made by Nifer Fahrion of Nifnaks, a shop specializing in felty goodness based in San Francisco.

Nifer had an entire family of mushrooms at Bazaar Bizarre, some wee, some a little larger. Red and white mushrooms (think Super Mario Bros.), morels, chantrelles, oyster mushrooms, maybe even a portebello or a crimini somewhere in there. It was quite impressive. Many of said ‘shrooms were either pins or hair accessories.

Major props for paying homage to the wide, wide world of mushrooms, not just the plain button ones we all know and love.

There are all sorts of neat felt adornments at Nifnaks: cherries, an octopus/alien-y thing, even the mysterious baby flying spaghetti monster. Nifer’s imagination is amazing!

There are also other felt goodies, like bracelets. More normal-looking. But the not-so-normal stuff rocks.

Keeping with an animal theme today, I guess ….

Like this cat:

This lovely critter (and more) can be found at Crafty Alien. The shop sells patterns and kits for making animals such as squirrels, raccoons, hedgehogs, rabbits and even a skunk. It’s a pretty ecletic collection!

The siamese plush in the picture is the only animal available in its ready-made form. You’ve got to make the others.

There are also some cute notecards, magnets and pushpins featuring all the above critters.

Anyway, go and make some cute little animals. All the kits/patterns are very reasonably priced … at those rates, you could afford your own little menagerie.

Felt is fun. It’s fun to play with and makes some pretty awesome stuff. Like what CynContemporary has in her Etsy shop:

It’s really colorful and innovative stuff, especially the ring. I never would have thought of a felt ring. It’s funky.

There’s plenty more, of course, in her shop, so click on over there. Get your fill of eye candy.