A Totoro birthday and felted acorns

It's honeypie's birthday!!!
She is in love with Totoro and Ponyo, (both characters from movies by Hayao Miyazaki) and she has asked for a ponyo / totoro birthday... So here I go on a full craft week to make totoro / ponyo goodies for her special day !
Today we made invitations and wet felted acorns .
In the movie "My neighbor Totoro ", Totoro, ( a forest spirit ) gives Mai and Satsuki a little bundle wrapped in leaves. When the girls open the package they find, to their surprise, a bunch of acorns for them to plant. Message: protect and respect nature and always plant for more growth. I read an article that Miyazaki made the movie to bring awareness to the Japanese Sayama forest.
 (Take a look at the totoro forest project here).
So in honor of that, we made wet felted acorns and wrapped them in felt leaves, like bundles, inspired by the movie to put into goodie bags.

Here are our invitations for our party (collaged paper)...











Got these stamps on eBay !!






Here's what you need to wet felt the little balls for the acorns...
Wool roving, warm soapy water, and a washboard.







Wool roving ( I bought mine on etsy)...






Make a little ball with the bundle. Dip the ball into warm soapy water, squeeze and roll between your hands, creating friction. Keep dipping into the soapy water, squeezing and rolling.






Roll in circular motion on the washboard.










After about 10 minutes... This is what you will have.
A nicely felted little ball.










To make the acorns , I used real acorn caps and hot glued the wool balls to the inside of the caps.






Beautiful!!










Here are the cut felt leaves to wrap the acorn bundle.

























Now on to Ponyo puppets and cake !
Xo