Valentine Smack-Down: Warm and Gentle Fuzzies

Remember that song from grade school?

I will give you warm and gentle fuzzies, for I love you as you are. If you want more warm and gentle fuzzies, open up your heart . . . blah, blah, something, something . . .

Anyway, I couldn’t find it on the interweb ANYWHERE (which only supports Nicky’s theory that I am making this up). BUT, I did find this, which is kinda cute. Perhaps I’m not crazy and you, too, remember that little song. If so, make these little warm fuzzies for someone you love.

You will need: yarn, glue (I used Tacky Glue), wire, colored paper, scissors, google eyes, and ribbon (optional). FYI, I got all of these supplies (minus the glue and scissors) at yard sales for free or really cheap. To start, make a yarn pom-pom. There are many methods for this, so pick your favorite. Here’s mine:

First, cut a long-ish length of your yarn and lay it on your work surface (this will be for the next step, but it is easier to do this first). Wrap yarn from your ball or skein around three of your fingers (making sure you don’t wrap too tight — you will eventually have to remove the yarn from your hand). I wrapped my yarn about 100 times. Done? Now, carefully wriggle the yarn off of your fingers and lay it centered (with the wrapped yarn going vertically) on that first piece of yarn that you cut:

Tie that yarn SUPER tight around the waist of your yarn wraps. I tie a square knot, then flip the whole works over to tie another square knot on the back. Now is a good time to attach the feelers/antennae/tentacles/horns/what-have-you. Cinch your wire around the center (where the yarn tie is), and twist it tightly against the yarn a few times:

Here comes the fun part. Take your scissors and cut through all the loops on each side:

When all your loops are un-looped, fluff and style your little fuzzy until he or she looks good. This will require a lot of zsushing (anyone know how to spell that for real?) and trimming with the scissors. You will make a mess.

When you’re satisfied with the looks of your creature, cut out the tiny hearts for the ends of the feelers. You will need four total, and I fold my paper in half before I cut so I can get them to match up. Set your hearts aside and twist a little curl at the ends of the feelers so that the hearts have something to grab onto:

Dab a teensy bit of glue onto each heart and squeeze them onto the ends of the feelers so that they cover the front and back of the curls you just made. Grab your google eyes and dab some glue onto those:

Place the eyes where you think they look best and mash some of the yarn strands to the back of the eyes, making sure they have some surface to stick to:

If you want to get fancy, you can attach a little bow or whatever other embellishment you’d like. If not, then you are done!

Want to see more Valentine Smack-Down?