Foam and Felt Coral & Algae

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Foamie Sheets (3 shades of turquoise, yellow, blue)
• Felt (2 shades of turquoise)
• Pipe Cleaners (coordinating turquoise to felt)
• Crazy Craft Noodles (Yellow & Blue)
• Cutting mat
• Hot glue gun/glue
• X-Acto blade
• Scissors
• Wire cutters
• Pencil

DIRECTIONS:

Rounded Foam Leafy Algea:

1. Draw out a long rounded leaf shape with a pencil on a foam sheet, if your overall leaf needs to be larger than 1 foam sheet glue 2 sheets together. To best hide the seam butt 2 pieces of foam sheets together and glue a strip along the back to secure in place rather than overlapping the sheets of foam.
2. Once your shape is drawn out, cut out the shape with scissors. Repeat for the desired number of leaves.
3. Embellish the leaf shapes by adding a slightly lighter or darker shade of blue to one side of the leaf. To do this run a thin line of glue along the outer edge on one side of the leaf. Place the coordinating foam sheet onto the leaf so the excess is on top of the leaf. Trim off the glued edge so they are flush then cut down the middle removing the excess foam sheet, trimming it at the middle of the leaf shape to leave a shadowed look. Glue the rest of the foam sheet down to the leaf shape to secure.
4. Add thin strip of light blue foam across each leaf for added interest. Round the edges and add small dots throughout, see photo for inspiration.

Pointy Tip Felt Algea:

1. Draw out a long pointed leaf shape with a pencil on felt, if your overall leaf needs to be larger than 1 felt sheet glue 2 sheets together. To best hide the seam butt 2 pieces of foam sheets together and glue a strip along the back to secure in place rather than overlapping the sheets of felt.
2. Once your shape is drawn out, cut out the shape with scissors. Repeat for the desired number of leaves.
3. Embellish the leaf shapes by adding a slightly lighter or darker shade of turquoise to one side of the leaf. To do this run a thin line of glue along the outer edge on one side of the leaf. Place the coordinating felt sheet onto the leaf so the excess is on top of the leaf. Trim off the glued edge so they are flush then cut down the middle removing the excess felt, trimming it at the middle of the leaf shape to leave a shadowed look. Glue the rest of the felt down to the leaf shape to secure.
4. Trim out the outer edge and the inside egde where the two pieces of felt meet with turquoise pipe cleaners. Run a strip of glue and press in place. Make sure to not use too much glue or it will goop up the pipe cleaners. Trim off any excess pipe cleaner with wire cutters.

Foam Coral:

1. Draw out a branched coral shape with a pencil on a foam sheet, if your overall coral needs to be larger than 1 foam sheet glue 2 sheets together. To best hide the seam butt 2 pieces of the foam sheets together and glue a strip along the back to secure in place rather than overlapping the sheets of foam. Keep the overall branches roughly the width of the craft noodle pieces.
2. Once your shape is drawn out, cut out the shape with scissors.
3. Using an X-Acto blade cut the craft noodles in half long ways.
4. Secure the craft noodles to the foam base with hot glue. Cut and shape the pieces as needed to follow the flow of the coral branches.

JOANN HACKS:

• To firm up the shapes you can glue them to cardboard or stiffened felt.
• Mark lightly with pencil on the outside of your desired line so you can cut away the marks. Pencil marks are hard to remove from foam sheets and also can leave lines and indentations. Create a paper template beforehand if needed to layout your design before going straight to the foam.