Elephant Tree

I bought a bottle tree this summer, then promptly broke the main stalk when assembling it.  I felt bad for a short time, until I realized it would be the perfect way to display the little elephants I made last summer. 

I had my husband make a stand for the shortened tree, then I put it in a ceramic pot and filled it with small rocks.  Instead of a bottle tree, it's now an elephant tree.

The hanging elephants are from Heidi Boyd's Stitched Whimsy.   So is the pink felt elephant at the base of the tree, which I showed you last September.

The ears and tail are made of felt.  Sometimes I used a patterned piece of felt for the inner ear...

... and sometimes I used plain felt.

 Each elephant has a different type of embroidery on its ears.

It was fun to coordinate the ribbons and eyes with the elephant.  The eyes are shakeable - the pupil moves around if you move the elephant.

This is the only elephant with a different type of eye.  I used a button and placed a small eye inside it.

These elephants were an awful lot of fun to make.  I think I only stopped making them because I didn't know what I was going to do with them or where to put them.  One year later, they have a perfect home.