Cat Lady Gift Set

[I]t would be fair to say that I’m two cats and four cat toys away from being a crazy cat lady.

This holiday season I’ve taken to crafting my own cat toys (yessss homemade cat toys) to share with friends who are equally enthusiastic about their cat-animals.  Last year I made homemade cat treats (super delicious and Tron approved), and this year I’ve partnered with Beyond Natural Cat Food to create happy-cat catnip-infused treat baskets.  Plush, hand-stitched and catnapped toys, jars of Purina Beyond Natural Cat Food and stacks of Purina Beyond wet food all come together to create the perfect Cat Lady Gift.

We’re even turning our plush felt catnip toys into a flying feather and pompom cat toy.  Tron is all the way into it.  Attack mode go!   

First, let’s gather our supplies!

Supplies

Here’s what you’ll need to make the felt cat toys and the strung cat toy:

•  sheets of felt / two of each color

•  yarn

•  cotton balls or batting

•  cat nip

•  nylon thread / needles / a glue gun, too!

•  cat fluff aka things your cat might like to attack:  / feathers / pompom balls / strings / anything with catnip

•  a cat

How To Assemble

•  Place matching felt sheet on top of one another and trace out small patterns.  I used cookie cutters (of course I did) to trace out heart-shaped and round felt shape pieces out of the felt.

•  Thread a durable needle with string and begin to hand-stitch two matching  pieces together.

•  If you have a kit-cat, they will probably be curious about these happenings.  Especially if there is cat nip involved.

•  Once the felt pieces are hand-stitched about half way across , stuff each pocket with two cotton balls and a good amount of dried catnip.

•  Finish hand-stitching across the rest of the cat toy and tie a knot to seal.

•  For extra flair, use a hot glue gun to glue a few feathers to the inside of a toy before hand-stitching.

•  Once the felt toys are stuffed and sewed, work on the dowel rod.  Use a bit of hot glue to attach two or three long thicker nylon strings to hang off the dowel.  Attach the strings about 4-inches down the dowel.  Use more hot glue to attach one end of yarn about 6-inches from the top of the dowel.  We’re going to wrap the yarn up the dowel as a decorative disguise for the nylon string.

•  Wrap the yarn over the around the dowel, working your way up.  Use a second color of yarn if you’d like.  Choose your cats favorite colors… naturally.

•  Thread the end of each thicker nylon string through the (previously used, rather durable) needle.  Thread the needle through a few pom poms and cat toys.  Tie knots to secure.

 To complete our Cat Lady Gift Set  we have our hand-stitched cat toy (pretty amazing), our hand-stitched felt toys, jars of Purina Beyond Natural Cat Food and stacks of Purina Beyond wet food.

These cat toys are Tron approved, extra fun, great exercise, lots of fun.

This post is brought to us by Beyond Natural Cat Food.  No corn, wheat, soy, gnarly by-products, or artificial colors or preservatives. Just the real food I give to TRONCAT to keep him extra sassy, nappy, and wise.  To try it yourself, click here!  (while supplies last)