Cactus Catnip Toys

If you are new to the blog, you may or may not have met my sidekick, Punk. She’s been my kitty soulmate since I was 14 years old. She has snuggled on my lap and absorbed many tears of mine when I had no one else, she’s gone through 9 moves with me, and was my cross-country companion when I drove from Iowa to Oregon. She just turned 14 yesterday and I made her some fun little cactus catnip toys so she could celebrate. She’s normally pretty lethargic and spends most of her time sleeping in a “hammock” under the bed, (she ripped the fabric underneath the box spring and climbs inside to nap) but she worked herself up into a frenzy after I presented these toys to her!

She covered them in hair and drool and then promptly passed out in a catnip coma for several hours on the table, so I think it’s safe to assume that they’re effective! I listed all of my supplies and provided a tutorial for each one that I made, but I definitely encourage you to get creative and have fun with it! Even if it’s a wonky mess.. your feline friend won’t mind as they’re shredding them up!

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Assorted felt colors found here

Barrel Cactus Supplies:

Circle pattern or something to trace around

Ink pen or chalk

Scissors

Green felt

Green thread

Organic catnip

Pillow stuffing

Yellow felt

Yellow thread

Potted Moon Cactus Supplies:

Circle pattern or something to trace around

Ink pen or chalk

Scissors

Pink felt

Pink thread

Green felt

Green thread

Brown felt

Brown thread

Organic catnip

Pillow stuffing

Prickly Cactus Supplies:

Cactus shape pattern

Ink pen or chalk

Scissors

Green felt

Green thread

White thread

Organic catnip

Pillow stuffing

And a lot of patience!

This may look like the most simple out of all three, but adding all those little white threads for detail was quite tedious, so I recommend saving this for a night when you’re vegging on the couch binge watching something on Netflix!

Barrel Cactus Instructions:

1. Start by tracing a circle onto your green felt. Mine was about 5 1/2 inches in diameter. Cut out and sew around the outer edge. Add a small amount of catnip and then stuffing. 2. Pull the thread tight to form it into a ball and add more stuffing as needed. 3. Tie a knot to secure and then run the thread up through the center. Pull it over one edge and then back up the center again. 4. Repeat until you have a pumpkin-like shape with 8 little sections. Secure thread by tying several knots. This is optional, but I placed a small bit of felt where there was still an opening at the bottom. The cats can get a little crazy and I didn’t want them ripping the stuffing out of there.

5. To create the “cactus flower” on top I traced around a spool of thread on the yellow felt and cut out a small circle. 6. I cut small notches around the edges of it to create fringe-like petals. 7. Run yellow thread through the top in the center and stitch the flower on like you would a button onto a shirt. 8. Secure with a knot in the thread and it’s finished!

Potted Moon Cactus Instructions:

I just had to do a hot pink moon cactus since I killed my real one.. yes.. you read that right. I killed a cactus. I’m absolutely terrible at plants so I think I’ll just stick to the felt ones from here on out!

9. Trace a circle onto your pink felt. Mine was 4 inches in diameter. Cut out and sew around the outer edge, just like you did with the barrel cactus. 10. Add a bit of catnip, then pillow stuffing, and pull the thread tight to gather into a ball. 11. Tie a knot to secure and then run the thread up through the center. Pull it over one edge and then back up the center again. 12. Repeat until you have a pumpkin-like shape with 8 little sections. Secure thread by tying several knots. No need to hide the bottom since it will be attached to the next piece that we’re making.

13. For the body of the cactus, trace out a coffin like shape onto paper and cut out to use as a stencil. Mine was about 2 inches wide and 3 1/2 inches tall. Trace around it on the green felt to make 4 total. Cut them out and sew two pieces together by stitching around the edges, leave the bottom open. Lightly stuff them with catnip and pillow stuffing. Repeat with remaining two shapes. 14. Line up your two little stuffed coffins and sew through both of them down the center. 15. Attach the pink top we made earlier to the top of the body. This is how you’ll fan out the coffin pieces to create a symmetrical body (like a cross) and keep it in place by sewing it to the pink top.

16. For the base I cut out two trapeziums (I knew my elementary school knowledge of geometric shapes would come in handy one day) from the brown felt. Mine were about 3 1/2 inches wide and 2 inches tall. Sew the two together by stitching around the edges and leaving the top open. Add catnip and pillow stuffing. Start stitching the top closed until you just about reach the middle.

Plant your cactus about a half inch into the base and stitch into it as you seal the top closed to secure it all together.

Prickly Cactus Instructions:

17. Trace a cactus shape (just Google image search some for inspiration) onto a piece of paper and use it as your stencil. Fold a sheet of felt in half and trace cactus shape onto the felt. Cut out two identical shapes. 18. Run a piece of 4 to 5 inch long piece of white thread through a needle, but don’t knot the ends. Stitch down from the top of the cactus shape and come back up, leaving the thread sticking out. 19. Tie the two ends together in a knot twice and snip off excess, leaving about 1/4th of an inch of thread sticking out. 20. Repeat a bazillion times. Seriously.. it was fairly time consuming, but I got through half a season of Penny Dreadful while I worked on it, so it’s all good. You’ll do the same on the other cactus shape as well. Sew the two pieces together, leaving an inch and a half opening so that you can get the catnip and pillow stuffing in. I used the end of an ink pen to push the stuffing into the cactus arms. Finish stitching it closed and secure with several knots.