I also have another side project. In the Interweave Felt special issue magazine there was an article on needle felting with cookie cutters. I just had to try it.
There is what I´ve done so far. I like the butterfly the best and the teddy bears aren´t finished yet. It was amazing to see the difference in how the yarn felted. The white is merino and it almost felted just by looking at it while the colored fleece took a lot more stabbing (that's what you do, you stab the wool with the needle).
Here is a google search on needle felting.
It's a fun thing to try, just to try something different.