The inspiration for these came from Kids' Crafternoon: Felting. Scroll down to those incredibly cute zombies. Spud liked the idea of making those charms, or backpack buddies as he calls them, but he wanted to do some Angry Birds instead. It was remarkably easy to modify the instructions once we printed out some reference images from the web.
It worked out well; he was so jazzed about having mini stuffies that he was willing to learn new sewing skills to make it happen. And he is awesome at threading needles ... must be those young, fresh eyes. Now he wants to make ALL the birds AND the pigs. And a sling shot. And building materials. Phew.