Squiddly Prototype

So a while back I doodled a cute little guy absent-mindly.  He looks sort of like a squid-monster thing.  I was really fond of him, so I tore him off whatever scrap piece of paper I had been drawing on and saved him, not sure exactly what I'd be doing with him.


Several days ago, I decided to sketch him out bigger into a test pattern for a plush.  He actually went pretty well, but I'll probably revise the pattern some to make his arms/legs/tentacles thicker. They ended up being skinnier than I thought. I always forget that when working with fleece, I need to go larger than I normally do.

So here's his little prototype:

I also think I'm going to make a slit in his back to stuff him, so I can make sure the crown of his head is smooth and less bumpy.  I may also add some polka dots. This little guy is currently for sale at The Soundry.


Now that I'm back from my mini-vacation visiting one of my sisters and my nephews, I need to get crackin' on the holiday items. Both for my gift-giving and for selling.

Commissions and Christmas

Yes, its already time to start thinking about Xmas.  Especially when most of the gifts and goodies you've planned are handmade.

I'll be visiting my sister and her husband, and my nephews this weekend.  We're going to have some Xmas Crafty Time, since I think its something that they really haven't gotten the chance to do much of in the past. I figured I'd whip up some patterns and we'd make some cute felt ornaments, as well as make them each an ornament with their name and birth year on it (sort of a tradition in our household).

Speaking of ornaments, I'm working on creating a line of ornaments to put out for sale both at the Soundry, and online in my Etsy shop. More on that later.

Besides ornaments, I'm diligently working on making and finishing crochet afghans for my parents. I just learned to crochet a few months back at the Maker Faire in Brooklyn New York. I started work on an afghan for myself soon after, and decided it would be a great present for my parents.  They are both older so its hard to pick presents for them, as they do not use any kind of gadgets (they still have a rotary dial phone line) and aren't very materialistic. They also don't like it when we buy them stuff, because they feel we shouldn't have to. But, super cozy afghans that I made, that I'm sure they will like.

In addition to all the Xmas projects I have in my crafty queue, I also have a couple of commissions on the horizon. A friend asked me if I'd be able to make a custom plush based off a made for tv horror movie for him to give to his gf. I just finished up the sketches this weekend.  Also, some of my coworkers saw the plush girls I was dropping off at the Soundry and asked about getting some custom ones made as presents for friends.

Looks like I'll need to stay organized and on task through the holidays!

Etsy shop open!

Yup, that's right!  I finally got my Etsy shop started.  I'm so excited. There are only a few items in the shop at the moment, but look for it to grow over the next couple of weeks. As well as finishing up some more plush and artwork, I'm brainstorming on Christmas ideas.

But that's only part one of my exciting craft news. Part two is that I've joined The Soundry! The Soundry is a local (to me) multipurpose space. One part art/craft studio, one part musical rehearsal space, one part performing space, and one part coffee shop. Its the only space in the area that has so much happening in one location.  I can't wait to meet some of the other artists and crafters, as well as use some of the studio's equipment.  I'm particularly excited about experimenting with silk-screening thanks to their screen press. On, and to top it off, I'll have some of my plush and other goods for sale in their boutique (oops, its also one part boutique. Is that 5 parts now? anyway...).  Beginning this week, I'll have some of my items available for sale there.  Neato! Also, if I ever wanted to teach a class on something, I could do that there too! I really can't say enough about how excited I am about this place, and finally becoming a member.

I also plan to participate in some of their monthly craft shows. I've been wanting to for a while, but some other things have been popping up keeping me from being able too. I'll keep everyone updated on when I'll be there in case anyone wants to stop by and say hello.

Not bad

Several months ago, I stumbled across Spoonflower's website. Its a custom fabric printing shop. That's neat enough on its own, however, they also hold lots of contests for new designs, patterns, etc.  I had thrown my hat in the ring, and came up with a cute little idea for their Fat Quarter Puppet contest.

After voting was over, they announced the winner and showed the top 10. I wasn't among them, which I actually wasn't that disappointed about since it was only my first time ever trying to do fabric/pattern design.

Today I just happened to be looking through their blog and noticed that you can see what place each entry came in for the contests.  I checked out the contest I had entered and I was 20th out of 46!   I honestly didn't expect to be that high up in the rankings.  Weee! Perhaps I will try to participate in some of their future contests when I can find the time.

There is some crafty news coming, but I'm holding off on that until I wrap up a few loose ends. I can hardly contain myself.

Halloween 2010 Swap

So I finished and sent off my swap for Craftster, and it should be arriving soon. I'm going to go ahead and put up pictures because I'm a cheeky monkey like that.

The first thing I worked on was the biggest and newest to me. Bunting.  I had never heard of the stuff before, but once I looked it up I recognized it. I don't know what I used to call this stuff before I knew the proper term, probably something like "little flags".  I found a tutorial at Joyful Abode and it was really helpful, and I really liked the results. Using the bias tape gave it a nice finished look.

Here is my Halloween Bunting:


I made and attached little felt appliques...by hand.  I forget how many ghosts and skulls there were exactly, but by the end I thought it was a lot!

The next two things I made were a spooky paper-cut, and a felt embroidery hoop decoration. I hadn't actually done either of these before either, but at least had done enough similar things that I was pretty confident in being able to pull them off.

The Spooky Paper-cut...



and the Felt Embroidery:



I wanted to make it a little unique so I added the dangling bats to make it a bit more than just a plain hoop.

One swap down, two more to go! Then I'll have to take myself out of the swap ring for a while for personal projects and other exciting happenings.

An almost tragedy!

I'm still here, I've just been a bit busy.

I'm participating in a few craft swaps, which I'll show my work from once they are received by my partners. All are Halloween Swaps. One is through Craftster, and its pretty open-ended as far as what to craft, so I've tried to focus on new things to experiment with. The other 2 are through Swap-Bot. These are both Halloween Stuffie swaps. YAY!

Something that has caused a major interruption in my crafting has been a pretty upsetting accident. Because I have cats (4 cats), I try to be vigilant about not leaving lengths of threads around for them to eat since it is dangerous for them. I keep only a small bit of thread through needles, just so I can see them easily. While working on one of my swap items, I left the table for a moment to cut up some delicious fruits to munch on. I thought I put my needle with its 2 inches of neon green floss back into my pin cushion, though I can't be positive.  I was keeping an eye on the table that I was working on, or so I thought.

I got back to the table, no more than 5 minutes after getting up, and went to grab my needle so I could thread it and continue working.  But what's this, no needle. I instantly panic, thinking that if the needle fell on the floor, it could easily get stuck in a kitty paw. After 10 minutes of frantic searching, coming up empty handed I began to cry, and called for my boyfriend to come help. Two hours later, searching every single piece of anything I had out, and still no needle. Even after vacuuming the entire area, and using my boyfriend's super magnets to try and draw it out of its hiding place. At this point I was pretty convinced that one of the cats had eaten it. I called my vet's office, which has an on-call vet, and explained my situation. We decided that since I didn't actually SEE anyone eat the needle, and all the cats were behaving normally, to wait until morning and see if something should be done.

The next morning we get a call from the vet's office, and I'm really set on taking all the cats in to get xrays. I only have 2 carriers, so I could only take 2 at a time. I decide to take Wolfgang and Duff first since when I came back to the table they were underneath it. 2 of the 4 cats had their annual checkups scheduled for a few days later anyway, so we were going to knock those out too. They x-rayed Wolfie and Duff, no needle, but Wolfie did get a clean bill of health (though he is a little chubby) and his vaccine booster. I brought them back home, loaded up Spooky and Uma, and headed back.

As they are checking out Spooky for his annual check up, the tech comes back in. Spooky won't be needing x-rays, because Uma was the needle eater! For those who don't know, Uma is my youngest, and smallest cat. She's super petite, so the needle was as long as her face. Also, that very morning she was doing her typical somersaults, which is one of her specialties. Even though I had a pretty good idea that one of the cats had eaten it, I was still shocked. Especially seeing the x-ray. Also, I didn't even see her near the table. Though I should know better since she is the sneakiest and fastest of my kitties. She is a super ninja.



Next thing I know I'm signing surgery consent forms, and heading back home with one less kitty than I came in with. I was in a daze from the moment they told me, to later when I got a call that she made it through surgery. It had moved to her small intestine by the time they got in there, but she seemed to be doing ok, and if she made it through the next 4-5 days she should be fine.

Well its 4 days later, and Uma acts like nothing is wrong. Other than disliking to take her post op meds and the collar she has to wear, she is happy as a clam. In fact she thinks she should be allowed to do all the things she used to do, like jump, run etc, and doesn't know why I'm not letting her. I'm keeping a very careful eye on her, and she will have a check up to make sure everything looks good in a few more days, but I am so thankful and relieved. My precious baby. I don't know how I'd have lived with myself if this had turned out worse. I've been pretty unfocused on anything other than caring for  her and keeping the others out of trouble. I think my nerves are finally settling, and I'll be able to get back to my crafting projects.



Next time I'm taking no chances. I'll be getting one of those wrist pin cushions, so all my sharp objects come with me wherever I go instead of tempting sneaky kittehs!

A distelfink?

What is a distelfink?  To be honest I didn't know either until a couple of years ago.  See I grew up in southern Pennsylvania, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. As a typical teenager, I didn't appreciate anything from the area. That was until I moved for college, and realized that nowhere else would I ever eat a delicious fausnacht, or other local treats.

As I got older, I began to appreciate some of the pretty folk art of the area, especially the symbols and such used in hex signs. A lot of the drawings look similar to Scandinavian and other European folk art as well. One of my favorite symbols were the fancy, ornate birds seen throughout many of the designs. After lots of google-hopping, I found out these birds were referred to as distelfinks.

For a long time I've been meaning to make my own modern version of a distelfink. A few weeks back I felt inspired and doodled one, then decided I'd make it into a carved stamp/block.



This was only the second carving I've done, so I am really pleased with how well I was able to maintain the curves and such.  Also, I REALLY love the Speedy Stamp material. I have some other carving materials, but so far this one is my favorite.



Here is my original doodle, the carving, and a sample printing. As you can see a few details didn't make it into the carving. However, I think as I improve my carving skills, I'll be able to manage such small dots and such eventually.