JESSIE PLUSH

The commission piece I finished back before Thanksgiving was given to Jessie (the recipient) last night. So it's safe for me to post the picks from this project. Above is the doodle I did of Jessie.



Jessie is a local tattoo artist her in KC and she's the best. Both my husband and I have gotten tattoo's from her. My husband goes back for another in a month. I've been thinking of what I want next. This pic is of my husband from June when we went to get our tattoos.



Here are some progress shots of her. Like all my plus, I start with the head first. Inserted into the head is a dowel rod that also runs through the body. Helps stabalize the head.



Here you can see the rod coming out of her waste.



This is the first time I've ever added a tattoo to a plush. It took some figuring out. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I ended up using the iron on transfer paper that you can send through your printer. I didn't think it would work well on fleece but it did. I did about three transfers before I was really happy. And yes that is Jessie's tattoo. I redrew it in Photoshop and printed it out. Her tattoo of course wraps all the way around her arm. I ran into problems doing this because I ironed on the transfer before I sewed it together. There is no way it would have lined up and looked good so I went with just showing the tattoo on the front.



I decided not to cut the dowel rod off. The only down fall to this is that she can't be removed from her base. I think it's more stable this way. Some people may not like having there plush attached to a permanent base.



Close up of arm. Very happy with how this turned out.

SNOWMAN TREE TOPPER

Last week we had a ornament exchange at work. I decided to make a tree topper like we have on our tree. It's basically a stuffed ball on a dowel rod. I didn't have time to take a proper pic of the snowman on top of a tree. But the way it works is, you shove the rod down the center of the top of the tree, and if you have an artificial tree, you wrap the top branch around the rod and it holds it in place. Simple as that.

STUFFED VOL.3

My ice cream guys are in the current issue of Stuffed Magazine. I just got mine in the mail the other day. They hit stores January 1st. I really love how they staged the photo. They look so cute and edible! Some of these guys are also in the Luv-able & Hug-able show going on right now.There is still one more ice cream guy in my Etsy store. Click image to see larger.



Here is the cover of Stuffed Volume 3. Love the Cotton Candy by Scrumptios Delight. Looks for the current magazine in your local bookstore January 1st. My local Borders has carried all the past issues.

READY FOR COOKIN'

We finished the stove and sink last night. We are thrilled at how it turned out. Neither one of us are wood workers by any means and to have put this together ourselves feels really good. We hit a few snags along the way but nothing major. We have enough MDF left that we may make a small fridge. Maybe for her birthday. It would be nice extra storage. I'm afraid all the food and stuff I've made and bought isn't all going to fit in the stove.

Decided on three shelves instead of the original four.



Found this rack at Lowes. Thought it would be great as added storage. We also added a rack in the oven along with a push light.



The only thing left to do is paint a V in the circle on the back splash.



We stayed almost exact to the original sketch I did about 3 months ago.

UGHH!

Ok, so the theme for Wordpress that I was using, that I altered to fit my needs, is all jacked up. What a mess! So I'm back to picking a new theme and making it fit what I want. So things look a bit weird right now. I hope to find some time to fix it. Most all my information is here, it's just not very pretty.

READY TO PAINT

Besides the few commission pieces I'm finishing up I'm still working on my daughters stove and sink. The construction is basically done. There is some trim that goes on the back splash and that's the last of the cutting and nailing to do. I finished painting the burners today. Those too aren't nailed down yet. We had to bring it in from the garage because it's to cold to paint. I started painting the inside of the stove this evening. It's orange. I hope to at least have the back splash done and have it primed tomorrow.

ELF COSTUME

For the past couple of weeks, off and on. I've been working on this elf costume for my daughter. It turned out ridiculously cute. I used Simplicity pattern 2537. Picked it up at Joanns over Halloween for $1. Can't beat a buck. I'm thinking next year I'm gonna have to make the reindeer and add a red nose.

We'll get two more wearings out of this when we visit family for Christmas.

By the way, Santa loved it and said he might put her to work. Ha!

SAWDUST EVERYWHERE

I'm working with wood this weekend.
This is day two of working on the stove. It's coming along . The sink and faucet are just sitting in place. In fact we've decided not to fasten the sink down. Would hate for my daughter to pour anything into it. It would be a pain to get out. The garage is covered in a thin layer of sawdust. I just know when we go to blow it all out it's going to be like 20 degrees that day.

Here's what we hope the finish would look like. Lots of little details to come. My favorite part. Imagine the color apple green too.

STUFF THIS!

Stuff This! opens tomorrow night at Rivet Gallery in Columbus, OH. Show includes 30 artists. Opening reception is from 7pm-10pm. My Ice Cream Monster and Ice Cream Cone ornament will be for sale. Follow the link to see all the artists involved as well as their plush work.

2 NEW ICE CREAM GUYS ON ETSY

Though these adorable ice cream guys seem happy, that couldn’t be further from the truth. You see, Ice Cream People live a very short life — usually only a few hours once they leave the safety of their frozen homes. When one of them does decide the time has come to venture out and make someone happy, they choose to live life to the fullest. They put on a happy face, get all dolled up in their hot fudge and toppings and eagerly await the chance to put a smile on a kid’s face.

Here is Hot Fudge and Mint Chocolate Chip (my personal favorite) I decided to make two new Ice Cream guys and put them up for sale on Etsy. These guys measure 11" tall and 4 1/2" wide. Click on link or shop button to get to Etsy.

LUV-ABLE & HUG-ABLE THIS THURSDAY!

Just a reminder that the Luv-able and Hug-able show opens Thursday from 6-9pm at Gallery Hanahou 611 Broadway, Suite 730, NY.

DIGITAL SILHOUETTES

So I posted these on our family blog and thought I'd post them here too. Last night I got carried away and made some digital silhouettes of my daughter. If you have Photoshop this will be easy. I just took a profile shot of my daughter. This was actually the hardest step. Try getting a 21 month old to sit still. So after about 50 shots I finally got two that looked ok. I then uploaded my photo to my computer and opened them in Photoshop. I created a new layer went in and redrew the face with the selection tool and filled it in with a color. You could then print this out, cut out the head and use it as a template to trace onto a heavier card stock to cut out. This is by no means how real cut paper silhouettes are created. In fact it's kind of cheating. But I don't have the skill to free hand cut a silhouette, or the patience to deal with my squirmy daughter. But over all I love the look.

WELCOME TO WORDPRESS

It seems like everything transfered over smoothly. All my tags moved over as catagories so I'm guessing I'll have to fix those. So I've got some little tweaks here and there but no major problems.

APPEARING AT LUV-ABLE & HUG-ABLE

DING! PIES ARE DONE.

I found these tiny Wilton cake pans on sale at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago and new I had to make some pies. I'll be adding these to the rest of my daughters felt food she's getting for Christmas. I think these would make cute pin cushions.

LUV-ABLE & HUG-ABLE OPENING SOON

Here's the press release for the upcoming show. I'll have four of my ice cream guys for sale.

December 3 - January 9 : gallery hanahou / 611 Broadway, Suite 730, NYC /
The popular NY holiday plush show is returning to gallery hanahou with oodles of handmade plushes for you and yours! Spread warm holiday cheer with adorable, strange, and funny unique plush toys made by more than 50 top plush artists from around the world.

The plushes will be even cuter and more affordable at this year's 3rd annual "Luv-able and Hug-able," with the special theme of "Medium and Mini!": toys that are either just the right size for hugging or small enough to fit in your pocket, swing from a keychain, or be worn on a pin.

Participating artists include returning favorites Christina Gordon of Jam Fancy, Anna Chambers, Robyn Fabsits, and Heidi Kenney, plus a bunch of hug-able new artists, among them APAK!, Elisabeth Doherty of Gourmet Amigurumi, and Sandra Monat of herzensart. As in previous years, gallery hanahou will also exhibit plushes by Japanese artists whose original works are rarely available in the US - this year, that also includes designer toy giants Devil Robots and noriya takeyama!

Plushes will be available for immediate take-home, so come early to the December 3rd opening to nab your favorites! Items in the show will also be available online via galleryhanahou.com starting the week following the opening.

READY FOR STUFF THIS!

I finished my monster for Stuff This! last night.
This guy measures 16"h x 10"w. He's made of fleece and felt.



Stuff This! has asked artists to great one medium sized piece and one small plush ornament. So this sad ice cream guy is my ornament. He measures 5"h x 4"w and is made of fleece and felt.

READY TO WORK

Well my two month hiatus from working on my plush is over. It was a nice break and I had a blast working on all of our Halloween stuff. I also managed to get some holiday gift making out of the way. So I'm back and already have quite a few projects lined up. I got an email from Rivet Gallery on Monday to participate in their plush show Stuff This! It was nice being invited. I did this doodle the other day. I don't have a lot of time to work on him so I've got to get going. Haven't done any monsters in a really long time so that's what I'm doing. I've also got a commission piece that I'm working on that will be due before the end of December. So I'll be working on that too. Also Luv-able & Hug-able is coming up and I'll post what I've sent them.
Busy busy!

HALLOWEEN VIDEO

Video of our Halloween display.

HALLOWEEN 2009

Here are a few pics from Halloween night. Click here to see the rest.

WITCHES HAT

I've been searching for a really good looking Witch hat for a while now. I found nothing that was reasonably priced and all were made poorly. So I decided to make one.

I used acrylic felt that I happened to have. Next time I'll use better material. Wool would have been nicer. I doubled up the felt as well as added a heavy interfacing between the layers. Then I decided the use my free hand embroidery foot to sew the squiggly lines all over. This, along with the interfacing, helped give it some stiffness. I wrapped tulle around the base and stitched it in place. Then I tucked black feathers under the tulle and stitched them down. In the back I pulled up one of the pieces of tulle, gathered it and sewed it in place. Then I added the crystal button.

HALLOWINDOW

Still gearing up for Halloween. Check out our Hallowindow.

DEMON / WITCH

Animated demon is complete. Click here to see more pics.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Here's what we look like with our costumes. My daughter looks great and I can't believe she left the crown on. I on the other hand felt silly the whole time. And no, that's not my hair.

WILL'S TOMBSTONE

Finished another tombstone this weekend.

MONKEYS AT PLUSH YOU!

Posted these a while ago. But here are my monkeys that will be at Plush You! which is opening friday at Schmancy in Seattle.

Monkey #1.

Monkey #2.

PLUSH YOU! 2009

Big show opens Friday, October 9th 5-10pm.
Show is being held at
Schmancy
1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101
Fancy
1914 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101
Nancy
1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101

HALLOWEEN INSIDE

I finished putting up our Halloween decorations. There is actually more but I only decorated the foyer because our toddler can't get to it. Maybe next year we can add the rest.

Made this two years ago. It was actually supposed to go on the outside of the door but when I got done and hung it I couldn't shut the screen door. Doh!

I finally bought the Martha Stewart paper mice. I was going to cut them out myself but found these 40% off at Michaels.

Our Haunted Memories portraits went up four years ago for Halloween and never came down. Most people think they are just more of our family portraits like we have going up the steps. It's fun seeing peoples reactions. That's why we've left them up all year long. These linticular images are by far the best ones out there!

You can kind of see the spooky side of them in this pic.

Black feather wreath with a crow. Added the bows.

Pumpkins from Hallmark over a two year period. The owl I found at an antique mall five years ago.