Plush Artist, Illustrator, Designer, Artist, Crafty Chick

Well I actually finished these two last Tuesday and got busy the rest of the week getting ready for my daughter’s 2nd birthday party. I got a little preoccupied and forgot to post these.

They seem to work like I expected. I decided to make the eyes larger than I had on my sketches. I don’t have any large hair bows to test on these but I don’t see why they wouldn’t stay. The only thing you really have to do is balance both sides with a bow. I remember having to do that with mine as a kid, otherwise the head will tilt. I think if I make any more I’d make the hair about 5″ longer. I’m working on a dress for myself right now and I’ll get back to these as soon as that is done.

Has anyone noticed how ridiculously cute the Olympic mascots are!

I think I just might need Mukmuk.

For the longest time I’ve been thinking about plush that could be functional. It’s nice to have one on a shelf but it would be even better if it had another purpose other than just looking really cool. Pillows can easily be a functional plushy but I wanted to come up with something else, something really useful, something I’d actually use.

So I was cleaning up my studio area last night, I mean REALLY cleaning, and I stumbled across this, doodle I did a while ago. These are doodles I did of ribbon/bow holders for little girld hairbows. I have quite a few little bows and loose ribbons that I put in my daughters hair that are just shoved in her drawer.  Of course these ribbons and bows don’t usually last in her hair past mid morning, but someday she’ll keep them in. Anyway…I went searching for ribbon holders and didn’t quite find anything I liked. I remember when I was little I had a bow holder, made by my mom, that hung on the wall very similar to my doodle. I had all my barrettes and bows attached to the braids that were made out of yarn. So I’m attempting to recreate this in my style.

Last night I started working on the girl with the braids. I got the head sewn together and the braid done. Right now I just have it pinned to the head and it looks pretty cute. I’ll sew it on tonight and start the face. Hopefully I’ll finish it tonight and see how well it holds the bows and ribbons I have. I’ll post a pic of it when it’s done.

So here is what distracted me from finishing my movie concession guys. I used my new Serger which I LOVE! This is the time of the year I start getting antsy for spring and start making spring and summer clothes. This usually lasts for about two months.

This dress is for my daughters birthday. We are continuing the Alice in Wonderland theme from Halloween. It’d quite the coincidence that it wasn’t until after I finished my daughters Halloween costume last summer that I found out about the new Alice movie by Tim Burton. I was kinda bummed because now Alice stuff is everywhere and it doesn’t seem very original. I am very much looking forward to Tim Burton’s version of Alice coming out in the next month. I do hope the story holds together as well as his art direction.

I love that I was able to find material with John Tenniel’s illustrations and not the Disney version. I do love Disney’s Alice, but Tenniels drawing style really suites the oddness of this book. I found this material by Quilting Treasures at fabric.com.

This is Simplicity pattern 2574 used to make the dress.

And what little girl doesn’t need a matching dress for her doll. It was quite a pain to sew doll clothes. But it turned out SUPER cute.

I used Simplicity pattern  4707 for the doll dress and bonnett.

I finally finished these guys with little time to spare. I need to mail them tomorrow. I’ve been so preoccupied with other stuff I’ve had a hard time focusing on getting these done. I love how they turned out, I just couldn’t get motivated to finish them.  It doesn’t help that I got a new serger for christmas and I keep messing around with it, plus I’m trying to plan and make birthday stuff for my daughters up coming second birthday.  But I can now mark these off my to do list. I hear my serger calling.

From feet to top Popcorn measures 13 1/2″H x5″w.

From popsicle sticks to top Popsicle measures 10″H x 5″w.

From feet to top Hotdog measures 12H x 4 1/2″W.

From feet to top of straw Cup measures 14 1/2″H x 5 1/2″W.

I’ve officially been battling a head cold for two weeks now. I’ve never had a cold last this long and I have little energy and can’t get motivated to work on the many projects I need to get down by the end of Feb. This gloomy, dreary, sunless weather is not helping. Maybe I have a brain cloud!

Anyway…Here’s what I’ve gotten done on my movie concession guys.

Here’s some of the individual popcorn’s. I stuffed the popcorn bin most of the way and then added about 25 individual popcorn pieces. I think these turned out just like a piece of popcorn. If I had been feeling better I would have taken some pics of how I made these. Basically I just cut a cloud shape out of my yellow fleece, stitched around the center, gathered and stuffed it. In some pieces I went and added a few stitches to the tops of the popcorn and gathered that.

I got three of the four guys mostly done. Tongue depressors where used for the popsicles. I need to add the arms and legs and make the stands for them. Instead of them all being attached to one stand I think they each will have their own.

Jeanee Duvall over at Dirty Laundry interviewed me for her new segemnt THE WASH, crafty chicks come clean, for her blog. She plans on posting interviews with different crafters/artists weekly. She says, “I’ve met lots of crafty girls since I’ve been on the craft scene the past couple of years and I’d like to introduce them to you.” Check out my interview and check out Jeanee’s cool blog!

I have decided to create these guys for my next submission to Stuffed. I think these are going to be a lot of fun to make. I personally love the siamese twin pop sickle.

I got a ton done over my break from work. It felt good to get projects I’ve been wanting to do out of the way. My to do list kept getting bigger. No plush though. I did managed to accomplish most of my projects.

My daughter is really into her baby dolls now and so I thought I’d make her some blankets and pillows for them. I found some super cute retro fifties-ish fabric at Hancock Fabrics and new it would be perfect for her baby dolls.

I also made a fitted table cloth for my daughters play table. Hopefully this will protect it from getting to banged up. I hade enough left over to make  a matching pillow for her chair. I’ve had this fabric sitting around for a couple of years and decided to put it to good use.

I did find some time to make something for myself. For a very long time now I’ve wanted to make pendants that were coated in resin. I always thought that the resin part would be such a pain. So I decided to experiment with it over the break when I had some time to not feel rushed. This is a process that can’t be rushed. First you need to get the empty pendants. I found mine on Etsy, they are double sided. Many places that sell jewelry beads and such carry these. Then I decided on my image. I thought the silhouette of my daughter would be cute, as well as her initial for the back. I cut them out and then sealed the back and front with ModgePodge. Then I glued them down onto the pendants using the Modge Podge. I then used EnviroTex lite pour on high gloss finish, I found mine at Michaels. Then I just read the instructions and poured it over my image. The key to these is getting the two part mixture exact. My first attempt turned out to soft and stayed sticky. Also a very warm room helps set the resin better. For a good hard cure it takes about 48hrs. So to do both sides it took a full 4 days to finish.

My daughter’s second birthday is two months away. So I got a jump start on making some of her gifts. This is a box that holds all kinds of dress up clothes and accessories. It was one of your typical wooden boxes from any craft store. I painted it the same color as the kitchen stove I just finished and made a cushion from the same fabric I made her apron and hot pads out of. I have about four yards of this. Once summer rolls around I think I’ll be making a sundress for her too out of this fabric.

And lastly I finished a crocheted rag rug I started the first week of December.  It’s a little over 3 ft wide and took about 15 yards of material. That’s a lot of material! I bought the cheapest fabric I could find.  I ripped the fabric into 1″ strips and used the P sized crochet hook. I really like how it turned out and how nice and heavy it is. I’ve already bought fabric to make an oval shaped rug for in front of my kitchen sink. I’d love to make some for my bathrooms too. It’s a great project that you can work on in between other projects or a good project to work on in the evenings when relaxing in front of the tv. It also kept me cozy in the sub arctic temps we’ve had recently.

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.