Finished my Tardis Softie, Photos Galore!

Well I've finished my Tardis and to be honest is been done for a while but I still haven't sent it off. I'm having the hardest time letting it go! The deadline to send for the swap is tomorrow so I think I'll have to get the Girl to pry it out of my hands and off the the P.O.!

I just discovered that my swap partner doesn't have access to my blog and not being able to share it with you all is killing me! So I think it's o.k. to show since I don't think she can see it. I took major amounts of geeky sci-fi photos but I'll only share a few with you. Enjoy!

In case you don't know what a Tardis is, it's the time machine that Dr. Who travels around in. The outside looks like an old Police call box because the thing that made it blend in on Earth got stuck and then after a while the Doctor just liked it. Also it's bigger on the inside.

"The Doctor and Rose wonder how and why the Tardis shrunk"

The 4th Doctor (as a Meerkat) comes to check the situation out.

An epic battle ensues as a Dalek tries to steal the Tardis! Doctors 

4 and 10 fight together to destroy this evil foe!

The Doctor thinks it's a little small but that's o.k. 

cause it's bigger on the inside anyway!

Sassy's Tribute To Molly The Barn Owl

Molly and Magee and their nest of eggs has become an internet

sensation and I, like many people have sat glued to the computer

watching and waiting for the eggs to hatch. If you know me at

all then you know I have a "thing" for owls so I decided to

make a little plush as a tribute to Molly.

First, please let me say I'm not really a professional, I just make 

fun things that I enjoy showing to people. This is my interpretation 

of Molly and my first attempt at something so realistic. She's

made entirely from eco felt and completely hand sewn. This is 

probably the most detailed piece I've ever done. Enjoy!

Pattern pinned together.

Another view.

Completed Front View.

Side and Back View.

Nesting.

I'd love to hear what you think of her!

My Penguin Stickers Are On Paper Cakes Finds!!!

I almost had a heart attack this morning when I saw my pink penguins 
on this blog!!!!!

I adore this blog written by Chelsea Ling and have been a follower pretty 

much since the beginning.

On Fridays she has a feature called Flickr Fridays and chooses images 

from her flickr pool. I've been intimidated to even put any of my things 
there but have slowly started to add some of my etsy shop photos.

Chelsea has a wonderful eye and is an amazing creative person herself.

Check out her blog and I know you'll become a follower too!

http://papercakesfinds.blogspot.com/

My Colorful Owls Are Being Featured!

L

Laura of MAB Jewelry, a wonderful twitter and blog friend and lover 

of owls was kind enough to feature me on the OWLS blog.

This is the blog for the etsy Off The Wall Ladies Team. They

look like a really fun bunch of gals!

I was so excited to see my happy, colorful owls!

Here's the link so you can pop over and read about my owls.

http://etsyoffthewall.blogspot.com/2010/03/parliament-of-colorful-felt-owls-from.html

Laura creates amazing and unusual jewelry. Here's the link to Laura's shop too.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MABjewelry

Massive Computer Problems And Lots Going On!

Super long post, sorry!
I've been suffering through some massive computer problems and have finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel! I've had to do some blog posts and listed etsy items from the kids crap-o-tasic computer. Don't know how many emails I've missed because of the issues. Their computer has got it's own scary issues! It all came to a head yesterday when the whole thing went down completely. Swearing, tears, a long sobbing ugly cry, a panicked dash to the office supply store and massive amounts of time, no sleep and patience have saved the day!

We are up and running again and my thoughts can now turn to important matters, like new softie ideas! Actually it's crazy time around here, even without the computer drama. I'm in the process of taking almost all my items off of eBay and moving them to my website. I'll continue to have an eBay store just a much smaller one. I'm still working on my Alice and Wonderland Plush Dolls, lots of custom birthday orders are in the works including an adult party, I've been asked about possibly doing some miniatures. The list goes on and on.

I must finish the TARDIS softie so I can photograph the crapola out of it. Don't want to give it up but I will.

Anyhow, Halloween is a ways away but I've been thinking about doing some plush that I would actually let leave my studio and sell. I have this little guy that I did for a swap last year that I would make larger and I found coordinating drawings of his spooky little pals too. 

As always time is a factor and I always want to do more than I physically can so we'll see.

I'm Featured On A Blog Today!

I'm being featured on a lovely blog of a loyal reader and etsy friend.

Cass has said some lovely things about me and my products and

I'm giving away cupcake stickers and 15% off on any purchase

from my etsy shop. Please stop by an have a read!

http://cassandraking.blogspot.com/2010/03/product-review-and-giveaway-sassy-pack.html

A Bunch Of Colorful Items In my Etsy shop.

Tutti Fruitti Owls have landed.

Chocolate Bunnies have hopped in too.

Cute Panda Face Stickers.

Cute Monkey Face Stickers.

Lots of Pink Penguin Stickers.

Ballerina Soft Dolls have danced their way too.

I Won Another Giveaway!

I was so honored to win a Giveaway at Marigold Manor's 

blog. I won to my great excitement, the chance to pick

anything from her etsy shop as my prize! And to make the

whole thing even better her pet bird picked my name!

I thought that was pretty awesome!

I choose this sweet glittery pink birdhouse. It's an awesome

piece and not something I would normally be attracted to, but

little glittery houses have been catching my eye on etsy lately.

I went back and forth between a quite a few things in

Teresa's etsy shop before finally deciding I had to have this.

Look a little bird is nesting inside. How cute is that?!

Check out the other lovely items in her shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/knikknaksnpaddywacks

Tis me Saint Patrick's Birthday.

Almost all of my baby photos were lost in a flood so I only have a

 precious few. Here's me and my lovely mom about a 2 weeks

 from today many, many years ago.

Some sweet Irish Lass' I used to collect.

We recently found out that the British side of the family is in

reality Irish, so having my birthday on St. Patty's Day is extra

special now.

So for the first time ever I can now say for reals,

KISS ME I'M IRISH

(well I have Irish ancestry anyway)

A Few Things I've Been Working On

Some Tutti Frutti Owls.

A TARDIS Stuffie for a Dr. Who Swap.

Hope my partner doesn't see this!

Sweet Panda Face Stickers.

Also some custom Birthday orders that I can't show yet.

Busy, busy!

Demented Alice Is Done.

She started out so cute but became more mad as I finished each stitch

until finally she became a demented thing. I hear Wonderland can

do that to you!

What ever you do, don't drink from that bottle!

2 mad friends.

Quick Peek At Alice

I'm continuing my Alice In Wonderland Plush Dolls.

Alice is coming along well. I've started to add much more

detail to her than I originally intended so she's taking

longer to make, but I'm really thrilled at how she looks.

I only sew at night after all my other work is done,

so things don't move as fast as I'd like.

My 1st Custom Soft Sculpture Order

I put one of my mini St. Pat's Penguins on a

little shamrock pedestal for my mom's Irish friend.

I hope she likes it!

Softie Dolls In The Works.

Soft dolls made from my graphics.

Step #3 "How I Create My Plush"

How I create my plush Step 3

1. I first print out the pattern pieces from the previous post and then I pin and cut out all my pattern pieces to the fleece (white) and felt I begin to hand sew them all together. I used fleece for the rabbit's fur cause I wanted him to be really soft. I've never used it this way before so my initial idea was to machine sew the plush together after I hand sewed all the details.

2. I decided that some of the details should be dimensional instead of flat which is my usual style. I'm quite proud of how the glasses came out.

The Doctor was quite interested and came to take a peek.

3. I hand stitched all the body pieces together. Here he is all sewn together and almost done. I didn't show any of the sewing cause I didn't want to bore you. Really wishing

now that I had made the bow tie dimensional too.

I ended up hand sewing the fleece body together because I was afraid I'd jump off a bridge if I messed it up on the machine after I spend so many hours hand sewing the details on. I

really loved how nice the fleece was to sew.

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking using this background but the White Rabbit is done.

He doesn't have whiskers like the drawing because I couldn't figure out how to do them, so if you have any ideas let me know.

I have a whole Alice In Wonderland series plush planned and I'll show peeks here and there as I work on the other characters. Alice is next.

Hope you enjoyed this "creating my plush" series.

You can find PART 1 HERE and PART 2 HERE.

My Studio Has A New Resident.

This new resident comes all the way from Jolly Old England

and has been long awaited. I've been wanting one of

these meerkats for some time and found out the the

artist does custom orders so I ordered one as

a special birthday present to myself.

This wonderful custom meerkat was created by Heather

of niftyknits on etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/niftyknits.

She was amazing to work with on this very custom and

special meerkat. We convo'd back and forth until she

knew what I wanted and I was so happy to see the

finished meerkat and could hardly wait until his arrival.

Now that he's safely on American soil I think it's safe

to say that this is a CUSTOM Doctor Who Tom Baker

meerkat. Tom played the role of Dr. Who for 7 years

during the mid 1970's to the early 1980's and was my first

taste of Dr. Who. Although I adore David Tennant's Dr.,

Tom Baker has a very special place in my little sci-fi heart.

The 4th Doctor had this crazy long, wrap around several

times scarf. A big overcoat and brown floppy hat. The hat

would get lost as he set it down frequently and would forget

where it was. He also carried pockets full of weird things

and would offer people "jelly babies" all the time. I've

never been quite sure what those were but I guess they

are what we in the US call jelly beans.

I love that his coat and scarf come off. His hat doesn't but with his

history of losing it, it's better off attached to his head. 

Sorry about this long and rambling post but I just had to share my

joy with you all! Hope you don't mind too much!

#2 Step In "How I Create My Plush"

How I create my plush Step 2.

1. I continue adding more details on the computer. At this point I've finished adding just about all the details and have played with different colors and decide dhow I want the final to look. Does he look worried enough?

If I was doing stationery this guy would be about ready to show up on a note card or something but because he's a plush character he has to go thru more steps.

2. I start to pull all the pieces apart and make them all line drawings as shown below with the rabbit's clothes.

3. Nothing too exciting but necessary because I then print these pattern pieces on card stock, cut them out and use them to cut the fleece, felt or fabric I'm making the plush character out of.

Step #3 I think I'll show how I hand sew on the details.

STEP 1 can be found HERE, STEP 3 HERE

I also have a free plush pattern and tutorial coming soon.

My 2nd OWOH Prize Has Arrived And I'm Just So Excited!

This is another item I won in the One World One Heart Bog Giveaway

event and is from Melissa of Honey Girl Studio.

She's a Pinkology Fairy. She's an Art Doll Paper Doll

and I adore her! I'm currently looking for a special place

in my studio for her to call home.

Check out her main blog to see a sampling of the amazing

art that Melissa creates.

http://honeygirlstudio.blogspot.com/

Cupcake Softie Winner Is.....

I used my friend Random Generator to pick the winner.

And #4 is......

Yay, for oldblackcatboo!

I hope you enjoy your special little cupcake!

To everyone who didn't win, no worries I have another

giveaway this month and will tell you about it soon.