What's Going On in Sassyland.

Well now that the Vintage Easter Challenge is done I can move on the other things. I have to make 300 penguin ornaments for the wedding due at the end of May and my hands are a bit sore from cutting out all those little pieces. Not much to see there yet just lots of little un-stuffed bodies. Trying to track down the ribbon I need to hang them, my store is out.

The next challenge I'm going to tackle is The Vintage Circus Challenge over at Art Doll Artists.com. It sounds like a fun one but as usual I've planned a huge design thinking I have enough time to complete it and I probably don't. So I'll have to scale back and maybe do the other pieces at a later date. (knowing me those other piece will never get done....sigh!) Anyhoo we need more people for this so sign up and join in!

There are a couple of smaller swaps coming up at ADA too.

Soft Dolls & Animals Magazine is doing a Native American theme and I'd love to do a doll for that. My children's father is Native American and I have an ancestor who was too. If I can get this done it would make a great 20th birthday present for my daughter. (but again knowing me...we'll see)

I've almost finalize my design idea for the The "Once Upon A Time Alice's Adventures" Challenge at Cloth Doll Artistry. I'm down to 3 different ideas and hope to pick one soon cause it'll take me MONTHS to complete this! Good thing I have until December 31st!

I had to bow out of the Steampunk Challenge there cause I overextend myself. ;0(

As always I'm looking forward to whatever Patrick has in store for more challenges this year at The Hive.  

I also hope to have a chance to make some of MY dolls sometime this year too. And yes I'll probably have some Plush dolls again around the Holidays. I just can't seem to shake free of them.

Do I have enough on my plate yet?

My Vintage Easter Card Challenge Piece is Done

For some reason I am unable to get onto The Hive, so I hope this post will show up there and Patrick and everyone will know that I did make the deadline and am finished.

After 2 bodies, 2 sets of legs, 4 heads, 3 sets of ears and a complete re-design of his feet and legs Sir Cottontail is done!

My inspiration card on the left and my finished soft sculpture on the right.

Other side.

Back.

So of course after I took these photos and edited them I realized that his glasses had slipped out of place and should be lower on his nose. I'm so happy to be done that I just don't care right now and will re-shoot later!

My Studio Tree Is All Decked Out...

...With ornaments from a swap on The Hive. I gleefully received my box and carefully opened everything. I love how every ornament is a different style and made with different materials and is handmade.

How fun are these? 

I really love them all. There is something fun and unique about all of them. I hope we do this again next year.

The penguin tucked away is mine. I had another ornament planned  just for this swap but my hated sewing machine broke and didn't have time to hand sew 12 of them so I dug in my shop stock and sent the felt penguins. Next year I'll plan better!

My Vintage Halloween Piece is Finished!

This is the Vintage Halloween Card I picked for my inspiration. Aren't those pumpkin boys a hoot?! I wanted to do all 4 pumpkin boys but with all my family drama I had to scale it back to only 2.

A lot of you have seen bits and pieces as I worked along but I'll show a few WIP then the final cause it always amazes me how it looks when I first start a piece and then suddenly bam it all goes together.

Scary orange body. I have to admit

I was pretty worried at this point.

Moved on to the paper clay pumpkin heads.

Back to the bodies and spent hours on the clothes. 

But learned so much!

Did you know pants have to have waistbands or they fall off? Well now I know. I added vintage buttons on the back of their shirts. I remember my grandma telling me that baby and toddler clothes when she was young had buttons on the backs so the kids couldn't take off their clothes and run naked. So I added that detail.

I have to say the Pumpkin heads were the hardest part. I haven't really painted since college and I hate doing things I'm not good at. Those orange heads sat and stared at me for a long, long time before I got the courage to paint the faces and other details. I am happy with the results cause I know it was the best I can do and is hopefully good enough.

All done! 

That darn gate almost sent me into crazed hysterics! 

I made it 3 different times. So, so happy to be done.

Back

Top

First Boy

Second Boy

I really hope you enjoyed seeing my piece. I had a great time making it and I hope whoever receives it is happy.

I Won 2 Giveaways!

And they are both friends who are on The Hive. The first is from Moriah of Blu Mudd. I won 2 pendants of my choice. I picked one owl one, cause I'm crazy about owls and an initial one with  a J for me. ;0) She hand makes and kiln fires each one and there are many different styles to choose from.

I love the glaze on the owl one it's like root beer and vanilla ice cream and the owl graphic is so cool! The initial pendant is very simple and classic in a lovely aqua on a white background.

Please stop by her etsy shop and see more great pendants. Moriah is firing up new ones almost every day. She also makes art dolls so check out her other etsy shop too.

etsy shop (Blu Mudd)

blog

etsy shop (MLBStudios)

The next giveaway is from Sherry. Her etsy shop is Sherry's Cabin and she's a wonderful artist. 

How awesome are these candy corn bowl fillers! Love these!

She also sculpted this lovely pumpkin ornie. I have a passion for disgruntled pumpkins with attitude!

 She's new to etsy so be sure and drop by to see what's new in her shop.

etsy shop

blog

A special thanks to both lovely ladies! I was so happy to win!

My Friend Sherry Is Having A Giveaway

My friend Sherry from The Hive is opening an etsy shop in 9 days and is having a giveaway to celebrate. There are 3 chances to win so go to her blog Sherry's Cabin or check out her post on The Hive for details. Sherry is a wonderful artist and has a great Halloween piece to giveaway, you won't want to miss this one! Here's a sneak peek.

Do you love Halloween?

Well I do. I belong to a creative group called The Hive (see the button on my sidebar) and Patrick Gill from Cre8or's Touch is hosting a Second Anual Vintage Halloween Card Creative Challenge Exchange & Swap!

 Come join us and create something special. Patrick is also creating 2 wonderful pieces as prizes so not only do you get a fun piece of art in the swap you have a chance to win one of Patrick's great Izannah Walker inspired Halloween dolls.

This swap is for all kind of artists. You can make a sculpture, doll, shadow box, or dreamscape, ornament, or even a wall hanging or multi-layered scrapbook page. Your piece just has to be 3-D.

This is my second time joining in. I did the 4th of July Swap HERE and loved it. So come check the swap out and I hope you'll join us!

Weekend Worktable Peek

I was stressing the other day about clothes for my dolls. I always stress about this. I do not find making clothes easy or fun so I tend to go very simple and yet still stress. But for these new dolls I wanted real clothes and of course I was stressing and yelling and flinging fabric about. My daughter walks in and says" Geesh mom don't be so hard on yourself. You always make things harder than they have to be!" (so true) So I dove in with both both hands and made a real dress with lining and everything! To real sewers this is no big deal but to me it was huge! I thank my great friend Jorge from The Hive. He sent me a great doll pattern book. Although I didn't use the actual patterns the illustrations on the clothes construction was amazing helpful! Gracias Jorge!

This pic reminded me a bit like the witch Dorthy's house fell on. LOL!

A Crappy Week, My Swap Challenge Piece is Finished and What Going On In the Studio..

You may have noticed that I've been quiet for the last week. It's been a sucky one in many ways and I've been majorly lacking in motivation and kind of still am. The only thing I did was finish my swap piece.

I joined in at a swap challenge over at The Hive and they have already seen this finished but I wanted to share the finished picture with all my Blogger followers who have been watching the WIP.

Here is the card I choose for my inspiration.

She's one of the hardest pieces I've done to date. I'm glad I ended up having to redo her skirt cause it came out so much better the second time! Her face is partially needle sculpted and embroidered. Her tam hat has a handmade red pom on the top that you can't see in the photos. And also has white bloomers. She's completely sewn by hand including her clothing. She stands approx 24 inches tall including her hat and is the tallest doll I've made so far. I'm going to be sad to let her go. She's already been assigned a swap partner and I really hope this person likes and will enjoy her!

I have just started cutting out a new piece that will be perfect for Halloween and will share the WIP when I have them.

The mermaids are still naked. There are elves and fairies cut out and waiting to be sewn. Still working on my paper clay dolls but have run out of clay. ;0(

I did a freelance graphics job a few weeks back and am still waiting to be paid so until I am everything in the studio will be in various states of "unfinishedness".

Determined to send something to STUFFED Magazine this time around for real this time! Well now I'm just rambling so bye!

BINGO! I Won!

I know I've mentioned The Hive before. http://creatingthehive.com/ It's a social network made up of creative crafty folks. One of my favorite people there loves to sponsor games and tutorials. One game was a very long Bingo game around Christmas time. I hung in there and I won!

The prize was one of Patrick's Wooden Primitive Santas! I just squealed when I opened the box! I LOVE this Santa! He has a permanent home on my t.v cabinet so everyone can always see him.

The carving and painting and crackle and details are just wonderful!

Patrick who works under the name Cre8or's Touch really does amazing work. Check out his blog to see more of his great work! http://thecre8orstouch.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Patrick for the fun games and great tutorials! I have no idea how you have time to do them.

A Blog Feature and 4 Sales!

Susan of Susan's Greetings on etsy did a feature on her blog about Colorful Christmas Penguins on etsy and was kind enough to feature my Fat Plush Penguins. Click on the link below to see these great fun penguins!

http://susanschrock.blogspot.com/2010/11/colorful-christmas-penguins-on-etsy.html

I also had a sale buster weekend in my etsy shop. I sold 4 items this weekend. I know, 4 items?! Well in my little shop that's a huge deal so I'm very pleased and excited!
I sold a fat penguin and 3 Custom Tardis Plush. One of the Tardis is a totally custom PINK one! So excited to make that!

One of my blog posts made it to the Home page of The Hive a great  social networking site for creative people. You can find me here. http://creatingthehive.com/sassypackrat

  I have a mini gingerbread owl finished and ready to go in the shop and a mini reindeer and mini snowman. (I'll probably hold off on the reindeer and snowman cause family comments have me re-thinking them.) Don't have a photo to share of the owl yet my camera battery died last night.