Goodbye Seahorses!

My last 3 seahorse plushies have been sold and are shipping out today to France. How exciting for them! They will be international travelers going places I'd love to be able to go but know I never will. This is the next best thing! The seahorses design is now retired, I won't be making more unless there is a special request.

 These were one of my favorite designs. Maybe I'll make a larger one just for me.

Sassy's Friday Feature - LEFTZ

LEFTZ on etsy has some of my favorite plush characters. They are fun and eco friendly. And I'm all about re-use, re-cycle anything and everything so LEFTZ plush are a personal favorite. The genius behind LEFTZ is Mary Casher. All LEFTZ creations are made using thrift store finds and donated fabric. They are also stuffed with plastic grocery bags, you know the ones that end up in the landfill or caught in the tops of trees. Mary puts these to good use and they make surprisingly good stuffing material. (these bags are all clean, btw) Mary also lets you know how many bags each LEFTZ creature is stuffed with. I tweet with Mary often on twitter. She's a lovely person and such an inspiration to a plush-want-to-be-maker like me. I own 2 great LEFTZ creations and can attest to the fact that they are very well made and just plain fun.

Mary's creations are called LEFTZ because they are missing their left eyes. The right eyes are fun vintage buttons. She doesn't use patterns so each creation is slightly different than the last.

Mary has had several of her LEFTZ creations featured in STUFFED Magazine and is having a giveaway on her blog of Pepper the cat that was featured in STUFFED. Giveaway ends September 23rd.

Giveaway

Ted and Dew Drop are in the sale section of LEFTZ shop and I believe once they are sold no more of these will be made. (no more sparrows will be made) So grab them up folks!

Ted the horse

Dew Drop the sparrow

Nessie the water monster

Mary had a plush series that she recently sold off and retired called Tribals. They are tree like creatures with spears. I was lucky to purchase one before they were all gone and I love it.

Retired Tribals no longer available for purchase.

Mary is taking her plush in a new and fun direction with the addition of monsters. Some are fleece and fabric and some like below are fur.

Bananas the monster

This monsters unique name comes from the fact that he used to be a monkey plush found unloved in a thrift store. He was taken apart and recycled into this fun monster. You can read about his transformation here. From Monkey to Monster

 

Geeky plush bunny

This guy was sold the same day he was listed. 

How awesome is he in his geekyness?!

There's a fish trend on etsy right now and LEFTZ does them the best! Look at these patterns and colors. Luscious and I don't even like fish but I like these!

 Largemouth Bass

Holiday ornament

Want a LEFTZ on your tree this holiday season? These mini largemouth bass are perfect. Grab them quick LEFTZ always sell fast!

Where to find LEFTZ

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

http://www.facebook.com/LEFTZ

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leftz/

http://leftz.deviantart.com/

http://twitter.com/arttalesleftz

By Air and By Sea

I'm the kind of person who can't sit still. If I am sitting still then my hands have to be occupied somehow. I guess that's why I like to hand sew so much. Usually I can work thru most of my bouts of illness but not this time. So when I was upright again I was feeling very behind schedule (a crazy, unrealistic schedule that I delight in making for myself!) and kind of worked overtime to get some things done. Luckily my patterns were already made and just waiting for me.

I'm making a new line of owls...can't seem to stop making them. They are called Psychedelic Garden Owls. They are vintage inspired with a floral theme. I have several designs and the first completed is below. They will be one of a kind soft sculptures. If I repeat a pattern the colors will be different so each will be unique.

I've also been working on the rest of my Under the Sea themed items too. Mermaids, octopus, crabs, fish, etc.

The mermaids are still a work in progress. I'm waiting on my product tags so I can finish sewing their tails and then they will swim along to my shop.

This is Arnie The Anxious Octopus. A tough design for me but I finally figured the mechanics out.

He's so cute I might have to keep him. Hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've been up to. What do you all have going on lately?

Whoa Nellie, Here Come The Seahorses!

Finished the prototype of my new Seahorses plush I'm going to be putting in my shop.

 

Their tails can be twinned together.

My daughter loves these so much she wants me to make an over sized one for her new room re-do. These are prototypes because I don't have any product tags yet. I found a great seller on etsy who makes them. Once my tags are here I can finish up everything I have going on and show you my "official" tagged plush.

Trolls!

I'm not actually writing about these Trolls but since I am on the subject thought I'd show some of my Russ Troll collection. These were huge when I was a kid and I never had one and was jealous of my friends who had whole collections of them. So as an adult I started picking them up at yard sales etc. I recently found a box of them stored away and decided to give them a home in my studio. This is only some of them, maybe one day I'll share my complete Troll obsession with you! O.k. so maybe this post is a little bit about these Trolls! LOL!

Now on to the real reason for this post. For some reason, who knows why Trolls have been on my mind lately. I know I'm weird, but that's o.k. cause I like myself that way. Sitting watching t.v. I did a quick sketch (kind of embarrassed to show you) then made a quick pattern on the computer.

In the beginning Trolls were flat, without features or life.

They come into the world naked and grumpy.

(kind of like me in the morning, only not naked)

Even with warm tunics they still are not happy.

(Must be a Troll personality trait)

Please meet Granite. He's a Rock Troll. They live in

caves but prefer a good bridge where they can waylay

humans, play mind games, impose tolls and crunch bones.

  

They also have the cutest bums but hate to show them.

(this one bit me after I took the photo)

I have a forest Troll in progress so stay tuned for his debut.

Sneak Peek and a Tale of Pain.

I was hoping to show you all the Monster/Troll I've been working on but my back had other ideas. It's been bothering me for a while and decided to throw itself into spasms yesterday. The spasms prevented me from raising my arms above my waist without pain so I couldn't sew or do much of anything. The Troll itself is mostly finished but he's naked so I'll just show a sneak peek until his outfit is made.

A face only a mother could love!

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!

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!

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 Readers Only Giveaway

I intended to have a giveaway when I reached 110 readers. You know
just to celebrate the fact that people were actually reading my blog
and I wasn't just rambling on to myself. But illness, life and just plain
busy got in the way.

So now I've pulled a little one together. I decided to giveaway my
prototype of my Cupcake Love Plushie, softie, pillow thingy. It's my
design printed on fabric and machine sewn, stuffed and handsewn.
It's about 6" wide and 5.5" high. It's a cute little thing and the
Mermaid is not happy about giving it up.

So all 111 readers of my blog can enter to win if they wish.

Any Cupcake lovers out there?

I'll also throw in some other cupcake items that
will be a surprise.

Just leave a comment and I'll pick a winner on Wednesday

March 3rd.