Happy Halloween !!

Credits: Patti Culea pattern

A demented Mr. Potato Head ???

My friend Sherry sent me a cartoon illustration that she thought would make a cute plushie. Something got a bit lost in the translation though. Conner is definitely one of a kind!

Altered charms for charm bracelet swap #2

I am doing my third charm swap; I just love these things! I wanted to do something different this time but was having a hard time thinking of what. The other day I watched An Altered Journey - which is a craft DVD put out by Tim Holtz of Ranger Industries. He has some really neat projects in there - I actually learned quite a bit. One of the projects was what he called Fragments - so I did a variation of that for the charms. This is black polymer clay rolled out and stamped. Cut it into a shape following the stamping and then put it on top of another piece of clay which I either tore the edges of or rolled. Brushed everything with Pearl Ex powders and baked. Came out okay except the silly jump rings didn't fit and I had to make my own. But I'm pretty happy with them. It's actually easier to see the stamped image in the photo than in person - how's that for backwards!!!!

Oh - one more thing. Tim had some great stamps he was using in the video. When it was done he listed the supplies used for each project in the 'extra features'. Don't you know I just had to go to one of the stamp supply sites and get crazy!! ARRGH ... right after I told my husband we have to budget our money to get through the winter, LOL. Shhhh ... don't tell...

Moo cards for hang tags ??

I finally succumbed and bought myself a set of Moo Cards. These are tiny little cards that you can buy if you use Flickr as your photo host. They are a bit expensive - they cost me $25 for 100 cards (25 cents each including postage from England). But I think they will be great hang tags. You can have all the same info that is on business cards on the back of the cards too. I have about 5 each of these cards. You have to do some interesting cropping to your photos - some that I would have liked to use just didn't work at all. I think these are fun and will probably last me a while!!

Meet Bob and Suesan ...

I went and paid for a table at a craft show that will be held on Thanksgiving weekend. I am going to try to sell the plushies and maybe some Northern Mermaids. I"m sharing the table with my daughter's best friend who makes beaded necklaces. We got the last space along the upstairs wall so we can actually put a second table in our space - make it kind of an L. I'm not thrilled with being upstairs but I waited too long to sign up. Hopefully next year I'll be on the mailing list so I'll know about it earlier. I finished up a few plushies today and I have two that need faces. I couldn't get a face I liked for them today. Who would have thought I'd have trouble with plushie faces!!!!

Anyhow - up there on the left is Suesan. Thought I'd make a 'cutesy' plushie ...plus I wanted to try sewing felt on for hair. I lost too much to the seam allowance - next time I'll have to leave more on the face. But I like it. Over to the right is Bob, another killer bee. Bob was born with his stripes going the wrong way and he's been confused ever since. Poor guy. Bob is the last of his line. The killer bees have died out with him. Too hard to stuff well.

Snail pincushion

No wonder it has been slow going! I've been working on a snail! Okay - go ahead and groan.

This is from an upcoming pattern by Jacque Uetz and will be offered through Dollmaker's Journey and ClothDollPatterns soon. I'm just thrilled with how she turned out. Jacque uses molds for her patterns but you know me - I hate clay! So instead I covered a button with stuffing and fabric and drew a face on.

Posted by judi at 3:33 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack

Slump, slump, slump

I'm having a hard time getting back into the swing of things since the grandson has been born. A couple of reasons for this 1) I'm having a bad reaction to some medicine and I cough like crazy so I take cough syrup a couple of times a night which knocks me out and then I sleep late and I'm tired all day 2) I'm bored???

I am testing a pattern for my friend Jacque and that is forcing me to get off my butt and make something! This is the something .... doesn't it look mysterious at this stage?

Back to work on plushies

I think I've recovered a bit from grandbaby madness, LOL. My good friend Judi A. commissioned me to make a plushie for her niece who broke her arm recently. She left it up to me as to body shape, color, etc. So I went bright and cheery with a sewing themed body fabric (as Judi is also a seamstress/doll maker). Judi said her niece is 'sling buddies' with her Dad (who is ill) so I figured the plushie should be a sling buddy too!

I have also sewn up two more 'poxley' bodies today. I think I'm going to sew a bunch of bodies and limbs and put them together as the mood strikes me.

A doll's colorful journey ends

I have been participating in a round robin for over a year now. It's been nice because we haven't had huge time constraints on how long we could keep each piece. That way we could work on them when inspiration hit rather than when a deadline hit! My doll came back to me a couple of weeks ago and I'm just thrilled with the results. We called the round robin A Doll's Colorful Journey because we had to pick a color theme. I picked white, cream, ivory, and gold. Here is how the piece went out into the world:

Here is what came home:


First Judi A. added legs, then Sherry gave her arms and sleeves, Natalie did her face, Jan added hair, Mary O. gave her an applique for a top, Fran gave her a skirt, and Pammy gave her flowers. I couldn't have worked with a more talented bunch of artists - this is a beautiful piece of art!

Baby toys

Okay, I promise not to turn this into a grandma's brag book, LOL. But I had to share this .. the plushie looks HUGE next to the baby! Don't they look like pals!

I don't think I'll be getting much done this week. At least not creatively.

He's here !

My reason for making all the plushies has arrived! He got here yesterday evening. Everyone is doing fine and Grandma and Grandpa are thrilled to bits.

It's that time again ...

.. and I'm not ready ... I don't want winter to come ... on the other hand it will let me test the 'snow' feature of the new camera, LOL ...

Posted by judi at 10:53 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Who am I ?

I have to say that this body shape is my very favorite. It just says 'hug me'. It must since my 3 yr old niece is sleeping with her Poxley. But I'm not quite sure what this guy's story is. The eye patch idea came from Gerrie but somehow the little cape and tie got added in. Makes me think of a little kid playing dress up with anything available. The ribbon on his eye patch didn't quite meet at the back (measure twice, cut once, sigh) so I stuck a small splat as a closure. I like the furry fabric though, it's very pastel. Since I didn't use any buttons this one is safe to give to my new grandbaby who should be here in about 10 days!

Back at 'em

Hey ... how do you like the new blog colors? It's not quite finished, got a couple little things to fix still. But it's a nice change.

Anyhow - I made this a few days ago - this is Splat, she got hit by a baseball at a recent Mets game. Although she's still a little shell shocked, she has a better view of the world now - it's a split level view.

Cover Girl - Doll Crafter and Costuming

Northern Star Mermaid ... An Alaskan artist offers a wintry take on the legendary tropical sirens.

I'm so excited about this! My little mermaid is on the COVER of the December issue of Doll Crafter and Costuming magazine! It was a total surprise too! I only found out about a week ago, and then only because I had written to Pat, the editor, asking what issue the pattern would be in. I can't wait to see it in person - magazines always take forever to get up here. The pattern is actually a bit different from the Ruby pattern - she has a different tail shape and she has teeny tiny 1" hands! Plus the parka and hood, of course. So everyone needs to run out and buy the magazine! Make your own doll - then send me photos of YOUR Northern Mermaid.