Sushi and Skeletons (pouches and cat toys)

These are the rest of my weekend finishes.

I needed to make some prizes for a Fuquerie Tuna Cookoff (over at the forums I frequent--formerly known as the Regretsy forums).

First up, two zipper pouches.

I didn't have anything specifically tuna related, so I went with a generic "edible fish" theme.

How damn cute is this Bento Box print fabric.  I love it so much and had to get some when I finally found it on sale.  (though I didn't buy it specifically for this project--I bought it because I'm a bit of a fabric hoarder and love to spoil myself).

I have a half yard of each of these prints and I'm glad I do.  Look at all those cute smiley faces!  I swear, you can put a cute smiley face on ANYTHING and I'll like it.  (no joke, have you seen kawaii poo?  it's so damn cute)

This is a familiar print, huh?  Why yes, it's some of the leftover fabric from the very first giant squid I ever made.  It's unreal how much of the yellow I still have.  I'm not exaggerating, it's like a full yard.  What the hell am I ever going to do with a yard of yellow polka dot fabric?  I guess use it in stuff I make and give away.

I still love this sushi fabric so much.  No, it doesn't have cute smiley faces but it's still super cute.  And it has "fatty tuna" which ties in so nicely with the Tuna Cookoff theme.

I'm also happy to report I didn't mess up either of them (unlike when I made the pencil pouches and cocked up that one--man, that annoyed me and still does annoy me).

I managed to make both of these on Sunday.  They really do sew up quickly once you get started.

Then I finished up the other part of the prizes.

Day of the Dead cat toys!

A lot of folks used their cats as taste testers (hey, tuna was involved) so I thought our feline friends deserved a prize (some of the food stuffs made were really gross--a lot of the cats wouldn't touch it and I think one may have even tried to cover it up).

I had just finished the DotD bunting and had a leftover piece of fabric (that wasn't a full set of images, just leftovers).  So why not pair them up and stuff them with a bit of catnip infused poly-fil (I take a bit of poly-fil and flatten it then fill it with a hearty pinch of catnip, then ball it up and stuff it in the toy--three catnip wads per toy--they were ripe with catnip, let me tell you).

These are the reverse sides.

They're on the small side, slightly smaller than a standard playing card.  I think they'll still be big enough for a cat to enjoy.  Hell, with all the catnip in them, size really isn't an issue.  In fact, it might be better that they are smaller so they might not get kicked as much.  Though I do like to make kicker sized toys when possible.

So I packed up the pouches and all the cat toys and a few other (non-handmade) prizes and they're all ready to mail tomorrow.  They'll go out with two swaps (some teesha patches and the day of the dead box).

I feel so productive!

Next up. . .Skeleton Cat!

FY14 Charity Sewing: Monster Mash!

Holy crap!  It's only the middle of the month and I already have a set of stuffed toys ready for my Fluff Project box.

This weekend I got a lot of stuff done.  Among the finishes was this set of monsters.

How freaking cute are these?

They're a My Funny Buddy pattern.  The patterns are fast to sew up and make a really cute simple finished product.  Yes, it's probably a pattern I could have figured out on my own, but for $5 I'd rather just buy the pattern and not have to futz around figuring it out myself.  Sometimes it's worth paying a tiny sum to save my time and sanity.

And in the case of this pattern, I got it using a promo code My Funny Buddy offered with last month's Hopeful Threads sewing project.  If you bought a pattern from the charity for that month (that was the pony pattern I made last month) then My Funny Buddy offered a coupon for $5 off in their store.  So I got a pattern pack (five patterns) and saved a few bucks.  So now I have a nice little collection of fast and easy patterns for when I want to make Fluff Project toys but feel I don't have a ton of time.

I love making the mermaids and other patterns I have but some of those have a definite learning curve and are a little more labor intensive.  The My Funny Buddy patterns produce every bit as cute a finished result but sew up so much faster!

AND, a lot of the fabrics came from the 12 pound fabric remnant box, so they count toward the FY14 Charity Sewing Challenge.

The green polka dot, the grass print, and the colorful diamonds were all from the remnant box.  I managed to use up all of the diamond print.  I only had one strip of it.  I think I still have a bit of the polka dots and grass print.

The solids and the confetti print are from my stash.  The felt for the eyes all came out of my scrap bags.  I knew it was worth saving every little leftover bit of my felt.  Honestly, I throw away very little of my wool blend felt.  It has to be a super small wisp of a scrap before I let it go.

I'm going to try and make some more items before I mail them out, but I can't make any guarantees.  First I need to make a skeleton cat (or three) for my Day of the Dead Shrine for my deceased cats.  I *might* make one for the Fluff Project but I haven't played with that pattern yet so I'm not sure how labor intensive it might be.

It feels great to have some Fluff items done already.  I'm so happy.

Progress Report: "Little Portraits"

So, I'm down to having only ONE little portrait to work on.  Soon, very soon, I'll have to come up with a new painting idea.  *groans*

Ok, progress report time.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Wow.  Seeing the photos side by side, this little canvas really changed last night.  The colors are getting more toward what I want.  I want the overexposed part of the head to be really bright but still have a green tone to it (it looks straight white in the photo).  Overall the green is getting closer to the real tone (which is a chartreuse).  The red is coming along, too.  I'm really liking the background, too.  I want it to be a contrast to the highly blended part, so the background is going to be very "flat" in comparison.  I also wanted a very defined straight line to mimic the windows in the photo but not get into all the details of the windows (I didn't do any detailing in the backgrounds of the other little portraits).

I'm happy with the progress.  I can't believe I spent a solid two hours on just this wee canvas.  I thought for sure I'd need to have another canvas to work, but I was wrong.

(but I will need to get my thoughts together for a new canvas. . .I swear that's the hardest part of the whole process).

For a Swap: TM patches ORANGE

I told you, I was super productive yesterday.  I got my Dios de los Muertos stuff done, cut a butt load of 2.5 inch charms (no pics of that. . .those are for a the swap that happens at the Curious Quilter blog), and . . .

I finished my TM (Teesha Moore) style rainbow patch swap.  This color theme was ORANGE.

Yup, lot of orange going on there!

All swaps in this series call for three patches in any size.  I'm still stuck in a square/rectangle vortex.  I may branch out to other shapes but for now I'm content to stick with the easier shape.

The "juicy" fabric was just folded over and then sewn down to the orange girl fabric.  It covers up some writing on the fabric (side bar:  I hate when super cute Japanese fabrics have to have advertising/branding writing on them, that's what the selvage is for, folks).  I didn't add many embellishments to either patch, just a bit of embroidery.  Had to put french knots on them (I swear, I use frenchies on every set of patches).  Then just highlight the lines on the bat's wings and add a line to the leaf on orange head girl.

This is my favorite of the bunch.  At first I was just going to make a flower patch and then make a bonus patch featuring a flying pig.  But then I realized the pig would fit on the flower fabric and it would look all cute like it was a bumble bee so. . .

There you have it.

The pigs and the wings are from the same fabric.  The wings are actually flowers from the pig fabric but I cut them and put them as wings.  Aren't I just so durn creative.  (and modest too!).

Again, I just did some very basic embroidery embellishments on it (mostly to secure the fabric to the felt and to give it a little pop).

Backing fabrics.  I love that carrot print fabric (it's the back of the "juicy" patch).  The bat and dots fabrics were both from the 12 lb fabric remnant box (so I'm counting this patch as part of the sewing challenge!).  The backing fabric for the pig patch is a loose weave kind of burlap feeling fabric.  It was a one of those $1.99 discontinued samples you can get at Joann's (or used to be able to, can you still buy those?)

So, what's next on the crafting agenda?

Those darn skeleton cats (well, at least one cat--I might just make one full sized doll instead of three little ones).  Then I need to make two sushi themed zipper pouches.  Then get some Fluff Project sewing done.  I finally decided what pattern I want to try out (MONSTERS!) and it looks like it will be a fairly straight forward project.  I'd like to have at least 3 monsters to send at the end of the month (ideally, three monsters and three ghosts--the ghosts should be faster to make).

Then I have to cut some yardage into fat quarters, make a few dotee dolls, and make a comic strip TM patch (but those aren't due until November, so let's not get ahead of ourselves).

Happy Sewing!

For a Swap: Dios de los Muertos

YES!

Yesterday I took a day off from work (needed to burn a vacation day) and focused on some things I needed to get DONE.

One thing on my list was the package for the Dios de los Muertos swap.  I have until October 30 to mail it but that kind of defeats the purpose (considering Dios de los Muertos is November 1).  Also, my package has to go to Mexico, so it needs time.

Speaking of Mexico, when I saw my partner was in Mexico I was all "oh crap, I have to make Dios de los Muertos for someone in MEXICO?  No pressure!"  Yeah, I always want to make good stuff for my swaps but for this one I had to make sure the stuff wasn't just good (well made) but really spot on for the theme.  I want my partner to get this package and be excited to add the items to her shrine.

SO, what did I decide on?

I had the skull for a while.  The minute I signed up for the swap I knew I wanted to make a sugar skull (even if not from sugar).  So I grabbed up a paper mache skull immediately.  It was fun to paint it up.  I can't say that I'm overly impressed with my painting skills, though.  The skull is nicely made (no drips and not sloppy) but it looks very amateur.  But that's kind of the idea, right?  The skulls aren't supposed to look perfect.  They're supposed to look handmade to show someone took the time to make it to memorialize their deceased loved ones.  So I don't hate the skull but it's not my favorite of the items.

I really like the felt skull placemat/decoration.  It really can be either.

I think it's super cute.  Maybe that's what the paper mache skull is missing?  Since it's made on a more realistic style skull maybe that's why it's not thrilling me?  Could be.

This skull makes me smile every time I look at it.  It was super easy to make, too.

I made a template from a paper plate then embroidered the features being careful not to go too close to the edge because I knew I wanted to top stitch it to some cute fabric (for the back).  But after I got it decorated it still felt like it needed a tiny bit more.  Then I spied this gold fabric in my dotee fabric collection.  Someone gave it to me as an extra in a swap and it was just the right size for this project.  I layered it between the felt front and the back fabric.

How cute is that back fabric?  I had two other styles of Dios de los Muertos fabric but both were "darker" than I wanted.  My partner is making a shrine for children so I was trying to keep everything very silly and fun.  The one fabric had more realistic stylized skulls and the other was skeletons on a black background but the skeletons were more serious looking than these.  So the marionette skeletons WON.  And in a happy coincidence, I got three cute lady skeletons partying down on the back.  Dance on, ladies, dance on!

I was really happy with the placemat/decoration.

But I'm super happy/proud of the bunting.  Yes, that's what the other thing in the first pic is.

Bunting is hard to get all in one pic, let me tell you.  Here it is stretched out over my ironing board.  It's three yards long (one package of extra wide double fold bias tape).

It features 24 different skeleton images, one per flag.

I used six different colors on the backs (four of each) and loosely matched them to colors on the front.  (the pink fabric even has a bit of sparkle to it).  I tried to only use colors I kept seeing in the things I read about Dios de los Muertos (though green wasn't mentioned, I did add it--I like lime green with these colors and it helped tie the bunting to the paper mache skull, that has green on it).

Each flag is about the size of a playing card and has great detailed images on a very light pink background.  That's why I went with pink bias tape.

That's my favorite image.  Frieda!  (and I love how her painting looks a bit like Michael Jackson with a uni-brow, and how cute is that wee monkey!).

Here it is all together again.

I'm going to also include some small toys, but those will just be store bought.  I was thinking maybe a few little cars and a few dolls (generic "girl" and "boy" toys).  The swap called for a minimum of three things, so I'm good with the three items I made but the toys would be a fun little touch (and these three items are really light, so I can afford to add a bit more weight to the package).

I'm SO happy to have this done and that it all turned out really well.  Now I just need to get the items for my own shrine done.  My paper mache skull is almost finished but now I have to get my skeleton cats done (yes, my shrine is for my cats).

BUT WAIT. . .I have another post coming on the other stuff I finished yesterday.

For a swap: Halloween Cutie

Time to show off another item for a swap.

This swap was to make a Halloween themed art doll.  The only "rule" was it had to be at least 5 inches tall (and be Halloween themed, duh!).

SO. . .let me preface with this.  I had sketched up a really cool idea that I was convinced would work.  I wanted to take a styrofoam ball and the bottom from one of those little containers you get toys in from the gum machine and make an Audrey II style plant doll.  Kind of gross between Audrey II and El Seed (from The Tick).  But that didn't pan out.  The styrofoam and plastic part just didn't work together the way I had planned (and, quite frankly, the plastic part insisted it be a hat, it just fit on the ball better as a hat).  Then I tried to make the plant doll just using felt but it wasn't turning out right.  I did make a full head/face but it was just way too cutesy and I had no way to make the body (I hadn't planned it out well enough, that's the problem).  So I still have the flower head.  I can always pull it apart and/or use it for something else (it could easily become a dotee doll).

OK, now that I've aired out my "failure", time to show off my success.

I think the runner up idea came out darn cute.  What do you think?

The biggest deal was using the styrofoam ball and that plastic piece.  I was OBSESSED with using them (and using them together somehow).  And see, it does work perfectly as a hat.

A removable hat!

I was tempted to glue it down but I have this hella hot glue gun and I got the sinking feeling it would melt the styrofoam (it melted some other foam I used in a dotee, so my worries weren't unfounded).  And I kind of like the hat being removable.  It also proved a smart move for packing.  The boxes I found for mailing were all very snug and the doll wouldn't have fit if the hat was attached (I packed him with his hat in his hand!).

The head is a styrofoam ball with the features cut out using an exacto knife.  Then some plain old acrylic paint then sealed with modge podge (for the win!).

The hat is the bottom from one of those bubbles you get toys in out of the gum machine.  The dome part was used to make the UFO dotee I made many months back (yes, I kept the bottom part that long, that's why it was making me crazy. . .I had to use it to justify having held on to it.

The leaf is just a bit of felt and the vine is yarn coated with Stiffy (fabric stiffener stuff) and then wrapped around a pen until it dried.  It's still really pliable, not brittle (I didn't super coat it in stiffy, I used just enough to get it damp then squeeze out the excess. . .stiffy is awesome).

The body is felt stuffed and polyfil over a full armature made from floral wire.  It's not a one piece skeleton, though.  It's a body curve (with extra long ends to jam up into the head) and then curves for each limb (cut even to the end of the fabric).  You can pose the doll but do so gently.  This is definitely an art doll and not a play thing.

The front and back leaves are also felt with embroidered veining.

The curly vines are wrappings from the floral wire.  I was going to make all the vines like I made the vine on the hat but when I was trimming the wire for the body parts I noticed how it curled up and it was PERFECT.  There is one long continuous piece (pulled from a full wire).  It's wrapped around the neck and over the arms kind of like a scarf.  Then there's one smaller piece (from a smaller bit of wire) that I slipped over the end of one of the body wires (that went up into the head) and it hangs down the back of the neck in just one strip.

The head design is my own.  The body is based on doll patterns found at Nuno Life (best patterns for small felt stuff!) and the leaves are from images found by searching for "pumpkin leaves" (I honestly don't remember exactly where they came from, I think it was a cake making site--I had to shrink them down to make them the right size for this project).

This fabulous pumpkin fella is headed off to his new home today.  I'm very happy with how he turned out pleased to see I was able to do the wiring without much drama (though I really need to get wire cutters, I about killed my craft scissors trying to score the wire so I could bend it until it broke--this is why I have craft scissors and fabric scissors!).

What's next up on my crafty list?  Well, I'm hip deep in Day of the Dead stuff right now.  The paper mache skull is ready to be sealed and I'm getting ready to sew up the skeleton bunting (I need to make a test piece first before I start working on the real item).  Then I just need to make a place mat (using some cute Day of the Dead themed fabric) and get a few small toys to add to the package.  THEN, I need to work on DotD stuff for my shrine for my cats.

Oh, and I still haven't made anything for the Fluff Project this month so I need to get on that, too.  And some Teesha patches (orange themed and a cool comic strip one).  Busy, busy, busy.

PAINTING!! Little Portraits Progress Report

Holy guacamole, it's been a long time since I've painted.  I had a nice break but now I'm back and ready to finish up the Little Portraits.

Last night I did a tiny bit of finishing up work on Priscilla's portrait but it's so subtle I didn't think it would be noticeable so I didn't get a pic.  I'm still not satisfied with that portrait.  The eye patch is just BAD.  (I'm hyper critical of my paintings, I think I've only truly liked one of them and even then that means I just critique it a little less than the others).

I did get some great progress made on Super Worm.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Definite progress.  The pic is a little dark because I didn't take it on the easel.  Seems the art center decided to get rid of pretty much all the stools, opting instead for folding chairs.  The problem is, my canvases are so small I can't clamp them to the easel and paint while seated in a low folding chair (the top clamp on the easel doesn't drop low enough to secure the canvas).  BOO to that.  I'll just have to take my own stool to and from class.  No biggie.  If I work on a bigger canvas for my next painting, the chair thing probably won't be an issue.

Ok, enough about chairs.

I really worked the green on Super Worm.  I'd say the majority of my time on this painting was on the green.  Then I added the whites of the eyes and worked the red a bit.  Despite how it appears, I didn't work the background color at all last night (the pic is just dark).  I'm happy with the progress I made.

But now I need to really think about my next project.  Super Worm is such a small canvas that I need to work a second project at the same time.  I think I'm tired of the small canvases and want to go back to a more classic sized one.  I kind of want to do a long rectangular one again (like the canvas used for Baby Elephant Walk).  But I can't decide the subject.  Part of me wants to keep with my theme of painting the items I sew but another part of me is bored to tears by that.  All I know for sure is I have to paint from a photo (because my free hand painting/drawing suck-diddly-ucks).

SO. . .time to start thinking about a new subject.