Amigurumi Pink Elephant, Dolly and Pumpkin (crochet)

Well I had originally planned to get these posted over the weekend, so I'm a day late. Oopsie!! :) We ended up doing a Sunday drive down the coast instead so I figure that's a good excuse for being late.

This little doll is only about 5 inches long and her apron is tied on/removable. I gave her to a special little girl who kept eyeing it while it was being made! (She didn't know it was going to be for her anyway, so it was a nice surprise). :D

The pattern for this micro-mini elephant (in pink!!! hahaha) Is actually a pattern from a Lion Brand yarn book that normally makes it about 6-7 inches big with medium worsted weight yarn. BUT, for the fun of it, I used a total of 4 skeins of this pastel pink embroidery floss (100% cotton) and a #6 steel crochet hook instead and it turned out roughly 2 inches long. Super, super, super tiny and the stitches...well, let's just say my eyes had to strain a little but it was worth it!


Lastly, a little pumpkin!! This guy actually IS made using regular cotton yarn and an F hook, so he's just small by design. :) But Halloween is coming up and I couldn't wait to make it! I love holidays and can't believe they're already just around the corner again. I would love to find more Halloween patterns to try out!

P.S. Contemplating signing up for another craft fair that will be held in December. I think it sounds like a good idea and now I just have to balance out between posting new stuff on Etsy or saving it for the c.f. ??? aaagghh... if you see anything you like and it's NOT on Etsy, drop me an email and we can set something up! :)

Pirate Gnome and Hippie Gnome (polymer clay)

Another round of gnomes!! This is just a quick update for tonight..I have another finished crochet project to share over the weekend when I get a chance.

It's all in the details....on the left we have a pirate gnome. He comes with a skull & crossbones tri-pointed gnome hat, a gold earring, solid gold piece in his hand, a parrot on his shoulder and an eyepatch!

On the right we have the hippie gnome...a lovely tye-dyed jacket and underclothes, open sandals, a peace symbol on his jacket, a rosta gnome hat, braided beard, and last but not least..giving the ultimate of peace signs in his left hand.

Off to take care of dinner and think up more gnomes! :) Have a good night!

Glee-Inspired and Ice-Cream Garden Gnomes (polymer clay)

Now that all 6 of the little plant gnomes I sent out last week have safely landed in their new home, it is time to make more!

If you're a Glee fan like myself, you may see the inspiration for the Warbler-ish gnome on the left. Complete with "L" sign for being a Gleek ;) And since Summer is not quite over yet, the other guy gets a nice, tasty ice-cream cone. :D

They are roughly 3 inches high or so and made for house plants. Unless you have a really tiny backyard, in which they'd be perfect also! What do you all think of the new gnomes? I'll definitely be creating more as I think up new ones.

Make-Your-Own-Design Acrylic Rings!!

Good morning! Recently I was going through the baskets of craft supplies that I get and then put on hold (you know...until I think of something to do with them) and found my package of "blank" acrylic rings. They are all one size and although I can't remember specifically which seller I bought them from, they did come in a bundle-lot off Ebay for pretty cheap even with the shipping.

So after asking the kids what little pictures they might like to see get drawn onto them, here is what we came up with! Up above are a cupcake and a weiner dog.




Next up are a pair of pandas and lastly, an owl on a tree branch!



For the cupcake ring, I used the pen package in the photo. They are basically glittery paint pens. I found that although they dried pretty quickly and looked nice, you do have to go over your design several times to make the paint dark enough to see really well. The other non-cupcake rings were all done with Sharpie markers!!! :)

I am not sure how permanent the Sharpie markers are on acrylic, but after a little testing, they didn't just rub right off...but I'm sure you'd want to be careful about wearing them in water or scraping them on stuff. :)

So...Ebay (or other source of your choice) for blank acrylic rings and Michaels (or other source..I know Walmart, Target, etc have them also) for the Sharpie markers and you can make your own fun rings!! :) Next time I do these, I was thinking of trying out ModPodge with fabric or paper on them to see how that looks. Lots of ideas to work with for these rings! :)

Garden/Plant GNOMES (polymer clay)

Who doesn't love little garden gnomes?? And when they come in miniature scale, they're even better! (In my opinion anyway) :) Today I finished up the 6th one after spending about a week working on these little guys. They are for a special request made a while back by one of my SILs and I am so happy to be able to finally get them out in the mail to her tomorrow. I hope she will enjoy them as much as I do!


You can see Mr. Blue-Hat doing a little flash dance....Orange Coat is going to dig with his shovel...Tuxedo is ready for some fancy dining...Green Coat has something hiding in his pockets...Shy & Nervous has flowers and a heart for a lucky gnome gal...and lastly, No Name in the back left corner- well frankly, he's up to something but I don't know what!

Next up on my list of things to do (or at least somewhere in the top 10) is to make more of these for my Etsy shop. :) Everyone who's seen these wants them up there, so I'm working on it!! :)

Amigurumi Camo-Hippo (crochet)

Spending another late evening working on some crafts before sleep-time. I actually managed to finish this little gal yesterday and even took a nice sunny photo amongst the clovers we have growing! And as happens with a lot of the fun little toys I make, I found a home for it before I could even get it listed for sale! :) So good-bye to camo-hippo and enjoy your new owner!

P.S. I think this is one of my favorite crochet patterns...this being about the 4th or 5th time I've made it. This particular hippo was using an F hook and 100% cotton yarn. The book is "Easy Crochet Critters", a Leisure Arts pamphlet. It calls for a G hook, but I've made it using all sizes to get different sized toys.

Robot Doodles!!

I recently discovered that I love to doodle. I am one of those people who can't really draw anything except stick people, but doodling is basically along those lines. And robots are easy to try because it's just shapes and squiggles and you can't mess them up since they don't have a defined "must look like this" to them! Above are two pics (one enevelope and one card to go with) that I made just sitting being bored for about 15 minutes the other day...



And this is one of my sketch books (also nothing but scribbles, no actual drawings lol) full of more robots!!! I love robots and how you just can't screw them up. (Har har...pun intended!) By the way, I was using Staedtler markers with a fine tip, along with some Copic "atyou spica" glitter pens that I *LOVE*. Just wish they weren't so dang spendy!

I intend one of these days to turn that bottom picture into an embroidered piece but I have to figure out the best/easiest way to turn it into a colorful pattern first. :)