Happy New Year!

I hope that you are planning something fun to celebrate the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011! :D Here's to a great year for us all. I'll be back with more plush soon- I have a ton of new ideas for this coming year, as well as a bunch of Plushcatures that will be coming down the road over the next few months, so stay tuned. Cheers!

Dogs and Cats

I made these guys for some of my friends' kids for Christmas. It was something fun but quick that I could do for them, and I enjoyed working with color combinations that I hadn't used before. Their bellies and ears are flannel prints, which are fun for winter.

Merry Christmas!

Here are just a few of the piles of ornaments that we used to decorate the tree. Are we addicted to "ball" ornaments you ask? Are we in need of an intervention? Nah! You can never have too many ornaments, right? ;) Enjoy your time with family and friends and have a lovely holiday. See you in the New Year!

Wintery Snowman Blanket

This is another blanket made for a Christmas gift- the fabrics were from a kit I bought back in February, (but didn't get around to making until this December ;D) and all I had to do was cut out dozens of 4 inch squares of flannel, place them in a design that I liked, and then sew all the squares together to form the quilt top. It took me about 5-6 hours (with a few breaks) to get the quilt top cut out and sewn together, which wasn't too bad. Then I had to cut out the backing fabric to the right size, and then make the edge binding. I chose not to add the optional quilt batting between the layers, since I wanted this to be more of a blanket than a true quilt. After all that was done I sewed the 2 layers together, pinned on the binding, and sewed the binding to the blanket.


The finished quilt measures 36 inches by 48 inches, and it really was a pretty quick project- about 12 hours or so all together. (Not consecutively.) Since the blanket is all flannel, it washed up super soft and cuddly. :D I would definitely make this blanket pattern again.

Fairy Christmas

I was commissioned to make my first ever fairy plush for a very good customer's daughter's Christmas present. I have to admit that although I was excited at the thought of making a fairy, there was a slight moment of trepidation about how to go about it in a way that fit my design style and didn't look too cutesy, but at the same time read "fairy." I was pretty much given carte blanche on the design, the only tentative advice to me was to maybe use some blue and pink if I could.
Here is what I came up with:



I had this white and multi-colored cotton print in my fabric stash, and when I saw it, my whole color scheme fell into place. Since this was a fairy- why not make her hair pink? I embroidered a very light pink set of highlights to add visual and tactile texture, and managed to get some fairy iridescence into her dress by using green and blue ric-rac that had some sparkle to it which gave her instant fairy bling. ;) To integrate the wings with the Fairy's dress, I outlined the interior wing shape with another shade of green ric-rac.


It wouldn't be a true fairy without a photo of her outdoors in her natural habitat, and lucky for me the weather cooperated the day before I sent her on her way to her new owner. I'm really looking forward to hearing how this Christmas present is received since I had such I had a blast making her. Merry Christmas to the "Monster!" :D

Arctic Mermaid

This is my piece for the "Soft Served "art show at OhNo! Doom in Chicago. The show opens Friday December 10th, and runs until January 11th, 2011. Wish I could be there for the opening!

Let me introduce you to the very rare and seldom seen Arctic Mermaid:


The Arctic Mermaid was recently discovered by Plushologists, who were stunned to find a mermaid sunning herself on an iceberg in the Arctic Ocean. This breed of Mermaid prefers the beauty of the Northern Lights and the refreshing cool waters of the North over the sun and sand of her tropical cousins.

I have been wanting to do a mermaid plush for some time, but until now I couldn't think of a way to make it my own. I starting doodling mermaids, and somehow my mind wandered to winter and snow, and then voila! The idea for the Arctic Mermaid was born. She has a nice and soft faux fur sweater to keep her warm, and I hand-embroidered her smile, the highlights in her hair, as well as adding a few hand embroidered scales in her tail.



If you are interested in seeing more of the great art made for this show, head on over to the OhNo! Doom website this weekend, and if you live in the Chicago area, why not check out the show- you won't be disappointed, and maybe you'll find that cool and unique Christmas present for that special someone. ;)

Art Blocks for Ghana Project

This is the piece that I made for the Art Blocks for Ghana Project, which is a charity fundraiser that hopes to recieve enough money through the auctioning off of all the art donated to build a Children's Home in Ghana. I call my piece: "My Home and Native Land." The theme for the art was "home", and this is what came to mind when I thought about what means "home" to me. Living in the USA is great, but since I am Canadian and have all my family in Canada, I still call that "home," even after all these years. This was my way of trying to convey that in an art piece.

There are so many wonderful artists involved in this project that it would take me forever to list them all, but you can see their great contributions if you go to the Art Blocks for Ghana blog.

Here's a quick look at how I made my piece. It is made completely out of wool felt, and it took me about 4 hours to cut out all the varying sizes and colors of the maple leaves, I lost count of how many I actually cut out. If the photos are a bit fuzzy, I apologize, I was snapping them as I worked and wasn't paying too much attention to the focus.

Christmas Ornament Fun

This year I decided to make my own take on the traditional round "ball" shaped Christmas ornaments. These two sets are made from fleece with fun winter/Christmas cottons as accents, and hand embroidered faces to add character:


I also had a lot of fun making a trio of Christmas Stars that hang from the same ribbon, gradually getting smaller as they go.
This ornament is also made from fleece- a variegated yellow, with smiling felt faces sewn on, and it measures about 11 inches in length.



You can find them in my etsy shop if you are interested. It's definitely starting to get that Christmas holiday feeling around here! :D

And the winner is...?

Yardley could barely contain himself this morning- he was so exited to find out where in the world he would be traveling to next, and who would be his new parter in exploring a different area of the New World. He eagerly gathered around the names...


and watched as they went into the hat...


where the winning name was picked out...



and the WINNER IS:



BEBEBABIES!! Congratulations Casie! Yardley is eagerly awaiting his trip to your house- he can't wait to meet you. Thanks to everyone who entered, this was a really fun giveaway.

2 More Days Left to Enter the Mini-Yeti Giveaway!

In case you are just now recovering from your Thanksgiving food coma, here's the scoop on how to enter and what you are entering to win.
The lucky winner will receive Mini-Yeti Yonah's twin bother Yardley, who was a stowaway on the Mini-Yetis trip to America. He just couldn't miss out on all the fun :D


Here's how you enter to win the mischievous Yardley:

*Tell me which Mini-Yeti is your favorite. PLEASE LEAVE A WAY TO CONTACT YOU IN THE COMMENTS, OTHERWISE YOUR ENTRY WILL BE INVALID.

*Become a Meet Sam and Pete blog follower. If you're a new follower, let me know that you joined in the comment section. If you're already following me, let me know that too and score one extra entry!

*Tweet this giveaway. Make sure to give me a link to your tweet in the comment section to get one extra entry.

*Repost the giveaway on Facebook. Make sure to give us a link to your Facebook post when you write your comment to get one extra entry.

*Blog this giveaway. For an extra TWO entries, tell folks about this giveaway in your blog. Please make sure to use a photo of Yardley in your post and leave the link in the comment box to get your entries.

*Buy something from my etsy shop before November 30th. Get another FIVE chances to win by making a purchase from my shop. Don't forget to let me know which new piece of plush that you are calling your own. :)

The last day to enter is November 30th, 2010 and I'll announce a winner on December 1st. GOOD LUCK!

There are only 6 Mini-Yetis left to adopt, so why not act now and take one of these furry adventurers home today?

Mini-Yeti Monday: the Grand Finale!

It's time to introduce the last pair of the Mini-Yeti delegation, and to celebrate, I'm having a giveaway! :D Details will be given after you meet this week's Mini-Yetis, so read on and then make sure to enter for your chance to win...

Mini-Yeti Yancey builds the best snow-forts. He loves to build each one more elaborate than the last; his most recent design featured a series of hidden tunnels leading to his secret stash of snowballs.


Mini-Yeti Yadira loves to watch the sun rise and set each day- the colors fascinate her, since she is the most artistic of the Mini-Yetis. She loves to break out her sets of plant-based paints and cover the walls of her cave with her brightly colored interpretations of the sunsets and sunrises she's seen.


You can find Yancey and Yadira in my etsy shop, along with those Mini-Yetis not yet adopted.



I'm sure that you are ready to hear about how you can enter the giveaway- and here's what you're entering to win:

It seems that Mini-Yeti Yonah's twin brother Yardley managed to sneak his way here and add himself to the Mini-Yeti delegation, so he's looking for a good home and some new friends to explore with.



Here's how you enter to win the mischievous Yardley:

*Tell me which Mini-Yeti is your favorite. PLEASE LEAVE A WAY TO CONTACT YOU IN THE COMMENTS, OTHERWISE YOUR ENTRY WILL BE INVALID.

*Become a Meet Sam and Pete blog follower. If you're a new follower, let me know that you joined in the comment section. If you're already following me, let me know that too and score one extra entry!

*Tweet this giveaway. Make sure to give me a link to your tweet in the comment section to get one extra entry.

*Repost the giveaway on Facebook. Make sure to give us a link to your Facebook post when you write your comment to get one extra entry.

*Blog this giveaway. For an extra TWO entries, tell folks about this giveaway in your blog. Please make sure to use a photo of Yardley in your post and leave the link in the comment box to get your entries.

*Buy something from my etsy shop before November 30th. Get another FIVE chances to win by making a purchase from my shop. Don't forget to let me know which new piece of plush that you are calling your own. :)

The last day to enter is November 30th, 2010 and I'll announce a winner on December 1st. GOOD LUCK!

Also- you have the opportunity to double your chances to win one of my plush this month by heading over to the Plush Team's blog and entering your name in the November giveaway of Lavender the Cat. Good luck everyone!

Holiday Cats and Dogs

I decided to upsize my Dog and Cat designs, and since it's time to start getting into the holiday spirit, I decided to make these larger and smaller dogs and cats in wintery as well as Christmassy color schemes.



All are made from super soft fleece and cozy printed flannels, perfect for snuggling with during the winter months. ;)





The Dogs and Cats are waiting for you in my etsy shop, so why not head on over and take a closer look? :)
Have a great weekend everyone!

New Holiday Rabbits

Murphy the Magnificent puts on his wintery tuxedo and is a very popular magician in Lapinville, not because he is a fun and outgoing Rabbit (although he really is), but because of the amazing conclusion of his magic act, where he pulls a Santa out of his hat! This trick never gets old, and makes Murphy in high demand for Christmas parties, especially since the Santa always has some small presents to give out to each guest.



Emma O'Hare, on the other hand, is a pretty shy Rabbit, but she is just as well known in Lapinville as Murphy is. This is mainly because of the fantastic ice and snow sculptures that she makes in her yard, which inevitably cause traffic delays in her neighborhood, as all the residents drive by on the weekends to see her wonderful creations. In the winter her cheeks are always a nice rosy color due to all the time that she spends outdoors in the cold.



Murphy and Emma are available in my etsy shop if you are in need this winter of a good magician or someone to show you how to ice-sculpt. ;)
More Christmas plush to come later this week!

Mini Yeti Monday Strikes Again!

Time flies when you are having fun, and can you believe that we are down to the second to last pair of the delegation of ten Mini-Yetis to be introduced to the world? Wow. Here they are:

Yvonne is a truly happy creature who always has a good word for everyone, and a positive spin on life. She never lets anything get her down, and she is looking forward to spreading good cheer and her sunny outlook on life wherever in the world that she travels to next.



Yorrick has a love of poetry, and will often entertain his fellow Mini-Yetis with a recitation or two. He is very fond of Lewis Carroll's poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter", although his friends are getting a little tired of hearing it. Yorrick is just starting to compose his own poems, and he seems to be gravitating towards limericks at the moment.



If you are interested in inviting either Yvonne, Yorrick, or any of their friends to come live at your house, head on over to my etsy shop, where they will be happily waiting to accept your invitation.

Stay tuned for next Monday's final pair of Mini-Yetis, and there will be a special something to celebrate the occasion. You won't want to miss it- promise! :)