What happens in Mexico...

For the May/June Challenge, members of the Plush Team were asked to create plush pieces that illustrated a vacation nightmare. At first, I had NO idea what to make, and then I started thinking back to my family vacations, and volia! I had my idea.

These plush are based on a true event that happened to my family as we were playing poolside on Christmas morning, 1982 in CanCun, Mexico.

My sister (4yrs old) and I (8yrs old) watched in horror, alongside a bunch of other families next to the pool as a group of "orderlies" headed up by a truly ugly "Nurse" (on closer inspection we realized that the "she" was actually a "he" in full drag, with seriously hairy legs and stubble and chest hair) carried on a stretcher a sprawled out Santa towards the edge of the pool. 

Santa seemed to be drinking blood (THE HORROR!) out of an IV Bag on the stretcher. All the orderlies and the nurse were laughing their butts off, and were clearly drunk themselves. 

Without any warning, the orderlies heaved Santa into the pool, and then they all jumped in after him. Needless to say, my sister was HORRIFIED that they'd tried to drown Santa, and it took my parents a loooooong time to calm her down enough to where she could listen and understand that it was someone else dressed in a very tight and too-small Santa suit pretending to be Santa, and that he wasn't drinking actual blood, it was an alcoholic drink called a Bloody Mary. 

I will spare you all the visual of what the tight, white uniformed "nurse" looked like getting out of the pool, but I did make sure to add on to my Santa plush the butt-crack that we all saw as he was helped out of the pool:

You can imagine how many complaints the hotel management got from all the other parents with small children who were traumatized that morning by seeing this crazy stunt. 0_o  
We got over the shock and enjoyed the rest of our vacation; had some great times and saw some amazing things that trip, so it all balanced out in the end. :) 

If you'd like to see the other entries into the Plush Team's Vacation Nightmare Challenge, you can find them in the Plush Team's etsy shop. There are some great plush by the Raggy Rat and KittyKitty Crafts depicting their own ideas of vacation nightmares. 

New holiday Plush in the shop!

It's one of my favorite times of the year- that transition from Fall into Winter, with all the lovely warm sweaters, cozy blankets, and cold weather that comes with it.

I have made a few new items for the holiday season, which are now available in my etsy shop. They join a bunch of holiday and wintery plush that are already there waiting for good homes.

It wouldn't be winter without a snowman, and since I live in California, I have to make a snowman plush in lieu of making the real thing. ;D

This snowman is all dressed for the weather in his warm flannel sweater, flannel scarf, and felt top hat. His body is made from cuddly white minky.

It wouldn't be Christmas without Santa and his loyal reindeer, Rudolph; Santa takes the form of a pillow for your home, and Rudolph is ready for the holidays in his festive saddle blanket and red jingle ball collar.

and you can also find two of my Santa Head Ornaments in the Plush Team's etsy shop.

Just waiting to help add some holiday cheer to your home or as a holiday gift are these guys:

A snowman head pillow with a festive red minky scarf:

And winter isn't winter without Snow Angels- meet Freddy:

If you are looking for ornaments, there are a string of stars and a set of ball ornaments available:

and there are holiday Rabbits just waiting to be invited to a Christmas or holiday party at your home, a pair of holiday bears, a gingerbread clown, and if you are in a yeti mood, there are still a few of the adventurous Mini-Yetis hanging around as well!

If you are like me and like to decorate the tree with a collection of hand made ornaments, you're in luck! Check out the Plush Team's etsy shop every day from now until Dec. 7th, when various members of the Team will be adding new ready-to-hang creations.

A very fun Christmas commission

One of my tasks this December was to create 3 specific types of plush for Christmas gifts. The commission was from one of my best customers, and it was a really nice creative challenge making them for her.

The first one I was asked to make was a Nutcracker, and after doing a bunch of research and drawing up lots of variations on the idea, I settled on this design. Meet Hans the Nutcracker:

Hans patrols the town, making sure that everyone is in the Christmas spirit. In his spare time he cultivates both holly and mistletoe. He's made of flannel, with fleece for his face and hands, and faux fur for his hair and mustache. His teeth and facial features are made from felt.

My next objective was creating Eve, the Christmas Fairy- this one also went through a bunch of sketches before I settled on the final design idea:

I took my inspiration from a Christmas tree- and created my own fabric for her dress from two variations on a green dot cotton fabric, cutting them out and then sewing them together to create a tree-ish design. I added candy cane striped tights, with snowflake shoes, and sparkly felt buckles, and topped it off with a sparkly white felt pointsettia flower in her hair.

Her wings are created from the same candy cane striped cotton, with bright pink flannel centers.

And lastly, and MOST challenging was this guy, Optimus Prime:

In case any of you don't know, Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots. He's made of mostly fleece, with felt accent pieces. I hand sewed on his helmet antennae, exhaust pipes on his shoulders, and the tires and gas tanks on the sides of his legs. I had to somewhat simplify his design to be able to make him in my style, but overall I'm pretty happy with the way that he turned out.

These were a TON of fun to make, and I enjoyed this commission a lot. It was really great to make Optimus, since I was/am a big fan of the Transformers. My sister and I had quite a few of the original toys when we were kids- and I kick myself for getting rid of them when we "grew up."

Anyway, I hope that these were a big hit in the home where they landed for Christmas- I know that they almost weren't allowed to leave my house when my family saw how they turned out. ;D

Well, that's it for 2011- I'll be back in 2012 with new creations. I'm off to spend some time relaxing, re-charging the creative juices, catching up on my reading, and viewing all the content on my DVR that I missed while I was sewing away the past month. :)
Here's to a great year in 2012 to you all!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you and your family have a wonderful holiday season! 

Holiday Shopping stress reliever.

Looking for something unusual and cool to give as a gift this Christmas? Want to avoid any more mall shopping? The Plush Team is offering a solution to the holiday shopping blues. Starting Monday November 28th, the Plush Team blog and etsy shop will be featuring great plush items from different Team members each day for 12 days, as a sort of handmade 12 Days of Christmas. Some of the artists involved are:

Scrumptious Delight
Deadly Sweet
Yummy Pancake
Moons Creations
Yermit
the Pixels
Lowell and Son
HappyCloud Thunderhead
zfla
yours truly, and many more! Head on over to the Plush Team blog tomorrow morning and see what cool item Yermit is offering for sale to kick off the event. If you are a fan of the color pink, you won't want to miss it. :D

"Last Tree on the Lot" ornament by Lowell and Son

Ornament Show!

Just in time for the holidays, Schmancy Toys in Seattle is having a holiday Ornament show, and I was happy to send my group of 10 ornaments on a trip to the lovely Pacific Northwest. There are some really fantastic artists making pieces for this show, so if you are in the area, go check it out!

As promised here are photos of the pieces I sent to the show:
Bring on Santa Claus. Ho ho ho!

I was brainstorming ideas and finally sketched up some Santa heads, which I thought would make festive ornaments. Each one is unique, since their eye color, mouth and cheek color varies, and there are Santas with green hats, and Santas with red hats. Some Santas have cream colored beards and mustaches, others have white. I hand embroidered each set of eyes and their mouths.
These are sold individually, but I think it would be fun to have one green, and one red, don't you? ;D

Hope that you all are starting to feel the holiday spirit- making these ornaments definitely got me in the Christmas mood! Well, I'm off to go decorate the house and put up the tree, while listening to my favorite Christmas music. :D

More plush creations will be coming soon! Until then, check out the holiday rabbits already in my etsy shop. 
Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone!

Coming Soon!

Available only at Schmancy Toys in Seattle, I wonder what these could be? Find out this Friday, and if you are in the Seattle area, why not head on over to Schmancy and get some Christmas cheer for your tree, and cool gifts for your loved ones? Shop local, handmade, and small businesses this weekend and call yourself a hero. :D

Russian Christmas Swap!

Every year the Plush Team does a Secret Santa plush swap- and we do it for Russian/Ukrainian Christmas in January, since we are all usually swamped in December. I am finally getting around to posting the great new piece of plush that I received. I was really excited to see the package at my door from Zazu Faure, aka zfla on etsy. Zazu makes the most sophisticated animals, all from up-cycled wool, cashmere, or angora sweaters. I eagerly opened the box to find this wonderful double-sided Rhino and Maple leaf pin inside! I love how he has a calm side, and a jazzy side. :D The maple leaf pin is just wonderful. Thanks a ton Zazu!!



I couldn't resist taking some "artsy" photos with my iphone:



To see what other members of the Plush Team received in their swaps, head over to the Team's Blog, more fun plush get posted every day.

The plush collecting continues...

Hooray for Christmas! Thanks to my family, I received some really great new pieces of plush for my collection.
First off I got this wonderfully huge, completely hand-sewn "Garth of Monoceros" by Diane Koss of Cutesy but Not Cutesy. I love the colors and his horn is terrific. :)


Then there's this really cool vinyl push by an unknown artist that my brother and sister-in-law found for me this past summer at Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle. There wasn't even a business card or a tag of any sort with this plush, so I don't know who created this. It's a pity not to know...


Next is this adorable Knitimal, Parmee, by Danamarie of Greenstar Studio. Hand knit and as cute as a button! Sooo huggable.


Lastly, this is a Christmas present to myself. ;D I have wanted one of Robyn Fabsits' pieces of soft plush sculpture for a long time now, and I finally got one!! This Sad Clown was made for the "Soft Served" art show at OhNo! Doom Gallery in Chicago. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it. :D


I'm busy getting my studio organized from the insanity of Christmas- and boy was there insanity- and I will be back making new plush as soon as I can see my sewing table, and the floor. ;)

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

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