Cora Valentine

Cora Valentine is a Fairy with a full heart. She inspires joy and love in everyone she meets.



I made Cora for the Plush Team's January/February Challenge, which is called "Plush Team Has Heart." The Team is doing a fundraiser to benefit the International Children's Heart Foundation, an organization that works to bring aid to children in developing countries with congenital heart conditions. Our challenge was to create a heart-themed plush for this great cause, and I am very happy that so many of the members of the Plush Team have participated already, and more are putting their items in the Team's etsy shop every day.
There are some great heart plush to be found in the shop- so if you want to get something for yourself or someone you love for Valentine's Day and support a great cause, I urge you to go and check out all the cuties on offer.
Tell them Cora sent you. ;)

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