Ponyo (on the Cliff by the Sea)

I apologize for not wishing everyone "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!" on Thursday but I was caught up with the celebrations & feasting.

I've been wanting to make a plush Ponyo ever since seeing the movie, another adorable Miyazaki masterpiece.

Ponyo was made with felt, her wool hair is hot-glued piece by piece & she has googly eyes.

My Beloved was so impressed with the plush he stated it looks like the original & suggested trying to sell one on Etsy.

What do you think, would anyone be interested in adopting one?

NOTE: Please credit me when using my images/creations, thank you!

REMINDER: don't forget to apply to my GiveAway for a chance to win a plush of your choice from the "Xmas Plush Collection"!

POSSIBLE PROJECTS: SackBoy, Strawberry Shortcake & Custard

Strawberries with Custard

I made this round strawberry back in September.

Ever since my Beloved got me these adorable figurines on Monday I've been dying to take pictures of them all together, it's just so appropriate!

REMINDER: don't forget to apply to my GiveAway for a chance to win a plush of your choice from the "Xmas Plush Collection"!

GiveAway!

♥ DURATION: from 25th November to 15th December

♥ PRIZE: one plush of your choice from the Xmas Plush Collection!

♥ RULES:
1) Put this blog on your favourite blog's list;
2) Follow my blog on the right sidebar;
3) Make a little post with the link of this Giveaway on your blog;

4) ACTIVELY follow my blog with occasional comments on posts other than the GiveAway one (this to me is the most important rule).

If you don't have a blog, don't worry!

Just leave a comment telling me which Plush you'd like.

You'll know the name of the winner on the 15th December.

If you don't win, don't worry!

You can always purchase one from my Etsy Shop!

NOTE: There is more to this blog than the GiveAway, so please take the time to actively follow it instead of just signing up for the GiveAway.

In fact I'll only consider the people who are contributing to the blog as participants to the GiveAway.

Sorry, folks, but I've no intention of being taken advantage of nor wasting time+effort on lurkers.

Moreover this GiveAway will influence whether there will be more or less of them in the future.

Thank you for your understanding!

Etsy Shop now open!

As promised, here's the image of the new Xmas Plush Collection on sell in my Etsy Shop for only $5 (+shipping) each!

Get them while they're available!

Etsy projects finished, need to open Shop

New "Xmas Plush Collection" set is complete & ready for selling- once I've opened my Etsy shop & gotten padded envelopes (hopefully within the next couple of days).

Oh the relief, I've finally finished the plushies in time for the Holidays and without burning myself out!

I must admit they turned out cuter than the first set.

In fact I'm currently touching up the first set based on the second one.

I apologize but I won't show pictures until the shop is officially open, wouldn't want to ruin the surprise (*wink*)

I really hope they sell!

PS I hope to make Ponyo, SackBoy & Custard plushies soon!

Not sure if I'll be making a turkey & scarecrow by Thanksgiving.

I'm also rethinking making stockings from scratch this year, we'll see how things stand in a week.

Must come up with presents for the rest of family & friends.

Water Lily

Freshly made this morning with one of the patterns I worked on 15th November.

I studied both Water Lily & Poinsettia and realized I couldn't use the same pattern for both flowers.

Note: I think some felt flowers would look better with yellow beads as pistils.

I might try with other patterns if I find the right beads.

PS I hope to make a Ponyo plush soon!

Busy working on Etsy projects

I'm sorry but this time I have no new creation to post about.

The past couple of days I've been working in chain production style nearly non stop on a new Xmas Plush Collection I'm hoping to sell on Etsy at the beginning of December.

Needless to say I'm very tired at the moment, in fact I'll admit I feel a tad burned out with the result of two failed plushes, sigh.

Since I started my crafting it's become a routine to have felt & needle constantly in my hands at any moment.

But the down side is, it's easy to get either overwhelmed with all the projects on my mind or burned out trying to bring them to life.

It's gotten to the point whenever I take a much needed break I feel like I'm wasting time and my fingers itch for action.

Thanksgiving is just a week away and I want to make a turkey & scarecrow by then.

Right after is Christmas season, I need to make stockings for my Beloved+his nephew+niece and think of something for the rest of family & friends.

And let's not forget the random projects running through my mind, like creating a Ponyo plush (of which I made the pattern this morning) or finding the right Ddung to customize.

Phew, time doesn't seem enough!

On a positive note, thanks to my Beloved this afternoon I ordered an adorable Felix Brownie named Tobby.

Unfortunately he'll be arriving around the time of my Birthday in February.

Patience is not my strong point!

I also got a Doll Making Kit from Amazon because I've been wanting to make a Bunka for a while and all my attempts have failed so far.

Felt is very easy to work with, other fabrics are not and a felt Bunka wouldn't be the same. That's not to say I won't eventually graduate to cloth but at the moment I'm sticking with felt.

I'm still a beginner with these crafts, everything is completely hand made & sewed and in some cases the details are painted with fabric paint using a toothpick. So you see everything is made with lots of patience+love and of course take time+effort.

I hope having an Etsy shop won't turn a hobby into a boring job.

To prevent this, I'll take occasional breaks either from crafting or from working on Etsy items.

My creativity needs the occasional spur of freedom.

Anyway it's been a long two days and I'm going to take a short break now.

Write you later!

Moon Flower

Ever since adopting my Ddung Doll from Ebay I've been wanting to take her picture with MoonFlowers.

Unfortunately a bad freeze killed our plants in October before Hotaru reached her new home.

When I started making patterns for felt flowers I immediately decided I had to make a MoonFlower for Hotaru.

As you can tell from the pictures Hotaru seems to like the flower!

Gingerbread Men

I tried to touch up my Gingerbread Man Plush

1) is first one I made (see Plush post);

2) is the same as before with modified eyes;

3) is new pattern

I would ask which do you think is better but honestly the only difference between them is the fact that the pattern was changed from 2 pieces to 1 and I used more felt than fabric paint for the details.

I think I'm going to make a Xmas Plush Collection set to sell on Etsy based on the new 1piece pattern.

Wonder if anyone is interested?

This is my first attempt of a gingerbread man based on a very simple pattern made to look like Gingy from "Shrek"

I'm not very satisfied so I may redo him, maybe with the new pattern and less fabric paint. What do you think?

Btw I'd like to thank KnittingTurnip, Breezy21 & Merylu for becoming my first Blog Followers!

Poinsettia

Yesterday I worked on different patterns for felt flowers I plan to make, starting with a Poinsettia to remain in the Christmas spirit.

I think it would make a lovely candle holder or coaster.

I may add golden sprinkles to it.

Note: Poinsettia is known as "Christmas Star" in Italy, how appropriate!

I think the same pattern can be used for a Water Lily as long as lighter colored felts (example pink or cream) are used for the petals and the leaf pattern is changed.

Xmas Plush Collection

Since funds are too scarce I thought of making Christmas presents for our friends & family.

I also figured hand-made presents would be appreciated more than bought ones.

I drew inspiration from a set of Christmas cards seen at Walmart to create my Xmas Plush Collection in my style.

They were heartly approved by my Beloved (who decided to keep the Reindeer) & a couple of online friends. I really hope they'll also be liked by their future owners.

This morning I decided I should try making another set and selling each plush separately on Etsy & following Barbara's advice promoting it on a blog.

So here I am!

I'm also planning on making Xmas stockings for my Beloved's niece & nephew.

Beloved Presents

In October I made a plush Kirby for my Beloved since it's one of his favourite oldie Game characters (I found pattern & tutorial online here)

My Beloved made the delicious butterscotch+peanut butter covered Lackey Chow Mein Noodles which Kirby seemed to enjoy as much as I did!

In October I made a plush Teddie for my Beloved based on one of his favourite games.

I haven't given it to him yet, I'm waiting for the right moment ;)

In September I created this Pixel Art for my Beloved based on his favourite oldie Game characters which are now decorating the walls of our Computer Room.

Each character was made with 1x1cm foam squares hand cut & applied with hot glue to white cardboard.

Amigurumi gone wrong?

Before befriending me, I'd admired KnittingTurnip's work for a while even adding her to my Flickr and tried her GiveAway.

I don't know how to crochet but I really wanted one of her amigurumi so I tried making one of my own in the only way I know.

Unfortunately they got out of my control and turned completely different (*sweat-drop*)

Halloween Fun!

Around the end of September I started creating felt items initially for my dolls.

When I made my first pumpkin (6.5x3.5cm) I felt an immense satisfaction at the result, more so when my Beloved mistook it for a real one after viewing a mobile picture.

I made more in different sizes & colors soon filling the whole desk with them, lol! Now they're in the living room giving it a more colorful Fall theme along with plastic leaves attached to the walls.

Then I decided to make presents (pumpkins for the ladies & candy bags for the children) for my Beloved's family to deliver when we visited on 23+24+25 October.

It was a success which encouraged me to continue with my crafting.

Let's get started!

Five days ago I met a wonderful girl KnittingTurnip with whom I made fast friendship which I hope will last for a good while.

Ever since she's been spurring me to sell my felt plushies, advicing to start a blog to promote my future Etsy Shop so here I am trying again after my failed attempt this Summer with a little texture shop on SecondLife.

I poured all my time and effort into it but I only managed to sell one set out of 32.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was, also considering the money spent uploading each image on SL.

But everyone's been so encouraging and enthusiastic about my RealLife creations that this morning I decided I should try making another Xmas Plush Collection set and selling each plush separately on Etsy & following Barbara's advice promoting my work on a blog.

So here I am!

I'll admit I draw inspiration also from other people's work.

I really can't afford to buy the originals so I try to make them myself customizing them to my taste.

I wouldn't consider it copying, especially since I don't have a printer so any pattern I find online I have to hand-draw on paper. Moreover like I stated previously I customize any pattern I find.

Lately I've graduated to making my own patterns which is highly satisfying.

KnittingTurnip suggested I try selling patterns but personally I rather sell finished products, also to prevent being copied.

I apologize for the double standards but I'd rather people at least make an effort in copying me without my help.

Anyway I'll stop blabbering & start with the slide show.

Please enjoy & feel free to write me!