Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween 2012!

I've never been into the "scary" or superstitious part of Halloween, but I've always LOVED dressing up! (and the candy was always just a bonus!)  This year, I reused my costume from last year and was a Woodland Faerie Queen.  I've got nothing special to do an no parties to go to...I'm just handing out candy at home this year.


Happy Halloween!

What's On My Work Table? Wednesday: Mayday Prep

A glimpse (via Instagram pics) into what I've been up to in preparation for Mayday Underground....


A colorful stack of fleece, waiting to be sewn into Nubbins.


Inside-out Nubbin "skins".


Sewing sweaters...


My Box O' Felt Scraps



Stack of felt.

Barn Owl Nubbin "skins, waiting to be stuffed.


Basket of Stuffed Barn Owl Nubbins.


Limited Edition Plush TARDISes. (hand-embroidering that "Police Box" text is brutal!)

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Instagram Sunday: Visions of Fall

Visions of fall from a trip to our favorite local apple orchard with my parents yesterday...

Basket O' Gourds
 White mums.


Rows of Yellow Delicious.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Custom Order: 2 Zipperump-a-zoos

Did you know if you do a Google image search for "Zipperump-a-zoo", a picture of one of my plush versions is one of the first images?  This is how a mother found me and sent me a message on Etsy, requesting me to make 2 Zipperump-a-zoos for her daughter.



The back-story is quite delightful...
"My 2 1/2 daughter was first introduced to the character in my childhood book "little monsters bedtime book." The last page of the book, and a line we repeat at her bedtime, is "good night, sleep tight, don't let the zipperump-a-zoos bite". Since then we got her a copy of Prof. Wormbog and the search for the zipperump-a-zoo. She started calling my husband Professor Wormbog, she's "Little Laff", her younger sister is "Kerploppus" and I'm "Croonie". She goes on Zipperump-a-zoo hunts and finds them eating our shoes!"

This is why I photographed them in one of my favorite shoes.




I find it funny that even when I make two "identical" items...they still have a bit of a difference to them.  That's part of the appeal of handmade I suppose.  I can't make 2 items exactly alike if I try!





Thursday, October 4, 2012

Designing the RNEST Business Card

I am in charge of designing a business card for RNEST.   We wanted to have a card so we could give it to prospective members (ie: if you have an Etsy shop and live in/around Rochester, NY).  I know when I have tried to recruit people to join RNEST at a craft show, I am always at a loss for how to tell them how they can join, since I can never correctly remember the Ning's URL.  And I usually just end up telling people to Google "RNEST" or "Rochester NY Etsy Street Team" and they'll find us.

I wanted to do something eye-catching for the business card...not just slapping the logo onto a white background (booooring!).  If I did that, the card is doomed to be lost in the sea of business cards people pick up at a craft show. I was drawing an absolute blank on what to do, but then had a brilliant idea in the shower yesterday (all good ideas come in the shower!).  My idea was to use my scanner and arrange various crafty items onto it in order to make a background.  Soooo...I spent half my evening tonight meticulously arranging and rearranging (and rearranging, and rearranging!) spools of thread, scissors, balls of yarn, buttons, bottles of beads, and various other tools and items onto my scanner bed...until I finally came up with this...

I tried to get as many items as I could to reflect the diversity of the RNEST members' various crafts.  Some of us sew (like myself), some of us knit/crochet, some of us work with paper, some of us make jewelry, some of us paint, and some use/make rubber stamps.

After I got the image I wanted, I then turned it into this...

This will be the front of the card.  All the RNEST info, like links to the blog and the Ning, will be on the back side.  I'm getting positive feedback about the design via my Facebook page already.  We'll probably officially talk about the design and where to print the cards on Monday at the monthly RNEST meeting.