New Monster Monday: Mayday Finds

This week's New Monster Monday doesn't have monsters made by me, but features items I got this weekend at Mayday Underground!

First is a monster "ornament" from Erin Makes Stuff.  She actually knits all her monsters herself.  Her booth has a sign that says "We're not socks and we never were!"  My knitting skills are limited to the knit stitch (I don't even know how to purl!) so I am really impressed with the stuff she makes!  I especially like the square beads she uses to make the teeth.

I like squishing his face and messing with his lips to make him happy or sad!

I also got this cool little turquoise octopus from Peaches Products.  I traded her a Bunny Nubbin and a Ninja Nubbin for it. (yay for artist trades!) 

 I added them to the collection of small plushies in my craft room. (from left to right: (top) blue Mini Monster from EcoLeftz, Owl Nubbin, Octopus and Owl from Peaches Products. (bottom) Nubbin, Monster Ornament from Erin Makes Stuff, Finger Puppets I won in a blog giveaway from Happycloud Thunderhead.

I have my own Owl and Nubbin because I can't find that particular color of fleece anymore...and, you know, I am allowed to keep my own work sometimes, right? ;)

It provides a happy little corner of inspiration while I'm sewing!

Link Roundup: Other People Sewing Monsters!

Here is yet another link roundup! This roundup features other bloggers' sewn monster projects...

Monster Tooth Pillow (image credit: The Long Thread)

Crayon Monster Art Tote (image credit: Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!)

This one isn't a tutorial, but check out this monster that a blogger's son made! A boy after my own heart! I'm quite impressed! I made a comment on her post that "I hope he keeps that love of sewing and doesn't get "too cool" for it when he gets older and grows up to be a crafty man!" Crafty men are the best! (image credit: RiceBabies)

My Mini Monster from LEFTZ!

My Mini Monster from LEFTZ came in the mail yesterday! It was a welcome little pick-me-up, since I've been sick this week.

I think I'll name him Boris. (don't ask me why...it was just a random funny name that popped into my head). He was made from repurposed material from a turquoise faux fur pillow.. I just love him! Turquoise has become my new favorite color in the past few years. And my screenname for years has been blufuzzymonster (brownie points if you can guess why!).

LEFTZ (aka: ArtTales...aka: Mary) is one of my newest favorite plush artists. I blogged about her before back when she was doing a giveaway. I got this Mini Monster as a trade.

I traded a Silly Emoti-Nubbin for the Mini Monster. This was my first trade with an Etsy artist who was not local (she's based in Pennsylvania). All my other trades have been with local artists and fellow RNEST members. Trading with other artists is so great! I really love it.

He now has a space on the shelf in my craft room, next to my little owl from Peaches Products (which was also a trade). The other critters on the shelf are my own works that I did not want to part with.

A Give-Away from a Fellow Plush Monstermaker

I found out about LEFTZ by ArtTales from the Mayday Underground blog. I was excited to meet another plush maker and have her at the upcoming show. Although, I must admit that I was a bit intimidated too. Her work is very good, she has a lot of sales on Etsy and she's been featured in Stuffed Magazine. But it turns out she's not able to do the Mayday show. Oh man!...I was really looking forward to meeting her and seeing her work in person. Her work particularly intrigues me because she stuffs her plushies with shredded plastic grocery bags... and I'm curious what it feels like.

My favorite design that she does is (obviously) her monsters. This geeky one pictured below (which has already been sold) is particularly adorable!

LEFTZ are "Handmade plush softies created with reclaimed, repurposed, & upcycled materials. These Eco friendly plushies are stuffed with recycled plastic shopping bags & are unique in their own way. Their good eye is made from layered vintage buttons. Materials are found via yard sales, thrift shops, or my family."

Anyway...all that to say, ArtTales is currently having a giveaway on her blog. The prize is a $20 gift certificate to use in her Etsy shop. Go check it out! Who knows? Maybe you can win!

(You may think I'm just being nice and giving LEFTZ a shout-out or just letting you guys know about the giveaway, but if you want to know the truth, it's not totally selfless...because I get an extra entry in the giveaway if I blog about it! ;) )

Creating Etsy Treasuries

I've discovered the fun of creating Etsy Treasuries lately. "What are Etsy Treasuries?" you ask? Well, on the Treasury page, Etsy says "Treasury is Etsy's ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery." Basically, you create a list of 14 items found on Etsy. Usually a Treasury has some sort of theme...whether it be color, content, or both!
At the last RNEST meeting I was at, it was said that "If you make treasuries, you're more likely get your items featured in treasuries". I've seen it in action because once I got featured in treasuries, it made me want to make some of my own!

I think a good tip is to make treasuries inspired by what you're making lately, and then mention it in the description (and maybe include a link to your blog. *wink*)
After blogging about Foxy Moxy yesterday, I was inspired to make a fox themed treasury...

Foxy

I like to send a "convo" (an Etsy email message) to the sellers whose items I've picked to let them know they've been featured...because I know I'd like someone to do the same for me when I've been featured. The only pain is that I have to go through and induvidually send 14 convos, which is time consuming, even with cut & pasting the text. Etsy's blog had a post about wanting to know what new tools and features they can do with the site, so I left a comment suggesting being able to send a group notice to all the sellers included in a Treasury. (I know it's more of a modification of an old tool than a new tool, but I figured it was worth a shot.)

Last week I made a treasury of turquoise monsters...

Turquoise Monsters

The great thing about making a Treasury (and sending notices to the featured artists) is that it helps you make connections to other artists and gain exposure for your own shop. Just this week I've noticed that I've gained at least a few more fans on the KiraArts Facebook Page and had more comments here on the blog. (of course posting to The Needle blog and Cute Plush Livejournal community probably helped too!)

Happiness in the mail!

So, I've been sick this week...sniffles, coughing, sore throat, headache...and just a general icky feeling. And this little bundle of joy I got in the mail on Wednesday just made an otherwise "ick" day just a little brighter!

They were a lot bigger than the picture I had in my head. I love them! I have the urge to do a little puppet show with them!

I imagine this blue guy with a deep voice and a British accent.

Any suggestions for names for these awesome little guys? Or how about a story that I can do a puppet show about?

My Fellow Monstermakers: ZookieQ

While I was at the Remsen Barn Days Festival in Remsen, NY this weekend, I was elated to see this booth with colorful, quirky sock creatures! It has been the first time I have actually seen one-of-a-kind handmade sock creatures at a craft show. The woman's business is called ZookieQ and the creatures are called Zookies.

"I’ve always made sock monkeys, puppets, costumes and love anything that requires one’s imagination. It was my attempt to give my daughter a sock monkey baby shower that caused the birth of zookeys. I ran out of the regular Rockford socks used for traditional sock monkeys and decided to use up the “one of a kind because the dryer ate the other sock“ bag of mismatched socks. " (from the ZookieQ website)

Her sock creatures are bigger than my own tend to be and her style is very different from my own, but is still very charming and lovely.


In talking with the owner of the booth and giving her my card, I was even more pleased when I learned that she'd actually been to my Etsy shop before! I'm not sure I've ever actually met someone who has been to my Etsy shop before meeting me!

My Happycloud Thunderhead Monster Finger Puppets!

I recieved an email from Happycloud Thunderhead today telling me my finger puppets will be in the mail tomorrow morning! He also gave me a sneak peek of what they look like from his Flickr...and you know I just HAD to share!

I LOVE them! They turned out so great! He does good work considering all he had to work from was this little digital doodle I sent him!

Doodley Monster Designs

I got emailed by Happycloud Thunderhead today to give me the options for my custom monster finger puppets I won. I started out with doing some doodles to try to figure out how I wanted my puppets...

But then I decided to take the options diagram he sent me and use Photoshop to edit it into a diagram of what I wanted my custom monsters to look like. I did it mainly so I could easily edit the colors. Deciding what colors I wanted was the hardest part. I could design a dozen! These were my final choices... (I can't wait until they arrive! It should be sometime in the next two weeks)

Speaking of monsters and doodles, here are my doodles for those Where The Wild Things Are Nubbins I want to make...

Owl GiveAway!!! (Ends Sept. 23rd)

Can you believe I actually WON? Yes, I won the Fun With Mama giveaway! I was hoping to win, but never expected I would actually win! I make my own plush monsters so much, but love other people's work too... yet I can never justify buying it for myself. I can't wait to design my own finger puppets made by Happycloud Thunderhead!

And I think to celebrate, I will have my own giveaway! Since owls seem to be so popular lately, I will be giving away a custom-made Owl Nubbin.

The givaway will be open for 2 weeks and will close on September 23rd. Here's how to enter:

(Mandatory entry) Leave a comment telling me...

• 1. Your favorite color combination (these will be the colors of your Owl if you win)
• 2. How you found my blog

(Remember, you must give both bits of information in order to qualify!)

Extra entries include: (leave an extra comment for each)

• Being/becoming a follower of my blog
• "Heart"ing my Etsy shop (if you have an Etsy account)
• Telling me which monster in my Etsy shop is your favorite
• Blogging about the giveaway
• Linking to my blog in the sidebar of your blog
• Posting a link to the giveaway on Facebook or Twitter

The winner will be determined by random number generator. Good luck!

Finger Puppet Give Away at Fun With Mama

Want a chance to win some adorable monster finger puppets? Go over to Fun With Mama's blog and check out the givaway she's having. She's giving away a set of finger puppets made by plush maker HappyCloud Thunderhead.

I've been a fan of Happycloud Thunderhead's work for a while. I originally discovered him via The Needle. I think I may have blogged about him before in a "My Fellow Monstermaker" post.

I'm entering the Giveaway of course (because you all know how much I LOVE puppets AND monsters!). And I get an extra entry if I blog about the Giveaway. Part of entering the Giveaway is to go to Happycloud Thunderhead's Etsy shop and leaving a comment at Fun With Mama's blog telling me which monster is your favorite in the shop. I like the Grimbitts, Wimbly, Kimbly, and Quimbly and their big floppy ears. I love the line in the description that "while friendly [the grimbitts] are not very sociable." I decided that Quimbly is my favorite because of his turquoise color.

I was debating about picking Wimbly as my favorite simply because his name reminds me of one of the Fraggles from Fraggle Rock, which was my favorite childhood tv show! (although I think the character's name was spelled Wembly).

My Fellow Monstermakers: Zany by Zani

I came across Zany by Zani through The Needle. She's Italian (but thankfully writes in English on her blog) and is living in Spain. I like her monsters because they remind me of my more recent recycled monsters...but definitely different and with their own style.


You can check out her etsy shop here.

Food Chain Plush

I caught sight of these funny little "Food Chain Friends" monster sets over at Ohdeedoh.

I love them! It's a cute and brilliant idea. I'd love to figure out how to make a simple set of my own.

My Fellow Monstermakers: KittyPinkStars

This week's monstermaker is KittyPinkStars. I've come accross her a couple times on my crafty blog internet travels. She deserves a post.

I love her quirky little characters. It almost seems unfair to call her a "monstermaker" since her creations are so sweet looking. They make me want to consume large amounts of sugary treats...kind of like how I always seem to crave chocolate when watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the new Tim Burton & Johnny Depp one...Gene Wilder creeps me out).

Kitty makes most of her little guys out of socks (a woman after my own heart! GO SOCKS!), and also knits some of them. And of course...she has an Etsy shop if you want one of her sweets-loving critters for your very own.

One day I may attempt to knit a monster...but for now my knitting skills are limited to to simple scarves and fingerless gloves/gauntlets...maybe a hat on the Knifty Knitter loom.

Anyway...her blog is fun. She is "pink,kooky,obsessed by all things japanese,sweet treats,kittens,knitting random things! Oh and making sock creatures!" She seems like a very fun & quirky gal. I think we'd get along well if we ever met. Her most recent posts are about the Wreck This Journal...which I would love to do myself someday. Seeing what she did with hers inspires me. I just have a hard time justifying spending money on a journal to destroy. But I suppose that's the point...to break oneself of OCD-like perfectionism. I have the same habit she does of having a compulsion to buy blank journals, but then not writing in them for fear of "ruining" them.

Yeah...I need that Wreck This Journal. Will someone buy it for me for Christmas?

*Both pictures are from KittyPinkStars' blog & flickr pool*

My Fellow Monstermakers: Happycloud Thunderhead

I just saw this monstermaker on The Needle...Happycloud Thunderhead. He makes hats & puppets as well as regular monster plush. The hats are so cute! Well...it's all cute.

He has an etsy shop too.

~Sigh~...I need to start monstermaking again.

My Fellow Monstermakers - FeltMistress

I'm thinking of starting a post "series" called "My Fellow Monstermakers"...highlighting makers of plush monsters that inspire me.

First up is FeltMistress. I came across FeltMistress' monsters today via Whipup.net.
Her blog is fairly new, but there's a lot more pictures of her work on her Flickr photostream. I'm loving her work! A woman after my own monster-making heart! (Even though her work is a lot more sophisticated than mine as far as the shaping goes...Most of my monsters are kind of just little pillows with arms, legs and faces).

I love the illustration-turned-plush! She is definitely talented! This fuzzy guy, "Leonard Groyle", has my vote!