Art Lesson With Little Kids: Watercolor Splatter Monsters

We made "Splatter Monsters" today in the little kids' art class. (known as "Drippy Monsters" at the blog that I got the idea from, "smART Class" ).

This first one is my example I did the previous night so I would have a final product to show the kids. 

 It's pretty simple...just splash a little puddle of watercolor paint onto the paper, then blow through a straw to make the paint go all splattery!  Do this until you get the desired amount of splatter effect.  Add eyes and mouth from colored paper/cardstock...and voila!...a Splatter Monster!

I like that the kids used multiple colors for their monsters.  The merging paint makes a cool-looking effect.

(the writer of the blog I got the idea from said that she used liquid watercolor paint, which I went out and bought and used as well, but I learned while experimenting that regular watercolor paint works as well.) 

 This goofy little orange tripod guy was the step-by-step example I did during class.

The kids had a lot of fun with this one!  I'm sure their older brothers are chomping at the bit to do their own Splatter Monsters next week!

Treasury Tuesday: Festively Fall

I got on a treasury-making kick this week. Sometimes, when you make one, you've got to make more!

This first treasury was the last one I made, but is my favorite one. I was inspired by those grey fall days (it was quite grey and rainy the latter part of last week and the weekend), but with a splash of color...

Cozy Festive Fall

The next one was inspired by my itch to go apple-picking (I'm hoping to finally go this weekend!). I live in apple country and it's become something of a fall tradition since we moved out here.

Itchin' To Go Apple Pickin'

The final treasury (which was the first one I made this week) is all about...you guessed it...MONSTERS! I find it interesting that the word "monster" no longer conjures up images of grotesque, scary creatures...but of funny, friendly, and sometimes furry creatures instead. I think this is thanks to Jim Henson, as well as the Disney/Pixar movie "Monsters Inc." The color scheme was inspired by a Halloween decoration aisle at a store. While shopping with my husband a few weeks ago, I noticed that turquoise seems to be the newest "Halloween color". At one time there was just orange and black. Then green was added. Then at some point purple joined in. Now it seems that turquoise has been added to the mix. You won't find me complaining though...turquoise is my favorite color! And I love pairing it with orange! So that's the back-story for this treasury.

Cute & Creepy Halloween Monsters

Oh yes...as usual, please check out the Treasury Tuesday post I do over on the RNEST blog!

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!)

Zipper Mouth in Progress...

A new monster in the works...

Back to my plush-making roots...

I noticed that I've been using store-bought fleece a lot to make my monsters (although I usually try to only buy the remnant pieces in the 50% off bin at Joann's). But I have bins and bins of socks and clothes that I've saved to make monsters with...so I've been trying to get back to my original plush-making roots lately by repurposing those socks & clothing to make my monsters...

This guy is from an old fleece I had lying around. One of my favorite things is making pocket mouths...especially with zippers!



This gal is a pretty simple monster. My favorite part about her is her long hair. I envision her as an eccentric, hippie art teacher. All she's missing is a long funky necklace and tie-dye.

(Sorry if the pictures are a little blurry. I was trying to snap some quick pictures of these two monsters before the craft show tomorrow in case they sell. I need to set up a photo shoot area again in my craft room with decent lighting and a tripod for the camera. )

More Cardmaking: Monster Cards!

Mom and I are on a cardmaking roll! She did most of the work yesterday (I just gave constructive criticism, moral support, and supply wrangling)...but today I have actually been cranking out my own cards!
Both Mom and I have a Cricut machine. She has the Cricut Expression and I have the smaller Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter (which Mom got me for Christmas). Yesterday, I didn't have any of my Cricut cartridges, and one of them, "Wild Card" is perfect for making cards. So I asked my lovely hubby last night if he could bring them today on his way in to the office, and he dropped them off when he dropped off Luna before he went to work. So today I got to use my favorite design from the Wild Card cartridge...the monster card!

I made Mother's Day cards to sell at the show on Saturday (since Sunday is Mother's Day).




I did some other cards as well..

I love that monster design!

Custom-Colored Wild Thing Nubbin

My 11 year old friend, Emily, requested me to make her a custom pink & beige "Wild Thing" monster Nubbin "for her birthday"...which was back in December...of course, I promised I'd make it for her back in January, but have gotten sidetracked by life and other projects. I finally got around to finishing it this week...

She's very happy with it! But now she wants me to make her a pink Max!

Kid Size Monster-Ear Hats

These hats were a hit with the kids at church on Sunday. I'm going to have to start making a lot more kid sized ones! (these two are the only kid size ones I have so far)


I'm still learning a lot about sizing these hats. Trial and error I guess. A big thank you to all my friends with kids who let me use their kids as sizing guinia pigs!

This blue one can fit an adult as well. (so either I have a small head or Matt has a big head!)

Emily's birthday was this week. I want to make her her own hat. She'd look so cute in a pink & brown one.

I also keep getting requests from Facebook friends for a green "Yoda" hat. I've been busy, and then sick this week, so I need to crawl out of my sickness-induced lethargy and MAKE stuff!

Monster-Ear Hats!

My recent love of making monsters with pointy little gremlin ears has now branched off into making monster-ear hats!

The great thing about these is that even after winter is over, and you don't need to keep your head warm anymore, you can stash these in with your own little monsters' dress-up clothes!

I'd like to list these in the Etsy shop, but need to figure out sizing, and I need to photograph them in front of a more proffessional looking background (I need to hang a sheet up or something).

Christmassy Sock Monsters

I've had some mismatched Christmas toesocks that I've been meaning to make monsters out of, but had been putting it off until the Christmas season...

I love that green button! It's my last one...which is mostly the reason he has only one eye! None of my other green buttons worked as well as this one, and I didn't have any other buttons that went with it. That's the beauty of making monsters...you can get away with giving them only one eye!