This has been a hectic time with many wonderful things learned and enjoyed.
E's party went well and I think everyone had a great time. E certainly did and many thanks to the ASI Gymnastics coaches who made the party spectacular!

Top layer of E's cake.We did the decorating ourselves. The bottom layer went under the raised glass platter and was covered in the same blue icing with fondant sea shells, starfish and sea weed on. We added a layer of silver food spray to make it seem more water like.

Our cool treasure chest of pirate mice! I am so glad I do not have to see a mouse tush now for a long time. It took a while to get things together and finished but it was worth it! The coaches hid the chest and the girls had to look for it before they got their party favors. They seemed to enjoy that. Since there was little left in terms of cake and pizza, I think we did well. E was thoroughly spoilt by her friends getting so many wonderful birthday gifts.

I can now concentrate on making my dragon. I decided his head was too small- I am looking for that awkward young stage where he is still growing and things do not seem to quite "fit" together yet. I am also working on a winter bear. She is done but I am not sure how to dress her yet. She is demanding something rather elegant- my deah!

Just finished my first of a series of seasons Bears!
Here is Miss Fall bear with her felt pumpkin

She has a crown of felted leaves that match those on her tutu. Winter bear will be next, but right now I am working on a puppy and kitty for ORVAL- Part of the aspca, a mascot they can sell at their fund raiser! I am rather proud of myself as they came out just how I wanted. Both are fully jointed...

Still making birthday rats- up to 17 needed now! Wheeeee!

Poor dragon is on hold until I get all this done : (

Gosh, I wanted to a listing per week and here I am already behind. I have had a good response to my small dogs and been making them like mad. Especially this one....

She is a maltese poodle kind of shaggy girl and I think I am starting to make them in my sleep. Still making pirate mice too. They are working out much better just a smidge bigger. My dragon is on hold but a few new bears are in the offing- autumn (fall) bear holding a pumpkin and a winter bear. I am also making a Dalmation dog. Other recently finished projects...

Apple brooch handmade from felt with hand embroidered details

Weenie Steakboy- um... girl is now a ballerina

My fragrance pouches that I make, using my embroidery machine on the edges and hand finish the rest with some beading. My studio smells fabulous : )

Here is hoping to show the Fall bear soon. I am planning to make another needle felted face bear. Polar bear idea. I will show progress as I go on this one.

This has been a busy week with a sale on Ebay and more listings for Etsy. My goal is to list one item a week for Etsy so I can be ready for the Holiday Season!

The party stuff is going along too inbetween all the other things. This is the outside of the invitation- we went for a fishy theme on a chest shaped cutout and put sparkly pink rhinestones on all eyes. The envelope had a skull and crossbones hand stamped on the cover in pink. Great stamp found at Micheals. Halloween is a good time to look for these things : )

 

I have also been working on E's goodie bags. The bags I found at Hobby Lobby in the party section  were plain black, small enough for the pirate mouse to hold and had a pirate skull and crossbones on the cover. We added pink sparkle to the eyes, a heart and a pink ribbon to make them more girly. Saves me time and achieves more or less what I had in mind anyway. The mouse pattern is still not working out how I want it to. The bags will still have a label added with am embroidered initial. That way the tag can be used on lunch containers or school bags afterwards.

 
Etsy had a lot of small handsewn dogs listed: Have a look at our puppy patch!www.edenandfriends.etsy.com

My fairy doll is almost finished. I wonder if you can truly ever say it is done as it is one of those wonderful things you can always add more detail to : )

Wings detail- wings are angelina fibers with machine embroidery and wires to strengthen them.

 Beadwork on the bodice is done to represent small daisies and done in green, cream and bronze beads

 Full fairy figure

 Face detail showing beaded crown

Feet showing beaded "slippers"

 

This was an awesome challenge to make and I am looking forward to trying an elf. The wings were fun but hard to make. Also making some small dog stocking stuffers. See my shop for them!

Been an awesome week and hoping next week will be good too!

This has been a busy week family wise. Lots to do around the house and school : ) I have been planning to redo the mouse and have made the pattern bigger and plan to use costume suede on the paws. Not as elegant but a lot easier to turn if I have to make plenty of them. I have also developed a pattern for a dragon that stands about 20" tall and am going to start making him too. This will be my first fuzzy prototype.

Been making more bears, and elephants...
I am trying a new thing for me. I want to make a cloth doll. I am planning a fairy in the style of Patti Medaris Culea- not a doll to play with but hers are so beautiful I have to try. Got a book written by her for my birthday and have been off playing with the fairies in my mind since ;)

Pirate mouse minus his bandana! He is as finished as I am going to get on him. E has already adopted him : )
He is way too tough for me to want to make 18 of these little guys. I used tiny safety joints as we have young kids at the party. The smaller they are the harder they are to assemble.

 

Step seven: Making a hole for the joints. I use a sharp awl and then put a spot of fray check on the hole to make sure it can handle some rough play and not stretch open. Nothing like an arm falling off to ruin your day!

 Step eight: All the joints are in place in the head, arms and legs. The white dots are where they come through the fur to go into the body. They were hard to place being so small. I like to finish the head totally before I do the rest of the body. To me the head is the first thing that will attract you to a creation and if it is not right it is not worth moving forward just to finish something.

 

 

Step nine: The body has been assembled, stuffed and finished. The little nose is needle felted on. I like using corriedale wool from Weir dolls and crafts. The wool is USA in source and quite lovely in color and texture. We added whiskers and he is done.

 

 

As I have already said. This is way too much fiddly work to want to make 18 of these. If all the kids come to the party that E wants to invite- we will be at 24 of them. I think a simpler mouse with no joints might be in order.

 

I found a lovely coloring in page of a pirates treasure chest so I plan to use that on the outside of the invitation. At least I have plenty of time for this. Right- on to design and make a pattern for the next pirate mouse attempt.

 

We settled on a cake- a sunken ship with a mermaid and treasure chest by it. I hope fondant sculpts as easy as Fimo clay...

Step three: Sew all the parts together. The seam allowance is tiny! 2 mm in width. This took a lot of time- if anything shifted it had to be redone. Maybe hand sewing would be easier?

Step four: When all the parts are sewn I turn them and check the seams again. Repairing any that are not good or not strong enough. The foot pads have to be hand sewn on.

Step five:

Prepare the airbrush kit! I use a special copic spray can with a copic marker. I have taken the ear pieces and stuck them to paper with double sided tape. This keeps them still as the blast of air from the can is quite strong and I do not want to be chasing pieces. First I spray the outer ear in bark brown. Practice before you spray your ear. Shading is not hard with this set up, but be sure you can do this before you spray your leather. Or cut out new ears : ) I used chamois leather for these ears.

When this is dry I turn the ears over and use the tape to hold them in place again. I use the marker itself, in bark brown, to outline the ear, and then use peach in the copic spray gun to do the inner part.

Step six: Lay all the turned pieces out and make sure you have your joints handy.

Now we stuff and joint....

I have started the pirate mouse!

Step one:
Trace the pattern onto fabric- since it is plush fur, I trace onto the back and be careful to cut the backing only.

Step two:
Lay out all the parts to make sure you have all that you need

 

 

Now I can start to sew it together. I am having a hard time with the pink ultrasuede as it is hard to turn as the parts are so small. Maybe on the next one I will try fleece? I am going to have to make about 18 of these....

My current challenge is to plan a pink pirate party on a budget. I have time as the party in in December. So far the ideas from Eden are: to make a small mouse dressed as a pirate as a party favor for each little girl and putting them into a handmade drawstring bag with their name on. I am thinking we should do a treasure hunt to find them. How to make a treasure chest? Did pirates use bags to hide loot?

The invite I am planning will be a trasure map on the front with the details on the back. Lots of sparkles and the X spot will have to be pink.

The challenge is how to do it all on a budget : ) Is that not a concern for all moms.

Any ideas?

Shelly

Well, here I am starting a new adventure. I am hoping that by "writing" things down I can clarify for myself what it is I am actually trying to achieve. I have always made toys, even as a kid I loved making marionettes, puppets and monsters. Now I am doing this for real- but making artist bears, other animals- oh - and monsters. At 40+ this is a whole new way to have a childhood : ) Never mind a mid life crisis, I am back to being a kid again.

I started an Etsy shop in March. EdenandFriends- yes, all one word. So far it has been easy to list creations and maintain the page. The Etsy teams do make it easy.

Peter, the detective bear

 

I am hoping that my bears are liked as they are original and the way O work i would be hard pressed to make more than one alike. As an artist I worry about the price I charge, is it well made, what should I do next? I also have a bit of a complex about skill level and is my work good enough. Always good to hear if it is. Let me know what you think of my first needle felted bear...
love to all, off to take care of family

Shelly