And the Winner is...

First, I have to tell you all that I am not happy with Survey Monkey where I hosted the contest survey.  I didn't realize with the basic (free) account you could only receive up to 100 votes before you have to upgrade and pay.  I'm not against paying for services but the next level up from basic costs $24 a month!  I think that is a little much for a survey site.  And they held my responses hostage until I paid (ok hostage is a harsh word, but in order to see all 410 votes I had to pay the upgrade).  I had a feeling I knew which photo was the winner but I didn't feel comfortable not confirming for sure.  I will be canceling the service now because I'm not going to pay $24 a month for a survey site.  Hopefully for the next challenge or vote I can find on that is truly free or at least cheaper.

Ok on to the fun part.  Drum roll please....  And the winner is PHOTO 3!!!!  Tonya and her daughter blew the competition out of the water with their Easter photo receiving over 80% of the votes.  Congratulations to Tonya!  I will be emailing you about your prize.  :)

April/Easter Contest at BeBe Babies

Ok everyone the entries are in and it is time to vote!  I have created a survey through Survey Monkey where you can record your vote/favorite photo.  Voting is open until April 19 and the winner will be announced at that time.  Good luck and thank you to all my wonderful friends and customers who entered.  If you missed out this month make sure to join the BeBe Babies fan club to participate in future contests.  Please post and share this contest with your Facebook dolly friends, or other social networking sites, to support your friends who have entered.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.


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Sneak Peek...

Remember how I just said I was inspired to make a mermaid? Well today was a lazy Sunday and I spent all day working on the first of what I hope will be a series of mermaids. She came out so cute that I am thinking I might send them in to Stuffed. I'm not ready to share her completely yet because I want to get the others done first and also set up a scene for photos, however, here are a couple sneak peeks.

Her tail is made of this gorgeous blue brocade fabric. It took me a couple of times to get the pattern right because I have never used brocade fabric and it frays a lot and quick.

I had a bunch of shells which I put in her hair and used for her bikini top. She measures about 15 inches tall.

When I was at the fabric store I didn't see any other brocade that I liked but I am going to go back and look again because I think it is perfect for the tail. I wish they would have had this one. Green is so pretty!

Summer Happenings!

Well I finished spring term yesterday and even though summer is still slow in coming around here it is officially summer break. I spent the day today relaxing and working on finishing up a couple of projects. It was a wonderful first day of freedom. It started with checking out all of the pretty things happening out in the yard.

Then I was able to finally get pictures of my entry into the Plush Team May/June challenge. The theme of this challenge is circus. I decided to finally make a BeBe bear clown, which is something I have always wanted to do. It seems when I doodle, I doodle circus bear clowns. I thought I might make another one but after how difficult this one was I'm not sure.

He has shiny red shoes and a wool felt hat. The balls he is juggling were made by me out of clay and they are on a white wire. The ball he is standing on is weighted and he is attached to it. He doesn't stand perfectly on his ball but takes a little coaxing (or lightly leaning against something).

And lastly I made a birthday gift for my friend Sarah. She really likes polar bears and I decided to make her a polar bear pillow that is happy on one side and mad on the other. I call him the good day, bad day polar bear. I actually traced the pattern from a picture of a real polar bear which I am not sure translated well into plush. I think next time I would make his head more symmetrical. What do you think? My Mom kind of likes his kooky ears. I don't know what Sarah thinks yet.

The Biggest Order EVER!

One of my fabulous retailers, AmeriKid, let me know a while back that they would be interested in carrying my new design, the Soft Heart BeBe. Well they are an awesome store, full of children's toys made only in the U.S. They are so devoted to carrying only American made products that they did not want my Soft Hearts to come in store bought, re-sized onesies. Sooooo I decided to finally bite the bullet and learn to make some baby/doll clothing. If you have been following me for any amount of time you probably know I resist making clothes at all costs. I don't really know what I hate about it...maybe it is because when I am done with a doll, or plush, there is a sweet face looking back at me and clothing just doesn't have that.

Well the order was placed for 10 Soft Hearts about a month and a half ago. I thought I could get them done in 3-4 weeks but as you know school was so much work this last term that I just really didn't get time to pound them out. My goal for spring break was to get this order done and out. Luckily with the help of my Mom they are done! What do you think?

The order was for eight girls and two boys but when I started picking fabric I found this adorable green/brown with monkeys for the boys. After looking at it for a while I thought it could be for a girl or boy and I have a feeling it is going to be popular. I decided to do five of them in the hearts and five in the green monkeys.

I think I did a pretty good job on the outfits for my first time. I can get a little upset about details but I was at the toy store the other day looking at doll clothes for ideas and I don't think store bought clothes look perfect. I tried not to beat myself up! I am sure I will get better at it.....yes I said it....I am going to continue making clothes for my dolls. I think now that I have a pattern it will be fun to pick out fabrics and make the clothes myself. I am also planning to sell just the outfits in my shop soon so if you are looking for doll clothes check back.

The outfits were made from two different patterns. The romper and booties were made from this McCall's pattern. I of course shrunk it and altered it to my own specifications. The hat is from this doll clothing pattern by Simplicity. The outfits in this pattern set are really cute and I want to try a couple more of them out.

If you are interested in adopting any of these guys they should be available at AmeriKid shortly. Of course you can always visit my shop for new babies or email me to order. I have lots more of both fabrics so I can always make more.

I hope you are having a great spring break!

Ophelia and the Home Stretch

Tomorrow I have all of my finals for Winter term in one day. Yikes! Luckily my Shakespeare teacher is having us present our creative projects in lieu of a test. The other positive thing about this is that my Shakespeare class is my last class for the day. This means by the time I get to Shakespeare my brain will be exhausted from two consecutive finals and I will be ready to sit and watch creative presentations!

I told you a while back that I would have another creative project to show you. I have been working on this doll on-and-off for a couple of weeks now and I am relatively happy with how she came out. Making this doll was a bit of a stretch creatively for me. I generally don't like realistically human dolls and have avoided making any for a long time. Mainly it is because I don't like making clothes very much and it seems the doll never comes out the right size for store bought doll clothes. I also don't think I am very good at painting realistic features. However, I decided to give it a go on this girl!

The only guidelines for our creative project is that the subject had to be from one of the plays we read throughout the term. The plays we read were Merchant of Venice, Henry IV Part I, Hamlet and The Tempest. We read The Tempest last and it's possible if we had started reading it before I started my project I would have picked a character to make into a doll from that play. It would have been fun to make Caliban I think. Nevertheless, that didn't happen so I of course picked Ophelia from Hamlet because, well, she is truly a character that stands out from all the rest.

There is a lot of online inspiration for Ophelia, including a few other dolls. Check out this one, this one and this one. When we were reading Hamlet we watched several scenes from the David Tennant version of Hamlet that came out in 2008. The scene where Ophelia is crazy and handing out flowers is intense and extremely powerful. If you want to watch it you can see it here on YouTube. The image of her in that scene is the inspiration for my Ophelia doll.

I created her first from muslin but her legs were so skinny that I couldn't stuff them. Muslin can be really difficult to work with, at least for me. It also has no stretch so I was having a hard time getting her wig to fit such a flat head. I decided to try to make her out of the fabric I use on the BeBes and it ended up working pretty good. She is wired throughout her body so she could potentially be posed but I didn't want to mess with her.

Luckily I had a wig laying around here that fit her perfectly. For her outfit I made her a muslin shirt and skirt that are underneath her dress. I had no idea what I was doing for her outfit but found some pictures online that helped inspire me. I had this scrap of a dark turquoise velour that ended up working perfect. The dress itself is not perfect and don't let it fool you, there's a lot of glue holding up those folds. By the end I had no idea what I was doing and decided to go back to my favorite crafty tool, glue. The good thing, for me, was she needed to look a little disheveled because she went crazy outside pulling up flowers.

I made her a headband out of some ribbon and a rope belt thingy out of floss. I looked all over town for some plastic fake flowers but I couldn't find anything small enough to look realistic for her. In the play she has rue, daisies, columbines and fennel. I was going to try to make all the flowers but after cutting out a tiny daisy and some fennel I was spent. I decided that was enough for her ha ha. I added some bits of moss and straw to her hair for effect. I also dirtied up her feet and skirt bottom to represent her romp through the weeds.

So that's Ophelia! I'm glad she's done...it was an adventure...I probably won't ever do another one like her ha ha.

Topsy Turvy School Project

Well I thought that school couldn't be more time consuming than it had been in the last year and a half but I was wrong. It turns out taking two literature classes at once is MUCH more time consuming than math and history. Mostly it is because of the amount of reading and writing that is required in a literature class. I suppose I need to get used to it though, being an English major and all. *sigh*

In addition to all the reading and papers both my literature classes require a creative project that relates to the texts we are reading. The first one I have completed is for my American Literature class. We are reading texts that were written from the beginning of "America", including Native American and slave era samples, all the way to the 19th century. Of course it is a no brainer that any creative project for me will include some kind of doll or sewing project as it is what I know how to do best. I thought it would be interesting to make a doll that would replicate something a slave child or slave era child would play with.

I did a little research as well as asked opinions from my doll peeps on what kind of dolls were known to exist during the time. One suggestion I received was for a topsy turvy doll. If you haven't heard of a topsy turvy doll, basically they are dolls that have two sides with a dress or outfit that covers the other side. I don't know if that is a good explanation so go here to see some modern options. You can also see better pictures and buy patterns for them here.

For my doll I made my own pattern and it was MUCH harder than I originally thought it was going to be. The difficulty was in the dress. First of all the dress has to look finished on both sides and has to be able to turn which required keeping the top of the dress and skirt separate. I ended up hand sewing much of the doll's outfit which was a bit time consuming. I wanted the doll to look homemade and old so I tried not to stress out too much about the little flaws here and there.

If you are interested in the history of the topsy turvy doll, including the speculation over why the doll would be black on one side and white on the other you can read about them here.

Without further ado here is my doll! Come back soon to see the next doll I am making for my other class. I don't want to give too much away but the class is Shakespeare.... Bye for now!

Creating a Monster

There's this really great blog called ionlylikemonsters and a while ago the owner of the blog sent out a call for plush artists to make some brothers for her blog mascot Roland P. Fingermonster. I thought it was a great idea and promised to make a monster right away. Well you know me and I couldn't just leave it at something simple so I have been working on him for several weeks now (it also was because school is kicking my butt this term). Anyway! While I was working on him the other day I decided to take some pictures of my progress. I intended to document his whole creation but as the day turned to dusk the light started to wane and since I refuse to use a camera flash, the documenting ceased. It would have been too much of an effort to set up my photo tent to take a picture every five seconds as I worked on him, so I only have the first parts to share with you. Don't worry though, I have all kinds of tips on creating monsters and working with long fur!

Let's start at the beginning.... You have clicked over and seen Roland by now right? It is important because I used his image to design my "brother" monster for him. Here is what I came up with.

The first step for me when creating a new design is to figure out what the basic shapes of the design are. In the case of the guy above there is the outline of his body which includes the gusset (the top of the head) and the rest of the body. Here are what the pieces look like when taken apart and photocopied.

When working with fur, especially long pile fur, it is important to keep in mind which way the nap of the fur is going. Depending on the look you are trying to create you will probably want the nap going all in the same direction, and usually up or down. Sidewise fur usually looks funny although you might be going for that. The bottom line is just to be aware so you aren't surprised or disappointed when you turn your pieces. I want my nap laying down so here is what my pieces look like when cut out.

Usually I am opposed to pinning in all shapes and forms. This is because I am lazy and can't be bothered with it. However, I will ALWAYS break this personal rule when working with fur. Fur is slippery and thick which makes it extremely tricky to sew. The main thing you want to do when pinning your pieces is to keep the fur inside the seam facing the right side of the fabric. As you pin, keep pushing the fur down between the pieces. This will help hide the seams when you turn the fabric of your monster and also leave less fur for you to pick out of the seams later. This first picture shows how the fur is sticking out as I pin and then next shows when I have finished pinning and all the fur is nicely tucked inside.

When you start sewing fur you might want to leave a seam allowance that is larger than you normally would leave on other fabrics. Even though you have pinned your fur it can still slide a lot and you want to make sure you get both pieces sewn together. When you are done sewing a piece make sure to check both sides to make sure they are sewn completely together. If they aren't go back over them, it doesn't matter if it looks pretty on the inside it is the outside that will count.

Next you need to decide on the placement of the gusset and get it sewn on. I refer to my originally drawing at this point and notice that I want his gusset to come down a little bit as the forehead and form the top of the mouth. I eyeball it and mark where I want it to be.

Now you want to pin the gusset on really well and sew that together. It is starting to look like a furry helmet!

The mouth is the next part and again I trace the mouth from the original drawing as reference.

To make a mouth that goes in you have to create a trim around the inside of the mouth. This is done by cutting a strip from the same mouth fabric (in this case black fleece) in about an inch to two inches (or depending on how deep you want the mouth to be). Then you sew that piece to the inside of the mouth (fleece) and the outside of the mouth (fur).

Okay this is the last progress picture and it was taken with the dreaded flash! You can see how his mouth has come together though.

And since that is the last of the progress photos here he is done! I am about to email Janet at ionlylikemonsters to see if she likes this guy. Wish him luck!

Boom! Done!

He thinks he is pretty funny.

Crazy arms/legs. This picture is a little creepy.

He's got his eye on you.

Bye!

Hot Pop Gallery Show

Hello everyone! The Plush Team is doing a group gallery show at Hot Pop Boutique & Gallery in Milwaukee. The show opens on January 21 and runs through March 20. The exciting part is the theme.......Candyland! I was really excited about the theme because I love candy/treat themed plush. Originally we were scheduled to have the show in May but got moved to January. That is the downside. It was really hard to find time to work on plush for the show with all the Christmas crazies but I was able to get 5 pieces done (which what was asked). Since the show goes through March we have been told that as things sell (hopefully) we can send stuff to restock. Soooo there may be more candy plush from me in the near future!

Because I am still trying to promote both of my shops (Boom! Plush! and BeBe Babies and Friends) I wanted to make pieces that would represent both. I decided to make 4 Ice Cream BeBe Cones and one candy monster. The monster is a spin on the Lemonheads candy character. I made him to look very similar to the actual character but made him furry and gave him horns. I really think he is cute!

This is the original character in case you don't remember.

And my monster!

I had a needle felted lemon sucker that I made a long time ago so I stuck that in his hand.

Doesn't he have a sweet face!? This is another one I kind of hope comes home to me hee hee.

Last but not least here are the little BeBe Ice Cream Cones! It's funny because a couple people have pointed out that they are scary which took me a little by surprise. It's weird when you make something and you see it one way and then someone points out something about it that you never would have thought before. Depending on what is said it can be a little alarming. I have to admit hearing that they are scary did kind of shake my confidence. Mostly because I didn't mean them to be, or think they are, scary at all! I can only think of one thing that makes them scary and that is if you literally look at them like you are eating a baby...which is not what I meant at all! I sort of thought in my head that the babies are so sweet...like ice cream! I'm really not the first one to make plush ice cream cones..I mean look at this, this, this and this.

If you live in the Milwaukee area be sure to stop by Hot Pop where you can find all of these guys as well as a bunch of other awesome plush by the Plush Team!