It's Creepmas time!

Welcome to the 13 Days of Creepmas! This is the first year for this blog event, I hope there are many more to follow! The Celebration of Creepmas is from Dec.1-13th. It is in the spirit of fun! The point is to bring Halloween into the first two weeks of December just like all the stores did in October.

This is my kitten Nico. Well she's a year old now, but she's an October baby. How fitting for a spooky little black cat don't you think? I think we all share in her feelings about seeing Christmas trees being put out on display in stores in the middle of October *grin*.

Don't forget to visit the rest of the participating  Creepers !

Trapunto, painting, sculpting oh my! (Christmas creations)

I hope everyone had a great Holiday and are recovering accordingly ; ) I finally get to show you what I've been up to lately, now that everyone has opened all their Christmas gifts :)

First up is a doll I made using Deanna Hogan's "Under The Harvest Moon" pattern. I reduced the pattern to about 70%, making her roughly 14 inches tall. It says it is an intermediate pattern, so I wasn't sure if I could pull it off..if I had made that transition from beginner to intermediate yet. There were a couple spots I had to stare at it...turn my head sideways, stare a bit harder then ...aha! The more I got done, the more I loved this pattern and the end result. In fact...I can say I had an absolute BLAST making this doll!

 Here she is waiting so demurely for her clothes. (Click pics to enlarge)

In her blouse, bloomers, and shoes waiting for me to finish painting her skirt:

Here's her skirt with birdhouse, grass, and sunflowers painted in acrylics. Now she just needs hair!

I made her a wig (pattern for wig included with "Under The Harvest Moon" pattern) out of faux fur.

Her face is done in trapunto style. I really liked the way this works up and gives dimension, so I had to incorporate it into some other creations!  

"Cattitude" with trapunto stuffed nose, brow, and part of ears. Legs needle sculpted with a layer of batting before stuffed.

Here is the meow muse he was modeled after:

Some trapunto quilted painted art, this one is two sided:

Orchid/Koi pond. The petals in the foreground are raised and stuffed, as well as the top of the rock and the lily pads..

Full moon (one sided). Moon and trees raised:

Then a bit of sculpting! A mini bird bath:

And the first completed mini baby..

Have a wonderful, safe and Happy New Year!

Giddiness in the mail!

I just had to share what I got in the mail. I won Renae's ornament giveaway on her blog http://mylittleraggedyblessings.blogspot.com/ . She makes the cutest prim goodies, be sure to stop by and check out her Etsy shop too! She took *much* better pictures of the ornies than I did ha!

I didn't get pics taken before I tore into the package but let me tell you, it was wrapped like a Christmas present! Pretty holographic snowflake paper! As I open it there is some oh so pretty snowflake cellophane, and each surprise inside is wrapped in red tissue.  Here are the three ornaments:

Aren't they adorable!? Very well made, with careful attention to detail and cuteness! Now she had mentioned in her giveaway that there was going to be a "surprise"...check out this cute little prim stocking with crochet edges, lightly stained to a well loved perfection....

Oh look..there's stuff inside!!!! (Trying to contain myself...not as easy as one would think at this point!) Ohhh I spy a prim tag! I start to pull it out...and I swear to you...

...I absolutely gasped out loud and just about fell over from the cuteness of this little face! It's a pin! (I knowww, right?)  I now fully understand this word "Squeee" being used around the interwebs. But wait, there's more!

This beautiful pressed flower charm ornament, with blue crystals (very hard to photograph sorry!) and a silver butterfly on top..

...AND these adorable snowflake and crystal earrings!

...AND these butterfly earrings with black and clear crystals!! 

I feel so special!  And giddy! I *might* even be humming Christmas music..shhh ;) 

Hope you all are having a great Christmas!

Annie Swap!

The "All Things Primitive" Yahoo Group is wrapping up a Christmas in July Annie swap. I have been wanting to make one for awhile now.  If my swap partner gets a blog going I will link it here in the future :)

Here is my Annie in progress, awaiting some hair and a dress. You see she has already picked the fabric *grin*. That was an adventure! Apparently my sewing machine reeeeeally likes to eat stretch velvet lol.

Ah that's better, she's is so much cuter with hair!

And of course her dress! Annie and her candy cane are Tea Stained with a bit of Gingerbread essential oil added. Smells so yummy!

Here is the wonderful Annie I received from Sue! I tried to get my camera to capture the sparkle, her hair is sparkly, and her dress has gold sparkle. 

She's wearing the cutest little pin of a bent over Annie bottom! I've been Annie mooned! Haha.

All pics can be clicked to view larger.

Have a great day!

And so it begins..

Let's get this blog rolling shall we! As much as I want to jump right in posting pictures of what I'm making *right now*, I thought I better post what I've already done. That way I will have a timeline of sorts and be able to see how I change and progress as an artist.

I've always been interested in art in one form or another as long as I can remember. Mostly drawing as a teen. I've read, studied, and soaked up a ton of info on polymer clay sculpting, jewelry making, etc etc. I love to look at something and be able to go through the process of "How did they DO that?", to.."Oh..is that all?" Most things are not nearly as complicated as they first seem once they are demystified.

While I do still love to sculpt, I found myself being drawn to the jewelry side of sculpting. Like making beads, and creating faux effects and illusions. The really hard part for me when it came to sculpting figures, was the fragility of it all. I was stressing way too much over the thought of a fragile finger breaking off, or more likely, me dropping it! So I started leaning towards cloth dolls and critters. After all, art should be fun not stressful right?

I have had a shiny new sewing machine with all those complicated looking doo-dads and attachments safely in it's box for a couple years. So, in December 2009, I took it out of it's box. I sat it on the table. Started at the beginning of the manual, and learned how to thread the machine, wind a bobbin, and sew funny lines on all of my old pillow cases! All those attachments, (that I now know are presser feet) I thought I would never have a need for, are slowly getting used one by one. I love finding out how useful they really are and how much of a time (sanity) saver they are. I've rolled a hem! Woohoooo! Now for those of you that learned to sew when you were young, this may not seem like a big deal....but....I rolled a hem! Ha.

I found a lovely group on yahoo, "All Things Primitive" (link to this group is on the left column). I had never made anything other than lines on the pillow cases. So I figured it's now or never, and started signing up for their challenges and swaps. Having other people expecting something of you and having a deadline was just what I needed.

This was my first challenge. Pattern by Happy Hearts. They were fun and a good learning project. Also my first experience with coffee dye. Such a patient kitty lol.

Here are the trees I made from the Christmas Tree challenge pattern.

 

That's all for now, until I get the rest of the pictures off my cam of the really fun swap we had for February! 

Happy creating!