Another new illustration!

I've been working on a new set of illustrations recently for www.artflakes.com.

Prints of this illustration and others will be available for purchase within

the next month or so...I'll keep you posted!

Crafty Bastards Part Deux

Even tho many vendors have credit card capabilities these days, cash is still the way to go, and at this show, tons OF it.  The venue even had a handy traveling ATM bus just for our convenience...a convenience that lasted an eternity in line waiting for it to be convenient.  Waiting...

BUT, right NEXT to the ATM bus was this cupcake truck I mentioned before!  I didn't buy any, but it looked pretty inviting.

And not to hammer this topic to death, but after we got our money, we entered the crafting area, I turned around, and there was her tent...I wasn't expecting to find it right off the bat!

It actually took us around five hours to go through and see all the vendors.  After about three, we were all getting a bit floppy from the sun, lack of water, and need for food.  We saw several people walk by with pitas filled with stuff that looked and smelled reeeeeally good...so we tracked it down and got falafel. 

Which was, of course, delicious.

I don't have any pictures of anything I got other than this beautiful hand embroidered sweater with bird silk screens on it.  I had pretty much already reached my spending limit, but it was too beautiful to pass up.  One of my friends also got a VERY nice sweater dress with more amazing embroidery from this woman.

Turns out the pictures of me with the girl stranger wearing my same shoes and outfit were too dark to see anything, so I didn't bother.  But that's it for now.  Happy crafting!

Crafty Bastard Weekend

Gah!  This past weekend, the craftdactyls travelled from the North and South to convene in Washington, DC for the annual Crafty Bastards (wicked awesome) craft show.  Even tho our (my) sole purpose in going was to meet my crafting hero, it was also a wonderful excuse to meet up for a girl's weekend with childhood friends...and of course, to spend my inheritance craft shopping!!

It is no secret that I have become utterly smitten with the craft works (heh--I just thought of the 80s electronic band, Kraftwerk) of My Paper Crane, WHO by the way, is giving away a copy of her new book over on her website, so check it out.

Here I am totally overwhelmed by all the coolness, and trying to figure out what to buy.  My sister had also just asked me if I had figured out what I was going to say to My Paper Crane yet, and I'm shooing her question away.  I was trying to blend in with the cool.

I finally made up my mind and bought a carrot (which I've been wanting since last February), and a pouch made from her happy vegetables pattern.  As I handed her my things, I started panicking because I still couldn't think of what to say and was afraid of losing the opportunity.  Fortunately, my sister stepped right in and spoke up for me, telling her flat out that she was my crafting hero, which opened the flood gates, and My Paper Crane's husband took a picture of us to commemorate the meeting.

It was incredible!!  She was so nice (as expected), and invited me to pose as a mushroom face in her gnome picture, as many others had already done that day. 

My sister, friends and I had a wonderful day, full of art and craft inspiration.  At some point I'll post pictures of the cupcake truck and the girl who had the same shoes as me.  What were the chances?

New Illustration

"An Alternate Plan"

Colon

A friend of mine has Crohn's disease and recently had to have a portion of his colon removed.  Six days later, a group of us went to visit him for his 24th birthday, so in honor of both occasions, I decided to make him a plush colon to replace the one he had taken out.

Not having the vaguest idea what a colon actually looks like, I did a lot of google image searches first to see what I was getting into.  The best picture I could find is shown at the bottom of this post.  But after much planning, I went ahead and cut a pattern from newspaper, then made the front and back out of pink fleece.

Colons have multiple segments which I re-created by sewing lines across the front piece.

He even has an appendix on top of his head, and a bandaid on his forehead because he got a little beat up when he was taken out of my friend.  But all went well with both patient and colon, hence the smiley face :)

Something that stumped me for a while was making the ridge down his back.  I wanted to put some wire in it to make him bendable, so the ridge seemed like the best place.  After the wire was secured, the most difficult thing about the whole project was turning him right side out!!

It all worked out in the end, and my friend (who has a wonderful sense of humor) absolutely loved it.  He wanted to put his plush colon under his hospital gown the next morning and surprise his doctors with it :) 

Now I'm fantasizing about creating other kinds of plush viscera to sell in hospital gift shops for all occasions :)

Another giveaway!

Be sure to check out this very nice spotlight of my crafting hero, and if interested, enter the giveaway at the bottom.  I'm very excited to learn that My Paper Crane will be one of the vendor's at Indie Craft Experience in Atlanta this November!  For me, this will be like going to the Depeche Mode show of crafters.  Can't wait!!

Tiny Apron

It's birthday time again; this time for my little niece who'll be 5 in a couple of weeks.  Right now she is obsessed with mermaids, anything "pretty", and of course, the color pink.  I knew I wanted to make her something, but wanted to stay away from extremely girlie prints while still catering to her pretty preferences.

I came across this awesome (free!) apron pattern at Sew Liberated which was specifically designed for little kids.  Not only is it very wee, but she was clever enough to make the waist strap velcro to the body rather than burden little hands with tying bows.

I just love this fabric!!  I decided on it fairly quickly at Hobby Lobby, and without even considering how little fabric I actually needed for the apron, I inadvertently bought MORE than I needed, so I have plenty extra for future projects.

It turned out pretty well, except for the usual snags.  I'm still having trouble with stitch settings; the current tension on my machine is still too tight for top stitching, so it makes unattractive pulls on the undersides of things.  I also never worked with velcro before, and as evidenced below, I had issues with straight lines...(arrrgh!!).

I also wish I had added a pocket to the front so my niece could carry around art supplies or mermaids in it, but I thought of it too late.  Ah well, next time!