The Tuesday Marketplace wasn't as much of a success as I had hoped, but I did learn A LOT from it! :)  Nest weekend I'm trying my hand at an actual craft fair!!!  It's at the beach, and I'm super excited for it! Not only do I get to sell my decoden and amigurumi and plushies, but I also get to sell all the jewelry I've made too!!  Super stoked about it! :D
I've been looking for cake platers to display items on in my booth, but haven't had any luck finding ones I like at a reasonable price.  Oh sure, I've found lots that I like, but I didn't want to pay what the were asking.  So I did what any other crafty person would do, I made my own!!  I was at home goods and saw some nice ceramic plates then I some some matching bowl, and the light bulb went off.  I realized I could glue the plate to the bowl and have my own platter!!!  I really like the way they turned out.  I used Jewelry glue because that's what I had on hand.  And because those turned out so well, I went to Goodwill to see what i could find there, and I found some awesome tea plates and mini shot glasses!  I was hoping to find tea cup/plate sets, but I didn't want to pay #7 for 1 set.......... So I did the next best thing.  I really like the way they turned out too.  Not to mention, they would be adorable cupcake display stands!  I think I'll be displaying cupcake amigurumi on them when I make some, and probably some bracelets too.

Well, time to get back to crafting!!
Happy crafting everyone! :)

Getting ready

I'm so excited!!  I'm going to be a vendor at one of our local farmer's markets!!!  It's only on Tuesday nights and I'm only doing it 3 weeks.  Starting off slow so I don't get overwhelmed and discouraged.  I've gotten quite a bit of deco den done, Now it's time to get cracking on the amigurumi's.  That's what they wanted to see more of anyway.  Just wanted to update everyone on  how things are going.  And I have stopped swapping for the moment.  The only one I'm doing is the Little Visitor swap. :)  It's a lot of fun.

Happy Crafting!! :)

Klarabelle is done!!

I'd like to introduce everyone to Klarabelle!  I had seen pics of an amigurumi cow girl that someone else had posted and thought they were just the most adorable thing and wanted to make my own.  She was supposed to go to a silent auction for a charity event I attend every year, but sadly, she wasn't done in time, so it looks like I will be either saving her for next year, or selling her and making a new one for next year.  Not sure which one.  I may make a new one because who knows what she'll look like in a year.
But I think she is definitely my favorite amigurrmi so far to date.  I think she is one of the cutest that I've made so far. So onto the details a little.  Since she's a cow-girl, I wanted to use blue gingham ribbon, so I was just abdolutely thrilled when I went to Jo-Ann's today and actually found it!!  I had mainly gone to pick up the red riboon and bells and decided to look for the gingham ribbon as well.  I also was going to brush blush or colored pencil on her cheeks but I didn't like the way it was looking so I just cut out some pink felt and glued it on.  I think the only big change I would make for next time, is bigger eyes.
Now she needs a friend, so I'm going to make her a brother and name him Ferdinand.  In honor of Ferdinand the bull.  I'm pretty sure it was a Disney short from back in the day.  And I've always loved that cartoon, so he will be my next ami! :)
But first, here are the pics of Klarabelle! :)
Here is a front shot of her, isn't she just the cutest thing!!!

and here she is from behind, I braided her tail and tied some black yarn and frayed it to make it look like a a tail.
I hope you all like her! :)

Happy Crafting!

Amineko craft challenge!!

I'm so excited!  I've joined the Amineko challenge on Ravelry.  The challenge is to crochet 12 amineko in 2012.  I'm a couple months behind so I need to get cracking!  I love the Amineko book, and since I just found my copy so I can start crocheting!  I'm so excited!  Any excuse to crochet!  :)  I really want to make a giant amineko.  I'm excited!  Plus, this is going to be an awesome stash buster!!!  Now to decide what colors I want to make all my aminekos in!! :D

Happy New Year!!

I can't believe we're already 3 weeks into the new year!!  I'm so excited!  It's starting to look like this year is going to be a fantastic year!  I'm in 2 swaps already, one is the 80s cartoon swap which I'm almost done with and the other is an anime/manga swap.  You can never have to many anime goodies! :)  Not to mention, I've already got my first few crafts underway!  It's been a little on the rainy side the last week (and snow too) so I haven't been able to work on the big projects I have for myself.  I bought some furniture with the goal of up-cycling it.  I have managed to get 1 piece almost all sanded down.  It's a small side table.  It was black to start off with, but when I'm done, I'm going to find a comic book, not sure which one yet, and cut it up and glue the papers to the top of the table.  Then I will seal it all with something.  I have to do more research into that part of it.  I thought doing resin would be good because it would seal the and protect the paper.  My first thought was to get the comic where superman died, and use the big pull out with Lois Lane holding superman in her arms.  that would be awesome!!  I still may do that.  I even thought about drawing some pictures to paste to the top of it, making it a more one of a kind piece.  But I'm still thinking.  There's not much I can do with it right now anyway with the weather the way it is.  I have some other pieces that I bought that also need to be refinished, so as soon as it warms up, and I don't freeze my fingers off outside, I can start working on those things next :)

I have also gotten my first few pendants made.  I did some jars and an altoid tin as well.  I decoden'd them.  Here's the pics.

altoid tin

jar, you can't see it in this pic, but I also used brown hot glue on this to make it look like dripping chocolate

Kawaii baby food jar

used to be a toothbrush holder, is now a decoden pencil/pen holder

so you can see the pink and brown glue I used to give it a kind of chocolate/strawberry feel :)

the kawaii/lolita pendants I made

a closeup of the pink kawaii/lolita pendant

  I also made some other jewelry.  I finished my first ever piece of steampunk jewelry!  A pin.  I really like the way it turned out.  I'd like to add more to it, but I'm having a hard time finding parts, and I'm not very good with clay to make my own.

I also made some Twilight inspired cell phone straps/zipper pulls and a bookmark.

closeup, kind of an alternate version of Bella's bracelet.  With a red glass bead as a drop of blood.

And the colorful bracelet I made.  I love how bright and vibrant the colors are!  I'm not sure what the beads are, but I love them!  I also used fresh water pearls.

Hopefully this year will be the year I get a camera that will take pcitures that will do some justice to the pieces I make.  We'll see after tax season!  Plus, I'm also building up an inventory because I plan on doing my first craft fair this year.    I know it was one of my resolutions last year, but this year, I'm even closer than I was last year!  Going to get some jewelry made up, then probably some sewn toys, then some crocheted dolls.  So, my plan is to not do anymore swaps, except for the next one I plan on organizing, which is another anime/manga swap, but that will be sometime in the spring. :)  I've got my iPad, I've got my square (portable card reader) so once it gets closer to fair time, I will activate a data plan on my iPad so I can use my square! :)
Happy Crafting!!

Gem & Bead Faire!!

So excited!!  The Gem & Bead Faire is here this weekend!!!!  I wonder what kind of goodies they're going to have??  I wonder what kind of goodies I can make with what I buy??  This is gonna be so awesome!!  Taking my daughter and she's super excited to go too!! :D  Speaking of which, I had better go and wake her up so we can get ready to go!!  I don't want to deal with weekend traffic.
Oh, I almost forgot, our Halloween costumes were a hit!!  I'll have to post pics of them later!  Time to go wake up the munchkin and go to the Faire!!!! YAY!!!!! :D

Being sick is the worst!

Now that I'm all better, I am back to working on the monkey and working on Halloween costumes as well.  I'm not sure how, but with the halloween costumes my math seems to be off and the tops of both are way to big.  But that's an easy fix!  I really love the way my daughter's is turning out!  But oh, the ruffles!!  Her petticoat is finally done, and it wasn't too difficult to make either.  A little time consuming, but not as bad as I had originally thought.  I think the worst part was cutting the tule.  I had a hard time keeping it even.  But once it was all cut out, I just rolled it up, and used my rotary cutter to make it even.  Sewing was the easiest!  It looks like a little tutu!  I found a video tut on youtube done by threadbanger.  It helped out A LOT!!!!
And crazy me has joined ANOTHER swap!  I wasn't going to, but I couldn't help it.  It's a Magic Yarn Ball swap (MYB)  And they're so much fun!!  For those of you who don't know what one is, you basically take a skein of yarn, unravel it, the re-ravel it into a b all shape, but inside you put little knick-knackey things that you make or buy.  You can put just about anything inside of it.  I had a lot of fun the last time I did one, and I'm super excited to get to do this one as well!  My partner likes a lot of the same stuff I do, and she likes all kinds of neat things too, I have to be careful not to go overboard!  But it will definately be easy with this one! lol

Off to go work on the monkey, then take a break from that and work on halloween costumes, then take a break from that and work on monkey again!

Happy Crafting everyone!