$5 mini monday

I made keychains for the $5 Mini Plush Mondays at the plushteam etsy store!

buy something handmade

It's Etsy Day!

Today, Etsy is promoting Etsy--buyers and sellers are out there promoting the site and declared today Etsy Day! So I'm going to list a few of my favorite Etsy shops.



Felted Style is a Seattle area seller with really neat items.



Yaelfran has been making really unique art for some time. I love her latest works.



Thymbyldesigns combines materials in unconventional designs.



Down to the Wire Designs is a Seattle area metalsmith.



Pink Bathtub Designs makes all unique papergoods that I've liked for as long as I've been on Etsy.




Also, don't forget the fantastic Etsy Plush Team! Check out our team site for all the member links. Some really fantabulous plush!





And of course, my shop SLC Studio. Because it's Etsy Day and I'm in promo mode. :)

cute enough to eat

Anna The Red has made some super cute Totoro Cream Puffs.

mug

The new mug from the Orla Kiely line at Target. I got the brown pear and the other little flowers and will have to go back to see the others, which were not on the shelf. I also snapped up some of the pear towels to make into cushion covers for our chairs--they were about $6 while the chair cushions were about $14. I also really liked the kitchen floor foam mat, but all I kept thinking was how it would stain and it could only be wiped clean. That's not really going to be much help in our kitchen with the way I cook.

I also really really like the storage boxes, but they're too big for my desk and they're way too girly for the boy's playroom. So I stay on the hunt for storage and organizational stuff.

new cards

Latest little card--a plush pin on a piece of stock that comes off the card. The pin can be put on anything from a coat to a tote bag to a scarf or simply hung up on the wall (think shadowbox).

You can find it in my etsy shop.

save handmade

“As of Feb. 10, it will become unlawful to make or sell anything intended
for use by children under 12 without a program to test the goods for lead
— even if no items of their kind have ever been found to pose a lead risk,
even if you make and sell only a few inexpensive items a year, even if
you've sourced their materials from the most conscientious local suppliers
and even if they're items toddlers seldom convey into their mouths, such as dartboards or bicycle tires."

Yeah. That's me. I make stuff for kids under 12 with materials that have never been found to pose a lead risk and I only sell a few inexpensive items a year. Plus, my materials are purchased from commercial manufacturers (one of the ill-defined points in this law) who are already required to pass their own level of tests. It's preposterous and poorly written by a government agency who seems to have cobbled together a law out of knee-jerk reaction rather than research or thought to the total impact.

So even if you raise sheep, shear their wool, spin it into thread, dye the thread with blueberry juice, felt or knit a stuffed toy, stuff the toy with that wool you sheared from your sheep, you would be required to pay a ridiculous fee to have that stuffed toy tested for lead, and that toy would, of course, most likely be destroyed during the testing procedures.

This is the reason why so many indie handcrafters and artisans are asking for changes and trying to prevent this from becoming law.

Go to the Etsy site for more information and the Action Kit, which has all the info you'll ever need about this issue and what you can do to get involved.

Red Cookie

Red Cookie, originally uploaded by niherlas.

We made cookies! We ran out of confectioners sugar, so we only had enough to make red and green, but had a bunch of sprinkles.

Snow!

Roads are bad, school is cancelled. We're sitting home and waiting to go out and play.

Octonauts

I'm a sucker for this kind of kid's book. I mean, just go and check out Meomi's site! Too cute!

Joss Whedon talks crafts

Ever since the Jayne hat, crocheters and knitters across the geeky craftdom have rejoiced. And Kim Werker from Crochetme.com has been trying to pin down Joss for a interview about it. He finally "sat down" with her and
talks about crafts.

"I always want things to become plush."

It makes my little geeky plush making heart zing.

Tagarific

6 Things about me:

1. I'm a terrible blogger. (As if the heavily infrequent posts don't show that already.)
2. I'm a gamer grrl. Or maybe I'm not hip enough to be a grrl, but I am female and I do game. I've been playing video games (console and PC/Mac) since I was a kid. We had Pong. I loved Pac Man. And I was pretty good at Asteroids and Space Invaders. I love rpg-type games, adventure games, shooters (although FPS games make me nauseous), survival horror. I've played D&D, Call of Cthulu, the Word of Darkness rpgs, love all kinds of card games including Poker and stuff like Give Me the Brain and Plague and Pestilence. And yeah, I grew up playing Monopoly, Sorry, Uno, Life... WoW has been going strong since the first open beta so long ago... (obviously this is what keeps me from blogging...!)
3. I don't like Spam. Eeeevil in a can!
4. I love musicals and horror movies (you'd think I'd like Spam, then, because it's pretty horrific.)
5. I want so much to like flowers, but I'm not good about their care.
6. I'm really bad about hanging up pictures on the wall.



1. Link to the person who tagged you. (No one tagged me, but you can link back here. I promise to post more!)
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (Go to plushteam.blogspot.com and tag my fellow plushie makers!)
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

A Moon Bun treat

The Etsy Plush Street Team held a year-end secret swap, and the fantastic Marcy from Moon's Creations sent me these adorable Moon Buns! I love 'em!

stuffie making

Here's the Renegade gang. Making stuff like crazy. More on the table, I just have to cut out more fleece.

My local JoAnn's has closed and the pricier craft store was out of safety eyes. So I may have to drive to the super JoAnn's, which is next door to the Michael's craft store. But I really ought to buy these safety eyes in bulk... or go back to using buttons as eyes. I like the flat expressions the safety eyes gives, though--I think it fits better with my simple shapes and candy colors.

In other news, I've started making a pop-up cards for all the friends' kids' birthdays.

I added a tag with a brad on the red part to help them find the "pull" for the pop up. I've made a couple of these--July was a hot month for birthdays--and only took one picture. *sigh* I really need to be better about documenting these things so I can remember what I did, who I did it for, and which stamp/color combo I used. I also made a slide card for another kidlet birthday, and also forgot to snap a picture. You'd never know I have a dedicated corner for snapping pictures, would you. Ha!

I'll be participating by sending some stuffies with lots of the Plush Team members! The Renegade craft fairs are HUGE! Tons and tons of great stuff! Mark it on your calendars!

stonesoup

stonesoup, originally uploaded by SLC Studio.

The Plushteam had a Fairytale challenge. I was paired with the immensely wonderful Fuzfrenzy and we came up with Hansel & Gretel and Stone Soup. Crazy days swallowed all my time, and here, finally, are my stone soup ingredients. I was going to make a pot, but I'm already a month late, so here it is.

Spring Challenge

A couple of things I did for the Etsy Plush Street Team spring challenge.


This was for the Bunny category. She's named Pinky and has a little pouch for her carrots.


This is Myrah, a pastel colored critter for the spring fling category.

Soon, voting will open up at the Plush Team site. Check it out. :)

(I also finally figured out how to make the images brighter on my camera, so hopefully the pictures won't be so dark. And starting in April, I'm going to attempt to update the blog a little more often.)

candy boxes

I've been lax in updating the blog. Small projects lately. Made some candy boxes for a Valentine's Day school fund raiser. Simple little white boxes wrapped in a strip of paper not quite the width of the box and tied with a ribbon.



I added a matching tag with space on the back for To and From. They were filled with little candy hearts.



I like how they came out. It wasn't very time consuming and this same paper-strip-wrap could be used on a larger scale for presents.

happy december

We got a smattering of snow last night. It is already melty. It's chilly out, but not really cold in the frigid-we-have-snow way.

I still can't believe it's already December.

Advent calendar

With the holidaze coming up, I thought I'd make a quick advent calendar. This is the finished calendar, which ended up being four pages on 8.5"x11" size cardstock.



I started with some shipping tags and decorative papers cut to make pockets.


Then I trimmed the pocket paper with decorative scissors for a fun little border.


Here's what they begin to look like grouped. I tried staples, but I didn't like how they looked and just went with tape.


Small tags with ribbon on top will be the surprise seen each day. I'm still not sure what to write, exactly, but since there's no real room for candy, I might just stamp or draw a piece of candy for the boy. Or it might be a promise to play a certain game or go to a certain place or have ice cream. Or something.


Each pocket is stamped with a number. 24 leading up to xmas.

And here is the finished bit, the pockets attached to black cardstock with snowflake brads and tied together with a ribbon. I still need to figure out where to hang it.

Next year, I want to make little stockings out of felt or cotton or linen so that candies or trinkets can be put inside the calendar.

Star

The etsy plush street team is getting together to form the words out of plushies. Here's my contribution.



This was try #2. The first one just looked funny, so I redid it. Go figure.