allsorts

My creative space - a peek into my drawers

Well, not my drawers, just one drawer, the shallow one in my fabric buffet (I have taken a shine to calling it that). Sorry about the blah photo, I'm not sure what the problem is, but I can't take a photo worth beans lately.  Well, you get the general idea.  The drawer is just deep enough for my art bin o' floss and a pink plastic divided thingie that once held my grandmother's costume jewelry and now holds sewing whatnots.

On top are some fq's that I picked up a couple of weeks ago at the Dallas quilt show, and Romsdol, an adorable folkster doll I snagged from the weewonderfuls etsy shop!  She's such a charmer!

So, that's my Creative Space peek for this week!  See more creative spaces here.

Cheers!

Jenny

Lula... the fashionable paper bunny

So, you have probably been wondered if I'd fallen off the planet. Nope, I've been playing with paper dolls!  I'm very pleased to introduce my first paper doll, Miss Lula Bunny.She was inspired by the dress-up activity on my web site, and has evolved from digital to a fabric design, to paper, to magnetic and back again to paper. I suppose you'd say I've been working on this one way or the other for years. So I am pretty excited to put this out there.

Miss Lula is four years old, four inches high, and has a very full schedule of social activities. She comes with four outfits that you can mix and match for a multitude of looks: party princess, play date, dance recital and swim time.

I used 60 lb. premium glossy photo paper, and archival inks, which gives a very colorful and vivid result. Also, I wanted to solve the issue paper dolls typically have with being floppy and not standing up properly. So I put on my engineering hat and designed a nifty card stock brace that allows her to stand up straight and not droop. Here is the complete set...

... which is now available in my etsy shop!  I really hope you like it, because I loved creating this and wouldn't mind designing a few more!

Cheers,

Jenny

Bounding Bunnypins - a Freebie for Friday!

Happy Friday! Wow, you guys outdid yourselves on the comments about my cleaned-up studio! I don't think I've ever had that many comments on one post before. Thanks!!! All those warm fuzzies made the effort seem a lot more worthwhile.

So here is a little something in return! I made up this little "bunnypin" and thought it would make a nice freebie pattern to share. It is really teensy, less than 3" across, but it looks very cute pinned to a sweater or a lapel.

They stitch up really quickly, so you could end up with a whole herd (flock?) of bunnies bounding across your Easter outfit. Or maybe tuck one into an Easter basket, very sweet.

Click here to download the Bounding Bunnypin pdf pattern*.

How to make your Bunnypin: (sorry about the wordiness, I'm not great at this part)

Out of felt, cut two of the bunny shape and one of the flower. With matching thread, whip stitch the edges of the bunny pieces together, starting where the front leg meets the head. Stitch around the front legs, then stop and push a tiny bit if polyfluff into each leg with a skewer. Then continue around the back legs and then stuff those and also the body. Then stitch around the ears, stuff those, and then finally around the nose, adding fluff before tying off where you started. Don't overstuff, just enough to be slightly poofy. Tie some thin ribbon around the bunny's neck, knotting at the back. Then using embroidery floss, bring your needle from the back of the bunny, coming up through the ribbon and the center of the flower, keeping a couple of inches of floss hanging out the back. Loop the floss around the needle and poke it back into the flower at the same spot, making a french knot. Draw the needle out the back, tie the ends of the floss together, pulling tight, and snip the excess. If you like, you can add a pin-back, but its really not necessary since you can just safety-pin it easily fom the back of whatever you are going to pin it to.

Enjoy making your bunnypins!

Cheers,

Jenny

*note - I am doing something a little different this time. Because I'm seeing more examples of people lifting and adapting copyrighted images, this is a password-protected file. So it can be opened and printed only with Adobe Reader or Acrobat, it cannot be opened with a graphics program like Photoshop. If you don't have Reader you can download it for free here.

My creative space

This is for Kirsty's My Creative Space Wednesday... at long last, some new photos of my studio! They are not great photos mind you, the light in here is very uncooperative in the afternoons. It blasts into the two westerly windows so I usually have to close the shutters by 3:00 or so. But, today the room is as clean and the most organized it has ever been, so I thought I should document it.

My favorite part is the Liatorp buffet from Ikea that stores my fabric and tons of other supplies, and quite stylishly. Before, I had ugly white shelving. Boy was I glad to see that go! Someday I hope to replace the Scandia pine shelving and desks, too. I can't even bring my self to show you a photo of that wall. Yuck.

Ugh, I didn't realize how bad these photos are until now.  I need a better lens for my camera, and maybe learning how to use it wouldn't hurt!

The three red frames hold fantastic papercut prints from Elsa Mora, and Ro brought me the lanterns from Singapore. Right now the floor has horrible old berber carpet on it, but that will change as soon as I figure out what I want to replace it with. The worktable is a huge old map desk. I covered the top with oilcloth and painted the base. I keep tons more stuff in Ikea boxes that fit perfectly underneath. I have three of those blue buckets that I use for trash and recycling. My felt is organized by color in the white stacking bins to the right of the worktable.

So that's it! My creative space!

Cheers,

Jenny

Look...

I've got a new muse... and she'll be arriving soon!

Cheers,

Jenny

More Christmas frivolity

Well, compared to most people I get an early start, but I'm slow to finish in the decorating department. The tree in the den is finally up and decorated after a false start: I set up a new pre-lit beauty I bought a couple of weeks ago, but after seeing it looming in the corner, had to ultimately accept that it was just too big for the room (thank heavens we hadn't gotten around to decorating it). We shifted it to the dining room (temporarily - I'll get back to that in a moment) and hauled this one back down from the attic. Bless its little heart, it is so old... it was my in-laws' when they lived in this house! But I love that it has a vintagey vibe going on... the needles are soft and papery, and go well with the humble homemade paper and felt decorations. Yes, we had to go through the usual three tries to get the lights strung evenly, but it warms my heart to see it bravely facing yet another Holiday at the Harrises. Can you tell how much I love this guy?

I think the little star dangles are my favorite part of the decorations. I posted a pdf of them as a freebie last year, but somehow forgot to add them to my sidebar with the other patterns and tutorials. Look down there to the left, or just click here to go to the original post. They're a fun addition to a family tree, providing built-in entertainment as people hunt for intentionally (or unintentionally) spelled out words dangling among the branches. I also love the pipe cleaner candy canes I made... would anyone be interested in a tutorial on those? I don't know if there are already a zillion of those out there, but I'd be happy to do one if there is a need.

Oh, back the the story of the other tree. The small (large) kink in Christmas decorating this year is that we are having new hardwood flooring installed in the living room on Tuesday! Are we insane or what? So once that's finished, the tree will slide into the living room and finally be decorated. In the meantime the dining room is still a mess and nothing can settle down until those long-awaited blankety-blank floors are down.

Oh, and I'm so incredibly thrilled with the response to the Pretty Maids and the Elfies patterns. I created a Loopsies flickr group for you to share your creations, either elfies or maids, or anything from other patterns that might come along in the future... Join here!

And you will love this... look at Elizabeth's "jenny b tree" ...

Cheers!

Jenny

Advent Countdown

We're back from our annual trek to Lake Charles, LA (or the Land of Lagniappe as Katy calls it) for the week-long feast of Thanksgiving with my dad's family. It was fabulous as always, and was over much too quickly. Oh well, on to the craziness that is December!

But wow, can you believe that Monday is December 1st? Already time to get out the ole Advent Calendar. And to remind everyone of the Flickr group Creative Advent Calendars. Its just been added to the left sidebar with the other groups. There have been some new and very creative ones added since I last checked.

These three are all from neu4bauer...

And this...

And this...

This is from scrappyfran...

These adorable slippers are from Carla Alexandra...

And this is from leelaglitzer...

So creative! Lots of ideas abound, there is something about the nature of the calendar that excites one's creative energy. I love the variety!

Please feel free to add yours as well if you like, we'd love to see it!

Cheers,

Jenny

Speaking of garlands

I can't take credit for this fantastic garland made by Elizabeth, except that she used my patterns for the scotty dog, felt peppermint stars and holiday dangles. Don't they make a cute combination? I would have never thought to do that. I'm blown away by her incredible knack for putting things together, and also for figuring out how to make things just by looking at a photograph. For example, in this photo of her craft shelves, you can see that she's made her own versions of Peek-a-boo the baby monster, Lulu the sock monkey and a couple of dollypops. I burst out laughing when I spotted them! How clever is that?

And she makes her own adorable original lovelies, just look at this sweet pincushion she created! I really love it.

She is truly a generous and talented artist. And if you knew her full story, you'd be even more amazed!

Thanks Elizabeth, I see the world as a much happier place through your eyes.

Cheers,

Jenny

Going gaga for garland

In between the gatherings of the weekend, I've done some material gathering for my next project. I lusted after this this and this last Christmas, so I rounded up the materials to make my own pom pom garland! Its for a new little white tree that followed me home from Michael's... I have a weakness for trees. Some people like to dress dolls. Me, I dress trees.

Ahem. Soooooo... I strung about nine feet or so, but ended up unstringing it. Too many beads, not enough pom. I also scored these bright aqua blue flocked beads marked way down at Joann's and they'll go into the mix. You can find great cheapo stuff in the kids arts and crafts aisle. I was so happy to find these stars there, too. I think Alicia used some in her garland. Too cute.

There are some fabulous ideas out there for all sorts of garlands. Check out the Gaga for Garlands group on Flickr to see just a few. This garland makes for a great lap craft while watching telly. It goes very fast so I'd better watch out. Its not that big a tree!

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - everything is fixed on my site, and the activities are ready and waiting for you to enjoy! And if you were not able to reach me via email last week, try again 'cuz its all working now.

One word

Wow, gosh, gee whiz y'all. Those little dolls sold out in about 24 hours. Thanks ever so much, you made all the work totally worth it. My printer ran out of ink, and the places near me are out, so it will be tomorrow before I can ship them out. Hope that's okay.

And I loved this one word meme Alicia just posted. I haven't done one of these in ages, and this one looks easy and interesting.

Where is your mobile phone? purse

Where is your significant other? upstairs

Your hair colour? brown
Your mother? missed

Your father? awesome

Your favourite thing? making

Your dream last night? involved

Your dream goal? tbd

The room you're in? stimulating

Your hobby? creating

Your fear? failure

Where do you want to be in 6 years? here

Where were you last night? here

What you're not? confident

One of your wish-list items? Sweden

Where you grew up? Texas

The last thing you did? email

What are you wearing? jeans

Your TV? off

Your pets? soon

Your computer? mac

Your mood? mellow

Missing someone? Katy
Your car? old
Something you're not wearing? suspenders
Favourite shop? bookstore

Your summer? blazing

Love someone? yeppers

Your favourite colour? duh

When is the last time you laughed? lunch

When is the last time you cried? today

Feel free to play along!

Cheers,

Jenny