Holiday Gifts 2010

I know, I know. It's over a month past Christmas, but I'm still doing holiday-related posts. I *think* this is the last one, so bear with me, okay?

For Christmas 2010, our goal was to give all hand-made presents. And we actually succeeded, save for 1.5 recipients. And that didn't necessarily mean that I made all of the gifts. They could be handmade by someone else, too. (Yay for Etsy!). I was proud that we were almost able to meet our goal, but it definitely came at a price - it is SO time-consuming! I know you're thinking, "Duh, emily.", but sometimes I conveniently forget that little fact. 

Here's the breakdown:

My dad spends a LOT of time at the library, and I know from experience that the pile of books he hauls gets quite cumbersome. So we decided to give him a tote bag for his trips to the library. This was made from some super-soft thrifted fabric that I thought looked "manly" enough for my dad to sport, lined with some grey thrifted suiting. And it includes a Bluestar Star!

Stephen's mom has been dabbling in knitting and expressed she wanted to make a market bag. So I used this tutorial, scaled it a bit larger, and made a yarn stash basket for her knitting projects. I also included a couple skeins of cotton yarn that I like using for my knit market bags.

I made a scarf for Stella's sitter and speech therapist. The main fabric is cotton jersey, and I screen printed the fabric leaves and hand-sewed them on to either end of the scarf. I also added my new screen printed Bluestar Ink garment tag to the edge.

Speaking of knit market bags, I made one for my mom for Christmas. I played around with changing yarn colors a bit and creating some stripes. It's not too complicated, but I'm still a pretty inexperienced knitter and I thought it looked kinda cool!

I've developed a new shoulder bag design (which I've neglected to share), so I made one for Stephen's sister-in-law. I used some totally amazing thrifted fabric that I've been saving for-e-ver. No project was ever good enough to use it on, so I decided, if nothing else, I'll see her often enough, and see the bag so I can continue appreciating the fabric. If it was going to a stranger, I'd never see it again! (I know, I have weird reasoning). Oh - and the striped lining and button are also thrifted.

So that's my Holiday 2010 handmade (by me) gift round-up! Apparently, as I write this post, I REALLY like bags. Can you tell?

I'm off to work on some gifts for next year...
...just kidding...

Candyland Gallery Show

While the air temperature was hovering around the zero mark last Friday night, that didn't stop the hardy folks of Milwaukee, Wisconsin from stopping by the first-ever Plush Team gallery show opening at the awesome Hot*Pop Shop. The theme was Candyland, and everyone's sweet tooth was out in full force. From zombie gingerbread men to huggable gummy bears to flaming fireballs, the Plush Team was representing! And to top it all off, there was a candy buffet and a gypsy band. It was a glorious night.

These are three Fuzzies I made for the occasion: Cabu, the candy button monster, Spinsu, the cotton candy with super sexy legs and Pebuckly the peanut butter cup. I have to say, since I primarily make more traditional plush consisting of animals and simple monsters, these were a fun challenge! I wanted them to still look like Bluestar Fuzzies, with the characteristic eyes, cheeks and star, but still mold them into some candy goodness.

And some photos from the big night:

Clockwise from top left:

• There were several candy-themed banners made by the members of the Plush Team. My 
  candy cane exclamation point is at the end of "CANDY!".
• Stella and Stephen were entertained by the original life-size Tyler Poncho.
• My Fuzzies, hanging in all their glory.
• Stella and I hanging out with Big Bunny and Tyler Poncho.
• The walls of the bathroom were covered with chalkboard paint, so I took it upon myself to
  leave a little Fuzzy mark.
• Some girls enjoying the story of Cabu.
• Hot*Pop shop - thank you so much for hosting us! Hopefully we'll be back next year.
• That's me, standing in front of my candy creations.

All-in-all, the show was fantastic! It looked great, thanks to Christina and Kaeti. Hot*Pop was a perfect venue for our plush, as the product really complemented each other. Despite the frigid weather, there was still a steady stream of gallery-goers and the music accompaniment was absolutely wonderful. I was so excited to meet some members of the Plush Team, artists whose work I respect so much! And it sounds like Hot*Pop wants us back next year. Woo hoo!

For those of you who couldn't make it Friday night, the show will be up through March 20 if you're in the Milwaukee area. Otherwise, check out all of my other photos here. I tried my best to capture the ambiance of the night and all the fabulous plush pieces.

Plush Team at Candyland Gallery Opening

 

Friday, January 21 • 5:00pm - 10:00 pm

Hot Pop Gallery Milwaukee, WI

213 N. Broadway

What happens when a guild of internationally recognized plush artists descend upon Milwaukee in Winter for January Gallery Night? Candyland! See works created especially for Hot Pop Gallery by members of the Plush Team.

Please join us for the opening of Candyland at HotPop. Enjoy musical treats and an amazing candy buffet with samples of Plush Team favorites sent to MKE from all over the globe.

Plush Team artists have been featured in galleries all over the world! Including: Schmancy- Seattle, Chromeo- Vancouver, Gallery Hanahou-NYC, StitchWars, Bear & Bird Gallery-Miami, and many more. Numerous Plush Team members are featured in STUFFED Magazine every issue.

RSVP at our Facebook event!

www.hotpopshop.com

2010 Holiday Projects

Happy snowy Monday! Here in Wisconsin the snow is coming down and I'm listening to the sounds of the snow plow clearing the roads in our neighborhood. I think that is one of my favorite auditory memories. I remember as a child, once I heard the low rumble heading up our street, I'd sprint to the front window and watch the glow of the plow's headlight cut through the blowing snow. The slightly unnerving sound of metal grating on pavement gave me a shiver as the plow tossed piles of snow on the bottom of our driveway. We knew that snow would eventually lead to amazing snow forts built into the drifts.

So, back on track. Today I want to share some of the Holiday-themed projects I tackled for the 2010 holiday season. I didn't go too crazy this year, since I was focusing much of my energies on handmade gifts, but I was pretty excited with how these turned out, nonetheless:

1. 8-pointed snowflakes - Stella and I had fun making paper snowflakes, which we hung in the opening between our kitchen and living room. I think we're going to keep them up all winter, since they're not too Christmas-y.

2. Santa Bird screen printed ornament, which I've already shown on the blog here.

3. Stella's holiday dress - I took one of Stephen's old plain black t-shirts and made it into Stella's dress. I gathered the neckline and sleeves and appliqued some vintage fabric circles onto the front and the back for a little whimsy. She wore it with a white long-sleeved shirt underneath, white tights, a black headband, and her shiny black "party" shoes. It was pretty adorable, if I do say so myself!

4. Felt tree garland - Thank goodness for die-cutters, is all I have to say about this project. When I first decided I was going to tackle this one, I was planning on hand-cutting all the fabric circles. After talking to my mom, who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator, she told me the S.U. die cutter would be able to cut through felt. So when I was visiting my parents one weekend, I spent hours sending piles of felt through her Big Shot die cut machine. Then I just sewed a straight stitch through them all, stringing them all together. After it was hung on the tree, I loved the color it brought to the room. I'm hoping next hear to make a yarn pom-pom wreath in the same colors to coordinate.

That's it! 
Have a great week!

 

Holiday Card 2010

Now that the holidays are officially over, I think I can safely share our 2010 holiday card without ruining anybody's surprise. 

Every year, we create a card that depicts our whole family. It's usually Stephen's task to come up with the theme, and then I am in charge of execution. This year, my goal was to screen print the card, so it had to be somewhat simplified. Unfortunately, that also meant cutting the animals out, because it was getting way too busy. Sorry Chloe and Rothko!

The colors also had to be pared down, as had my illustration linework - that proved to be quite challenging, because much of my style is in the details! That meant many failed print tests until I finally got a combination that worked.

My other challenge for this project was registration. Apparently when I cut down the paper to size, they weren't all exactly the same size. That meant even 1/16" off caused major misalignment. So, I ended up registering each one individually to minimize the issue. Even then, it wasn't perfect, but it'd have to do.

It is times like these when I realize I am really still a newbie screen printer. I'm sure there are tricks that could have helped my registration process, but I don't know them, so I just had to deal. Every project I feel like I learn a little more, so maybe in 10 years or so I will be able to consider myself an expert. Until then, I'll have to settle for not-quite-perfection. 

Stephen is also responsible for the poem inside. I really loved what he wrote for this card:

Embrace this wonderful time of year

With snowy fun and winter cheer!

So find the cocoa, get out the mugs

We extend to you, Stella hugs!

 
The cards were printed on French Paper Pop-Tone Red Hot paper. Man, I love that paper.

Till next time!

Sweet Cheeks

I must have been a good girl in 2010 because Santa delivered this little guy to me this year. You can imagine my surprise and delight when I opened my Secret Santa gift from Squirrel Momma:

My heart just melted when I saw his adorable grin and pouf of curls atop his head. And he's turquoise! My favorite color. I couldn't have been more overjoyed...until I flipped him over...and there - the sweetest little cheeks smiling back at me. Oh, I am in love!

So thank you, thank you thank you, dear Amy of Squirrel Momma! You've made this mama a very happy girl. My new Sweet Cheeks has a new home right next to my computer - where I can see him every single day. Merry Russian Christmas to me!

Check out more of Amy's work at her shop or her wonderful Flickr stream.


And Happy Holidays to y'all from BluestarFuzzies!

STUFFED Winter 2011 Feature

Here's some exciting new for y'all: The Winter 2011 issue of STUFFED Magazine is now available and it is packed with some fantastic plush goodness. And...the Bluestar Fuzzies are featured on pages 10-13. Woo Hoo!

You can read all about Drob, Ewlee and Bomat, three hooligans from an elite snowboarding, crime-fighting, mystery-solving monster team that shreds crazy pow pow and saves the world from bad guys. Don't they sound like fun? 

Also featured in STUFFED are several members of the Plush Team:

GreenStarStudio (Danamarie Hosler)

Talkproof (Cassandra Cheng) - Cover Feature!

Scrumptious Delight (Becky Gould)

LeftZ (Mary Casher)

Tyler Poncho Toys (Kaeti Lindquist)

Gallery section:

Plushroom Soup (Jessica Pucket)

Chris Creatures (Chris Hwang)

Out of the Frame (Rowan Hellyer)

Stuff We Love section:

Team member Tyler Poncho's Red Heel Sock Monkey Kits!

Once again, I am so honored to be a part of this wonderful magazine. It is comprised of so many inspiring plush artists from around the world, and I feel so lucky to be in their company.

You can find STUFFED Magazine at your local JoAnne Fabrics or Barnes & Noble.

Cheers!

Hello 2011! {And a desktop calendar}

Happy New Year! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Ours was filled with family, friends, good food (and bellyaches), lots of driving, a little racquetball and some quality relaxation. It was fantastic, and it went WAY too fast. But that's how it is, and now we are back in the good ol' routine.

I have so many things I want to share, from new Fuzzies to handmade gifts, but first I want to start the year off with one of my new projects: the desktop calendar. Every month I'm going to post a calendar you can download for your computer wallpaper.

So here it is: January 2011!

 You can also download it here.

Please note that this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


Have a great week!