Bunny Pieces

The days have been getting away from me. I had hoped to have a whole gaggle of bunny-kids in the shop in time for Easter, and here we are nearly a week until E-day!

I did have enough time to get a handful of sweethearts done, and I hope to get them photographed and listed soon...hopefully by tomorrow! That should give me a couple days worth of sales that I can get them shipped out in time for Easter ♥

Today we took the girls to the big egg hunt in our town. Bella's age group (1-2) was first, of course. She got upset and just plopped down on the ground, crying. The parent's aren't supposed to help, but we were kicking eggs her way and trying to convince her to pick them up and put in her basket. She ended up with 2 pieces of candy and vouchers for TWELVE oatmeal cream pies! LOL

Brianna, on the other hand, really got into the action this year. She was very focused and excitedly picked up so many eggs! She got quite a few little candy bars, plus vouchers for a small can of root bear, 4 cartons of chocolate milk, and two bags of chips. She also had a $1 in an egg, which she bought some gum with and shared with us. What a good little girl ♥

We have so many free promotional pictures (plus a set of professional ones) of the girls with chicks, bunnies, and lambs from this year, I may end up doing a whole post dedicated to that soon!!

Pom-pom Head

*Update* I have listed the Bunny-girl and white dog in my Etsy shop now!

Here is a little "Pom-pom Head" I made yesterday afternoon while watching Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist. This is another technique from the craft book, but I embellished it to make it "squishified."

The body/ears are made from pipe-cleaners, and the head is a handmade pom-pom created from 100% cotton yarn. I think she turned out really cute!

It is my intention to get the dogs and puppies listed either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. I may go ahead and list this bunny, or I might make a handful of them and list next week. I haven't decided ☺

We are off to my parent's new house soon so that my husband can with the finishing touches...I am bringing supper, so I better go check on the apple-crumb pie in the oven!

Jewel-tone Puppies

My pipe-cleaner spree continues! This particular pattern of dog is my favorite to make, so I sat at my mom's one boring Sunday and cranked these "little puppies" out. I am crazy for these curly chenille stems, which don't really resemble normal pipe-cleaners at all! I think the results is very cute and somewhat vintage-inspired.

Here is a curly black dog (you decide the breed!). I made the collars out of vinyl fabric, and on these particular ones I attached a tiny little bell...so you can hear if he tries to scamper off.

...and here is the white version with a contrasting black collar. I added a little gold grommet for some detail.

Last but not least, I made a litter of multi-colored puppies! Rumor has it that their mother only ate Jelly Belly's while she was expecting... They are somewhat smaller/shorter than the black/white dogs, but they make up for size with personality. Each has a little black collar with coordinating grommet details.

I think that these dogs (or any of the chenille animals) would make great little ornaments, shelf-sitters, or {adult} dollhouse decorations. You could stick them on a piece of dowel to make a floral pik, or just use as a gift package decoration. I have given a few away already, and people LOVE them! I need to work on photos, etc. and then I hope to have them in my etsy shop no later than Wednesday. What do you all think?

Pipe Cleaning

(A little pipe cleaner teddy bear, which was the companion to the doll I sent to Bunzi in our trade)

I am still tinkering with making my own "light tent" to help take better pictures of some small things. Have any of you ever done this? I am following this tutorial . I played with it this week, and now I have a few photos to show of my addictive, fun new hobby!

This Japanese craft book I purchased on eBay from Hong Kong has some of the coolest ideas in it you have ever seen. The best thing is, it basically teaches you a variety of techniques, and you can really use your imagination to customize and create new animals and other creatures. Since I cannot read Japanese (is there anyone here who can??), I just have to follow the photos/diagrams. Here is a smattering of what I have done:

Mr. Owl (which Brianna swears is an eagle). It is hard to see in the photo, but he (and all of the rest) are very much 3-D and has a tail.

There are actually two different designs for "bear"; this one is supposed to be more of a real bear/animal, while the one I made Bunzi is a toy/teddy.

Brianna was me for a chicken to go with the little Easter chenille chicks that I have, so this is what I did during naptime. Can you say bribe?? He is a little ratty-looking around the feathers, as he has been handled by small hands quite a bit.



Mr. Fox is one that I definitely took some liberties with. In the example, he had a yellow stripe running down his tail! Now, we all know that real foxes have white (or black) tipped tails. As a side note, I had a pet arctic fox as a child from 6th grade until I was in college. I lived in Missouri, not Alaska ☺ I may have to do an all-white version and try to recreate him!

These are my practice ones. I have made about 15 different animals, so far. My favorites are the dogs, which I am getting quite good at. I need to take some photos of them, but I have given them all away! Good thing I stocked up on thousands of pipe cleaners from Hobby Lobby. I have been looking for a low-ticket item for my Etsy shop... do you think these would be something you, personally, would buy? I'd love the input!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Playing with Pipe Cleaners