Germy McGermerson

*sniffle* I cab't breabe frough mah nobe! This gude is in dere! Germing up teh blace. BAD GERM! *sniff snurzz*

I had some scraps of light green felt floating around. They were in wiggly shapes and inspired this germ. That and the fact that I can't breathe very well right now.

Get that nasty germ, Tater Tot!

Chimney Visitor

I heard scritching and scratching from the fireplace today - Ack! The cats were staring and pacing and mreowing. When I called my landlord, he suggested it could be a bird or a squirrel. His solution was to open the front door wide and open the flue and see what falls out! Ack!

I shut the cats in the basement and opened up the doors. When Mr. Landlord came over he had heavy cloth gloves and a gigantic plastic trash bag. His idea was to hold the bag over the front of the fireplace, open the flue, and if it was a squirrel it would run out into the bag.  I just didn't want a squirrel running into the kitchen and jumping into the sink or tap dancing across my desk.


Well...nothing fell out when the flue opened. Shoot! But he could see with the flashlight something flapping around in there. Tomorrow morning he'll climb on the roof and take apart the top of the chimney to see if the we can get the bird out that way. I hope so!


Teensy felt chimney bird. Sleep tight bird. Don't drive the cats batty overnight!

[ UPDATE - As of 3/31 it seems like the bird is gone! I didn't hear anything and the cats are glued to the fireplace doors. Yay! ]

Purple Calf

Purple Calf Drink Recipe
12oz really good cold Grape Soda
1 scoop vanilla Ice-cream

- Pour Grape soda in a big glass
- Put the scoop of ice-cream in the soda slowly
- Watch it fizz up! Fizz fuzz!
- Drink mmmmmm


Another baby animal from Saturday's "How To Draw Baby Animals" :)

Tanager McBuck - Baby Colt

I shall call him Tanager McBuck and he shall live in my backyard and I shall comb his mane and teach him to trot and feed him apples and hug him!

Another baby animal from Saturday's "How To Draw Baby Animals" :)

Baby Deer

Baby deer, wandering aboot, looking kinda cute.

Another baby animal from yesterday's "How To Draw Baby Animals".

I Love Ducklings

This morning I went to Barnyard Day at a local bank. They were celebrating spring by having a petting zoo of farm animals. Well...mostly farm animals. There were baby chicks, a lamb, a calf, chinchillas, a bearded dragon, a frilled lizard, bees, greyhounds and ducklings! I want to start a chinchilla and baby duck farm :) 

I got to hold the little black duckling in this picture. It was so sweet and peeping and fluffy. I did not stick it in my purse and run off with it. I promise. 

In the afternoon, I was browsing at Artifacts and found the How to Draw Baby Animals book from the 80's with a duckling on the cover for a buck and some change. I used to have books like this growing up I'm sure. 

Crayon fuzz on the baby duck. Tiny quack!

Smiley Snail

I embroidered little snail this evening - a terrestrial gastropod mollusk with a friendly sort of face. I drew the pattern and then played around with some stitches while watching Fringe. I did a basket weave kinda thing on it's body which I think I need to try in a bigger scale. Maybe a basket with easter chicks in it for April?

Origami Shrimp

*sung to the tune of "Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty"*

Small shrimpy, pink shrimpy, little seafood friend

Sweet shrimpy, happy shrimpy, swim swim swim!

Extremely Bright Green Kitten

I had a job interview this evening right before dinner. I spent the day tweaking my resume and getting my interview clothes ready. Then I came home to a delicious bowl of Colcannon, with potato, green cabbage, ham, scallions, european butter. Mmmmmm, happy tummy. I doodled this kitten after dinner while thinking of cabbage. She is so much brighter than cabbage though! Radioactive Cabbage Kitten, AHOY! I made the little border around her with the Labelbox app.



If I was responsible for designing the next stamp, it would look a lot like this.

Tiny Wings Bird

I have been playing a lot of Tiny Wings on my phone lately. It manages to be soothing, challenging, and adorable all at the same time. The soothing comes from the watercolor landscapes and ambient music. The challenging comes from the little goals you have to achieve as you launch your bird up hills and into the clouds. The adorable comes from the fact is that your chubby bird has eensy wings and you have to use gravity to fling yourself into the air instead of wing flapping. And the bird makes goofy cheeping and cawing noises.

I drew the bird in Sketches on the iPad tonight and added in a bit of the game landscape.

Evolution of a Perler Bead Dino

$1 Green Dino kit = 2 Dinosaurs. As you can see from the package what the dino should look like, what the first attempt turned out as, and then the final Dino. I think the first Dino was worth $0.25.



I haven't used Perler Beads in 20 years or more I'm sure. They are fiddly things! And smell odd. When I made the Dino on the left here (let's call him Gluurple) - when I made Gluurple, I got the beads stuck to the ironing paper and then knocked pieces on the floor and then couldn't remember how to put him back together right. He looks ..... interesting.



But I had enough beads left to try again and so I made Greetchie. He has a cute white belly and a more pleasing head shape. And a jaunty curl to his tail. Greetchie, you're a winner and worth $0.75!

A herd of Frankengummi Bears

Dashing and daring, 
Squishy and caring, 
Faithful and mumbling, 
Heads and bodies to share. 
All through the forest, 
They sing out in chorus, 
Lurching along, 
As their song fills the air. 

FrankenGummi Bears!! 
Bouncing here and there and everywhere. 
High adventure that's beyond compare. 
They are the FrankenGummi Bears. 

Guest Post on Donna's Decembers

I have a guest post up on Donna's Decembers today for National Craft and Crocheting Month! It shows how I made the Fuzzy Icecream Cozy from earlier this month. I'm so excited to be featured on her blog!

Framed Pegasus

I found these neat canvases at Michael's that have flocked frame motifs on them. The pegasus pattern is from the same set as the Unicorn Noggin from earlier this month.  And it fits just perfectly in the middle of this frame motif! Stitching on the canvas was easy; just like stitching with an embroidery hoop. And I had pink thread that was almost a perfect color match for the wings.

I really like how this turned out. I might go back in with some pale pink thread to stitch into the wings to make them look feathery.

Dinosaur Bug Disco Partayyy

I am not going to be home by midnight to post today's critter, so I made this withthe Doodle Buddy app on my phone while hopped up KitKats! Sugar high means Dino Bug Dance Partayyyy!
This is one of the favorite drawing apps of the lil dude I nanny for. Get down cartoony T Rex!

Wee Grey Seal

Half the European population of Grey Seals (Rón glas) are found around Ireland's coast. They like the rocky wave-pounded coasts. I love their great big eyes and chubbular bodies. I based this tiny stuffy on this picture I found tonight. 





I sketched him right on the felt and used the grey Sharpie to shade his flippers a bit and give him speckles. He's waving at you! Here is a crayon for scale. 






Seals in Ireland

Starfishes love you...

When you're feeling all alone,
The world's a drone,
And nobody's shown any love to you.

When your heart is cold as stone,
Just change your tone,
Get rid of that groan and the world will too.

'Cause swordfishes
Love you!
Jellyfishes
Love you!
Starfishes-
'I LOVE YOU!'
In The Ocean Blue!




It was hard to photograph hot pink and orange felt tonight. I made the starfish belly in the bright bright pink with orange stitching and the top is orange with lemon yellow stitching. I think watching Survivor while crafting tonight has influenced me, but in a good way. Even though Survivor is still such a guilty pleasure show. Boston Rob, you are so sneaky and tricky, go you! 



Another very cute felt pattern from futuregirl.com!

Sova, the Origami Owl

Sova (pronounced sah-VAH) is Russian for Owl. I forgot to ask Hammer what owls say in Russian too - I don't think they say Hooot hoot.

Same Origami Owl, just playing around with lighting and some photo software. I like how you can see the folds a bit better in black and white. 

Memory Pug Monday

Apparently it is Memory Pug Monday! The directions for today are "Everyone draw how you remember seeing a pug". I found out about this from Scribbles and Scratches - an art blog by Samantha Kyle, a cartoonist I've been following for a few years.

My memory pug pencil drawing is Stuey, the 3-legged Wonderpug! He lives with my friends Michelle and Chris and snorts gleefully with much adorable snorting. And he smiles and snorts some more. And maybe snores a bit. But mostly snorting and eating tasty treats and having soft ears.

Fuzzy Cozy

This is a sneak peak of sorts. I made this felt aquarium ice cream pint cozy for a guest blogging post for later this month. I will post the link for the tutorial when it goes online. It will help keep your hands from getting frosty eating icecream.

Turtle Squared

I don't feel so great today and didn't have a ton of inspiration for my critter. I asked for assistance in deciding what to draw on Facebook and seconds later my friend Jamie suggested a turtle. Turtles are great subject matter - this turtle is for you Jamie!

Seahorse Magnet

Seahorses eat a lot. They can eat 3,000 or more brine shrimp a day per National Geographic. Where do they fit it all! They are so tiny. I hope this little wooden magnet one doesn't eat the contents of my fridge.

Atalissa the Mermaiden

Meet, Atalissa, a mermaiden from the book Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and LoveSaturday's centaur needed a mythological friend to play with. I made the doll completely in felt so I winged it sewing her together after cutting out the pattern pieces. I didn't stuff the tail so it can bend and flex like a mermaid tail would.


Hanging with her fish friends :)

 

Lil Fish on a Coral Reef

I made another craft supply run to Michael's today. I spent a whopping $7 - Woo! I found this cute plaster statuette. I colored it in with Sharpies like the squirrel magnet I made in February. There were more crags and crannies on this one so it was an amusing challenge.



A wee statuette video...

Flippy Origami Horse

Recycling by way of Origami - horses made from Netflix Envelope Flaps! These were surprisingly easy to make. I want to make a herd of them.


And if you swiftly tap up on the underside of their tails, they flip a somersault!

Flippy Horse Folding Instructions found here.

Unicorn Noggin

After the Centaur the other day, I decided another mythical creature should make an appearance. I found an Unicorn Pattern by Andrea Zuill at her blog. She has some seriously cute and funny patterns available.

I have some DMC Color Variations floss that changes from white to blue as you are stitching which I used for the Unicorn's noggin and hair. I didn't cut the design out of the felt since I'm not sure what to do with it yet. I think I want to figure out how to make a felt change purse or wallet with it.

Olly Astro

I went to a huge craft show with Terri this morning and saw chickens everywhere. Are they the hot new animal? You could get tiny Sculpey chickens, multicolored ones on stakes for the garden, chicken t-shirts, chicken towels. I just had to make a chicken tonight.

My pattern inspiration was Olly Astro from MrFlapper.com, the best rescue duck and chicken blog that ever was. I made a gusset on the bottom of the chicken so it can sit up pretty. I think it turned out kinda cute in a simple way :)