Origami Rabbits

Meet Robbie and Rita Rabbit on vacation somewhere warm and sunny. The flowers are blooming and it is not freezing rain. Or snowing. Or chilly and windy. Lucky rabbits!

Egyptian Faience Hippopotamus

This watercolor is based on a faience hippo figurine from the 13th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Egyptian faience was made by mixing crushed quartz or sand with copper salts and a binder like lime or resin. When a figurine was fired at a low temperature, the copper salts turned into a glaze, creating a green or blue hue. It was one of the earliest forms of glass making. I saw this hippo at the St Louis Art museum on a trip we took March 2009.

Baby Sock Bunny

I have been waiting for a few weeks for the book this pattern came from to be available at my library. The pattern is from "Stray sock sewing : making unique, imaginative sock dolls step-by-step / by Daniel." I have a few new craft books that I am excited to go through. I need to learn to embroider properly. I haven't figured out the running stitch. Any tips?





Baby socks are some of the cutest things ever. I have a few tucked away for making tiny sock animals. Because I'm making something new everyday, the tinier the media the better as I'm learning what I'm doing. The less stitches to put into something, the more time I can experiment and figure out what I am doing. 





Hey Baby Sock Bunny...there is a lady bug on your tush!

Bug on a snail

Bug on a snail, originally uploaded by bean.zilla.

I am out on the town tonight - I am blogging this while eating an Apricot BBQ flatbread pizza. Nom nom nom.

I colored this Jaunty Bug on a Snail this morning at work. Doesn't he have a stylish helmet? The crayons are scented Crayolas - I can't recommend enough the fresh air scented light blue that made the snails tummy and the blueberry scented crayon for the bug's body. It smells authenticly delicious.

I asked the waitress at the restaurant for a puppy tonight and the hostess drew me one with crayons! Hee hee hee

Hopscotch McFlufferton the Squirrel Magnet

The $1 bin at Jo-Ann fabrics strikes again. I found this plaster squirrel magnet near the Lovebug Mask. It came with grey, white, and pink paint and a wee paintbrush. The paint was gloopy so Sharpies to the rescue!



I really like how the marker strokes made the tail look fluffy. It was definitely easier to doodle on the plaster than the vinyl keychain. Doodle doodle doodle :) Doodle is one of the best words ever.


Hi new readers from the posting on Must Have Cute - Cute Kawaii Stuff! Welcome and thanks for checking out my critters!

Sleepy Kitten

I found a blog recently by a lady named Care called "Obsessively Stitching" that is totally inspiring. Last week she posted about making the Sleepy Kittens from the movie "Despicable Me". That movie was nuts and the kitten book was a beam of cuteness in the middle of movie strangeness. When the tutorial came up today I HAD to make a Sleepy Kitten.



I had felt on hand instead of fleece and I hand stitched the kitty. The technique of stitching on the pattern and then cutting away excess is totally new to me. I can think of some ways to use it for elaborate patterns on a toy or for tiny facial features like this. Thanks so much for posting this tutorial, Obsessively Stitching!


With my sleepy kitten, Neo.

Cheeky Monkey

Things I did not expect to say today...

1. My monkey won't dry!

2. This monkey took forever and ever.

3. Oops, I smudged my monkey!

I found these vinyl animal keychains called "Doodle Budz" at Michael's Crafts for only $1.50! The package says you can decorate them with markers but my Sharpies took awhile to dry. I totally freehanded the noggin's checkerboard and ran into...space and smudge issues at the nape of the neck. I wonder if acrylic paint would be easier to use on vinyl next time?

 

Octopus Love

Happy Valentine's Day from Amore, the Octopus. I made her as a gift tonight for my husband. She can sit cutely on the top corner of his computer monitor.



There go Cthulhu and Amore, arm in arm, strolling off to eat some crab legs together.


The pattern is from futuregirl.com :) 

Mischief - Valentine's Pet Week

Hi fluffy puppy! It's Mischief, my dear friend Heather's dog. I can't reproduce his fluff in felt exactly but this is close. He has a little brother named Trouble. They are hilarious dogs and don't always live up to their names...just sometimes ;)





I modified a pattern from The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo. Instead of making a stuffed puppy, I appliqued him to the felt heart. I stuffed a wee bit of fiberfill into his body and head. Now he's a little heart pillow Valentine.

Cthulhu - Valentine's Pet Week

Meet Cthulhu, my friend Amanda's pet octopus! I am pretty sure her octopus wasn't bright blue but it could have been as cuddly a cephalopod as this one. She lived in a saltwater tank in Amanda's house - how cool is that? I didn't know you could have a pet octopus!



I found this Supercute Sea Creature Pattern at futuregirl.com. Her tutorial for blanket stitches helped so much today. I'm excited to try some of her other patterns.

Chloe & Willow - Valentine's Pet Week

Cuddly snoozers Chloe & Willow live with my friend, Shannon. They are little stinkers but don't they look adorable here? I felt like crudballs this afternoon and napped so we need more napping on the blog today.

I doodled this using the Sketches program and copied Kramer's heart frame. I knew if I didn't make the background purple, I'd hear about it from Shannon :)

Zip - Valentine's Pet Week

The very first pet I can remember having was Zip, a fancy blue guppy. I know we had another guppy friend for him, possibly named Kermit? They lived in the dining room in a cylindrical aquarium with a clamshell shaped light on top. I remember my sister and I would pretend they were talking to each other and supply the voices. And I probably tried to stick my finger in the water and pet him. Who doesn't try to pet a fish at least once? :)

Coal and Asche - Valentine's Pets Week

These sleeping sweeties live with my friend, Terri. Look how conveniently heart shaped they made their snuggling!

I was trying to mix crayons and colored pencils but what I really I need is to get a blending stump to blend the pencil together. I was using a wadded up paper towel tonight.



Another supply run is in the works. Add felt, more watercolor paper, tiny canvases, pencil sharpener. What is your favorite craft store to shop at? We have Micheals, Hobby Lobby, Ben Franklin, and JoAnn Fabrics nearby.

Ermey - Valentine's Pets Week

Meet Ermey!

He's the new pet of my friend, CJ. This delightfully eyebrowed hamster is named after the actor R. Lee Ermey. I don't think he barks out orders or anything though...
I want to pet his tiny noggin. He's so fluffy!

I quite like how this watercolor turned out. I only drew out the shape of his nose and ears to estimate scale.

Kramer - Valentine's Pets Week

Meet Kramer!

He was one of the silliest birds I ever met. This is an early Valentine present for my friend Lisa. Kramer was her bird and a special little buddy. It cracked me up how he would just fling himself off you when he was done visiting and go THUD onto the floor to run around.

You were an adorable weirdo, Kramer!

Cotton Candy Sheep

I had a dream that I was raising sheep in my yard that had cotton candy fluff instead of wool. I sheared their bright pink fluff into piles on the driveway and spun it into yarn in the garage. My neighbors were excited because I could make them sweaters they could eat.



This almost illustrates how fluffy the sheep were.

Toast Teddy

I made some toast to go along with dinner.  My Dad would make smiley faces in my toast using a similar technique when I was little. Toast Teddy needs a little something...



Sprinkles save the day! Now he has tiny chocolate chip facial features.

Lovebug Mask

Lovebug, exciting and new, come aboard....
No wait...That's the Love Boat theme! Pardon me, I colored this in with Sharpie markers and I think I breathed in a fume or two.



Another item from my JoAnn craft run. This is from the $1 Kids Craft bins by the register. They have a lot of plywood craft kids there, including a few styles of themed masks. I have another one to color in with the kidlet I watch.

 
The Lovebug inspector

Ching-yuan the Bun-bun

Happy Chinese New Year! Let's celebrate the year of the Rabbit with an adorable bunny. Red is an important color during the celebration. Pinkish red counts right? And she has a red heart lollypop to share with you! This bunny is named after one of my dear friends, Ching-yuan. She recently moved away to learn to cook delicious things and I wanted her to know I was thinking about her today.


Cute lil tush!


You can see the color a bit better here. I got the skull and crossbone camo flannel fabric last weekend on a whim. I think it's my new favorite Valentine fabric. This pattern is also from My Little Mochi , like Scooter was but I elongated the body at the base by an inch.

Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow so here comes early spring! 

Um....hey, Mister Snow, Spring is coming so you need to skeedaddle!
Spring'll be here any minute....get....out....of....here!
The crocus are under that 5 foot drift of snow somewhere just itching to bloom.
Scoot! 

Swimming Polar Bear

A wise man said to me today, "February - In like a Polar Bear, out like a baby Seal". So that means this month will end fuzzy and adorable? I could live with that!

Colored pencil and crayon on watercolor paper.

January Recap

All together - 3 paintings, 6 cross-stitches, 7 marker sketches, 3 origami, 7 digital drawings, 3 softies, 1 crayon drawing, and a wikki stix critter.

And if you can't tell I quite like birds and critters that swim - 6 different birds and 10 aquatic critters. And one random blue imaginary one armed critter :)