Baby Bear in cream is finished!

He's all done and ready for adoption. Best wishes, little bear! :o)

♥

Another little bear in progress

I spent most of yesterday working on this little guy; he still needs a bit more felting work, some shading and embroidered details---and I'm sure he'd like all his limbs firmly attached as well :o) 
He will be finished and up for adoption later today!

♥

Curious Bear is finished!

He is all done, sporting his plaid wool scarf :) He and his little white pumpkin will be on Ebay at 9 p.m. EST tonight to find a new home; I will update this post with the link when the auction goes live.

**Update** He's up!!  :) Curious Bear Auction

♥

Lots of new stuff for Autumn...

Good morning world! I've been busy with lots of new stuff, so this is sort of a catch-up photo post :)

Curious Bear in progress  - I'm thinking he will have a wool plaid scarf and come with a little felted pumpkin like the ones in the next photo. He will be part of my Ebay endeavors :)

These felted pumpkins are new in the shop:

This slightly spooky wool pumpkin pincushion  and the sculpted black mushroom pins are also new--

I'm definitely enjoying gearing up for Autumn, and I'm SO ready for sweaters and boots :)

Wishing everyone a great weekend!!

♥

Awesome feature and the return of the Costume Kids series

Last month I was asked by Marie of Living Felt to answer some interview questions and submit photos of my work for a feature on their blog, and the article was published yesterday. They even bought my "Pines on the River" scene from my Etsy shop to display in their studio...I was happily flabbergasted :) I buy most of my wool from their company, and their quality and service is top-notch.
Here's a link to the article if you're interested:
Needle Felting Inspired by Nature

Meanwhile, I'm gearing up to do the Ebay thing with some more little creatures in my Costume Kids series. This little snowy bunny girl will be going up later this afternoon:

Along with this little guy...remember him? He's the only one who stayed home with me the last time I did a run in this series, and he'll be going up later today as well.

Have a happy Sunday :)
♥

Sneak Peek WIP - Mountain Chickadee

Happy Sunday :)
With all the obsessing over the birds in my area lately, I knew it would eventually come out in my work somehow....here's a peek at one I'm working on at the moment. This little chickadee still needs eyes, some more coloring, and some embroidered details, but I think he's coming along nicely. This is the first of a series that will be going on Ebay.

Wishing everyone a creative and happy week!
♥

Pines on the River - A New Design

Morning all!
I finished a new miniature nature design yesterday; the idea has been tossed around in my head for quite a while now so I figured it was time to just DO it. This is all needle felted wool except for the pine tree trunks which are made of florist wire. The whole thing is 3 inches wide and about 3 inches tall:

Back to CreativeLand for me...have a great day!
♥

Shop Update Photo Dump :)

I've been busy creating new items for the shop, including a new design with bird's nests on linen with moss and fabric-wrapped branches. THOSE are fun to make! Sweet and tiny in 3-inch painted wooden hoops.

I also made another tree stump that's a bit smaller than usual, with sculpted mushrooms instead of wool. When I was done with the new tree, it kinda reminded me of the movie Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind...when Richard Dreyfuss is sculpting that shape out of mashed potatoes.. :)

So I'm doing a photo dump here and then I have to get back to making more stuff to prepare for cold-calling on local gift and art shops. Hope you're having a wonderful week.

Woodland Mushroom Wedding

That post title makes it sound like mushrooms are getting married :)

Nope, no mushroom matrimony (toadstool trysts?), but a wedding taking place in a clearing in the woods by a river. This is the custom work I mentioned a few days ago.
The bride-to-be wanted spiral mushroom boutonnieres and one of my tree stumps with mushrooms for the ring bearer's pillow.

I had never done any wedding-themed items before, but I had fun coming up with ideas and I'm pretty happy with the way everything came together.

The boutonniere leaves are the same color green as the mossy base of the tree stump, and I added a little spiraled twig to each of them to tie in the spiral theme even more. Everything is secured at the bottom of these, but I like how it seems that the mushrooms were just plucked from the ground and placed into the leaf.
I hope the bride likes them :)
♥

Mother's Day Shrooms

So the clay goodies I hinted at in my last post aren't ready yet (waiting for more supplies and then a photo shoot, can't wait!) but I did get some more mushroomy things made! :) I love having the opportunity to give my felted mushrooms little personalities, and these 'new mom' scenes were just the ticket.
So far I have a a boy and a girl, and I'm working on some twin scenes right now. It's amazing how just a little bend of the stems can evoke some kind of protective feeling.

 

Finished! Tree Stump WIP photos part 2

Yay! The tree stump and mushrooms display is all done and it shipped out today to go to its new home :) If you missed part 1 of this, you can see it here.

I took a few more photos this time than I did for part 1, you can click on them to make them larger. Here goes!

Here I'm starting to shape the base with core wool (this is where the tree stump will sit). I pretty much just make a coil and keep felting it together with the needle as I go, adding more wool until I think it's large enough.

Tree Stump WIP photos

Hello there! I'm up at 1:30 a.m. working on a custom order (I seem to work so much better at this time of night, I don't know why!). I'm making a needle felted tree stump with mushrooms growing from the side, and it's going to be displayed as part of an exhibit in a mushroom library. I've never heard of a mushroom library before...what a neat place it must be! Anyway, I thought I would take some photos of my progress; the photo quality isn't too hot since it was at my work table instead of in my fancy-schmancy (read: cheapie) light box, so please overlook that! :)

This is the tree stump I made from core (un-dyed) wool in all its nakedness. I start out by making a basic cylinder shape and then add bits of wool for the roots, and deeply needled lines to represent the texture of bark.

Here I'm putting the first layer of brown wool over the core wool stump.

Studio photo dump - and BACK UP your stuff!

Hello! So I had a computer malfunction this evening and didn't get everything done that I wanted to. Those lovely Windows updates can really wreak havoc sometimes...I spent about two hours trying to get it past the restarting point, shutting it down again and rebooting in different safe modes only to have it get stuck again. On the last reboot it finally gave me a "repair disk" option...yes! That's what I want, repair whatever's broken! It seemed to work *crosses fingers*. Royal pain, but it was a good reminder to back up all my stuff.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish this evening was listing the new mushroom cap sewing pins in my shop...unfortunately, to put it bluntly, I'm pooped! Writing the descriptions and taking the photos will have to wait until tomorrow.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you what I've done in the studio recently...major re-organization. Things have grown since the days when I could store all my wool in an over-the-door shoe organizer! I put up this shelf and added some canning jars that someone from my old job was nice enough to give me. I really like being able to see all my colors at once, and they show me what is stored in the bags and drawers beneath.

I also got my photo table set up...it was becoming too time-consuming to set everything up and then take it down again whenever I wanted to take new product photos, so I cleared a spot in the studio and dedicated this area to photo taking only...something I have been wanting to do for months. In case you're wondering, the light tent is a cheapie that I bought on Ebay. It folds up into itself and becomes its own carrying case with pockets (the pockets and the handle are in the back when it's set up), which is pretty neat! It came with the two small photo lights you see on the left, but they aren't very bright so I have to use them both on one side. I use G.E. 'Reveal' bulbs in the other lamps; they come closest to daylight without being ridiculously expensive.

This tired pup is off to bed now so I can get a fresh start tomorrow on finishing what was supposed to be done today! Let's just hope Windows doesn't have any more 'helpful' updates for me.. ;)

Hello Out There! =)

It's the end of January already...looks like my resolution of blogging more frequently has already hit the skids! Where does the time go? Well for me, part of the time since my last post was spent discovering Pinterest. It was a little confusing at first but then it quickly became a glorious time-suck =) I'm over there as janine200 and while I don't have a whole lot of things 'pinned' yet, I have really enjoyed looking at all the goodies that other people pin to their boards.

I've also been working on some new designs for the shop, there are so many ideas in my head and not enough time to finish (or even start) them all! I did make a new bird's nest ornament, and I got a little creative with the photography--I used natural twigs and pods I found on the ground outside of my dayjob as little props, and then I brought the pic into Photoshop where I played around with lighting and curves to give it a bit of a washed-out look. To me, it looks more like an art print than a product shot and I love how it turned out! Happiness!

 Other things I've spent time on lately: I needle-felted some new mushrooms for pincushions, and spent some time dyeing ostrich feathers. I love the look on people faces at the office where I work when they ask, "What did you do this weekend?" and, grinning like an idiot, I answer, "I dyed ostrich feathers!" =) More on that to come in another post, I'll take some photos next time I dye a batch and show how (and why) I like to color my own.

That's it for now, it's time for me to head to bed (I've got Stephen King's book Bag of Bones on my nightstand calling my name). I hope you all have a wonderful, happy week! ♥

Quick photo of orders in progress

I've been so fortunate to have several orders for my pincushions the last few weeks! Here's a shot I took while I was in the middle of a pine-tree-making-frenzy...these little guys are waiting to be added to pincushions and then they will be shipped to their new homes.

Oh, and after I made the texture tools I talked about in my last post, I couldn't seem to stop sculpting little cottages...these are in various stages, some need paint or other finishing touches, but I like how they look all together like a little village :)

Time to get back to it so everyone can have their goodies by Christmas =) Bye for now!

♥

What I made this week

After what seemed like months of running into a brick wall with every crafty idea that I had, this week finally felt like I was doing something right! Everything I did just seemed to fall into place and look the way I imagined it. From the mixing of wool colors and getting the layering right, to actually having the perfect color ribbon on hand, I am one happy girl. I wish I could bottle that up, whatever it is!! Here's what I finished this week:

Birds Nest Dimensional Mini Wall Art - 3 inch hoop 

Tree Stump Mushrooms Wool Scene   

Faux Terrarium

Do you ever have those times when nothing goes right, and then suddenly, BAM it works?

♥

Re-opening my Etsy shop

Today I re-opened my Etsy shop after a year-long hiatus. I figured it's time to expand my little presence on the web and thought I would give it another shot there. I only have a few items up right now, it's taking me a little time to get used to the changes that have been made in the last year...but all in all, the listing process itself is easier than I remembered it. Boy was I surprised to have one of my items put in a treasury within an hour after the shop's re-opening! What a great welcome back! Here are a couple items that I hope do well...

Needle felted and embroidered bird's nest wall decor:

Needle felted mushrooms pin cushion/miniature scene:

Wish me luck! :)

♥

Needle Felting & Mushroom explosion :)

There are so many different ways to create things, and so many themes...and I seem to go in spurts for a couple months at a time, switching back & forth between all the things I love to do. I've been mostly focused on needle felting and embroidery for the past few months, while crocheting has taken a back seat somewhat! Mushrooms have been a favorite theme of mine lately; here's some of what I've been up to:

 Pincushion in a 3.5 inch terra cotta base, about 5 inches tall

 Close-up

Another in soft pastels with linen thread details (grass sprouts and pale yellow roses), about 3 inches tall

 

 Close-up

And a miniature version in a 2-inch pot with tiny embroidered cap spots & flowers

I'm looking forward to starting some Valentine's Day themes!

♥

Happy Saturday and New Crafties

Hello friends! It's been a pretty fast and busy summer; it's hard to believe that it's time to start thinking about autumn already! How come the older you get, the faster time flies past? There must be a scientific explanation.

I've been having fun challenging myself to new crafty things...I'm still practicing embroidery and I thought I'd try an animal. Of course I chose to try a fawn because, well, fawns just rock my cute-o-meter! The back of the piece is a bit of a mess, but it's only going on my own wall anyways, so it doesn't matter.:) This is a 4-inch hoop, and I topped it with a bow of vintage seam binding.

I also tried my hand at some really tiny-scale needle felting. I'm still obsessed with bird's nests for some reason, I seem to try to incorporate them into everything and it just never gets old to me :) This one measures just under 1 cm. The glass bottles have been in my stash for so long, and I just ran across them recently. Don't you love when you find stuff in your supply stash that you had forgotten about, and it gives you a ton of new ideas? THAT'S why we hate to throw things away, see?

I'm off to do some house-cleaning, then it's back to the crafty stuff. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

♥

The moving is done! In more ways than one--

Heh that rhymed. I'm a geek :)

Yep I'm all moved and (mostly) unpacked. Pretty time consuming, this moving stuff!

I also made another move in the last month...I moved all my handmade stuff from Etsy to Artfire.
I don't know if this will be permanent; it was just really time to try something new. I won't get onto Etsy-bashing; I like the idea of Etsy and I like how it looks, and I still go there everyday to keep up with what's happening over there. I still have my favorite sellers that I will buy from. I'd like to go back to being a seller there eventually, but only when they make some much-needed changes. **Update: I'm happy to report that Etsy has indeed stepped up and made tons of improvements, and I have re-opened my shop :)**

Within a week of setting up my Artfire shop, I sold one of my nest pins. I was so pleasantly surprised!! I had to *unpack* my packing supplies so I could ship it out :)
So the craft room/studio is pretty much unpacked and organized, and I was able to make a couple new bobby pins over the long weekend. I haven't listed them in the shop yet; they still need some more photos but I thought I'd go ahead and post the ones I have here:

That's about it for now, just some major changes that I thought some of you would like an update on! I hope you all have a great, creative week :)

♥