Lupus Ovis

That silly wolf is only fooling himself.

Wolfy Bits and Christmas

Here's a little peek at what's in the works.

He's sitting on the radiator, in a less-than-dignified state.

There are other things in the works too,

but they're not making me giggle as much as Ole Wolfy here.

Guess what we did yesterday?  Hint: It involved bringing boxes in from the garage and jolly fat men.

Tah-Dah!

We unpacked Christmas!

 

You can see how I made these little houses here.

I want to make some more itty bitty teeny tiny ones too, if I can find a bit of free time.

Everybody has a Tomato Queen mixed in with their Santas, right?

We downsized the teddies this year, only keeping the most special ones. And yes, they needed party hats.

Tiny Santas on tiny chairs.

The chairs aren't actually crooked but my picture-taking ability is.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Happy Thanksgiving!

For plenty in a world where many walk in hunger,

For companionship in a world where many walk alone,

For comfort in a world where many walk in fear,

We give Thanks!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful. . .

. . .but this space heater is so delightful!

Frosty air puts me in a holly jolly mood.

More Christmassy goodness-

You can see more of them

(and lots of other stuff) in our Etsy shop.

Now you'll have to excuse me while I add another layer of clothes to my already-bundled self. 

Hope you're all snug as bugs.

The Kind of Math I Like

Wood + Jigsaw = House shape

 3 x Layers of Cardboard + Scissors + Hot Glue = Shelves

Rice Paper Strips + White Glue x 3 layers = Paper Mache

Acrylic Paint = Base Coat

More Paint + Stain = A new home for something little.

Window-Shopping Wednesday

N is for. . .

vintageinretrospect, woodmouse, twoems,

christinerheeart, petsalad, woolandwater,

Futuresantiques, corid, littlewoodpeople.

Making a List, Checking it Twice

The first of this year's Christmas goodies are fresh off The Cart and looking mighty sweet.

Finished Hughes too. What a dapper fellow he turned out to be! Gotta love those landing-gear feet.

And polka-dotted deer too! (Did I mention I've been obssessing over them lately?) Dylan was sweet enough to sew up an extra so I could have one of my very own. Now I just have to convince him that one deer would be lonely and he really ought to consider making me another. I think I'll wait a few days though, long enough for him to forget how challenging those tiny ears are to sew and turn right side out.

We're calling this pair Fenmore and Felice.

I'm kinda smitten with Ginger Snap too. Is it terribly wrong that I want to bite her?

I want to make a gingerbread boat next! I've added it to the offical list (which looks rather unofficial really on its paint-stained and crumpled notebook page), but first I have to finish the stuff on my table. It's looking rather snowy in the studio right now.

MORE Little Houses for You and Me

Remember the Christmas houses from last year?

Well, the second template was a bit off (the roof was a tiny bit too small), so I fixed it. And I made another extra tall house to share too, for this year's amusement.

Go here for all the directions. 

I'm thinking I want to make itty bitty houses this year. 

I'll take pictures if I do. If you make some, I hope you'll take pictures too.

And the Winner is. . .

Kitty Forseth

is the winner of the Make-Your-Own-Screen-Print Giveaway. Congrats!

Done, Started, and Little Things

All these sweet-faced celestial objects are well on their way across the ocean, but they looked so cute all snuggled together that I couldn't help but snap a picture.

I often get asked what the trick is to making the faces look so similar, if I use a stamp or a stencil or something to make them. The answer is no. I just draw them by hand and then paint them. Wanna know the real trick? Step one-- make a thousand of them. OK, so there's only that one step.

I'm excited today to be working on a bunch of new designs, some of which are decidedly Christmassy. Wheeee!  I had the hardest time deciding on the colors for Santa. In the end I went with good old-fashioned red. So now I want to make a dozen more Santas so I can play with a dozen more colors!

Speaking of Santas. . .I got the most delightful batch of Little Things in the mail yesterday! I'm sort of obsessing over little spotted deer right now and I found some super-inexpensive ones (the only kind I buy) on Etsy, and they came with teeny tiny Santas. Bonus!

They are the cutest little fat men!

Several of them were meant to be necklaces so they couldn't stand on their own, but I wanted them too so I gave them a little help.

I covered the top of little paper mache boxes with a layer of tacky glue and paper clay (I got the snow/grass texture by pouncing it with an old toothbrush) and stuck thier tiny feet in it while it was still wet and let them dry. It worked! Then I just painted the tops of the boxes. I think they turned out mighty fine. 

We're hoping to have the new stuff up by Monday.

Hope you're all

having a colorful day.

Screen-Printing Madness and a Giveaway

Recently, Lynn over at Fibra Artysta  offered to make me my own screen so I could try my hand at screen-printing. Of course I wanted to try it! So I sent her a little drawing. . .

. . .and in two blinks she turned it into my very own custom screen! woohoo! You can barely see it, but my skelly dudes are on there. Using the screen was really an easy process. Dylan and I figured it out right away. We taped some freezer paper to the table (just to protect it), taped the fabric down too, then taped the screen on top.

Then we smudged the special screen-printing paint across the screen. Ideally, we would have used the proper squeegee tool (although I don't know how anything with a name as silly as squeegee can be proper in any way), but we didn't have such a thing so we just used the edge of a flattened macaroni and cheese box. It worked! In minutes we had our own little skelly society.

Then we cut one out, sewed it to some polka-dotted fabric, stuffed it, added a little color here and there, and gave it stick limbs. Now it's all ready for the upcoming festivities! Who says skellies are just for Halloween? Now I'm addicted and want to make more and more and more!

And guess what?

FibraArtysta  is offering up a give-away prize to one lucky commenter so YOU can try it too! The giveaway is for one large screen and one bottle of paint. The winner can choose a ready-to-print design or they can send her an image for a custom screen. And they choose their own color of paint too. Sweet!

...........................................................................

Just leave a comment on this post to enter.

Good luck!

Gifty Goodness

Guess what I made yesterday? Gift certificates! (They're so cute and official looking all dressed in their pretty envelopes.) If you want one you can find them in our Etsy shop.

I made other stuff too. I'll take pictures of that later. Also started a list of what I want to make for Christmas presents this year. I can't believe it's only 47 days away!

Hope you're all

having a just-right day.

Today's Table

I'm seeing stars!

(And moons, birds, a bunny, a skeleton, and a wolf dressed up like a sheep.) All these stars and moons are off to New Zealand as soon as I finish them. I've always wanted to go there. I hear the sheep outnumber the people-- an appealing thought some days.

Here's a peek at Dylan's table too.

He has been working on all the new designs I threw at him on Wednesday. There are an awful lot of tiny bits I'm afraid, but he continues to amaze me with his ability to make just about anything I can think up.

So far it's been mostly deers and deer ears.

. . .

In other news, we may go to our very-first-ever football game tonight. I hoping to talk my friend Jim into going with us to act as a translator.

Rah rah! Shish boom bah!

Autumny Goodness

Went for a picnic in the park yesterday.

It was a gorgeous day!

Even the street where we live

is all dressed up for Autumn.

Nature is awesome.

Doodles, Leaves, and Big Waves

Yay for a designing day!

I'm taking the day to design some new stuff. I was so excited I could hardly wait for morning! I used to have a designing day weekly, but our new way of doing things has me making more and designing less. (Still haven't quite figured out how to find a happy balance within our new system.)

When designing new stuff, I usually start with the old stuff. I go through The Box that holds most of our past templates (Dylan traces these onto fabric to sew and stuff), setting aside ones that tickle my fancy.

I've got my idea book and notepad, my reference materials, my beloved lightbox, tape, scissors, favorite pencil, and some posterboard. Posterboard is my favorite thing to cut templates out of, although I've certainly been known to cut templates out of anything I have lying around. Cereal boxes work great.

Today's list includes owls, deer (deers?), Santas, angels, a little girl pulling a house on wheels, a fairy perched on a crescent moon, another girl with a snow dolly, snow people, a gingerbread girl, and some ornaments. If that sounds like a lot, remember I'm not making finished designs-- just the outlines.

If I can pull myself away from my mad doodles for a little while, I'd love to go take some leaf pictures. The colors here are SO gorgeous and I wanna capture them before the Winter winds come barreling through.

Speaking of pictures and gorgeousness, yesterday was the yearly big-wave-surfing competition on the coast. My dad snapped some great pics! See the little surfer dude, just left of center? My dad's a surfer too, but thankfully he goes for smaller waves. Somehow they always get bigger in the re-telling though. He's a fisherman too, of course.



Halloween Shenanigans