I love recycling!!

At last my first paper mache dol is finished...and I'm pretty chuffed about her! She is totally made from recycled material. The news print is already made from recycled paper the flower was something I crocheted a few years ago and found in my wool stash. The wood is old fire wood and little scraps of cotton was used to sew the arms on.

The plasticine used to make the form gets recycled to once its been cut out of the paper mache cast. Fun, fun to make, I'm going to make some more after market day...YIKES it's next weekend......sew much sewing going on...and some painting...better dash...lucky it's day light saving here and it doesn't get dark till 9, my brain is tricked into believing there are more hours in the day!

So excited about my Gingrebread man!

 

A project I've been working on for nearly a year now...I put it and put it off...until the time was right and what better time than now as Xmas is nearing. This you can now make one of my original gingerbread man of your very own. I've just finished the PDF pattern and you can view him on my ETSY shop or you can buy him finished too. What makes him so unique is the story behind him..it involves my dad, Christmas time and a man who makes cookie cutters in Austria...but I'm not going to tell you any more than this you are just going to have to go to Little Black Crows Etsy Shop and take a look for yourselves!

new works for the up coming Eastside market

The Red Box

 Marie Antoinette Jewelry box

Wednesday jewelry box

 Three of the painted boxes I made for the Eastside makers Market, you'll have to come to the market to see the rest!

These three, there are more.are a new pattern I'm trying from Ohsewdollin....I think they are just crazily cute!
The four below are a Threadbare Primitives pattern...the dolls clothes and pantaloons are designed by me!

 I called her Grace because I think she loves Xmas as much as me!

 Hello Kitty raggedy Annie Doll

 Mary Xmas Raggedy Annie doll

Too shy to show her face:(

I'm getting really excited now about the market..I know though on the day I'll start to feel anxious!

The best part of the markets is catching up with other stall holder friends and seeing what they have been making...and tempting me with their wares as they know I love shopping!

Setting up my table is always fun cos I get to play with my dolls:)

 Apart from what you see here I will also have my usual bunnies and elephants, paintings, pin cushions, Xmas ornaments...like the ones in the photo..knitted and needle felted...there might be some baked almond shortbread if your lucky..the last market I made them they sold like hot cakes!

There are a few more days to the 5th...hmmm who knows what else I'll make..but in the meantime better do a bit of a clean up...dust off the studio cat and make some dinner.

Artisans Creating Outside the Lines: Ornament Contest and BIG E-GIVEAWAY! YAY!

Artisans Creating Outside the Lines: Ornament Contest and BIG E-GIVEAWAY! YAY!: "Hi Everyone! We all had a wonderful time creating our ornaments for the ornament contest - but now we need your help deciding who will win a..."

Art Dolls Only ornament swap!

Ned said, 'thank you for the wrapping'!

A few weeks ago my Art Dolls Only group held another Christmas ornament swap, you might remember last year I received a beautiful dark angel ornament from Yve Hoosen. I made Wicked William which was sent to Susie MacMahon.

 Well this year I received a Little Misfit figure from Nancy Perennec! My photo's don;t do him justice..He is just amazing I feel very privileged to own one of Nancy's dolls! You can find all about Nancy at her blog 'Little Bit Wired'. and Her Etsy shop, 'Little Bit Wired'

I won't discuss my ornament or mention who it's going too until I hear that she has arrived!

Neglected Naughty Neds New Toy!

Inhaling the catnip makes his head spin

Naughty Ned is getting fat and lazy! I haven't made him a new toy for ages and he has become bored with all of his old toys. Desperate to find something quick and easy to make I was delighted when I found an article on the Artisans Creating Outside the Line blog, 'Things to do on  a rainy day' Jess had made a tutorial for a cats toy. Easy peasy, I had all what was needed to make Ned a toy even the catnip which I dried in the oven at a low temperature for a couple of minutes. And as you can see Ned loves his new toy....I can hang it off a door handle and he can play by himself or I can jiggle it up and down in front of him and make him chase it...good exercise for the both of us!

New things on my table

 4 little plasticine bodies and two paint tube heads!

I've been wanting to try paper mache for a while now but finding the time and space was difficult. When my ADO group decided that this months challenge was to make a doll from materials you are unfamiliar with I thought right this is just the push I need to make time, clear the table and start my experiment with paper mache. I think the last time I paper mached properly was as at primary school.Fortunately what I learned there all those years ago had not been forgotten!

The paint tube dolls was an idea i saw in an old copy of Cloth Paper Scissors..and if you know you would know that I find it very hard to throw anything out as everything has so much possibility to be re-cycled!

A close up of one of the plasticine bodies

paper mache over the plasticine figures

 close up to paper mache face. I was lucky to have a catalog from my favourite shop Lush to use for the paper mach...lots of nice colours, I'm going to try and maintain as much of the news print as possible. They are a bit more advanced as of last night. I cut them in half to remove the plasticine and I'm in the process of adding the final paper mache and attaching the limbs.

 Now these dolls are a little something special I bought the pattern from my friend Little Dirt Lane...I needed some cute therapy, lets just say I've been to the dentist way to many times this year...I needed to take my mind off the yuckiness of it all and making these little dolls was just perfect. Jess has kindly let me sell them too and if you are at the Eastside Makers Market on the 5th December you will see these little girls decorating my whimsical Xmas tree!

Big thank you to every one

Thank you so much to everyone that left a message for us and Big Bunny..things are getting easier but we do miss his big butt busying himself in the garden with us. We are thinking of getting another bunny but not sure just yet.
 Things have been busy at home but nothing quite ready to show so in the meantime I've put together some of the Etsy treasuries that my dolls have been featured in. It's really beautiful to see the thought put into making these treasuries, the colours and moods that these evoke are sometimes amazing!
Enjoy...Etsy Treasuries past and present!

a sad farewell to our little buddy Big Bunny

2008-2010

A very tragic day yesterday,Big Bunny passed away suddenly, I fear it was something he ate from our garden. It was fenced of from him but he somehow found his way in. He was a little legend and we will miss him immensely!

Market Day is drawing near...

I managed to squeeze in a bit of time to finish off some new dolls a couple of them are for groups I'm involved with and one has been on the to do list for a while

Nell

I've been meaning to show you my Annie doll that I made for Little Dirt Lanes, 'My Favourite Annie Swap' Lisa Denehy was the recipient of Nell! I showed you what she made for me..but in case you forgot here is a link to her.

 Know what happens to children who are on Santa's 'Naughty List'.Krampus comes to carry them off for a spanking! So our parents used to tell us every Xmas. This art doll was made for the Art Dolls Only ' Christmas Nightmare Challenge!

She Put The Star On Top Of The Tree. Lots of work went into this one, the girl and tree are cloth, the tree is painted with glass bead gel medium and vintage red and white buttons sewn on. The house is wood and paper mache, hand painted and crackle medium applied to age it.I maybe able to make a few of these before Xmas if anybody is interested in ordering one. Email me for price and shipping.
I submitted this for the Artisans Ornament Challenge...soon to be posted here.

 Fat Kitty and Kate

A little tribute to the love of  cats!

There you have it now I must dash...lots of tea staining to do, painting, scrubbing, sewing.......

November free desktop calender!

Hope you like my little desktop calender...click on the photo to get the big picture then right click on the mouse and choose, 'set as desktop background'...have a great November!!