A Christmas Menagerie

I have some important little people in my life: two nephews, a soon-to-be niece and soon-to-be niece/nephew (due any day now!) I wanted to make them something special for Christmas. In blogging about such somethings, I risk spoiling the surprise to their parents, but hopefully their little ones won't see this. I won't be telling who gets what, although they may figure it out.

I present this year's Christmas menagerie: a teddy bear, duckling, flamingo and monkey. 

I did them all within a week-week and a half. I used up some stash yarn, was given some and bought a little. I love using the black safety eyes and I filled them all with basic fiberfill. This was the first time I'd used "Fun Fur" (see the flamingo) and it was kind of, dare I say it, fun!

Here are some individual shots to get a better look at the fab four:

For the bear, flamingo and monkey, I found the patterns on lionbrandyarn.com. Such a great site to find cute patterns. The duckling, I found him from Kyuuto Japanese Crafts Amigurumi by Tomoko Takamori.

If anyone has questions or comments, let me know! I'll also take advice and suggestions on how to make these guys even cuter. Need a present for a little tyke in your life? Maybe a crocheted stuffed animal is the answer.

Thanks for visiting & happy handmade holidays!

Miss April 2012

Last year, I was fortunate to be involved in the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education's calendar fundraiser. Being the low man of the totem pole, I designed the back cover of the calendar. I am happy to say that I am the designer of April for the 2012 calendar! 

I tried to think of "Spring-y" things to print, but I was having a hard time. I decided in the end to do something totally different; print Henrietta the Chicken. Henrietta was the chicken that lived on the farm that I worked at this past summer. She was a Golden Polish Crested hen. She wasn't the most friendly thing, and stopped laying eggs for us, but she was nice to look at. I was also thinking of something to give my fellow farm interns as a memento. I took some pictures of Henrietta, bought a linoleum block and started carving. 

I used a good 'ol charcoal transfer to get my image on the block.

The first color- gray

We have a silhouette!

Cutting out a little more...

Second color- golden yellow

She has legs!

Cutting a little more...

Last color- black.

Here she is, your Miss April 2012!

I did one additional run on the press to print "Henrietta the Chicken." There's a better picture of the print on FeltandWire. 

If you would like to purchase a calendar, you can go to etsy.com. They make wonderful Christmas gifts!

I will say that, if you are in my family or are a good friend, you may be getting a print for Christmas. I'm not cheap, I'm crafty.

Let's make this Christmas meaningful & handmade.