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Friday, December 28, 2012

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Pink Donkey Odie

 I was asked to make a pink version of Donkey Odie for a Christmas gift.  I think it turned out very cute, maybe I should make donkeys in every color of the rainbow.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Sticky Art Lab Drop & Shop

'Tis the season for lots of holiday fairs. This Saturday, December 8th,  I'll be at Sticky Art Lab in Berkeley with several other great artists selling gifts for the holiday season. Come check it out!


 More info: Sticky Art Lab

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Craft Fair this weekend!

Come check out all the wonderful arts and crafts for sale at Bazaar Bizarre this weekend. I've made a tons of new stuffed animals and I'll have all my patterns for sale as well.

Packing for Bazaar Bizarre

Here's where my booth will be at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco:

Click for larger view

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Bazaar Bizarre craft fair

I haven't been posting lately because I've been really busy making lots of new plush for Bazaar Bizarre.  It's a fun and FREE! craft fair in San Francisco on December 1st and 2nd.  I'll be there as Fluff Engine selling cute plush toys and patterns.

 For even more info check out their site: Bazaar Bizarre

Friday, October 12, 2012

APE this weekend!

I'll be at the Alternative Press Expo this weekend in San Francisco selling lots of new stuffed animals and patterns. I'll be sharing a table with Alec right next to Tugboat Press.

Come check it out if you're in the area!

Ready for APE
 

Monday, October 8, 2012

Samples for Fashion Club

I started a new job last month teaching an after school fashion design club for high school students.  I haven't done any fashion rendering in awhile and to show the students some marker rendering techniques I had to get back in the habit.  Here are a couple of my examples of combining markers and colored pencils.




Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Star-Nosed Mole

I was commissioned to make a Star-nosed Mole plush toy this summer. Star-nosed Moles are very strange looking creatures. The fleshy star shaped appendage on its nose is incredibly sensitive and it helps them find their food.  It was a challenge to turn the weird fleshy nose into something cute and cuddly.

Star-nosed Mole


Star-nosed Mole


Sunday, September 2, 2012

More Monsters

I made two new variations of the Georgie Monster, they're up for sale on etsy.


I'm trying to move away from polyester materials and fabrics. After some unsatisfying experiments with cotton stuffing, I've found a stuffing made from bamboo. These are the first ones I've filled with the bamboo stuffing. It's a little different than some of the other fiber-fill polyester stuffing I've used before but I'm liking it a lot.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Soft Doll Project

This summer is just flying by and I've been slacking off on posts.  I'm in the process of making a soft doll with a full wardrobe of outfits. The doll is already in progress so she should be done soon, in the meantime,  here are some of the first illustrations for outfits.  I'm sure once I make them and get the fabric swatches, the colors and prints will change,  but this is what I'm starting with.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Pink Tulle Lady


I've been working on more techniques using Illustrator.  I would have loved to have this outfit when I was 5 years old only wore my favorite colors pink and purple.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Bloodhound Dog Patterns for Sale!

I finished another pattern instruction booklet!  Now you can make your very own plush toy Bloodhound Dog. They're available to purchase in my store or on etsy.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Vegetable Pageant


I've been drawing lots of animals lately, so I thought I should get back into the practice of drawing kids.  There are always lots of kids in the annual Vegetable Pageant that I just made up.  I've also been experimenting with quick ways to get tone and texture variations when filling in flat color using Photoshop.  I just did a quick translucent texture overlay on the costumes,  it's hard to really see it here but that's kind of the point.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

State Animals

I updated the about section of the site (slightly) since I moved.  To make it fun,  I made some new illustrations containing the insect, bird and flower from each state that I've lived in.



New Mexico, my home state, has some awesome animals and plants choices with the Roadrunner,  Tarantula Hawk Wasp and Yucca.  Roadrunner's do eat Tarantula hawk wasps so it's mildly accurate,  especially with the drool.




New York is definitely all-American with the the Bluebird, Ladybug and Rose. I didn't see any ladybugs riding bluebirds while I was living there but I'm sure it happens all the time.



Illinois has some classy choices with the Cardinal, Dooryard Violet,  and Monarch Butterfly.



California really wants to make sure you know that every one of its choices is truly theirs,  so they all have California in the name.  Bird:  California Valley Quail  Insect:  California Dogface Butterfly  Flower:  California Poppy



I'm not sure if I ever saw a Hermit Thrush while in Vermont,  but I definitely saw lots of Red Clover and ate lots of honey courtesy of the European honey bees.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Stuffed Animals for Sale

I made a bunch more plush animals, they're available for sale in my etsy shop.  Go buy them all and give them good homes.


Sunday, July 1, 2012

Pizza Party!


I'm trying to work on more illustrations, so hopefully this will be the first of many.  I think it's pretty funny to think about pieces of pizza having a party.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Vermont to California Move!

We did it!  Alec and I made it across the United States with all our belongings.

We used google maps to rough out the trip, but the real physical map we use was a Rand McNally road atlas.  The atlas was invaluable, it's how we picked the state parks we camped at each night and it kept us on the right path.  We had planned on sharing the driving time, but Alec quickly got the hang of the huge truck so I let him do the whole drive.



 Day 1: We picked up the 16 ft long Budget Truck at 8 am and packed in a rush running boxes down two flights of stairs.  We had some some awesome help (Keny and Jon) with boxes and the pinball machine.  We left White River Junction, Vermont around 1:30 pm and made it to New York state.  That night we camped at Sampson State Park on Seneca Lake, one of the finger lakes.

Sampson State Park
Day 2:  Drove through New York, Pennsylvania, made it into Ohio and camped at Buck Creek State Park.

Buck Creek State Park
Day 3:  Drove through the rest of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois then camped at Table Rock State Park, Missouri.

Day 4:  Drove through the top of Arkansas, passed through Oklahoma, and camped at Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo, Texas.  (This is where I dropped my camera on a rock and broke it.)


Palo Duro State Park

Day 5:  Drove through the rest of Texas and into New Mexico.  Stayed with my parents in Santa Fe, NM.

Day 6:  Drove through the rest of New Mexico through part of Arizona and camped at Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Arizona

Dead Horse Ranch State Park
Day 7:  Drove through Arizona, visited my grandparents in Bullhead City, AZ.  Made it into California and camped at Colonel Allensworth State Historical Park.

Day 8:  Drove the rest of the way through California to Oakland.  Alec did an amazing job backing the truck into the apartment driveway with about 6 inch clearance on each side of the truck.  We unloaded the truck in a rush because it's an active driveway.  It was a very stressful hour, but we did it. Later in the day we got some friends to help get the pinball machine out of the truck.  The greatest relief was returning the truck the next morning with the knowledge that we don't have to drive again for a long time.


Traveling with two rabbits:  All the things that I've read about traveling with rabbits mainly talks about how they hate it and get really stressed out.  During the previous move from Oakland to Vermont, they did okay during four days of driving across the country.  The most important thing to remember is to keep them cool, so air conditioning is a must.  I put both of them in a small travel carrier and had them in the cab with us.  They had a small water bottle, but the truck vibrations make it drip so they had water whenever we stopped, which was about every 2 hours.  The first night they slept in the truck, it was cool and we thought the less they moved the more they would settle into the travel lifestyle.  By the second night, we figured they could use some exercise so in an empty tent we let them hop around and they loved it.  They spent the night in the tent with us in their carrier.  That was the template for the rest of the trip.  They would spend the day in the carrier and got a little hop about in the morning and evening as we were putting up or taking down the tent.  As we traveled south, it just got hotter and hotter, but luckily by staying in state parks the nights were always cool.  They made it safely through another move and happily now have more space in the new apartment.  They seem just as happy to be out of the truck as we are.


Alec and I have been planning our move back to the west coast for some time now.  One of the biggest steps we took was flying out to Oakland mid-May to find an apartment before we moved out there.  For the apartment hunt, I found a really helpful site called Padmapper.com.

 It was very useful for checking out places in Oakland while still in Vermont.   It takes all the apartment listings on Craigslist and maps them out using google maps.  Since I've lived in Oakland before it was great to have each listing pop up where the apartment is located.  It lets you customize exactly what you're looking for: price, number of bedrooms, pets, etc.  It also lets you overlay walkscore, crime maps and neighborhood names.



Alec and I drove across the country from California to Vermont in the fall of 2010 and we took I-80 most of the way.  For this trip we took the southern route and dipped down into New Mexico to visit my parents.  Since we were in a big moving truck, which couldn't cover too many miles each day.  I had been looking up the driving directions on google maps, but I wanted to divide up the whole trip by specific mileage each day and I couldn't find that feature.  I ended up at Myscenicdrive.com which uses google maps but lets you create driving directions that will break down the trip by mileage or hours driving per day.  This was really helpful, especially since we have a couple days where we'll be driving less than the others.  This site also gives you nearby campgrounds based on where you'll be stopping each day. 


Thursday, June 7, 2012

Tugboat Press table banner

Greg of Tugboat Press commissioned me to make a banner that would go on his table during conventions.  He already had a great logo, so I just had the task of turning that into an eye-catching banner.  I constructed it out of polyester poplin, so it would be wrinkle resistant and long wearing.  Keep an eye out for Greg and his new table banner at the next comic fest in your town.  If you haven't read the awesome comics that Tugboat Press has put out, check them out now!





Monday, May 28, 2012

Horned Lizard Patterns for Sale!

I finally finished the pattern instructions for the Horned Lizard! 
They're now available for sale on etsy and in the store.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Georgie Monster in Brown

A couple weeks ago, Val commissioned me to make a Georgie Monster for her son Sam's 2nd birthday. Val picked out a great color combination of brown and tan plush with bright green details to create a unique gift for Sam.

Sam looks a little shifty eyed here, but he does love his new monster.





Thursday, April 26, 2012

Scrathe the Monster of Basewood

Alec and I are headed down to the MoCCA fest in New York this weekend.  Joining Alec at his table will be Scrathe, the monster from Basewood, which I just finished making.  Alec is going to have all the chapters of Basewood for sale in an awesome custom screen-printed case. If you're in the area you should come on by.