It's been three whole years since I shyly and reluctantly started a craft blog.  Oh, yes, it's true.  I was totally uncomfortable with the whole thing.

The free download for Week 2 of my 3-year blogaversary is Supercute Sea Creatures.  I love these little guys so much.  They are super-easy to make, which means that you can make tons of them to experiment with all sorts of color combinations.

Part of the reason I only posted once last week, in addition to our router dying, is that Andrew and I were working on a free downloads page!  Yay!

I made the Supercute Sea Creatures pattern available in November ... which isn't a very sea creature-y month.  Now that summer is in full swing, I thought I'd share you some of the awesome creations made using my pattern.

I fell in love with Angelina's son Max when I read this post.  Not only is he the weird and wonderful son I would have loved to have had, I see a little bit of myself in him.  So, when Angelina mentioned in passing that Max would probably love a headless bunny egg in his Easter basket, I immediately promised he'd have one.

Here is a more evidence of my "little problem" in regard to ornaments.  When Crafty McGee posted that she had a couple left over ornaments to trade, I JUMPED on it.  Breathlessly.

For my part of the trade, I made her the tie-dyed jellyfish above.  I have a stash of tie-dyed felt that I finally cut into for this little guy.

The jellyfish seems to be the most popular of the Supercute Sea Creatures, which is a little bit of a surprise to me.  I would have thought it would be the octopus.

I also made her a purple fish with a sequin eye stripe.  I thought the silver sequins would look good paired with Christmas lights,  But now that I think about it, these little guys might be on her light-less tree ... in which case the sequins will bring a little bling to the mix. :)

I can't wait to get my little tree from Crafty McGee.  I think it's uber brilliant that she put the eyelet for hanging in the middle of the treetop star.

** update: pattern available as free download **

Last January, I got the sweetest email from a woman named Lenore asking for the pattern for Octophrost.  She told me:

"Every year I make a Christmas ornament for my grand and great grand children.  I would love to make this little fellow.  For Christmas 2006 I made 90 ornaments.  Three more babies are expected that I know of so I may need to make near 100.  That means starting early."

The pattern was no where near ready.  I wanted to be a part of her Christmas plans, so I worked hard to get something together.  I sent her the pattern in mid-February, about 2 months before I posted it.

In that time, we corresponded a little and I learned a more about Lenore.  She's 73 (maybe 74 now).  She sent me a picture from a recent family reunion, and I cried when I opened it up and saw all those wonderful people.  In fact, it's making me cry right now just thinking about it.  It's overwhelming to think that, however tangentially, I'm a part of their heart-felt, hand made, family tradition.

I've also kept in touch with Lenore's daughter Lucy, of My Byrd House. She's given me updates over the last year, and it's been so fun to think about Lenore patiently (I imagine) and lovingly sewing 99 Octophrosts for her family.  She's posted lots of pictures on her blog.  The tree in the picture above has 99 Octophrosts on it!

I want Lenore to know how honored and thankful I am that she chose Octophrost for her ornament this year.  I also want her to know that she's a wonderful example to all of us of how to make the moments of our life personal and memorable.  This experience will always be a treasured memory for me.  I hope that in my own life, I'm able to spread such warmth and joy to the people around me.

When I posted the Supercute Sea Creatures pattern, I gave the first five commenters a free copy.  Lucky for me, June, of Planet June was one of those people.

She made these adorable all-white sea creatures using my pattern.  Her post includes a details about how she sewed each creature and a close-up photo of each, so go read it. :)

For all you crochet lovers, June sells awesome amigurumi patterns for a staggering array of cute animals.  Definitely check them out.

I'm so excited about completing another pattern, which you can now get on the free downloads page. I designed the octopus in April, and he languished on my craft table since then.  Just last week, I decided to re-do my starfish pattern and add a jellyfish and fish to the group.

They are all easy-to-make and perfect for customizing.  There's lots of room for experimenting with color combinations and embellishments.  I think an all-white set would be really cool, too.  There are a couple extra photos in the Futuregirl Supercute Sea Creature Flickr group.

Each creature is between 3 and 4 inches tall and wide, which makes them the perfect size for ornaments, package tags, or clip-ons for backpacks.

I originally designed the Bad Eggs around Easter of 2006.  I did a set of four in black with embroidered designs.  At the time, I thought subversive Easter eggs (traditionally-colored eggs with non-traditional imagery) would be hilarious, and I got my chance to make some when they were accepted  for the Anticraft  book.

Look at that squirting arterial blood!  I can't tell you how much I love that decapitated bunny.  It warms my heart.  I couldn't be happier about how it turned out.  The white-on-white embroidery outlining his leg doesn't photograph well, but it looks good in person.  His tail is a bunch of floss loops making a 3-D puff.

Ahhhh ... a cute chick with a taste for eyes.  Chirp!  The eyes filling the basket are made with a tiny sequin and a black seed bead ... and embroidered eyelashes.  I do realize that if a chick was digging the eyeballs out of peoples' heads and collecting them in a basket that they wouldn't still have eyelashes, but I think that makes it all the more creepy. :)  It totally oogs me out that the chick is holding an eye by the optic nerve.

The other two eggs in the Bad Eggs set are based on the original designs.  One is embroidered with 360° flames and the other has evil eyes on each side in alternating warm and cool colors.

Certainly, you could make non-snarky Easter eggs with the pattern ... but why would you? ;)

Amazon.com is already shipping the Anticraft book!!!  I don't have my free copy yet (and no one can tell me if it's even on its way).  I'm freaking out because I can't see the book and the pictures of my projects.  Is it professional looking?  Is it a nice book?  Are the instructions for my projects accurate? Ack!

The rude helper-monkey at Borders informed me that it they don't get copies until the 22nd, so I won't be able to go sneak a visit until then.  I'm "this close" to ordering one on Amazon, but I'm pretending that I have patience.

Deep breath.

Without further ado, here is project one of the three projects I have in the book:

You probably recognize the Three Owls, the first original stuffies I designed.  For Anticraft I made them a little scarier.  Thank goodness for the felt and floss stash.  Look at all those greys!

This project might seem a little anticlimactic, which is why I started with it.  I love my sweet little owls, though, and I think their goth/industrial incarnation is cute in a menacing kind of way.

The red beady eyes on the little one make me think of Amityville Horror, which I read in one night when I was in the third or forth grade.  I wasn't quite old enough to realize "based on a true story" didn't mean it was true.  It scared the hell out of me. In that book, the demon, which appears as a pig sometimes, also appears as a set of red glowing eyes.  I swear, the red dots on my alarm clock still creep me out a little because of that book.

Yay!  I can't believe how fast I finished up the pattern and all the web changes I needed to make.  The PDF includes the pattern pieces and instructions for both an adult and a baby seahorse.  They are super cute, if I say so myself.

You can check out the seahorses made by my awesome testers in the Futuregirl Seahorse Stuffies Flickr group.  Thank you so much Korallin, Diane, and Sara!

I should have mentioned in my last post that Andrew is the genius behind the seahorse photos.  He's the one that knows how to light things, knows how to position things, and knows how his camera works ... you know, everything.  I've learned a ton from him since I started this blog.  We always have so much fun setting up the elaborate photo shoots together.  He's the best and I'm so lucky he's mine!

Last night after I posted, I tied my copy of Crochet Me closed.  I'm totally serious.  I didn't just do it for the blog.  I haven't even opened it once - not once.  I think if I hadn't tied it closed, I would have been crocheting today instead of finishing up the pattern.  Now I'm so excited to get started on swatching!

** update: pattern on free downloads page **

I'm *this close* to finishing the pattern and instructions for the my seahorse stuffies.  I know I shouldn't say anything before it's ready, because I'm totally jinxing myself, but I'm sure it'll be up soon!

I'm including the pattern and instructions for both adult *and* baby seahorses.  The adult pattern looks just like Sasha and the baby pattern is what I used to make the two little cuties pictured here.

The only thing holding me back is that I just got my copy of Crochet Me in the mail and I'm fighting the urge to start swatching for the Icelandic Cowl.  I've decided that I'm going to use every bit of my will power and not open the book until I have the seahorses finished and posted.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to resist ...

Here's a little behind-the-scenes shot from today.  It's pretty ridiculous how much I love setting these things up. Oh, I just realized I need to add 'photoshop out the strings' on my list of things to do ... I better get to work! :)

I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has dowloaded the octopus stuffie pattern.  You guys are the best!

My favorite part is when someone uploads pictures of their octopus to the Flickr Group.  I'm so impressed with everyone's creativity.  I would have posted a picture, but I don't want to play favorites - they are all so great!

Check them out when you have the time!

** update: This pattern is now available as a free download! **

This is Octophrost, the ornament I made for my ornament swap. Every time I say "Octophrost" out loud, I giggle and Andrew looks amused.  Especially when I add, "Santa of the Sea." I find it so funny and ridiculous.

I've been dying to make felt stuffies for a while, so when the ornament swap came up, I looked my stack of not-used-yet Japanese craft books.  I was looking for something appropriate for an ornament ...  and then I saw Sigmund sitting on my desk.

I loved Sigmund perched in the fake seaweed and it clicked that an octopus would be super cute snuggled in the branches of a Christmas tree.  Since I designed the octopus pattern myself, my poor, neglected Japanese craft books are still staring at me from the shelf, accusingly.

As I was making them, Andrew kept asking me questions, like, "What do you mean, 'Santa of the Sea'?" and "You are going to make him ALL white?"  I realized I had a whole little story going in my head about how Octophrost is made of snow and ice, that instead of shooting out ink clouds to hide he shoots out a mini blizzard of snow, that he makes all the toys himself because he's got eight arms, and other stuff like that.  I do that a lot - I'll think about something a whole lot and then just share the last thought and get confused stares from everyone.  I thought it might be a good idea to let everyone in on the magic of Octophrost, so I drew a mini poster that illustrates what I have in my head.

I was going for "Victorian Circus Poster" with the postcard.  The postcard cracks me up almost as much as saying (and typing), "Santa of the Sea."

I made the Octophrosts with 4 different frosty eye colors: blue, pink, mint, and lavender.  Each postcard was color-penciled to match.  Since I had to make these in the most efficient manner possible, I learned a lot about mass hand-producing stuffies.  I'll share all those tips in a later post.

The other crafters in the ornament swap are amazing. I've been totally freaked about whether my ornaments will be even half as awesome as theirs ... but my insecurities have been totally overwhelmed by my excitement about getting their wonderful creations.  The other participants are:

Michelle from Green Kitchen (organizer extraordinaire)
Bethany from Bitter Betty
Stephanie from Ruby Crowned Kinglette
Tricia from Frizzelstixs
Meg from Pixiegenne
Cassi from Bella Dia
Kristin from Kleas

I can't wait to share all their goodies with you, too!



I've entered Octophrost in Whipup.net's current Whiplash in the decoration category.

Here is a set of my owls with hypnotic sequin eyes and magnets hidden inside. Bukowski, Blaze, and Bucky (short to tall) were first introduced in February. The sequin eyes are just as excellent as their original stitched eyes. And, since they are going to be hanging out on the fridge, I decided to give them some feet. My favorite is Blaze with the double sequin eyes, although Bucky, with his starburst sequin eyes, is a close second.

Everyone and their cousin makes crafty little owls. Usually that alone would make me shy away from making owls. I prefer to be unconventional. When I moved to San Francisco at 22, one of the first things I did was take out my nose ring. Everyone had them. I felt like I was conforming by having my nose pierced, so it had to go. But owls are just too cool and mysterious an animal to ignore. Are they evil? Are they wise? Are they watching over us? What the hell is up with the owls? I'm totally mesmerized by them.

There is an owl that lives in a tree by my workplace. Most days I hear it. Whooo whoooo. I've stood in the parking lot for minutes at a time listening. Whooo. I slowly turn my head and listen again. Is it in this tree, or that one? If anyone has seen me doing this, they must think I'm a retard. I can never tell where the whoooos are coming from and I can't seem to spot the owl. All I know is, if there is ever some global Armageddon where people and animals (and the plants, too, why not?) form armies and square off, I want to be on the owl's side.

Stellan the Starfish is the third original stuffie in my sea creatures series (Sigmund the Octopus is the first and Sasha the Seahorse is the second).

Stellan is made of light and dark orange felt, pearl beads, a flower sequin, and embroidered embellishment.

The tiny stitches on the bottom are in three different colors. There is an orange near the blue lines, then light yellow, and lastly white in the crook between the arms. The effect is much more subtle than I was going for. I should have used a set of more contrast-y colors.

The shape of Stellan is exactly how I envisioned it: the arms curl under slightly; the top is more three-dimensional than the bottom; and once he is stuffed, he has the right starfish shape.

If only starfish had eyes. I didn't realize how much I like putting eyes on stuffies until Stellan. More than anything else, eyes convey personality. This is true of stuffies, people, and, well, anything with eyes. Think about it: sharks and snakes have dead-evil eyes and pandas and puppies have heart-melting eyes. Poor starfish, they have no eyes at all.

** UPDATE:  Sasha the Seahorse Pattern & Instructions PDF is available on my free downloads page**

Sasha is made of Limbo Lime felt, plastic pearl beads, periwinkle floss embellishment, and eyes made from a white sequin and a cooper-colored bead.

I approached the design of Sasha the same as Sigmund. I did a Google search for seahorses and studied all the different seahorse features. I never realized how truly bizarre these creatures are. The more you look at seahorses, the weirder they look, just like a word sounds weird if you repeat it over and over. Seahorses are very very elaborate, so I had to really pare down the design to basic elements. I used the periwinkle stitching and the pearl beads to mimic their exoskeleton-looking bodies.

This project was a confluence of many things: (1) Sigmund's body, slightly modified, is egg shaped; (2) There is Easter stuff everywhere; (3) I saw the coolest alterna-holiday crafties at Green Kitchen.

The flame egg, the stink-eye egg, the skull egg, and the devil egg are the scary goth cousins to the cutesy Easter decorations that have overrun every store I go into. I went for evil-child-whimsy with the stitching.

Overall, I am pleased, but I have a couple of complaints. (1) The black orbs don't look egg-like. The pictures actually look pretty good, but in person, not so much. If I were to do it again, I would make the eggs in traditional pastels and then stitch the subversive designs on them. A kind of bait-and-switch. (2) The red thread I used for the devil blends right in and doesn't stand out enough. Again, in the picture it looks OK, but in person you can barely see the thread. (3) The red horns and pitchfork are spread out way too much, so you can't really see them all at once and it's unclear what I was going for. (4) If I didn't have a use for cute Easter eggs, what use do I have for evil Easter eggs? Sometimes I'm too clever for my own good.

I tried something new with this stuffie. I sewed a one inch wide washer (a flat round piece of metal with a hole in the center for a screw) to the inside of the bottom piece of felt. It works well for stability and for weight. I usually use plastic pellets for weight and stability, but for such a small shape plastic pellets really aren't enough unless you fill the whole thing with them.

** update: This pattern is now available as a free download! **

This original stuffie is the culmination of 5 pattern pieces, 25 felt pieces, 50 beads, 52 sequins, and hours of sewing. Whew! I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I decided to design an octopus back in February. I was flying high on my easy success with the owls.   An octopus is a different story.

I have a yard of cream felt that I bought to do prototypes. There is a graveyard of weird cream arms and orbs in the lead-up to a fully recognizable octopus. The biggest challenge was the arms. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted them to look like. The solution I came up with seems obvious now, but I didn't get it on my first try.

I also didn't work out what I was going to do for a face until I had the body and bespangled legs all sewn together. There were a couple of ways to go with the face. One is Japanese-cute wide-eyed and human-ish. I decided to go with inhuman, indifferent, google-eyed animal. Sigmund creeps me out. I imagine big sharp teeth hiding under all those legs. Why is he staring at me like that?!

I was so excited when I finished Sigmund. I wanted to honor him with a kick-ass photo shoot, so I bought that cool aquarium grass you see in the picture. I was hoping to find a cheesy treasure chest or goofy diver, too, but they only had realistic looking rocks and sea urchins and stuff. I was impressed. I almost bought one of those big undersea photos that you can tape on the back of your aquarium to use as a back-drop, but I thought that was going too far (... says the girl who just sewed a bazillion sequins on a small stuffed octopus ... ha!).

I am going to do a set of three original sea creatures. I like doing things in sets of three, like I did with the owls. I already have the next one's prototype done, and it's looking good. I going to keep it a secret for now, though. :)

These are my first original stuffies. They are tiny - ranging from 1.5 inches to 2.5 inches tall. I made them out of felt and stuffed them with polyfill and plastic beads.

I named the littlest one Bukowski because his colors remind me of a Post Office uniform and the writer Charles Bukowski worked for the Post Office for many years. Plus, he looks kinda cranky and ornery, just like Bukowski. He also reminds me of Meatwad from Aquateen Hunger Force.

The medium one is named Blaze.  All his points make me think of flames.  I like flames.

The tallest owl made me think of an evil professor with hypnotic eyes, so he was named Bucky after Buckminster Fuller.  Buckminster wasn't evil, but he was odd, which is close.

The road to my owl trio

My husband bought me a coffee mug with owls scratched into the glaze. One night, inspired by the mug, I made a quick small felt owl based on one of the mug-owls (the cream and brown owl). It came out looking great, but it couldn't stand up. I decided to make an owl that would stand up on it's own.

I scanned my pattern pieces into the computer (they were pencil drawings) and redrew them in Illustrator making changes to the design. I also incorporated a round bottom piece into the pattern and made owl number two. This one stood up, but I wasn't satisfied with it's owl-i-ness yet (the orange and black owl).

I did a Google image search and spent time looking at owls. There are all sorts of owls! I was totally fascinated. I decided I was going to make a set of three owls. I drew the pattern pieces for each of them in Illustrator, cut out the felt, and then sewed them together.

I enjoy making the stitches a part of the design, as well as adding embroidered embellishments. This started with Monsieur Kitty where I added my own tummy embroidery to the Japanese stuffie. Bukowski has the outline of his wings from front to back, blanket stitching around his eyes, and a tiny three-stitch beak. Blaze has french knots holding on this purple beak on the front and the violet flame on his back, stitched eyes, and stitches outlining his body. Bucky has fabulous asterisk eyes and v-stitched feathers.

Now I need to make a set of owls with sequin eyes!