Happy Halloween

I love to watch cute animations for all of the different holidays.  I found a great one to share with you this Halloween!

 Happy Halloween!

Happy Surprise

Do you remember Kandi?

and Sweetie?

 

Yesterday I went to Etsy (like I do every day) and was greeted by a very happy message from J. Monster at I Only Like Monsters.  She featured these two plushies on her blog last week!  How cool is that??   It was such a pleasant surprise.  If you're a fan of cute monsters this is the blog for you.  There are so many for you to enjoy! 

Wristaches are here!

November is almost here!  I have been waiting for months to list Wristaches at Dreaming in Craft and now I finally can.

For those of you who don't know, Movember happens every November.  During this time men choose to not shave for the entire month to help raise awareness and funding for research for cancers that affect men.  I decided that the ladies needed a cute and fun way to show their support for the men in their life so I made a felt wrist cuff with a cute little mustache embroidered on it and called it a Wristache.

Head over to Dreaming in Craft to get yours today!  If you would like a wristache but don't see the color you want just message me on Etsy.  I have lots of pretty colors to choose from.  :-)

Hey You Guys!!

That scene has nothing to do with this blog post.  The Goonies was on tv this morning and when that movie comes on everything stops so I can watch.  I love it!  :-)

It has been a very busy weekend of sewing for me.  The Austin Craft Riot Holiday Show is coming up really soon and I still have a ton of stuff to make.  I'm trying to get as much done on the weekends as I can since I'm so tired on week nights and can't work very fast.  So far this weekend I have made these.

I'm going to spend my day today making as many zipper pouches as I can.  I'm about halfway done with the pouches I am taking to the holiday show so I have a lot of work ahead of me.  I love making the zipper pouches so this is going to be a very fun day.  :-)

What have you been working on this weekend?

Let's Play Dress Up

Well, I don't think anyone will be wearing this dress but it is pretty amazing.  

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This wooden lace gown was made by On Aura Tout Vu.  If you happen to be in Calais, France you should stop by the Lace and Fashion Museum to see it.  ;-)

Happy Friday!

Labels

When you own a small business like I do you have to think of so many things.  You have to have business cards, product packaging, displays...the list goes on forever!  But, with a small business comes a small budget so we have to get creative.  I have been very lucky to have help from friends in getting my business going this year, but I am always on the hunt for great ideas to help my business grow.  Pinterest has been a great source of ideas for me.

Yesterday while looking around the DIY section of Pinterest I came across this great tutorial from Bug & Bird on how to make your own tags with ribbon.  You can find the tutorial here.

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I love this idea!  Since I'm already so far along on my holiday show items (and yet still so very far behind...hehe) I will wait to do this until after the show with my new products but I'm so excited to try it.  It will be nice to have my business name sewn into things so people will remember where they got it...and hopefully tell their friends.  ;-)

Right now I have cardstock tags that I printed with my logo on them that I attach to my consignment items but I think I might try to attach my logo to felt with this tutorial and use those.  I'll be sure to write a post about it to let you all know how it goes.  It may be a total failure but it will at least be fun to try.

Do you have any fun handmade packaging ideas that you use for your business? 

Giveaway Goodness

Last week I was very fortunate to be approached by two sweet bloggers celebrating blog milestones asking me to participate in some really great giveaways.  I wanted to share these with you in case you would like to join in the celebration and possibly win some Dreaming in Craft goodies. 

The first blog belongs to Mary Ann.  She posts beautiful pictures and is celebrating reaching 100 followers.  Congratulations, Mary Ann!

My contribution to this giveaway is a mini owl plushie like this one.  The winner gets to choose the colors!

The next blog belongs to Talia and it's really cute.  She has some great pictures in her photography section, too.  Talia is celebrating 300 posts on her blog!  That's a huge accomplishment.  For this giveaway I have donated this necklace.  :-)

It makes me feel very happy to know that people enjoy my work enough to ask me to participate in their celebrations.  Thanks, ladies!  Congratulations!  :-)

Frazzle

It's finally time to officially name this plushie!

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted name ideas and voted.  You guys are so creative!  What would I do without you?  :-)

With a total of four votes Frazzle was the winner!  Congratulations, Maja!  You win a Frazzle!  I'll contact you this week to make arrangements for me to deliver it.  

Frazzles could always use more friends so this weekend I made a white Frazzle, too!

Even if you didn't win the contest you can still get a Frazzle of your own.  Just head over to Dreaming in Craft on Etsy!  I will also have some available at the Austin Craft Riot Holiday Show on November 12th - 13th.  I hope to see you there! 

Carol Carrot

This weekend I have been working a lot on my holiday show projects.  I took off work Friday to have an extra work day so I can be ready in time for the show.  Well, this week my car decided to get sick so I spend part of Friday dealing with that.  Long story short, I was planning on trading my car in for a more craft show friendly car at the end of next year and now it looks like it might be the end of this year.  Stress!  

Anyway, I did manage to get a couple of things finished on Friday and I posted pictures up on my facebook, twitter and google+ pages.  My friend Cassie messaged me and asked if I could make her a felt carrot for her daughter's bunny Halloween costume.  The store in Austin where I buy my felt is completely out of orange and white felt right now (how convenient...thank you Halloween) so I had to special order some fancy schmancy felt online just to finish my holiday show projects.  I ended up going to Hobby Lobby and getting some orange fleece instead.  I have really started to like working with fleece lately so plan to see more of that in my plushie designs in the future.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do for the leaves so I got some green ribbon and decided to play around with it to see what I liked.

What do you think?

Cassie said that she saw the carrot as a Carol so that's her name!  Easy peasy!

It was nice to take a little break from making the same things over and over again for the holiday show and do something brand new.  I have a bunch of orange fleece leftover so I ordered some more safety eyes and I will be making a couple to take to the holiday show.  You will probably be seeing one of these up on Etsy soon, too!  I'm so excited!  It makes me happy to do things like this for my friends and to get to create something new.  :-)

p.s.  I have a favor to ask you.  Can you head over to my voting post and vote for a name for my new plushie?  Two names are tied and voting closes today.  I can only have on name.  Thanks!  :-)

Blog Action Day 2011

Today is Blog Action Day and I have been trying to come up with something to write for two weeks.  Last year was easy for me because I already had knowledge about lack of clean drinking water around the world.  I knew about charity:water and Blood Water Mission's work so I had a lot of information to share.  This year Blog Action Day is about food in honor of World Food Day.  I had no idea what to write about.  

I started doing a little reading about the famine in Africa and found some interesting information on One.org.  Due to a drought there is a food shortage there and so many people are dying because of it.  30,000 children died in three months!  That's so sad and not necessary.  One is proposing a program called Fight the Famine, Feed the Future where they educate people about food and farming and help them to sustain the markets themselves.

Here are a couple of examples.

In Kenya, the US and it's partners have people to build rainwater catchment systems made out of local rock and use drip irrigation systems - to make sure they have drinking water and water for their farms when the dry season starts.

In Tanzania, the Vitamin A for Africa campaign educates mothers and children about the nutritious benefits of orange sweet potatoes, and agriculture advisors introduce farmers to this crop so that they can meet the demand from moms.

These sound like very small things but they can impact a community and it's economy in huge ways.  So, One has asked that we sign a petition showing our support by asking the US government to help fund programs like this that will save thousands of lives in Africa.  I signed and I hope that you will, too.  :-)

Be sure to check back here this afternoon.  I have a new plushie to share with you...and just by crazy, random happenstance it's a food plushie!  I'll tell you the story about  it later.  See you then!  :-)

Time to Vote

There were ten entries in the Name Game contest!  I'm really excited that so many people participated.

Let's name this plushie!

 

Just comment with your name choice.  Voting will be open until Sunday at 10:00 pm.  I will announce the winner on Monday!

Here are your choices.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Wee Wuzzle
 

Frazzle
 

Shaggy Chic
 

Frazz the Fuzz
 

Wezley
 

Fro Joe
 

Sprizzle
 

Mr. Fuzz
 

Bob

Treasury - Monster Mash

It has been a while since I had time to make an Etsy treasury.  I thought I would take a little break and make one.  :-)

I love to make monsters.  Remember Seymour?

In honor of Seymour I made a fun treasury filled with cute little monsters.  This is Monster Mash.

Click the pictures to be directed to the listings on Etsy.

Book Monster Bookma... Lunanshee $1.00	Felt Monster Toy Se... janiegirlcraft... $60.00	Abominable Snowman.... LittleAsianSwe... $9.00	Cutest amigurumi al... sabahnur $23.00
Chomper The Blue Mo... TheTinyFig $12.75	Pon Pon Bear - Monc... cheekandstitch $34.00	Cute Blue Creature ... creatureness $7.00	Frankenstein Shoes ... emandsprout $25.00
Greg Ladies Organic... chubbyturtle $35.00	Georgie Space Crab cottonmonster $55.00	Orange Monster Felt... craftingwithlo... $26.00	Smonster, Four-Pron... ShandySparks $20.00
Brondo the Recycled... Trigo $15.00	Cherry Red cute plu... FluffyFlowers $8.00	Zooguu Monster Plus... Zooguu $40.00	Monster Chunks - bu... neededwanted $10.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Product Photography

When I first started Dreaming in Craft I bought a small light tent to take pictures of my products when I couldn't get outside in the natural light.  I haven't really used it much because I have been able to take most of my pictures outside.  This weekend we finally got rain in Texas after months of nothing!  Everyone was really excited!  But, I had a problem.  I had a new plushie and a contest that needed to be posted on my blog and it was way too gloomy and wet to photograph anything outside.  So, I set up the light tent.

This is a picture of Rio that I took with a white fleece backdrop outside earlier this year.

It's not bad.  I always wished the backdrop was brighter but it was good enough to use.

This is a picture of my new plushie that I took using my light tent with the exact same white fleece backdrop.

Can you see the difference?  I'll put them side-by-side for you so you can compare better.

I can't believe how much brighter it looks in the light tent!  I will be using it from now on for all of my product pictures.  I'm even considering retaking my other product photos after the holiday show is over.  

If you have a small craft business like me and have been considering buying a light tent but didn't know if it was worth the money, I can tell you that it is.  I got a whole kit including the box, backdrops, camera stand and two lights.  It even folds into a nice little package for easy storage. 

My kit looks a lot like this.

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It's nothing fancy but it does what I need and it's the perfect size for my products.  I found mine on ebay and it really didn't cost much considering how much you get with it.  I recommend looking around the internet to see what you can find in your price range.  You will be so happy you did.

The Name Game - Part Two

I have been trying to come up with a brand new mini plushie for the holiday show for weeks.  I tried drawing lots of mini monsters but I didn't really like any of them.  So, I decided to try something completely different.  

This is what I made!

Felt will always be the main fabric I used to make my plushies.  I love it way too much.  But, I am hoping to try incorporating some other fabrics into my designs next year to expand my plushie collection.  This plushie is made of furry fleece (aka the messiest fabric ever!).  It works great for making something look furry while still keeping it soft and cuddly.  :-)

I was inspired by two things when I made this plushie.  Last year I made a chibi plushie for my friend's daughter and I really wanted to figure out a fun way to make Soot Sprites.

I started to make one out of yarn but I really wanted to make them out of fabric.  I got busy and never got around to it.  Then this week I was taking a little break and playing Chuzzle on my phone (I'm hooked!) and thought it might be fun to make a furry little plushie that looked a bit like a Chuzzle.

And that is how my new plushie came to be.  :-)

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Now I need your help.  I don't know what to name this plushie!  Will you help me?   I decided to have another contest like I had for the Love Bites and ask for suggestions.  I will then open it up to a vote and the winner will get one of these little guys for a prize!  What do you think?  Do you want to play?

Here's how it works...

1.  Comment on this post with your name, name idea and an email address where I can contact you for shipping info if you win.  Names will be accepted until Thursday, October 13th.

2.  Voting will open on Friday, October 14th and last through Sunday, October 16th.

3.  The winning name will be announced on Monday, October 17th.

p.s.  I have been having trouble finding more colors of the furry fleece.  I have tried the fabric stores I know of in Austin and I tried to find some online with no luck.  Do any of you know where I can find some?  Your help would be much appreciated.  :-)

Blue Toucan

You may have seen this shop this morning on Etsy because it was on the front page, but I had to share it in case you missed it.  This shop is called Blue Toucan Creative and it sells fairy doors!  Yes, I said fairy doors.  It's such a sweet idea!

Look at this cuteness!

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This one looks like a little mushroom!

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Wouldn't these be a fun gift for someone who loves to garden?  They would be really cute for a kids room, too!

Blog Action Day 2011

Last year I participated in Blog Action Day for the first time.  This is a day where bloggers come together once a year and write about the same topic to raise awareness about it.  Last year the topic was water.  I wrote a post about an organization called charity:water.  I also made Rio, a plushie to raise money for charity:water.

Rio is still available at Dreaming in Craft.  All money made from the sale of this plushie will be donated directly to charity:water.

This October 16th bloggers around the world will come together to talk about food in honor of World Food Day.  There aren't a lot of people registered under the craft category so I hope you will join in.  You can register your blog on the Blog Action Day website and also find resources to help you with ideas and information for your post.  This is a great way to connect with other bloggers, too.

Have you participated in Blog Action Day before?  What did you write about?

You Make Beautiful Things

Happy Monday!  I mean...happy monday?  Yeah, I think this is going to be a good Monday.  :-)

A few weeks ago some friends told me about Gungor and I wanted to share this song with you.  It's called Beautiful Things.

New Zipper Pouches

While working on my zipper pouches for the Austin Craft Riot Holiday Show I made two new designs.  I love designs that are cute and simple so I decided to make zipper pouches with two of my favorite cute and simple things.

Balloons...

and bunting.

These will first be available at the holiday show but I will have them available at Dreaming in Craft after that...just in time for holiday shopping!  :-)

What projects have you been working on this week?