Two more birds have landed in Berkeley

OhThat & Lukenlarry's & birds have joined Avesthel & Amaryllisroze's birds in relocating to Berkeley, California. All four birds are enjoying the temperate climate here and are aquainting themselves with each other.

Thanks gals! I'm waiting for one more bird...

Birds coming in from all points to roost in Berkeley

I've received two of the five birds so far from my swap partners in the Craftster Handmade Bird Swap I'm currently participating in.

Here's #1 from avesthel (Florida):

Here's #2 from amaryllisroze (StL, Mo):

Thank you both! The birds are wonderful and I've placed them on a display shelf in my living room for all to see.

The next swap

So I decided on my next swap...it's the Underwater Sea Swap hosted  by WildAtHeartArt. There are a bunch of amazing artists participating in this swap. To be honest, I'm a bit intimidated and hope I didn't get in over my head, nor will disappoint my swap partner, which is yet to be determined. I believe sign ups are until May 8th, so there's still a few days yet for you to sign up!

Check out the participant's blogs and websites in the righthand column of WildAtHeartArt's site. You will not be disappointed!

 

The birdies have flown the coup

All five birds set off in flight to their various destinations (1-california, 2-ohio, 1-texas & 1-finland) yesterday, April 30. My favorite of the 5 turned out to be Erdos (above). He was the first one I completed too. He's headed on a long flight to Finland! I hope he makes it there OK. All of my swappees received the "green" light, so I got clearance to shoo the birds out of their nest all at the same time. Now that I've successfully completed my first Crafter Swap what should I do next??? I looked on swapdex and found these two swaps that piqued my curiosity:

1. Under the Sea Swap
   
2. Secret Monkey Swap

What do you think? Under the Sea looks a bit intimidating, but I'm up for the challenge. Take a look at all the fabulous participants/artisits that are joining the swap! Whew! The Monkey Swap looks totally fun too. All these swaps are seriously putting a dent in my knitting time...

and then there were five...

I finally finished the five birds for the Handmade Bird Swap I signed up for through Craftster. I made four of them a while ago and for some reason the fifth one took me a few extra weeks to complete. I pretty much used the pattern/tutOWLrial I found online by Moonstitches, but added a few of my own mods like a little pouch/pocket in front of each owl and made a different base for each owl as well. I tried to take in consideration each recipient's likes and dislikes based on the questionaires we were all asked to fill out. Each one was made with different recycled/upcycled materials, different buttons and styles of eyes and wings. The stuffing used is made of bamboo. Initially I was going to construct little softie tree logs to house them in, but then stumbled across bamboo boxes below made by Numi the tea company. The company must have donated them to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse as they had hundreds of them. I decided to go the easier route and use them instead. I figure my recipients can think of creative reuses for them as well!

Here's hoping my recipients like the birdies and bird stuffs I'm sending along with them. Bye bye birdies! <:

spoiler alert for handmade bird swapees...don't peek if you want to be surprised

here are four of the five birds i'm sending to my swap pals for the craftster handmade bird swap. each one was created using their color and fiber preferences. hopefully, they'll be happy with what i've made. i added little pocketses and plan on putting little tidbits in each one. we've got until the end of the month and i could keep on obsessing on the additional things i'd like to add to each one, but i really want to send them off asap and not wait until the 11th hour.

Birdspiration

Well, I should be finishing up my Jared Flood gloves, but instead I've started playing around on the old singer sewing machine figuring out what kind of bird(s) to make for the Handmade Bird Swap. I stumbled across Soto Softies blog where she points out a few wonderful bird softie makers in an old post: Ann Wood, Abby Glassenberg (while she naps), and a familiar site...Stephanie Congdon Barnes (little birds).

Wow, do I have a lot to learn regarding construction of softies, let alone creating original works and getting my own style down. I don't wanna go to work...

From Coraline to the Birds

Well that didn't take me long...I found myself another swap-a-roo to join and help me continue on my eternal procrastination quest! It's named the Handmade Bird Swap - Sweat Shoppe Style and it's being hosted by dragonmama on Craftster. Dragonmama noted that this swap was based on one that Creative Kismet hosted back in January of this year. It was called the "Birds of Change Exchange"and like CK's ideas and meaning behind it. Creative Kismet just so happened to be part of the Coraline Mystery Box Swap I'm a part of too. Her box was and is AMAZING, definitely one of my favorites of the lot.

So in this swap we are supposed to make birds in flocks of 5 or 10. I opted for the smaller sized flock which will allow me to spend more time on each bird than if I were to try to crank out 10 of them, sweatshop style. So now I'll be changing my obsession from Coraline to Bird plush/stuffies. Maybe I'll sneak in a Coraline reference or two! 

( : : ) ( : : )

Creepy Cute Crocheted Coraline (C^4)

I got my mystery box yesterday. I wasn't able to get my paws on it until well after work. It came from Evalana aka the Rabbit Hutch. Inside the #29, tin box was:

• Creepy cute crocheted Coraline
• Bobinsky's mouse
• Letter
• black "other" buttons
• Coraline Mystery Box Swap tag created by Batwrangler with button key added.

Very cool Evalana. I'd love to put her on the dash of my Matrix, but the sun will likely do a number on her. Maybe I'll put velcro on her bottom and have her on the dash only when I'm driving. Same goes for the little mouse.

Coraline Mystery Swap Box in da house!

I just got off the phone checking in with my SO this afternoon and he mentioned taking in a package delivered to my door. He described to me over the phone and I suspect it's my swap box package. He mentioned it has a sticker or writing that says something like "here we go..." and comes from Connecticut. He knows I've been waiting for a box and has witnessed the evolution of my contribution to the swap since the get go. He's been very supportive of my obsessive crafting endeavors, which is great, especially since I want to do a round 2 if it materializes! :)

On the same note, seems the package I sent has arrived at my pal's local post office and is out for delivery...
Label/Receipt Number: 0306 1070 0004 8319 XXXX
Arrival at Unit-->Status: Arrival at UnitYour item arrived at 8:35 AM on March 18, 2009 in SOMECITY, SOMESTATE.
Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

-later-Status: Delivered

Your item was delivered at 1:10 PM on March 18, 2009 in SOMECITY, SOMESTATE.

I've still got a few hours until I'll able to open the box. Very excited though...stay tuned...

Swap Withdrawal

I'm still mourning over the the loss of my Coraline...well, not really, I am eagerly awaiting my recipients reaction to her box. I do however feel some sort of loss. I guess, what I am jonesin' for is to find another crafty venture that will give me the same buzz as this one did . I found this new-ish blog called Swap Dex and seems to be a pretty comprehensive listing of swaps. I perused the current swap listings, but nothing really grabbed me. When I stumbled across the Coraline Mystery Box Swap, it was a no brainer, I HAD to join this swap. I even signed up within the first minute my little mochi was accepting requests to join!

When posting my competed Coraline doll to the craftster.org site, I discovered something called poppets. OMG! these dolls are amazing and seem to be the brainchild of ghilie. Check out a few of the poppets that have been made by craftsters since 2007. These have become quite the phenomenon over at Craftster. This just may be the next swap I was looking for! nezbutt, just hosted (still in progress) a poppet swap, but sign ups were in January. Here's hoping there will be an I love my poppet swap round 4! Check out her amazing dolls on her blog as well as the steampunk one (above) she sent to her uber lucky swap pal!!! I guess it's true...Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. I am now a "friend of craftster" and have PM'd and have received ghilie's poppet pattern. Thank you ghilie!

Let the recipients posting to the Coraline Mystery Box Swap group begin!

Like many other participants, I sent off my box to my Coraline Mystery Box Swap pal today (the deadline). I started this project as soon as I was accepted, but for some reason, the last bits and pieces didn't get finished until yesterday. I stood in a short line for a very long time. In classic post office inefficiency, the clerk seemed to have difficulty operating the machine that kicks out the postage and/or count stamps for those ahead of me and basically move at a snails pace. Good thing I wasn't in a rush, but boy oh boy, he did annoy most others waiting in line. By the time it was my turn, I figured it would take him at least 10 minutes to process my package. After requesting it be sent PRIORITY and was told the postage came to $8.75, I handed him a $10. The poor guy had to use a handheld calculator to figure out how much change he had to give me! Anyways, it's OFF. My box is on it's way across the United States. It should arrive in _______, _______ in two days. I sure do hope you like your box my Coraline Mystery Box Pal!!!

This swap was/is so much fun. I have never participated in something like this before. The only other swap I have participated in, consisted of assembling Altoid-like tins and some schwag for a Ravelry group, but this was so much more creative and fun! I loved making my version of the Coraline doll and learned quite a bit about constructing such things. This was my first attempt at making a doll/stuffie/plush from scratch. Participants got to post their works in progress on a Coraline Mystery Box Swap group on Flickr and it was so exciting to see others participants works. Wow, there are some amazingly talented people in this group. As a result, I went in and out of feeling quite happy about my project to very inadequate and self conscious with regards to my crafting skills. I know I should just let it go, but I guess that's just the way I am. Anyways, I am very excited to see what others post on the group site now. I've been visiting it several times a day just to see what new photos have been uploaded. 

WIP: Coraline doll (she's done!)

WIP: Coraline doll (she's done!)
Originally uploaded by purlgurl

I've finally finished my first doll-plush-stuffie from scratch. I've made ones in the past but generally started out with a sock. Her head, body, arms and legs were all fashioned separately. I did this to have a floppy doll look and originally, her legs were going to be "buttoned" on similar to the arms, but I ended up stitching them in in the end.

The details on her face were embroidered (if you can call it that) and the lips and rosey cheeks with acrylic paints. Her hair is individual strands of yarn that were placed one by one and then trimmed. She has a dragon fly hair clip that was fashioned out of a button and I used part of her hair that I wanted to tie back to make the Coraline hair swoop happen. I finished off the dragon fly with some rhinestones to mimic the one from the film.

Coraline's sweater is hand knit using Cascade 220 wool and size 1 needles. Her skirt was fashioned from some silk like black fabric with an elastic waste. Her raincoat and boots are constructed from XL size yellow rubber gloves with clasp fastener for the front attached with yellow buttons. The boots were formed by using the fingers of the yellow rubber gloves.

I sure hope my swap pal likes it. :) I certainly do.

WIP: coraline mystery box swap box #35

WIP: coraline mystery box swap box #35
Originally uploaded by purlgurl

Coming to the end of the Coraline Mystery Swap. I'll be able to concentrate on my other crafty endeavors again, including finally finishing Sabine. This swap has inspired me to do more swaps and get into making softies. I just stumbled across this one and it was so damn inviting I had to join. Seems I'm late in the joining the bandwagon as usual as it appears to be quite a phenomena. Soon I'll just be able to kick back and view the works that the other swappers have put together. Many have not uploaded any of their WIPs. I'm wondering if I should have held back a few images and left it to the surprise of my recipient. Oh, well...

Almost finished with my Coraline Mystery Box Swap project

I'm very pleased with the Coraline doll I'm making for the swap and all her clothing and have posted several of the WIP pics at the group's flickr site. I will be hard pressed to send the box and it's contents off, but very excited to see how it's received by it's OTHER owner. I'll likely send it off on Friday or Monday (the deadline) next week.

I'm documenting my process, but I'm going to hold back a few details so the recipient can be "slightly" surprised as to the contents of the box.

Things to do:

• finishing details on the box (off to ace hardware for some bits and pieces) DONE


• shoe laces on coraline's yellow boots


• button(s) on raincoat


• documentation as per swap specifications DONE


• send her off to _________________ in ______________

making progress on the coraline button eyed doll

i've been going to tomopop's post on the mystery box he rec'd. it consists of THE coraline button eyed doll. i've been going through all the pics to get inspiration and guidance on what to include on the one i'm making. the hair is slowly being added to the head. one strand at a time. i thought of using needle noodle's technique of attaching hair, but later decided to go back to my 'ol one strand (really two, because i double it) at a time method. it's a cool technique though and i'll definitely try to use it on another project. hopefully i can make the rubber gloves into a workable rain slicker. the prototype i sewed up this evening is too small, but it showed me that it can work. i just get a kick out of fact that i'd be making them out of yellow rubber gloves. i'm hoping to make the yellow rain boots out of them too. we shall see...

progress report on coraline mystery box swap