It's Hobbes!

…from Calvin and Hobbes, the great comic by Bill Watterson of course.

Self-made pattern – as there isn’t a real stuffed Hobbes out there to buy. A decision (that included not licensing his characters for coffee mugs, plastic figures, and a major motion picture with two sequels, each with their own video game) that I support…but I still wanted my sister to have her own Hobbes, so I made one! (Don’t be mad, Mr. Watterson).

More photos here!

Don't bleed on my shrubbery!

…a handmade Knight who Says Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke Ptang Zoo Boing Zow Zing and The Black Knight, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They might be silly, strange and lopsided, but they do function as golf club covers, and they were a big hit! In fact my sister was rather sad that she didn’t get one…

I'm invincible!

…but I did screen-print her a Black Knight shirt! Now they can be twins!

Yoki the Dragon

If you know someone who is into plushies (either making or receiving them) or you yourself enjoys making stuffed animals, there are many cute and cuddly patterns available online for you to give (or to buy, make and give). This winter solstice season, why not give Yoki to someone you care about, created by DIY Fluffies. I just love this little guy – I’ve made him three times already in a bounty of colours, and have changed bits of the pattern each and every time.

Dana

The dragonfly’s a timid thing,
He’s very pretty, too;
His lacy wings are clear as glass
And delicate as dew.
I don’t know why the dragonfly
Has such a fearful name.
I never saw a dragon
That was nearly half as tame.

Geoff

I had some leftover material from Mitch so I made Geoff (or ‘Raff the Giraffe, from the adorable Funky Friends Factory).

Bite Me! as Performed by Potatoes

A good thing about having a recovering right wrist is I have a lot of reading (sigh, yes, and TV) time. One of the books/graphic novels I have been enjoying as of late is Bite Me! by Dylan Meconis. It’s a funny vampire tale of epic proportions and chickens and I just got my printed copy in the mail last week. You can read it online or buy the printed version; it has a very nice shiny cover, real pages and it gets rid of the complications that are involved in reading a webcomic. Instead of clicking a button, you turn a page! No need to worry about your Internet connection if you do it old school.

As for the image above…well…there was a contest for Bite Me! that I just had to enter. A friend introduced me to the comic long ago and I felt that spending a weekend dressed-up* with painted potatoes and eggs was the best way to show my respects for it…as can be seen here. I must add that later the potatoes were made into mashed garlic taters. (The scene is from this page by the way)

*is it really dressing up if the clothes are from your everyday wardrobe? sigh.

Zoey, Mitch and Edwin

Thre cute and cuddly creatures that I made (and James gave the thumbs-up to) from the very fantastic and wonderful Funky Friends Factory. I had such fun making these guys, and everyone really liked them.

Oh so cuddly.

In the Jungle...

This lamp was a great group project, starting with me and my mother-in-law going off and getting a plain lamp, which is harder than it sounds. We needed one with a flat base, and a rod that we could enclose in bamboo. Now that I think of it, it probably would have saved us time if we just made the entire thing from scratch. The shade on the lamp was awful, so we got a separate shade. Back home, my mother-in-law covered the lamp shade with new material and glued cork to the base, while the mom-to-be and I sculpted the animals and leaves out of sculpey. We had my father-in-law drill some bamboo (its not completely hollow!) and remove the lighting switch while the sculpey figures were painted. I think it’s cute!

Holiday Ornaments

Cute little miniature sculpey ornaments, painted with acrylics. From the top left box moving clockwise, there’s Father and Mother Christmas, Grandfather and Grandmother Frost (she is holding Kolach), Simon the cat and Jersey the dog, and a cute little bunny couple. These were fun to make, but took me a long time. Probably because I am not very good at sculpting.