Almost Ready

With the Phoenix Teddy Bear Show right around the corner now on March 11th I am almost ready.  I have one more bear just about finished, and I may even have time to make another. I will only have 8 or 9 for sale, but I have made sure that they are 8 or 9 that I am happy to have there with me.

Here is who is ready to be seen so far.

     

     

 

I know that many of you have already seen them floating around on Face Book, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget to put them here so you could see them lined up side by side just like at the show. 
The one left to finish is a little black cub, since I have time I will really enjoy all the finishing work left to be done.

License Plates As Art?

Many of you do not know this about me, but license plates pay my bills.  My husband has a very large store on ebay and a website dedicated to license plates.  The living room of my house is his office, the walls are covered in license plates.

I have for years kept them out of the rest of the house, that is until recently.  It all began around Thanksgiving when the spice rack that sits behind my stove fell off the wall and broke all over the tile floor.  The space looked so empty so I thought well just maybe…

My house was built in the 50’s, these vintage license plates go pretty well.  And then I noticed that the window in the kitchen looked kind of bare so…

I started raiding my husband’s stash.  They look pretty good there next to the old bottles.  But I would not allow them into the family room until…  My husband bought me a license plate, one he knew that I would like, who was I to say no.

So I put it in my little office space which is set up in the family room.

It looks so nice there with my dolls and bear paintings.
Then believe or not I noticed a wall in my family room that looked kind of empty.  So there in my room with all of my carefully picked folk art I now have a wall of vintage license plates.  I guess if you think about it they could almost be considered folk art, they were made by regular folks in prison.

They were my little secret until yesterday, while I was cruising around Pinterest and I found this.

This is a poster, you can find it here.  And I thought how true.
So in my house if you can’t beat him join him.  I have license plates as art.

Homemade Panda Food

Every time I see a picture of a panda they are eating.  They must spend the majority of their day munching on bamboo.  With the Phoenix Bear Show just around the corner now, I did not want to take this pack of pandas I made out into public hungry.  So yesterday I spent some time making them some bear food.

Out of corn husks.

Many years ago when I began crafting with corn husks I lived in the country and I could just walk into the corn fields and pick what I needed.  I have made so many things with them over the years: dolls, flowers, baskets, wreaths. If you have never used them to craft they are a very easy cheap material to work with.  They take dyes well and when soaked they are very soft and supple.

I live now in the city in the middle of the desert, so no corn fields around here.  But I never had to give up my corn husk crafting because I am lucky enough to live so close to Mexico.  One of the favorite Mexican dishes is tamales, and guess what they are made with?  You got it, corn husks.  They are wrapped and steamed with them.  So now I can go to the grocery store and buy them like this.

Lucky for the bears they will not have to go hungry to their new homes. 
One of the best parts of making the bears is playing with all the materials I can get my hands on to accessorize them with.  Inspiration can really come from anywhere.

ps: It’s probably the reason I hoard so much of everything.

Organizing Inspiration

I spent some time today organizing the bear pictures that I keep printing off of my computer.  I keep them near me while I work.  I have collected quite a pile.

I usually stick them in a binder when not in use and I dig them out as I need them. 

But I wanted something small that I could keep with me.
So I cut out the ones I use often and glued them onto a piece of card stock that I cut into 6ths.  The size ended up being about 3-1/2” x 4-1/4” perfect size to keep out and around. I laminated them, punched a hole and put them on a key ring.

I have also been collecting these wonderful color combination cards. You can get them on the web, a couple of places are here and here.  I have been keeping them organized in a folder on Pinterest, but I wanted to have them out where I could use them.  So I did the same with them.

The perfect thing to keep with my fabrics or stash in my purse to take shopping.

As you can see all those years working at a school with cutters and laminators have really paid off.

WIP Phoenix Show

Bear Number five is telling me she would like to be a princess ballerina.  Funny how they do that sometimes.

Looks like the crown might be a perfect fit, no one else has claimed it yet.

I will be here with bears March 11th, hope you’ll come.

I Learned How To Pick Them

You have heard me whine here before the URSAs this year that I am always bridesmaid and never the bride. 
This past year things have changed for me. Why?  I really think it is because I stopped picking the bears I liked the best.  This year I paid attention to the comments.  Who got the most, what was said.  That is how I made decisions on who to enter. 

Alpine and Oatman have both received TOBY Industry Choice Awards.
Oatman has been a very good boy, he has also won an URSA.

 

I guess the moral is not to trust myself.

A New Play Toy

I have for a long time wanted a little ball jointed doll.  The complete little ones (the ones with faceups, clothes, wigs ect..) are hard to come by, they quickly sell out. So for a long time I just sat with it on my mind.  I decided after playing with Blythe that I would maybe like to buy a blank and do it myself.  I was afraid, even a blank doll is well more than $100.00. I was not quite ready for that yet. 

Then one day at the beginning of December I was cruising the internet looking at all the beautiful little dolls with my friend Wayne, (Wayne lives in Singapore) and on ebay we found her.

She is not resin, she is a hard plastic, (abs) but at 5” (about 12cm) she is just what I wanted, and she was cheap, $28.00 shipping included. She is a Hujoo baby doll.

So I sanded her down, did some facial carving around her eyes, chin, and lips.  I did not like the eyes I purchased, I thought the iris was too big for her, so I took apart a Liv doll and used her eyes. I blushed her body using pastels and painted her face with acrylics, and gave her some lashes.

I have lots of mohair around here.  I mean the raw kind, locks, not the fabric (although I hoard that also) So I dug through my stash pulled some out, dyed it, and followed a tutorial on the web to make her a wig, fits perfect.

  

Poor girl had no clothes, so I crocheted her some with some #8 pearl cotton thread.  How come I can work this small with a crochet hook, but can’t make a bear under 8”?  I need to think on this.  She still needs some shoes.  I did order her some, but I think I might try my hand a making her some with the thread to match her outfit. 

I had so much fun playing.  I think she turned out exactly the way I wanted her to.  So I ordered another, this time I think she will be brunette.

I swear I have been working on bears.  I am getting ready for the Phoenix Show in March.  I will be showing off the finished bears soon now.
If you live anywhere cold and need a break in March consider coming here.  The weather is no finer in the country than Phoenix in March.  More on that later.