off they go to stuffed!

I don't think I've ever mentioned before on the blog about Stuffed Magazine.  If you're not familiar with Stuffed and you're a fan of soft toys, you really should check it out.  

I found it (well, actually Kinsey found it) at my local Jo-Anns in the late summer of 2011.  I was just getting into making more soft toys and it seemed interesting, although I wasn't sure at first.  It was $14.99 which I usually feel is a little high for a magazine and I wasn't a fan of everything featured, but Kinsey persuaded me to get it anyway.   It wasn't a cheaply, thin made magazine, but had some volume to its size.  Once getting the issue home and looking through it, I immediately was very inspired to try all kinds of soft toys.  The photography in the magazine is wonderful and they list websites for the artists included in the magazine.  I spent a lot of time looking at the work of new plush artists I discovered through Stuffed.  

This past week, I did two major things revolving around this magazine.  The first thing was I purchased the last remaining issue I didn't own through Ebay.  So in just about 6 months since discovering it, I own all 7 issues of Stuffed (they publish twice a year).  

The second thing was I submitted some of my own plush toys for possible publication in the next issue! They take open submissions and the deadline for the summer 2012 was just a few days ago.  I have no idea if my plush toys will get chosen to be in the magazine, but I'm so excited to see what happens!  It will be while until I know anything, but I'm happy I gave it a shot.  This was my box of plush I sent:

As you can see, I sent 2 elephants, 1 rocket ship, and 2 boys.  The boy plush are my newest design and I'm really excited about how they turned out.  The only bad part was that these were my first two I made and I had to ship them out right after I finished making them!  Here's a closer shot of them:

The good news is, I just listed a new plush boy in my shop!  Meet Ethan here!

coming soon....

Hard at work finishing up the final version of these boy plushes.  They are the very first "human" plush I've done and so far I'm pleased with the results.  Here's a quick peek at how they are shaping up.

Look for them soon!  

Coming this Wednesday....

Meet the elephants! These ellie-guys and ellie-girls with be in the shop on Wednesday.

They're all decked out in their finest....

...and getting in shape in the meantime.

1 Whale + 1 Owl= Lots of Little Owls

It all started with a whale.  A stuffed whale that is.  Kinsey made this for me early 2009.  I had seen a stuffed whale in one of my craft books and loved it.  Although the one I saw in the book was made of old jeans and didn't look quite as good as the one below.  
I love this whale and I won't lie, I sometimes use it as a pillow when I sleep.  So seeing how much I loved the first animal, Kinsey surprised me with this one last Christmas:

I was so impressed and couldn't believe he didn't use a pattern for these animals.  I told him he should really make more and sell them.  Who wouldn't love an owl like this?  But we never really got around to making more.  

The other week I got the sudden urge to see if I could make a similar owl.  I didn't want my new owl (or owls in this case) to be as large as the original, but not too small.  I also wanted to change the eyes and make them not as large.  I wanted to eliminate the zigzag stitching and give the a cleaner overall appearance.  Another area I wanted to improve was the shape.  I like the original and how the spiky tail is, but I thought a smooth, straight edge may be a little better for the overall shape.  So with all this in mind, I set out to create an owl of my own.  I started with this one....

I replaced the eyes and beak with felt, as well as the back of the owl is a solid piece of soft brown felt.  I liked the idea of a bolder stomach fabric and the simplicity of the shape.  

That owl eventually lead to a pair......
....which eventually lead to a small army of owls!

The final results: I ended up with an ideal length of about 10 inches and by replacing different features with felt, the overall feel is much softer. The owls don't contain any small parts and are filled with a non allegoric poly-fil. Just in time for Christmas...