Two Bone-tastic Plushes

Those who know me know that I like creepy cute. I like the juxtaposition of the two ideas that seem like they shouldn't work together. I liked the idea to bring it to Halloween in decorations, once again. The last time I made a creepy, cute Halloween plush was Frank. I still love the little guy. But this time I decided to go with a bone theme.

I drew a couple of different designs for a skeleton  before deciding on this one. I thought that this short design with a large head helped keep the cute along with the creepy. The heart was a last decision when I was cutting out the felt pieces. I felt like it needed some color since the front and back were only black and white. (The back is a black and white dotted fabric.) While watching General Conference I hand-sewed on the bones and heart. Then I used a sewing machine for the rest.

I also decided to make a sugar skull. These are little confections that are seen during Dia de los Muertos. I have always liked their aesthetic. The vibrant colors with dark lines was a cool contrast to me. When I first drew this out I thought I was going to embroider a black line for the teeth. But after rummaging through my embroidery thread I saw that I didn't have enough black for that. So I decided to cut out a whole for the teeth and then use that scrap to make the teeth. Something strange went on when I put them on. There wasn't supposed to be a big gap between the rows of teeth, but somehow it happened. I still like the overall look of the skull, though.

Close-up shot of some of the details.

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

"Kingdom Key" Keyblade

As some may know, I have an awesome hobby. Cosplay. I'm such a geek; it makes me happy. I would have loved to make a new cosplay this year but with the move and all the craziness that wasn't going to happen. And not to mention, that money has gone short. So I decided to make something for my last cosplay: a keyblade.

Originally I wanted to make the "Decisive Pumpkin" Keyblade since that's the one that goes best with the cosplay. However, I couldn't because I didn't have the money to go get insulation foam and coat that with resin. I decided to make the "Kingdom Key" because it's classic and I could make it out of materials already in the house. That's right. No money was spent making this since all of the materials were here.

At this stage I had used some cardboard (the kind of the back of sketchbooks) to make the 3D shapes. It's pretty study because I braced the insides with the same cardboard and hot glue. Then I covered everything in craft foam using hot glue. A little messy finish but, again, no money to get Worbla or Wonderflex. Before moving onto the painting stage I used Modge Podge to seal it and then gesso. After that was just to apply the multiple coats of acrylic paint. Seriously, it's a ton of paint. There's at least three coats to each color.

While I was waiting for layers of paint to dry, I made the chain and Mickey charm out of polymer clay. I was praying that this would work. I had to cut three of the links in half before baking and then super glue them around the other links to make the chain. Thankfully the glue I chose is WAY strong and works very well for that and attaching it to the Keyblade.

I can't tell you how excited I am that my Halloween Town Sora cosplay is going to have a Keyblade to go with it. It'll be fun to wear it for Halloween and hopefully a convention some time in the future. And maybe I'll get the chance to make another kind of Keyblade to do the double Keyblade look. ;)

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

Polymer Experiments

Finally getting around to posting these here. I just haven't been in the mood lately. Anyway, I decided to goof around with my polymer clay because I just wanted to. Every now and then I miss making stuff out of the clay and I want to be able to showcase what I can make for people, if they're interested. So I chose to do some experimenting.

With all the dragons that I've made, I hadn't done an oriental one. All the others have wings and I also like the look of oriental ones. I like how this one turned out, but it does need some adjusting. I don't think that it quite reads as an oriental dragon yet. They're minor adjustments but I think they'll be worth it.

Some time ago I make a tiny dragon and didn't think much about it until recently. I was looking at it and I thought how much I've grown in sculpting with polymer clay. I decided to try to redo him in a different way. I think that the snoz is a bit big for the little guy, but I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. He needs a few adjustments as well.

More Dragon Eyes.

A rose ring.

A black maneki neko charm.

And with this one I tried to mimic the texture of knitting, but it needs some work.

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

White Crochet Purse

I usually use a black purse that I sewed when I was still in Washington. It's been a nice size and works fairly well, but I've been wanting one about the same size in white. I didn't want to sew it this time. I wanted to make something that had a lot of texture, and I figured that crochet would get the effect that I wanted.

For this purse I used single crochet, double crochet, puff stitch, chain, and slip stitch to make it. I had used this same pattern for a couple of scarves and decided that it would work pretty well. This purse is worked with a long chain base and then in the round. After completing it I realized that it needed a fabric lining and I planned on using some magnetic clasps to keep it closed. I ended up sewing all of the fabric by had because I didn't want to pull the sewing machine out for something small. It seemed silly to me. So I used a running stitch around and then slip stitch to attach the lining. I also used a slip stitch to adhere the fabric holding the magnetic half on the flap. It think it worked pretty well.

The lining and magnetic clasps.

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

Disney's Newest Ladies (Plus Dragons)

When I'm in my room I've been looking at the 10 Disney Princesses and Merida that I made last spring, and thought to myself that they looked incomplete. Disney has some new leading ladies coming out in November and I knew that I had to make some that would match the ones that I've already made. I know that I should find the time to make some other Disney ladies, but since I'm excited about this movie I figured starting with them would be the best.

Meet Anna and Elsa of Frozen.

Their backs. Yep, I'm THAT obsessive.

I also got around to finishing up the accidental Harry Potter themed dragons. There are the Maroon & Gold, Green & Silver, Blue & Bronze, and now the Yellow & Black. I suppose you can guess which house the dragons belong to. I thought it would be fun to have a matching set of dragons. ;)

I also decided to experiment a little. I have a few extra glass pebbles and I wanted to do something fun with it. Putting the pebble in the center helped me come up with an idea: a dragon's eye. I thought it would be interesting and different than anything I've made before. After baking I put a silver-wash on the clay and then glazed it to help the scales have more texture.

By the way, if you would like to commission me to make you something you can. I just don't make anything with licensed characters or is explicit. You can contact me through my deviantART or here on the blog.

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

Lulu the Dark Elf

I recently got a hold of Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth A. Doherty at Half-Priced Books. I have been wanting to make something from that book for years now but this is the only time I could have gotten the book for under $8. I didn't want to follow one of the patterns to the "T," though. I decided that this would be a good time for making a Dark Elf like I have for some time.

This girl took some time to make. My wrists and knuckles have been giving me some grief more than I had anticipated. I had to take more breaks than I liked. The hair took longer than I thought it would, as well. I hadn't done a french braid for an amigurumi before and it took a little more thought. It was also nice to sew some clothes for her. Everything can come off of her but the shirt. I had to sew it shut although I could have added snaps. I really like how she came out. Now it's time for close-up shots.

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

Another Go at a T-shirt Quilt

Sorry for the poor photo quality. I didn't want to dirty it by taking it outside.

 Finally got around to finishing the next t-shirt quilt adventure. I've made one before, but I had a pile of shirts that kept on growing. I wasn't wearing them anymore due to the shirt's being old or I just didn't want to anymore. I wasn't planning on making this now but I had been making some t-shirt yarn from the leftovers of the shirts from the previous quilt that I went on to these shirts to do the same. The quilt just happened.

As you can see this quilt looks a lot different from the other one. A lot of these shirts has so many different sizes of images that the same layout wouldn't work. So I grouped shirts where I knew the images would make the same sized squares or rectangles. I laid them on the ground and knew immediately that I had to fill in the spaces of the rows. I found some old shorts and leftover materials from previous projects and decided to add them to the quilt. People who read the blog might recognize some of them. ;)

This time I decided that I wanted to interface all of the shirts before I sewed them. Not only did this allow me to cut the squares/rectangles nicely, but it stabilized then rather well. There wasn't nearly as much stretching as the other quilt. There was a tiny bit because I was getting lazy and not holding the iron down long enough for the interfacing to adhere completely. Seriously, though. SIX yards of interfacing. Oi.

And I couldn't help but think of someone while I was making this quilt. She passed away in May and was known for making all kinds of things for her family. Quilts were one of the things that she did the most. A lot of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren have one made by her. They're something special now that she isn't on earthy anymore. So I decided to pay a tribute in the bottom right corner of the quilt with some hand-embroidery. Love you, Granni. <3 p="">

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

And Yet More Polymer

After doing some sketches to make some different animals, I just kept experimenting. This is what came out of it.

Epilepsy Awareness Dragon

Crafted by Mule (Megan).

Yet Another Polymer Clay Adventure

This time the polymer madness started because I had an idea for some book charms... and then I kept going. Some of these things I will put on my Etsy shop. I don't think the last two pictures are going to make it on there. One had copyrighted characters and the other picture has some not-so-original ideas.

This dragon matches the Maroon and Gold one from the last polymer adventures. I wanted to use up the glass stones that I have. It just happened that they're going on a Harry Potter color theme. I think I'll have to continue with it. ;)

Hungry like a Zombie?

I had these little bowls from the last time and didn't know what I was going to do with them then. I wanted to make something kind of gross and weird. I think this fits the bill.

Berry Deadly Lollies

These go along with the other Deadly Lollies. This time they look as though they can be berry flavored.

The Bibliophile's Charm

 I'm a self-proclaimed bibliophile and I like it when I find another. I really like to talk about books that I'm reading or interested in. It's fun to talk to other writers, as well. I figured making a charm to declare so would be perfect.

Book Genre Charms

These are the charms that got me going on this latest polymer endeavor. I drew up some little images that I thought would convey certain genres and stories. I'm open to other ideas.

These are the charms that I'm not going to put on Etsy... well, Jack and Sally for sure. I don't like the idea of making a profit on copyrighted characters. It doesn't seem right to me. But I like to make them as gifts for friends/family. The ice cream and candycane bunch just didn't seem all that original to put up. I even debated putting them up here on the blog, but I figured what the heck?

Crafted by Mule (Megan).