Being Creative (lots of fun projects)

I've been having a fun time the past few days being creative and making things. I think I'm at my happiest when I'm working with my hands, making fun and/or beautiful things.

Here's a cute little blue puppy, Blue from "Blue's Clues." She started as a simple stuffed animal. Since no one in the family had any particular emotional attachment to this particular toy, I figured she qualified for stuffed animal surgery.


I cut a hole in the back, pulled out most of the stuffing (leaving all the stuffing in the head so it wouldn't flop around) and voila - a new puppet! I can put my fingers in the legs and the neck to move it around. The kids really love having a puppet around!



I've been wanting to learn how to make stuffed animals (mostly so I can use that knowledge to make more puppets). I started with a simple pattern for a stuffed mouse. Zaylee has named it Pinky.


I'll be making more stuffed animals, experimenting with different patterns and materials, and eventually hope to be able to draft my own stuffed animal and puppet patterns.


Another fun thing I've made is this rag letter alphabet, based on this tutorial. I was able to use up lots of scrap flannel. The kids like playing with the letters, and Zaylee has been using them to practice spelling. I need to make doubles of some of the letters, so they can write words that have more than one of the same letter.



I'm going to be making the kids some warm winter clothes for Christmas, and on Saturday I started with a cute little shirt for Zaylee. I made a simple pattern using this tutorial, then used that pattern to make a shirt with lettuce edging on the collar and the sleeves.



And then there's this cute little amigurumi-style kokeshi doll that I made using this pattern. How adorable is this?


Amigurumi is a Japanese style of making stuffed knit or crochet toys or figures. And kokeshi dolls are a traditional Japanese doll, usually characterized by a large head, minimal facial features, and the lack of arms or legs. I have a traditional wooden kokeshi doll that I bought when we lived in Japan, and I think they're just so beautiful. So it was fun to find a crochet pattern for this pretty and unique style of doll.