There is a small problem I have.  I've been doing a lot of painting.  I don't have the wall space to frame and hang anymore but I still want to be able to display some of my new art pieces. 

The old throw pillows on my couch were getting pretty ratty and I have repaired them several times so I thought it was time to get new ones.  Why not get my art printed on pillows for my couch?

I found an online site that you can upload family photos and get them printed on canvas or on throw blankets or even pillows.  I took a chance and uploaded some designs and waited for the pillows to arrive.  I was quite happy with how they turned out and love how they look on my couch.  I gave several as gifts to friends and family as well.

While I was ordering a second batch of pillows I added in some umbrellas which were surprisingly cheap.  Each panel had a different piece of my art on it.  The contrast wasn't great but I was still pretty happy with the outcomes and now have a functional piece of art I can use on a dark gloomy rainy day.
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The nice thing about the game Among Us is that the characters are all relatively the same and are very simple.  That makes it easy to sew felted crew mates based on the game. 

​Which I did...many of them...in every colour.

Why not right?

I tend to use a paint rag when I paint instead of a paper towel.  After a while the paint rag is more paint that rag but they are sometimes so colourful I hate to throw them out or wash them.

So why not make them into stuffies?  I have made several paint rag stuffies and have even had my nephews make their own while teaching them how to use the sewing machine.

Sometimes I add paint or stencil shapes on my stuffies.  Sometimes I add accessories or felt features to them. Sometimes I draw on them with markers.  Sometimes I stitch random lines or shapes into them. There really are no rules or limits except your imagination and the materials you have on hand.

This guy was made by my 6 year old nephew Charlie.  I let him paint a rag however he wanted and then add stencils on top.  He then traced out a shape he liked and cut it out.  I then showed him how to use the sewing machine to sew it, adding on arms and eyes.  Lastly we stuffed it and closed it up.  His name is Goofy Guy. ​

He was so happy with how it turned out he made a second one.

Years ago the kids and I experimented with using modeling clay on a Styrofoam head to make a weirdly inhuman mask shapes.  They took forever to dry and the modelling clay was hard to pry out from the paper mask.  We painted them but they ended up just sitting around for years gathering dust, never quite finished.

I decided to revisit the masks this month and giving them an all new paint job, adding materials to them and creating glass eyes.

My first mask redo was a cat like mask with a ridge of bumps up the centre of it's face. Once painted, I added wool to create a mane and painted glass beads as eyes which I then mounted in behind the mask.  It looked even better when I lit the mask from within making the eyes light up.

My next mask was a tad weirder.  My daughter had originally made the shape by adding modelling clay to the mouth area before papering over top.  It had a strange gas mask-like appearance.  I ran with this idea but added bits of black spray painted plastic I melted with a match, small glass vials filled with different materials, a pair of glasses and again glass eyes lit form behind.

I love how it turned out even if it's a bit creepy.

Have you watched Avatar the Last Airbender? It was one of my families favorite shows when my kids were younger (and remains one of their top shows ever). It had fantastic character development and a good balance of adventure, humor and moral dilemmas.  

The biggest problem with the show was lack of merchandise.  This might be because we came to watch the show after its full run so we missed out on that.

Since I love to sew and my kids love to play imagination style games I decided to make the characters out of felt.  I didn't really have an idea of how to make them so the process was slow but they turned out pretty good.  These photos were taken after a few years of play hence the pilling and deformity (sorry Toph).  I wish I had documented how I constructed these in case other fans wanted to attempt to make their own. 

I wanted to make a mobile for my cousins new baby girl and came across the pattern for a Matryoshka Doll on My Sparkle
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I decided to sew five dolls each a bright colour and each with a decoration on their tummy representing our love of the four season. I hung them all from a piece of driftwood I found at the beach. I think it turned out quite beautifully.

Thanks to My Sparkle for sharing her initial pattern!