Plush Team Prizes and Minion Fabric

Look at what I got in the mail! A package from Denise of Yummy Pancake with the winnings from the Plush Team Call of Duty Challenge.


Great sausage tape!


A cute note.


Shiny tissue paper.


Neato! A magnet from Yummy Pancake aptly shaped like a bullet. Custom dog tags. A kidrobot Things That Hurt zipper pull. And cute little flowers!


The blind box zipper pull is a gun of all things!!

The winnings with the piece.


And here is the fabric I got for the first minion bags. It's a light blue leopard print furry fabric and a canvasy light blue for the liner and the minion face and appendages. I'll keep you posted as I get cutting and stitching.

Get Stuffed Blog Bomb!

Today the Plush Team is doing a Blog Bomb to share the love that is our book.

Thanks for taking a moment to check it out!

The Plush Team is ecstatic to present to you our first ever Team Annual, containing 120 pages of plushy goodness!

What is in store for you upon opening this marvelous book:

• An opening by our team founder, Megan Green, describing how our team came to be.


• An insightful, informative, and all-around fascinating account of the history of plush craft by our team co-founder Christina Ward.


• 42 two-page, full color features of our Plush Team members. Each includes photos of the artist's work, and text written by the artist explaining motivation, process, and inspiration.


• A time line of Plush Team activities through over the years.Profile pages providing a comprehensive list of Plush Team artists, including artist head shots and Etsy shop addresses.


• Photos of PT Stitchy, the team mascot, scattered throughout the book in his various incarnations as interpreted by our team members.

The book is full color, professionally printed, and soft cover. It measures 6.75"x6.75" (or 17 centimeters square). This is volume 1 of our Team Annual, featuring the artists from 2009. Our intent is to make this a yearly publication, updating it each year with our newest members and their incredible work.

Visit the Team Shop today for your copy!

Minion Code now up

Minionitis number 5 is up. It's nice to hit a round number like 5. The fact that I've been publishing a comic for 5 weeks is pretty cool. What's even cooler is that while I've just been through the set up phase for the school for gifted minions, I still have ideas about where to go next.

I'll be making minion trading cards to give the little minions some background. They're all really interesting and it will help with giving a foundation to the comic and the characters as it goes forward. I am contemplating doing 2 minion classes per year with 26 comics each. It would make a nice little book, especially with the trading cards.

We saw Despicable Me this weekend and we both give it 2 thumbs up. The audience was great with a mixture of kids and adults. People clapped at the end. I like that. It was pleasant to laugh so much. I also like the minions. Minions are very in right now.

Fuz Pistol Wins the Challenge!

The Plush Team challenge for May and June was a weapons challenge. You can check out the entries on the Plush Team site here. There were three categories - Long Range, Short Range and Special Weapons.

Here's my Long Range Fuz Pistol.


Congrats to the other winners!!

Leanna of Plush Goodness with Short Range Chain Saw.


Amy of Squirrel Momma with her Special band of Ninja Bunnies.


When I get the winnings I'll take pictures and post them here! It was also kind of fun that the winners announcement was made on my birthday :)

Hunger Games and a New Comic :)

In light of the third book of the Hunger Games Trilogy coming out this August, I am leading a book club to discuss the first book tonight and the second book at the end of July.

There's a count down on Scholastic's site for the release of Mockingjay, so I thought I would add it here.



And since it's Wednesday, there's a new Minionitis available for your reading pleasure. Go check out Baxter's Secret Minion Classroom!

Enjoy your day!

Serenity, Cookies & Cats

Meet Serenity! She's a Rooz put out by Kidrobot's Munny World. Her head and arms are still removable. She was crocheted with acrylic yarn. Everyone needs a cyclops in their life!




It's been a while since I baked anything, but here's some Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies I baked up yesterday.


I've also got some cute cat pics today. First there is Kitty enjoying the open door with a chair in front of it.

And we've recently discovered that Jasper likes to ride around in the laundry basket. He kind of has this "king of the world" look on his face, doesn't he?

Oh, and the second comic for Minionitis is up so feel free to hop on over to see it. :)

Minionitis Progress

Well, I've got the first comic done and up on my new wordpress site I set up because I am using HostMonster for hosting the site where I will have all my stuff accessible. I am still figuring things out, but you can certainly check it out here.

Further reasonings for going with wordpress include the ability to use plugins to set up a library of the comics. But I haven't really figures out why I don't have a plugin tab to go forward with my plans of minion subservience. I'll just keep playing until I figure it out. I found that's what I had to do for coloring my comics, too. I'm learning a lot and having fun at the same time. The victories out weigh the frustrations.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

P.S. Did you notice my new banner? What do you think?

Fuz Pistol

Yo! Check it! It's my first plush gun! I made it for the Plush Team Call of Duty Weapons Challenge going on now. You can see other entries at the Plush Team site when they are all posted. The deadline is June 23rd, so I am a bit ahead in my completion.



So, here we have a loadable pistol crocheted in acrylic yarn and stuffed with polyfil.


It was tough to choose what weapon to make. I played around with the idea of doing Dr. Horrible's Freeze Ray, but opted for a smaller pistol instead. It feels nice to hold for some reason...

Minion Update and another Octopus

I've been doing a lot of drawing for Minionitis and it's really coming along. I have two comics drawn and one inked at this point. I have two more ready to jump into the process, too. I don't think I've used my sketchbook to sketch this much before. I like it.

I will color them digitally in Photoshop. I realize that my skills in Photoshop and drawing are a little rusty, so I do expect things to improve and evolve as I go.

Here's a sneak peek at the first comic with Baxter and Chopstick...


I am also working on a Fuzfrenzy banner as well as a Minionitis banner. I haven't worked with ink in a while so I am honing my inking skills. I've got a lot of honing to do :)


Another octopus. I just can't get away from these things. I seem to make them when I don't have any other clear heading on what to crochet. I like her, though. She's different from the rest.

You'll notice that I included an octopus in the Fuzfrenzy banner... I have no further comment.



And then there's Kitty. Always the helper and as cute as ever.

New and Improved!

Hey fans! I'm working on a few new and different things to spice things up a bit. I am going to design my own website in the near future with a little shop in it where you can get my creations. Another fun addition to this site will be a weekly (hopefully) webcomic staring Baxter the minion.

I'll give you teasers for the webcomic and offer up the crochet patterns and completed plush for the characters in the shop as they develop. The premise for the comic is a school for gifted minions called Minionitis. I will probably publish the comic here until I get the site up and running.

Have a great day!

The Minions are Coming!

Well, there's one minion so far. His name is Baxter and he'll do just about anything for you. He just prefers things to be a little on the bad side.

Also, sometimes he likes to run around in his underwear. Minions are fun and you need one :)

Ichabod the Raffy Dragon and an Octopus Pen Costume

Meet Icky aka Ichabod the Dragon. This little guy is always looking for a good time. He loves to be the center of attention and he's just the right kind of cute that makes it hard to look away.


Icky was made by crocheting around the form of a Raffy, one of Kidrobot's Munny mutations. The additional horns and tail were stuffed with polyfil. He was crocheted with wool and acrylic yarns.


And it's been a while, but I made another pen costume. And probably not surprisingly, it's an octopus. These guys are super comfy and fun to write with. I am going to make some more. They're such practical plush.

Vote.

Head on over to the Plush Team site to vote for the plush in the Mythology Challenge. My little bond girl and her hippocamp are in the god and goddesses category.

Thanks for voting!!


I'm reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Cory really knows how to spin a techie dream. It's pure nerd and I love it. He's got another one coming out this month called For the Win. I'll let you know how they are when I am finished with the reading thing.

Bond Girl with a Hippocamp Seducing Poseidon

For the Mythology Challenge of the Plush Team I have created a remarkable combination. I started with the hippocamp and realized that it needed a saddle and something on it. Next came the scuba suit idea and then my mind jumped to the Bond girl with the cream colored bikini and the Austin Powers mocking of it. And that was that.


There are seven parts to the piece in that the scuba suit, flippers, snorkel with goggles and saddle are all removable.

Plush Olympics Winners Announced

The Plush Olympics are at a close and the winners have been announced over at the Plush You blog. As I get pictures of people and plush posing with their medals I will post them here. The Plush Team winners are all promising pictures so I'll have some to share for sure!

I am working on the final elements to the Plush Team Mythology challenge. It has multiple pieces and layers for that extra interactive measure. I think it's pretty fun and I hope you'll like it, too.

I read Joe Hill's Horns where he gives an interesting view of the devil and writes a delicious knot of a story. There are so many layers and things intertwined that it comes across with desperation and heartbreak.

I am finally reading the second book in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott. This an amazing fast paced series drenched in magic. I guess it's a good time to pick it up again because the fourth book will be coming out in May. It looks like there will be six books in all.

I submitted my first finished book to Random House and got my first rejection letter. I am so excited! It is a badge of honor. Now I am off to do some serious re-writing. The updated version of the story will be richer and quite profound when all is done. I really wasn't happy with my first version, but it is giving me a great foundation to take the story to where it needs to go. I am still trying to decide if I will share bits with you now or wait until it is closer to publication. We'll see...

Medals for the Plush Olympics

Judging will start shortly for the Plush Olympics that were the brilliant idea of Kristen over at Schmancy. You can check for updates and great plush information over at her blog.

I had the privilege of making the medals for the five categories. Here are the pictures. They were crocheted with Caron Country acrylic merino blend yarn, stuffed with polyfil and ribboned with measuring tape ribbon. I really like how they turned out.

Octopus Cupcake

A while ago I made a cupcake for Becky of Scrumptious Delight for the Plush Team Russian Christmas swap. Here he is in his wonderful tentacleness.

He's interactive as all cupcakes should be. There are three separate parts - frosting, cake and wrapper.

He was super fun to make.

Book Talk

So, let's see what have I been reading...



I just started reading Makers by Cory Doctorow. I got the book for Josh in December and now I am reading it upon his recommendation. It's a book set in the not so distant future in a sort of prediction on what will happen to large corporations and Silicon Valley when the rise of micro businesses takes over how we produce and buy things. I am sure I'll have more to say on it after I finish, but I am excited about it so I thought I'd mention it.


Another one I recently read is The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I was really glad to see that this is going to be a Trilogy because there's some really great stuff here. You can see where James is inspired by Golding's Lord of the Flies, but he takes it to another level and adds technology that we haven't seen before. I highly recommend this and I can't wait to read the next two books! I've already talked about this one but I thought I'd do it again and add a cover for you.



I also finally read Arch Enemy by Frank Beddor. The final book in the Looking Glass Wars Trilogy. Imagine that Alice really was from Wonderland and that Lewis Carroll got it all wrong, including spelling Alyss' name wrong. Wonderland is at war and imagination may be lost forever. This is a thrilling end to a great series and I really do hope they'll make a movie soon.

I've also been doing some research on the ocean for my new book. Yes, portions of it will be underwater with all sorts of creatures and lost cities. So far there's more in my head than on the page but I really like where it's going.

Bunny Has Clothes and a Torch

I am almost finished with my bunny for the Plush Olympics. Now she's got a snow suit and a torch. I've named her Athena. She still needs something but I haven't figured out what that is yet.



I've also covered one of the new Munny Raffys with yarn. He's still in progress, but he hasn't told me what he wants to look like yet.



Here's a shot of the bronze medal for the Plush Olympics in progress. I don't know what to put on the medal, maybe just a face. I was thinking of making them into animals but it didn't really work.

More Rocks and the Plush Olympics

Yup. I've made more rocks. These are larger rocks that take one or two hands to hold properly making them extra huggable.




I've also got work in progress photos for the Plush Olympics hosted by Kristen at Schmancy. I got the Opening Ceremonies category and so far I've got a bunny. I am also making the medals for the winners of each category and there will be more on that later.

Oh, and I got new fabric today for posing my beasties for photos. What do you think?