Beeper Bebe Plushies: The Book

I am so smitten with Blurb. In fact, I would say smitten does not begin to really quantify how I feel about Blurb--perhaps obsession is more accurate. You see, I made a couple of books on Blurb last year for gifts, and now all I want to make are more Blurb books--I want to make a book about our wedding (since our wedding album consists of photos and ephemera shoved in a shoebox somewhere), a book of travel photos, a book of favorite photographs of our friends and family, a cookbook I could give as gifts, a book for each year of Beeper's life...the ideas if realized could easily empty my bank account.

And so I spent much of my holiday vacation spare time in a menage a trois of me, my computer and the Blurb bookmaking software(free to download from their site). We easily spent about 30+ hours together, pouring over photographs for the book, editing them, and laying them out in the book--then writing the text. And the end result was this: Beeper Bebe Plushies--Handmade Plushies from Secondhand Stuff.

It is a retrospective of my plushie design work since I started making them back in 2005. Not that there is any practical purpose for this book other than forcing it into the hands of people I know and making them peruse it--and also, it makes me feel all warm inside to have this nice and tidy little view into my plushie design efforts.

I organized the photos my design type: mangy menagerie, bitty bebes, babies on a stick, two-faced friends, etc. Then chose those I thought were the best representative photos of my work, and added a little text of that particular design--keeping it light and not too technical. I had this one printed hard cover, and used the premium paper option--I mean, why not when it is only a few bucks more (especially when you just like Blurb soooo much).

And I have to say, I am really, really, REALLY happy with the end result. Oh, Blurb, I love you for making my stuff look so good when bound all up together like this. I could just caress the hardcover with its sweet little dust jacket and kiss the inside book flap.

And like I mentioned, I did have my first foray with Blurb last spring when I made two hard cover books with photos of Beeper for my mum and mother-in-law for Mother's Day. Then I made a cheap little soft cover for Beeper as a birthday gift with photos of just his friends and family--goofy photos abounded here.

You can see the book is little crinkled with reading and use because Beeper loved it. And I think I only paid something like $12 for getting this book printed and it had about 40 pages (I am partial to the square book format--I like the handy size of it and its contemporary look).

The other thing about Blurb--in case you do not know--is that you can list your completed books on their website for sale---and you name the selling price. And you know what? I listed my little Plushie book out there in soft or hard cover for whomever may be interested...because, why not? You can find it here.

You can preview the first 15 pages on Blurb--mainly devoted to my Mangy Mengaerie designs--but you should know that there are a LOAD more designs in there because the book is 134 pages, for goodness sake (some would say excessive--but I would say merely obsessive about Blurb).

Kiddie Gifts

First of all--yes, I admit it--I am quite behind in my blogging. I mean, I was supposed to do this post sometime in December, but then, well, I really did not even finish these gifts until yesterday--that's right, yesterday. BUT, these are for the kiddies in my life so I know they do not mind--and may even appreciate the gifts more right now in this dull, post-holiday world where the presents have all been ripped open, the cookies have been eaten, the string of rellies has gone, and it is another whole year until Santa comes. This is my rationalization, anyway.

But nonetheless, I still want to share these little sacks of gifts I made for the lovely little kiddies who are part of my world.First, I made these button barrettes for the girls. They were inspired by the Martha Stewart hair pins here, but I thought barrettes seemed more practical for a group of rough and tumble pre-school girls. They are simple to make--using some good, sturdy thread, sew the buttons to the barrettes (I doubled some buttons up, or added tiny wool felt leaves too), then make a little personalized card to pin them to (we used card stock scraps we had laying around). And then this is something I had an idea about lurking in my head for some time--a Beeper Bebe Plushie Memory Game. I made these from Moo mini cards I had made especially for this purpose (and I may offer some in my shop in the future too for general consumption). I simply matched up several sets of images, and then made these little wool felt cases with labels to put them in. I think all kids love this game--and it is a great game for pre-schoolers who have memories like steel traps. And then, after making some of these little monsters for the Toy Society Christmas drop earlier (read about it here), I just sorta fell in love with them and decided I had to make some more for the kids--these are made from reclaimed fleece. And finally, I made these simply little draw-string sacks to stash all the goodies in, personalizing them with a name label. I figured this is an eco-friendly (albeit time consuming) alternative to gift wrap since the kids will keep and use these. I also threw in my favorite little kids item that I gave to all the kiddies this year--crayon rocks from Stubby Pencil Studio--made from eco-friendly soy wax and tinted with natural mineral powders, and a little sack of 16 is only $6.95!And finally, I made these just for the babies in my life. They were made from the Nest Studio's Polly pattern in the book, Softies.

And with that, I am officially done with Christmas gift making and blogging about it. Now back to our regularily scheduled blogging.

Zipped Up

I made these easy-peasy to make zip pouches this past weekend--one for my colored pencils in this adorable little train pattern on cotton canvas and... ...one for my sketch book and Beeper Bebe idea and other scribblings book in this lovely little french landscape and black cat print (have I mentioned how much I LOVE all things french?)...you see, I travel lots for my corporate, straight-girl job and I was tired of carrying this stuff around in a gallon-size zip-lock plastic bag, looking all trashy and stuff. It would just bum me out everytime I pulled out the plastic bag--I am weird and sensitive to that stuff and like things to have an aesthetic appeal. And those little Eiffel Towers on my sketch book bag and the cute little trains on the pencil bag just make me feel all happy inside everytime I see them.

These are so super duper simple to make--and I had never ever sewn a zipper into anything before and did it on the first try. I used all cotton canvas to make these--and just all purpose zippers you can find at any old fabric store. Here's what to do:

1. Just cut out your fabric to the size you want your bag to be, including a 1/2 inch seam allowance (so you can trim with pinking shears later)--make sure you cut out two pieces so you have a front and back (you could use two different fabrics for front and back if you wanted to radical like that).
2. Now, if your zipper is just the right size-fab--but if not, measure it to be about the length you want your finished pouch to be--then add 1/2 an inch onto this and cut off the excess. 1/2 inch from the end you just trimmed, you should whipstitch tightly across the zipper several times (this just helps to keep the zipper from seperating later on)
3. Now, fold over 1/2 inch on the top of your fabric/pouch (iron it down if you want--I didn't--I just eyeballed, folded and pinned as I went), then pin your zipper to the fabric so the fabric meets up fairly closely to the teeth of the zipper (you should have about 1/2 inch of unpinned fabric at each end of the zipper--so the zipper is centered in the fabric), repeat on the other side with your other piece of fabric. Now, with the right sides of the fabric facing up, sew the zipper onto the fabric (both pieces of fabric), sewing close to the edge of the fold of the fabric--MAKE SURE YOU USE THE ZIPPER FOOT ON YOUR MACHINE OR YOU WILL BE SORRY. Really. (again, I'd never used my zipper foot before and had to get out the manual to identify it, but it worked like a charm).
4. Now unzip your zipper at least half way down, and pin your two pieces of fabric together with the wrong sides of the fabric facing out. Sew the two pieces together around the remaining 3 sides, leaving about 1/2 inch inseam, then trim the inseam with pinking shears so you don't get lots of annoying unraveling threads inside your pouch.
5. Turn your pouch right side out and VOILA! Instant zip pouch happiness.

I also made some for my neices for Christmas, stuffed full of art supplies from Stubby Pencil Studio which has THE BEST eco-friendly art supplies and fantastic customer service (if you ever require it)...

This one was for Sarah and contained Smencils (pencils with a scent that are made from recycled newspapers--so reminds me of scratch n'sniff stickers), watercolor crayons, a sketchbook made from recycled paper, and the Doodles at Dinner coloring book that is all paper placements meant to be torn out and drawn upon at will...And this one was for Hannah: soy-based crayons, a little sack of crayon rocks, natural playdough, and some little tools to go with it, and the Doodle All Year coloring book (that is so cool that I could hardly give it up--but it helped that I bought one for Beeper too so at least I can draw in his if I get too desperate).

And all of the lovely cotton canvas fabrics I used to make these came from Crafty Planet in NE Minneapolis--but they also have an on-line shop you can find here if you do not live here and are desperate for some of their fabric-y goodness.