Awhile ago, I was looking at a catalog and found a cute sewing kit. I looked it up on Amazon and decided that I could make something similiar myself.
I made my own paper pattern to cut out the cat. Unfortunately, I lost it, so I can't show you it. I cut out two side pieces, the basic shape of the cat, then cut out an underside piece to make the cat 3D. (see image 2, starting from bottom right hand corner) I used orange felt to make my cat. The cat was definetely the hardest part to make. After I sewed it up and stuffed it, I hot glued the eyes, mouth and other white pieces on. I used white and black felt to make the face. The toys were fun to create. The yarn ball and the feather toy were quite simple to make. For the yarn, I simply rolled some yarn into a ball and hot glued the end to keep it from unraveling. For the feather toy, I used a toothpick, embroidery thread and a couple of fake feathers. I wrapped, tied and hot glued one side of the embroidery thread to the toothpick and then wrapped, tied and hot glued the other end of the thread to the feathers. For the mouse, I cut several sort of leaf shaped pieces of thick cardboard and glued them together. I made the biggest piece in the middle, then glued smaller and smaller pieces on both sides, to make a 3D shape (see image 7). Then I wrapped the cardboard with white yarn. I glued one end of the yarn to the tip of the mouse, then wrapped it to the other tip, then glued the end. For the tail I used a small piece of pink yarn. For the eyes, ears and nose, I used little pieces of felt. The scratching post is a stick that's just the right shape. I had some trouble with the base. I cut squares in several pieces of thick cardboard, then hot glued the stick into the holes. I wrapped some yarn around the stick and hot glued it to make it stay and also glued some string to the tip. For the bags of food, I stapled pieces of paper together and also taped them. But I think now I now a better method, which I wrote a blog post on. The link is below, if you want to see it. The food bowls I made by cutting out a circle from thick cardboard and then using hot glue to glue a strip of felt around the edge of the circle. I used the same method for the bed, except that it's a square. I also glued a piece of fabric to make it soft and before I glued it all the way, I stuffed it to make it extra cushy. It fun to make this project. I also made a cat for Daniel and some accessories for Sarah (she already had a toy cat to play with.
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I drew these little animals in my sketchbook. I like trying to make them look really cute. The cat (top photo) is my favorite.
Which one do you like best? I have a LOT of coloring books. But one of my favorites is the Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford. Most of these colored pages are from that book. The top two images are from a different book, the Secret Garden, also by Johanna Basford. I colored most of these with only colored pencil. I don't really like colored pencil because it's so grainy, but that's what works best for these particular coloring books. I would like to buy higher quality colored pencils, but the ones I was looking at are very expensive. Since I don't like the graininess of my pencils and I'm not going to buy some new ones right now, I've been trying different mediums in the coloring book, hoping to find something that looks smooth that I can use on large areas. I tried watercolor, which crinkled the paper, so I can't use that. Watercolor pencil did the same thing (not as bad though). I tried acrylic paint in a small area, it worked fine, but I don't know how it would work to do a larger area. I also tried oil pastels, but they really don't work that well (too blunt and if I used them for a background, it probably wouldn't turn out that good). I wouldn't use marker for a background, but I'm thinking of using it to get a base layer and then putting colored pencil over it. If your are doing a scene (like the garden scene) or really anything, I find that it really makes the picture pop if you color in a background. For the garden one, I used colored pencil (which took awhile), but what I really like using best is chalk pastels. I used chalk pastels for the unfinished castle scene and also the fox and the mushroom. The method that I like to use with chalk pastels really gives a soft, non-grainy look. I take a tissue, rub it on the pastel, then rub the tissue on the paper. I really like using this method for coloring books and for drawings. |
Anne's
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