A Handknit Toy and some Paper Craft!

Honey Bees - Simplified Anatomy

Today has been very productive in terms of art accomplished. I have not been active in creating anything in the paper crafts/mixed media realm for many months, and today I was hit with a creative bug. I have decided to write more letters to family and friends from now rather than just talking to them on the phone, and so I thought art would be a great thing to include in my personal correspondence. My cousin ( I hope she does not read this or it wont be a surprise) want to raise bees this spring for their honey production and so I thought I would make her a small rendering of some honey bees and thier anatomy. I also wrote a short note to her on the back and folded my own envelope out of decorative paper. Sadly the whole thing will have to wait to be mailed out on Tuesday, as the Post Office is closed on Monday for the holiday.

A small part of each honey bee opens up to reveal the organs inside.

This is the cover of a small book (4X6 roughly) that I made for my neice Jordan's birthday. I am still amazed at how quickly I was able to whip this up. This book has 8 signatures of 10 pages each which have been hand sewn and glued together before attaching them to the book. So 80 pages total is a nice little book.

Since it was Jordan's birthday I thought it only fitting to place Marie Antoinette on the cover of her book with a simple command of "Eat Cake". I like this book so much I am seriously considering making some more with different themes and colors to sell on my Etsy.

Hopefully I will be able to return to creating ATCs and other art in addition to spinning, knitting and everything that goes along with it. I made both the Bee Card and the book in just a few hours this morning. And tomorrow is Sunday so I think I might just check out Sunday Post Card Art and see what the theme is this week!

Several months ago I went to a book signing for Susan B Anderson at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids. She was going to be talking about her newest book, Itty Bitty Toys, and signing copies for everyone attending. I went with my cousin who was quite interested in the book since she already had one of the other Itty Bitty books. I was not so interested, but once we arrived Susan had all the toys that were in the book spread out on a large table. They were absolutely adorable! I fell in love with the reversible toys (as well as the Hippo, which I haven't made yet) and bought the book right then and there, and had her sign it for me too. This pattern was very easy to follow and the results are just wonderful. I am very pleased with how the toy turned out.

This toy was made for my niece, who is seen here modeling her little Cat & Mouse toy. I don't keep a large stash of ready made yarn on hand because I am a spinner. So instead, I pulled out some little skeins of leftover shetland and romney wool, as well as a bit of mohair. All of this yarn has been hand spun and hand dyed. I still think the mouse needs a little aqua blue pom pom on the back of the hat to make her outfit complete, but I have not made one yet. The ears on my mouse are a little bit bigger than the ones in the book, but although I did use a US4 needle as stated in the pattern, some of my yarns were a little heavier than what the pattern called for. Even with the big ears I think that mouse is super cute!


I just love how easy it is to flip these little toys from one side to the other. Constructing this toy was really much simpler than it may look.





and TA DA! Here is the cat, and my niece says "He has swallowed the mouse and now it is in his belly."