• Hello and Welcome! I’m Ella and I’m something of an artistic, creative, curious and fanciful spirit. I love vintage doodads, cuddly animals, pink squirrels, embroidery, soft sculpture, stuffies, books, words, history, tacky tourist sites and a ton of other random, quirky things that make up my world.

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All posts tagged crafting

Leprechaun Embroidery

My LeprecaunSt. Patrick’s Day has a very special meaning to me because not only is it just a happy-go-lucky holiday, it’s my birthday! Leprechauns and Faerie Folk have been huge influences in my life and I decided that in light of of this I would stitch-up this mischievous retro leprechaun that I shared with you all last year on St. Patrick’s Day. He’s a sketch I made from this great vintage graphic that a friend sent my way many a year ago now.

LaWhimsyLeprechaun3

This is my drawing hanging out on my inspiration board this year.

As you can tell, I altered him up a bit just because I love to play around with photo-editing sometimes, plus I think he looks rather dashing all green. To the point, Here is my embroidered version…

LaWhimsyLeprechaun4

This is him done with a back-stitch outline. I could’ve stopped here, but since I didn’t color-tint him like I did my narwhal, I decided to go ahead and fill him in with satin-stitch and then I added the word Sláinte (it’s Irish for Health) just because it felt oh, so right to.

LaWhimsyLeprechaun1

Here’s the completed piece (which is about 7inches by 7inches measuring the whole piece of fabric)

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Here’s a detail shot of his face (and slightly wonky hand, lol)

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And here’s a fun, different angle shot to show some more of the stitching detail.

That was a ton of satin-stitch and I did most of it with an injured hand (which I blame time-change for, btw, since I have never once ever hit my hand on the bookshelf before Monday morning). Luckily it was my left, so the majority of the time it was my right hand doing the work, but still. I do think it will be awhile before I tackle that much satin-stitch for a single project. The letters of Sláinte were done with stem-stitch and that’s my free-style handwriting.

So there you have it – one very happy LaWhimsy Leprechaun who want’s to wish you and your’s good health and good cheer each and every day of the year!

LaWhimsyLeprechaun5

Namaste ~ Ella

2 Comments
by lawhimsy on March 14, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Creating Whimsy, embroidery
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Posted by lawhimsy on March 14, 2013

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/leprechaun-embroidery/

LaWhimsy Lamb and Cutie Owl

What a Busy Kitty!

Here it is, already the middle of September and Autumn’s official start is but a few days away and I’ve been so busy that I can hardly believe it! September, for me, is not only the beginning of my Autumn schedule – It’s also the celebration of two major birthdays (one of which is the always wonderful Glory’s). That means I have surprises and gifts galore to think up, create, wrap and spring upon the birthday ‘victims’. There are also Festivals to attend, Flea Markets to dig through, the house to decorate for the season and, oh so much more. In light of this, today I’m going to share a few past projects that wanted to introduce themselves…

This sweet lamb is embroidered on both sides in a matching style and along the top of her tiny head. I think that the bright colors I choose add such a charming pop against her white felt body. She is about 4inches long and 2inches high and she was tucked into a stocking last Christmas (yeah, time flies, no?).

In this view of the top of the little lamb’s head you can see a bit of the matching embroidery detail on her sides as well as her sweet head details. I ever so carefully embroidered that teeny-tiny piece before blanket stitching it on. I also did each side before sewing the whole thing together so as to match the sides up as best as I could. They are really spot on and I would show better proof of this had the pics turned out better (shadows can be so cruel).

This little cutie owl is all of 3 inches tall and He has some charming seed stitch and french knot details.  He was also tucked into a stocking as a surprise. The white felt is actually sewn on behind the brown to add some charming dimension and I once again added the embroidery details before blanket stitching him together.

Here they are chilling out together with the phone girl on my craft studio desk. I actually had to borrow them back for these pics, but their owners didn’t mind and Glory even got in on the action…

Great Shoes on the Lamb, no?

Yeah, we have our fun, lol! I hope you enjoyed these two cuties ’cause I have more to share and since one of the birthdays has passed, a few of the gifts I made can be shared without ruining the surprise (Glory, you, however, will have to wait until next week to see your surprises, bwahaha). I even think one of the gifts I made will become a freebie embroidery pattern, so keep an eye out!

Hope you’re all enjoying your day ~ anyone else been getting super creative this month?

Namaste ~ Ella

2 Comments
by lawhimsy on September 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Creating Whimsy, embroidery, Stuffies
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Posted by lawhimsy on September 19, 2012

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/lawhimsy-lamb-and-cutie-owl/

Headaches Lead to Inspiration – Or, what I did instead of what I probably should’ve been doing

It’s Friday and a rather pleasant one at that since the sky is blue, the humidity has broken and the day promises to be warm in a last day of Summer kind of way. I am glad of such a day, minus the fact that this weather has been doing my poor head in and in doing so has robbed me of my desire and ability to do much since my mind is all swimy and my focus is shot. I was going about my morning just fine until I happened upon a link to Pinterest and that was all she wrote. I swear time ceased to be as I wandered about, quite merrily, discovering one awesome idea after another. Inspiration began sending sparks flying about my muddled brain and before I knew it, it was afternoon and I was still buzzing about the various boards I had just found, their various treasures spilling out and providing me with an overabundance of sheer creative delight. I figured I might as well share some of the bounty and let the  inspiring magic spark a few flames for all of you, too. Enjoy…

I about died when I spotted these adorable Pine Cone Lions. They originate from the Etsy site WAWAYA and they don’t have a DIY, but I think I could figure a way to create my own version of these cuties.

This is actually a link for how to make and use your own cold porcelain and I have to say that Memi The Rainbow is a fantastic blog and she has a bunch of other cute tutorials up too!

While not a tutorial, Wild Olive has these darling, free printable thread bobbins and now I want to print out a bunch and organize my new floss!

I am loving this idea and I am going to be on the lookout for old, lonely teacups and other cups at the thrifts for my take on this.

This wool-felt cutie is a DIY by Pip’s Poppies and I want to make one super bad…so now I need to learn how to needlefelt!

How totally awesome is this Travel Activity Case made from an old book?!? The DIY is from Cosmo Cricket and it looks fairly manageable to do and customizing it would be super easy too.

This also isn’t a tutorial, rather it’s Zakka Inspired’s embroidered take on a kawaii doll face pouch. I am in love with it’s sweetness and I am itching to do something similar, though maybe not a pouch since I have yet to tackle zippers.

These darling paper mache tea cups from Ann Wood are fantastic and I’m thinking a garland of them would make for a fairly fantastic decor piece, no?

Seriously, my head is spinning (and not just from my meds). These are but a taste of all that I saw and re-pinned and liked today and I have a feeling more will be following! There are toys, dolls, stuffies, cloths, photos, decor delights, holiday inspirations and more just waiting to strike a cord in my zany, whimsical mind. Isn’t getting lost in the whirl of Pinterest such a marvelous time-suck?!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Namaste ~ Ella

1 Comment
by lawhimsy on September 7, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Creating Whimsy, Images, Musings and Mutterings
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Posted by lawhimsy on September 7, 2012

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/headaches-lead-to-inspiration/

A Stitch in Time

Planning is good

So the May stitchalong could not be any cuter and I just knew that I’d be making mine into a pancake doll/pillow – one that would be right at home on a couch or at a tea party or cuddled into wee arms (not that I have any wee arms yet – something my dear Mother keeps reminding me and as I keep reminder her I do sorta need/want the guy first, but I digress…). To do that, I had to go big and so big I went and at the time I was all “it’s only May 1st and May is a rather long month so I have plenty of time to do this.”. Wrong-O. Life, you see, has this way of, oh I don’t know, wanting to be lived and I do have a way of forgetting that and then being promptly smacked with reality as I know it. I did actually figure that I would do most of my stitching at night, after dinner whilst watching The Daily Show and Colbert (it’s a habit to do both don’tcha know).

Life, naturally, had other ideas. I got a great start on it but then a week into May everyone around here got quite sick and then a few other things happened and now here I am, almost the end of May and I still have a ways to go on the stitchalong.

So far I am really like how it’s going. The hair is a stem-stitch(red) and back-stitch(the fuschia). The rest is mostly back-stitch as well, though the buttons are a french-knot and the yellow ‘ribbon’ is filled in with seed stitches. I still have the rest of the outlining to do and then I plan to fill in the skirt with blue french-knots and seed stitches. Then there is the backing it with fabric, stuffing it and sewing it shut. The plan right now is to have it done by the end of May – but, of course, life may just have something else to say about that, hehe.

Happy May and Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Namaste ~ Ella

1 Comment
by lawhimsy on May 23, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by lawhimsy on May 23, 2012

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/a-stitch-in-time/

Late Love Delight

Schmuckles

So Schmuckles here is a darling of a pom-pom mousie based off of the really, really cute bunny tutorial that’s been bouncing around Pinterest and blog-land (pun fully intended, hehe).

Schmuckles actually started off with the intention of being a bunny, but when I accidentally made the pom-poms bigger than I should of (I used three fingers, not two – gasp!), I started thinking “this is a mouse” and then the ears just came to me in a daydream that I almost forgot in another daydream and so there ya go. I made the wee heart garland with a toothpick that I cut in two and then colored with a sharpie. A bit of embroidery floss and some felt scrap hearts and *bam* cuteness. The base is an old button that I covered after I pulled out the pin part and replaced it with a bit of wire for the feet to slide into. The happy recipient of this Valentine was delighted and I am thrilled to say that Schmuckles is very comfortable in his new home (that is, when Sinny isn’t trying to get him).

Who Me?

Namaste ~ Ella

1 Comment
by lawhimsy on March 28, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Creating Whimsy, Stuffies
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Posted by lawhimsy on March 28, 2012

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/late-love-delight/

Love is Stitchy

The February Stitchalong over on Feeling Stitchy was a really darling one and I was super excited to, well, stitchalong. I figured it would be a fun and easy little project and I was half right – it was fun. The easy part, not so much. Seriously, it was a somewhat hilarious trial of errors on my part to make this. First I needed wire, which while I do have quite a bit of wire (jewelry mostly) I was after a particular pink spool of it that I just knew I had. After several trips to and from various parts of the house and a rather unnecessary ruckus in my Craft Studio closet (I say it was perfectly justified, thankyouverymuch. harumph!) I managed to locate the sought after wire. Then it was on to what embroidery floss I was going to use – easy, peasy, right? Wrong-o. The color I wanted was in a tangled, knotted mess, due, no doubt, to the very darling and rather mischievous Elves that I swear in habit my creative space (Accidentally dropping a skein of floss into the bottom of my project bag should not lead to it’s tangled ruin…sigh). It took me forever to untangle and neatly wrap the mess up. Once that was done I was set to stitch (and, mind you, all of this was done in fits and starts over the course of a few weeks since I was doing this in little bits of free-time in-between other things). I actually found the tacking of the wire difficult at first since the dang thing kept trying to move about but once I got it wrestled into place all was well. I then, somewhat messily, got it glued onto it’s backing piece (Thank heavens for neat pieces of felt to cover a multitude of odd ends and glue messes!). I was all set to take a photo and get it up when *bam* February was gone and March had started – doh!

So anyway, here is my better-late-than-never contribution to the February Stitchalong. I rather like it and I am so going to display it somewhere as a happy little reminder that even the seemingly simple things can be deceiving but more than worth it, if only for the story, tee-hee!

Namaste ~ Ella

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by lawhimsy on March 2, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in embroidery
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Posted by lawhimsy on March 2, 2012

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/love-is-stitchy/

Teddy Time

Yuletide spirits may have long since faded into precious memories and the luster of the New Year has been burnished by daily activity but that doesn’t mean that the gifts made and given have become any less dear or sweet to share…or so I hope at any rate, hehe. This past holiday season saw me a bit less ambitious than usual when it came to gift making because my old, hand-me-down sewing machine bit the dust (I still have hopes of refurbishing it at some point and I now have a new one, but more on that in a later post) so it was hand-sewing all the way. I actually adore hand-sewing, however when one is on a rather tight time-line it can cramp one’s style and in more ways than one. With that in mind I decided that mini, hand-sized stuffies would fit the bill quite nicely and what could be cuter than a wee teddy bear (I mean besides a wee-anything. Tiny = Cute in my book any day!)? I grabbed some felt and went to work. I free-hand cute out my pattern so each bear is highly unique and then I used a blanket stitch to pull it together and then gave them string-jointed arms and legs. A set of small, black safety eyes gave a bit of soulful personality and *bam* a gift was born.

These are two of the bears - the blue one was my first

All-together I made 4 bears, although one had such a wonky set eye that I didn’t feel right giving him and so he was adopted by my sis and now has a wee pair of pipe-cleaner glasses.

This one got a tutu and ballet slippers

I also made a wee Zazzel (which is my Mom’s dear Maltese doggie) and did it ever turn out adorably (not to toot my own horn, but, hey, there it is).

See ~ How Cute is the Zaz?!?

All-in-all I am quite delighted at how nicely they turned out (though, of course, I can see about a million ways they could be better – isn’t that the way it goes, doh!) and the recipients seemed delighted as well and that’s what truly matters in the end!

The wonky-eye is on the other side and the glasses were off for this pic.

There are a few other, small things I made as gifts but they shall wait for another time. Until next I write I hope everyone has a lovely time!

Namaste ~ Ella

4 Comments
by lawhimsy on February 19, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by lawhimsy on February 19, 2012

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/teddy-time/

A Wee Needle-book Project

After I finished up my Whimsy banner I still felt a bit of a stitching itch and so I decided that since my sewing kit (or sewing bag or whatever else I was currently utilizing as a stash place for my current project…I’m a bit A.D.D./squirrely like that) was devoid of a needle-book I would remedy the situation, stat. I found a thick piece of fabric (not quite sure of it’s origin since it was a found bit of fabric from long, long ago) and cut out two oval-shaped pieces. I then chose a few floss colors I liked and began to free-hand stitch (I am terrible at following patterns, directions, etc and usually just sort of make my own way along). First I made a central grouping of French knots, then I went out with a chain-stitch/split-stitch, followed by a back-stitch and a flower was born…

I still felt like something else was needed and so I added some green leaves and then a few more French knots and a very few seed-stitches in the leaves for good measure. Now that was a lovely little flower and the perfect cover for my needle-case! Moving on I went and cut out two more matching ovals in a hot pink wool felt blend for the inside and I married the pieces together with a lovely-blanket stitch.

Ta-Da!

…and here’s a slight peek inside (don’t you just love my sparkly thumb nail?!). These pics are not the best since they were all done with Instagram, but until I get a better real camera shot or two, these will simply have to do.

Weiky likes ‘em at least!

Namaste ~ Ella

2 Comments
by lawhimsy on February 4, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by lawhimsy on February 4, 2012

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Dawdling…

but the cold made me do it!

Seriously, though, January has been something of a very slow month due in large part to the nasty cold that hit me the morning of the 1st (okay, really I could feel it coming on the day before but I wanted to ring in the new year so I willed it hold off…you know, by ignoring it). I had plans to do the January stitchalong on feeling stitchy (I have wanted to try couching but the only couching I did that first week was literally on the couch with “Murder, She Wrote” to keep me an my fellow sickies company), take and post pictures of the gifts I made and I really wanted to make myself a needle book. Well, all has not been lost since January still has a bit of time left in it. The cold, gloomy, very wet weather (I know I live in a more temperate place, but I do miss the snow and this rain is just not cutting it) makes for perfect sewing weather and so I have started the Stitch-a-long (It’ll say Whimsy and I’ll have better, non-Instagram photos later on).

I’ve also been playing my favorite Wintery music to add to the cozy ambiance of the house ~

So hopefully, this next week will see me starting and finishing up my sewing projects and maybe even moving on to some Valentine ones. Oh, and if I get a sunny day I may even get some pictures – yay!

Until Next time around,

Namaste ~ Ella

2 Comments
by lawhimsy on January 22, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Creating Whimsy, embroidery, Musings and Mutterings
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Posted by lawhimsy on January 22, 2012

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/dawdling/

Sock-o-lantern

Craft had a link to the absolutely sweetest Halloween idea that goes oh, so perfectly with my sockingtons – a sock-o-lantern! Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane had the tutorial up and I simply had to make my own.

I think He’s a real darling and He’s already getting into trouble with the sockingtons (pics of that to come later!).

1 Comment
by lawhimsy on October 27, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by lawhimsy on October 27, 2011

http://lawhimsy.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/sock-o-lantern/

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