Oh man! We went two entire months without any posts! That’s sad.

Fellow authors, what have you been up to? I know neither David nor myself have been making much lately… sad! So much other stuff going on this time of year. But there’s a whole slew of wonderful people signed up as authors on this blog, and we’d love to hear from any and all of you as well!

In the meantime, I think we’re going to start sharing inspirational links to other people’s artwork on the Great Interwebz. My first choice is the dude who carves tiny tiny things (I do love tiny tiny art) on the tips of pencils. No joke. You’ve probably seen it before – it made the rounds a while back – but holy cannoli is it amazing work.

(why doesn’t spell check like the word cannoli? is spell check a foodist?)

So winter hasn’t been terribly conducive to the creative spirit, at least not in my case.  There are ideas, and spurts of motivation that make it to the doorway, but then I remember that it’s cold out, and grey and windy, and I have things like bad movies and tea and blankets at home, so I don’t really make it outside.  But once in a while I get over these tiny hurdles, like I did a couple of weeks back when I tricked Rene into wandering along the Aurora bridge, the end result a few average pictures and hands numb from the cold.  But those couple of average pictures I tossed through photoshop with some creative use of lens blur, and made these!  Tiny model-like photos of normal sized things.

In addition, I also recently finished throwing together a scrapbook paper octopus, with a monocle!  It’s not much, but it was sitting on the back burner for a while.

I would like to note that our blog, the Floppydogs Creative Commons, is now linked on the blogs of a few of our wonderful friends, including Unpainted Huffines, Charles N. Cox, Alicia Aho, and Susie Schroeder. If I’ve missed anyone, let me know! Point being, perhaps we should all update a bit more… I’m definitely going to try my best, but I would love to see everyone’s work here as well: writing, knitting, photoshops, paintings, jewelry, etc.

Recently we ladies have gathered for a couple of fun craft days, and below I’ll share the results of those from my end:

Elephants! I was told that an elephant with his or her trunk up in the air is a symbol of good luck.

These little fellas are each smaller than a dime. Making the eyeballs on the ghosts was the hardest part! Pac-Man glows in the dark, too. Later I stuck the pointed tips of pins in the backs so I could insert them into a styrofoam backing, which inspired:

Pac-Man pushpins! They aren’t quite sturdy enough to go shoving into walls, but are great for corkboards.

Next up, we have some things I made for my folks, in honor of their parents who have passed on.

My paternal grandfather was a proud member of the USN for many years. I believe he retired with the rank of E-8. This eagle is a magnet, and the whiteish part of the background circle glows in the dark. The whole thing is just larger than a silver dollar.

My maternal grandfather was in a home for the last bit of his life, suffering from Alzheimer’s. He had a small toy alligator there that he gave to his favorite employee at the home. My mom and her sister both wear tiny alligator charms on their bracelets to remember him, so I made this for Mom. He’s about the size of a quarter.

My maternal grandmother (Granny) collected owls. I remember being in her home near New Orleans as a child, seeing these little owl collectibles all over the place. The owl is about the height of a nickel.

I like cupcakes, I like monsters. So behold!

My original plans called for legs and arms, but I’m not so sure anymore.

I’ve been creating things faster than I’ve been blogging about them.  Now it’s time to at least mention them.

For Christmas I made:

• Some ornaments I’m not going to bother posting pictures of.  Some were uglier than others, some had sequins and one is hanging up in David / Aaron’s apartment if you’re that curious.
• Some bibs for my Grandma – yeah she wears bibs, wanna fight?  I forgot to take pictures of them, but they were colorful.
• A tote bag for the Christmas exchange at my other Granny’s.  It was even more colorful than the bibs, but I forgot to take pictures of it as well.  I have all of the same fabric and intend to make another at some point, so maybe you’ll get pictures then.
• A patchwork table runner for my Granny.  It was the same fabrics as the tote so very colorful.  This taught me that I don’t want to get into quilting because it requires far too much precision.  If it hadn’t been for last minute panic and the thought I wouldn’t have to look at it much, I wouldn’t have finished it because I’d have been driven nuts by the corners not lining up perfectly.  There was progress in that I at least remembered to take pictures!   Just not very good pictures 

• A Cthulhu tree-topper / mini-wreath for Simon

Things I did in November but didn’t blog about because I’m a horrible person!:

• Venture Brother Finger puppets for Josh:  I wasn’t too thrilled about them but Josh at least pretended to like them.  I hope to make more of them and make them bigger and do a better job with their faces.  Plus any other notes Josh might have for me.  For this item you get an in progress shot because I like the in progress shot best and I forgot to take a finished shot. 
• A dapper Octopus:  This was the fellow that inspired me to try and undertake the PeCreAwMo challenge. My original plan called for giving him socks but I couldn’t bear to cover up the snazzy underside fabric.
• I made some more Christmas ornaments I already mentioned.
• I started work on a different Cthulhu wreath but I really haven’t made much progress with that and it’s kind of past the Christmas season now :sadpanda:

So that covers November and December.  I still need to blog about the stuff I made for babies in the last half of the year.  Please remind me to do that and ask Janel for pictures of the pillow cover.

After seeing all of the Valentine’s fabric I was inspired to make this.  Valentine’s Day is usually about insanity and madness so I figured Cthulhu was perfect.

Let me know if you want him for your Valentine otherwise he’s going up for sale on Etsy. This one sold, but I’m in the process of making another!

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here.  That’s only partly due to not working on stuff; it’s mostly due to trying to find frames and mats for existing artwork.  Anyway, I recently came into a ton of scrapbook paper from various sales, so it’s time for me to start working on more things involving those.  And get a mat cutter and blank mats so I don’t have to rely on stupid expensive ill-proportioned ones.

Measures 8″ x 8″.  I have a bunch of pages in an insect book bookmarked so I can make more of things like that.

And the other thing I just made the other day.  Still need to find a mat and frame that will fit it.  8″ x 16″.  Erick thinks I should make a little mario and goombas or something but I feel this gets the point across just as well.  I’ll probably make bits and pieces of other worlds because this wasn’t difficult at all.

Apparently having a cold makes me more creative. A visit to the hardware store for chicken wire & magnets, and then to Goodwill for the frames and fabric led to this:

..click images for larger…

The magnets were boring, so I glued on some fabric (toddler shirts at Goodwill) to make them interesting:

My previous method of hanging necklaces on thumbtacks in the wall was becoming ghetto as my necklace collection has been growing. I’ve come up with and abandoned a few ideas for holders, but tonight while waiting for the NyQuil to kick in, I finally brought one of my “it’s midnight-thirty, why am I not asleeeeeeeep” ideas to fruition!

..click on images to see larger versions..

Used: empty wine bottle, Goo Gone, cork, florist wire, cute stickers and pretty spiral paperclips found at Fred Meyer while trying to locate Goo Gone under the influence of cold medicine. Quite the task, let me tell you.

It only holds 6 necklaces, but I plan to make more with different stickers, different wine bottles… a variety. The top will look better once the glue has dried, but I didn’t like the plain cork-with-wires-stuck-in look, so I glued on a couple of the spiral paperclips. Perfect size!

Now I have a funky set of jewelry holders, and my dresser top is so much neater!

All that’s left is figuring out how to keep the cat from thinking this is his new paradise of shiny swingy toys…

My mom got into making earrings not too long ago, which means my earring collection has grown. Dissatisfied with jewelry boxes and unable to find an earring tree except online, I decided to make my own. Click any of the pictures to see a larger version, which will open in a new window.

I can’t explain why it became an octopus. I took my glittery dark blue, glittery dark green, and glittery silver clays and mooshed them together. When I balled it up and created a base, it looked like an octopus with one giant webbed foot… so I squished the legs out.

Unfortunately the wire that I have isn’t the strongest stuff. It’s meant for my wiggley planter pets (of which I made exactly one), not for holding up anything of substantial weight. Fortunately, most of my earrings are not particularly heavy.

I’d say about half of these earrings, not counting the studs, were made by my mom. Woohoo! Obviously this wouldn’t be good for someone with an extensive earring collection, or heavier earrings, but it suits my minimal needs just fine.

Since I wear studs as well, I made a couple “branches” with tiny loops just for those. Not too shabby for an evening’s work, eh?