Monkeying Around

Today I made a tiny sock monkey!  I went for t-shirt materials that look like the same colors in a sock monkey, and just went to town!  I tried to keep similar construction, too, to add to the look!  T-shirt materials, if you don't sew them too tightly, remain loose and can fray a little to give the appearance of a knit. I used seed beads for the eyes and less than one cotton ball to fill it.

I think this little fellow is a tad too large for the house, but they make oversized sock monkeys too, so it can work.

The Nest Big Thing

Taking the picture with my camera phone kind of wiped out all the details, but I made a tiny bird's nest!

I took twine and unraveled it and roughed it up around my finger.  After that, I picked apart the fibers in a piece of felt and rolled it up to make little eggs!   Happy arting!

I built a centaur out of foil, paper, and pipecleaners, and a cheap dollar store horse.  He was hollow, so I snipped his head off easily, and the white hair peeled off of the head (I'll use that later).  The napkin paper I used was too thin and it made him look lumpy, so I covered him up with regular paper, glued all to heck.  I filled him with pennies so that he'd stand up, but I found out that dollar store horses don't stand up anyway.

Here's Andy Warhorse! 

He needs clothes and tweaking, but... anyhow.  Anyone up for Cambell's Soup?

K-9 time!  I made him deliberately a little banged up from his latest adventures.

Now, here's the process:

I drew out the basic pattern for the sides, the top, and the bottom on thin cardboard.  Then I liberally applied some tape.  In fact, the two remaining sides are made entirely of tape.

I used the accordioned bit of a bendy straw for his neck, and built the head in just the same way as I built the body.  I added panels to the sides and front.

I painted him all over with silver nail polish.  His tail is a metal headphone plug that I found on an airplane.

Now, of course, the easiest way to make a K-9 for cheap is to google image search for "K-9 Doctor Who Papercrafts" and then cut one out and fold it.  But since when have I ever done anything the easy way?

I did a repainting of a cat yesterday, and I made the mistake of not taking a before picture.  But the cat came from this container of dollar store animals, so you can just imagine how hideous it was before.  White and orange, with the kind of face that is best described as (please don't hate me for this) a sourpuss.

Here she is.  The house now has a Professor McGonagall.  I used acrylic and repainted it about five hundred million times, because tabby cat patterns are not easy to paint in a way that doesn't look like (well) it was painted on.

And thanks to a lovely suggestion, the next thing I'm going to try for is a K-9!  Thank you so much for your feedback!  I'm thrilled.  : )

I'm working on a Big Project, but I whipped a little something up today.

The Doctor is here to discuss two lifeforms.  One that lives underneath a rocky outcropping, another that resides inside of a tropical plant with a spiny shell.

Here's a closer look:

Spongebob and Patrick, in a terrible picture.  I used layers of construction paper and glue to make them, and now they're hard as rocks!

Spongebob isn't a show I really like, but on occasion they do have geeky artist jokes.  Happy arting!

How to spruce up quarter machine fish!

Paint it with a coat of white acrylic, then go to town on them with watercolors.  Darker colors will seep into the crevices and create a really awesome, textured, depth-y effect.

Happy arting!

As you can see, the party is spirited and a huge success.  Some might even say... to die for.

As you can also see, I actually have a really amazing photographer taking pictures for me.  Thank you Thomas, you're the best!

Toad is going as Batman (posterboard mask, an extra cape).  The Doctor is going as Doctor House (a paper cane, twisted with glue to keep its shape).

  Van Gogh is going as that redheaded doctor in Grey's Anatomy.  Look at the resemblance, it's eerie.

Oscar Wilde is what only Oscar Wilde can be: a bird with ridiculous plumage.  This is all out of paper and gloss, attached with plain clear tape, turned inside out and hidden.  And I made Poe a pair of Groucho glasses with pipecleaners, wire, and paper.  Poor Poe.

You can get a better shot of his tail in this one.

The candied and caramel apples are made of paper and aluminum foil on toothpicks, painted thickly with watercolors for the deep color and shine.

The lollipops are foil and tissue paper on wire; the other candy is foil and tissue paper.

The Halloween baskets are part of this ridiculous drinking straw that they sell at the dollar store.  I scored cut lines with a scissor, and because the plastic is hard I didn't want to risk cutting through and ruining a scissor.  I used a wirecutter for that, and it worked fine, half of the time.  The other half, I ruined the pumpkin.  Thankfully, each straw has four, and it comes in a package of several.  Then I covered it with orange tissue paper to give it a nicer texture and a less plasticky shine, and added a wire handle.

The triceratops is a horse for Halloween, with a little rider made of foil and tissue paper.  The rider is actually a tiny Van Gogh, with orange yarn hair and beard.

The 'organic zombie' growing out of a flowerpot!  Okay, I've seen this somewhere before, but I don't remember where.  Basically, I used one of my mess-up hands from the dolls I'm trying to make, painted over the skin tone with green watercolor, blotted when needed to create that gross, mottled look, and made a 'seed packet' out of posterboard and part of a skewer.

Look at how pretty that lamp looks under decent lighting and a good camera!

Annnd here's my Halloween costume.  Bowties are cool.  Trust me, I'm the Doctor.

Alrightypants.  I've made a rocking horse and Flounder from the Little Mermaid.  Not really scary/Halloweeny, unless you count the state that Flounder was in. Terrifying, yo.

Unfortunately, I don't have a post-painted Flounder picture, but I'll get one at some point.  The blue paint was all chipped and the eyes were blurred and the mouth was all... at any rate, fixed!


This is the original rocking horse and the original Flounder.  The rocking horse was an ornament that I destringed and repainted!

It's hard to see in this picture, but there are swirls all over the horse.  Unicorn.  Rocking unicorn.  Done in the style of Van Gogh, complete with sunflowers at the bottom, a saddle with the moon, and orange hair.  I was going to cut off one of his ears but my mom convinced me not to.

I made the horn with the pointy bit of a skewer, and string swirled around it and glued.  Painted, glossed, tada!  The mane is a pipecleaner, the tail is the same hair I used for Rapunzel but painted orange.

Happy arting!

Here's a slightly less creepy picture of Rapunzel!

And now, a report on my Garage Sale Saturday:

Two boxes to put tiny stuff in, so I can organize all the household items that I've made.  After setting up the bookshelf for the upteenth time after bumping into the table that the house is on, I've decided that with how clumsy I am, it's probably best for me to keep stuff in boxes for a while.

Lovely flooring and fabric, from a woman who only charged me a dollar for both!  (If you're reading this, hi, and thank you again!)

From one side to another: a velociraptor, a cheetah (that I might repaint), a tiny triceratops, Flounder from The Little Mermaid who needs a new paintjob, a closet monster, and a rocking horse Christmas ornament that I need to remove the string from and repaint, perhaps as a zebra.
Seriously, check out the monster, he's adorable.

And, finally, a nice, heavy lightswitch cover that would make a perfect tabletop or headboard or something.

 Happy arting!

Today was super duper easy.  Following in line with my October theme, I made a Halloween costume for a turtle that I got at a garage sale.

The awesomest thing ever?  Maybe.  Happy arting!

I opened the cabinet, and lo and behold, five Cheshire kittens, and a proud mama. 

The Doctor has taken a particular shining to this one, who is in a constant state of licking himself.

Making them was just like making the rats; making all the little shapes (legs, body, tail, head) out of foil, covering them with paper napkins and glue, and sticking them together.  Painting was more challenging.  I must have done five coats with all the correcting I had to do.  I painted a lot with a safety pin.

They'll grow into their smiles yet, I'm sure.

I painted the rest of the cats into skeleton cats.

On a similar note, the Cheshire cat has gone missing.  However, I've heard a curious mewling from under the kitchen sink.  Will investigate tomorrow.

Look at these guys.  Seriously, give them a click, and take a good long look.  Isn't their paint job a little... scary?  I got all five of them in a pack at the dollar store.

All I did is repaint a couple with good ol' fashioned acrylic.  Now the house has the Cheshire cat, and a skeleton cat.