Amigurumi Pattern Testing Group On Ravelry!!

I considered it for a long time, and I finally decided to start a patten testing group on Ravelry! I'm going to start really getting serious about my pattern making ( hopefully lol )! I want to make sure my patterns are top notch quality! If you want to join the testing group, just click the link here.
 

                                            See, I even made a special banner for it! :D

                                                       I would love to see you in my group!


                                                                     -Brea :)

Making (And Attaching) Manga Eyes For Your Amigurumi!!

I've been making manga eyes for my dolls for a while now, So I figured I may as well share how I do it :) .
Usually I stick with a plain oval shape, but recently I have been branching out and making different shaped eyes! If you like to draw, these eyes are totally fun to create. They are especially great for me, because I'm always drawing eyes all over my schoolwork, notepads,window..etc. LOL

Here is a simple tutorial (my first I believe!) On how to make these eyes.

You Will Need:
-White cotton cloth, make sure it is a bit thick, because you don't want your glue making your colors bleed. I cut up an old pair of karate pants, the cloth is thick and sturdy, and there is plenty of it!
- Clear Fabric adhesive, I use liquid stitch.
-a pencil
-a black permanent marker
-a permanent marker in the color you want your cloth eyes to be. I use sharpie pens to color my eyes.
-scissors

1. Pencil in the outline you want your eyes to be shaped.  I made mine more slender, and a bit almond shaped.

2. Add a half circle to each of the eyes. This is the beginnings of the inner eye.

 3. Add a circular shine to the top of the eye, and a round pupil underneath that.

 4. Add another shine in the corner (completely optional) and darken in your eyes.

 5. Now you can begin to ink your eyes in. Be careful, this is the tricky part.

 6. Finish inking.

 7. Now you can add color!! I decided on green for these eyes. You can have more or less color depending on how large the pupil is.

 8. Now cut your eyes out. Don't cut too far!

 9. This step is optional as well, but I prefer to darken in and clean up my eyes after I cut them out!

 There you go! Now you have your very own pair of manga doll eyes! Now to attach them....

              Here is a pair of oval eyes I made for Minako the bunny!( I'll show you her soon )

 You really need to lather them with adhesive. Don't be scanty on the glue, or your eyes won't stay attached!

 

Now press the eyes on with you fingers, and yes, you may get a little sticky at this part, don't worry it washes off. ;)

         After you press the eyes on, be sure to add glue in any little areas you may have missed.

                                             Now wait for them to dry, and your all set!!

              Be sure to check out Beth Webber's picture tutorial on painted manga eyes, HERE!

Kawaii blogs!!

I saw a message about a kawaii linky party on twitter! Of course I had to look into it! Hawaii Kawaii is setting up a page for cutesy bloggers and shopkeepers to put up links to their sites!! I entered my blog!
If you like cute, you should totally take a look at this site. Also check out the links to the other cute blogs! It's always cool to find other bloggers that are totally obsessed with cuteness. ;)

                                                             Click HERE to visit the site!

Just A Quick Update!

Hiya Everybody! I changed my blog AGAIN. I custom made the header, do you like it? I just wanted to pop in so I could show off my latest creation! A little orange anime doggy! :D

I really like my anime pets, they remind me of the mascots you often see in shojo (girls) manga and anime! He should be up on my Etsy soon!

Also, I wrote last time about a way to revolutionize capsule pet creation. This is what I was talking about, Crocheted Circles!! This is another way to use up your stashed scrap yarn by the way! I've just been making a ton of tiny circles with my scraps. Now whenever I feel the urge to craft, (but am to lazy to crochet a whole doll) I can just attach button or bead eyes, wings, arms, legs..etc. And I'll have myself a finished capsule pet!! :)

                                  Well....I guess I'd better get back to work! Until next time!
                                                                       xoxoxoxo -Brea

Picture Updates!

Hi all! Looking through my store, I noticed some of my pictures weren't up to par, so I decided to have a photo shoot! I re-took pictures of my anime pocket head girls, and got a good photo of pirate bear. :) My mom got this photo studio thingy for her birthday,I tried it out with her. It's pretty much a big cube, with ultra blindingly bright lights that shine inside. The pics of my plushies in it looked pretty good!

Pirate bear looking absolutely fabulous!

New pic of sunny side up....

Compared to old. It looks dark doesn't it?

New island girl

 old island girl.

 New under the sea

 and old.

I also made a new capsule pet ! His name is Vincent the bat baby! I love bats, they are one of my favorite animals! I can't stop myself from wanting to make lots and lots of them!!

cozy in his capsule home.

His wings and ears are felt, I needle felted them on. I also chained across his tummy, and let a tiny bit of fringe hang off for feet . :)

I've come up with a way to revolutionize the way I make capsule pets!! But more on that another time. ;)

For now, a moment of silence for the little mermaid Veera, who was recently sold and shipped off to her new home by the beach! (no joke!) Bye-Bye Veera! I'll miss you!




                                                   For now, I bid you all sayonara!
                                                                 xoxo  -Brea J.

Knit And Crochet Design Week: Day Six, Finishing Up, And Pattern Design!!

 This is the last day of design week! It was really fun, and I actually like blogging every day. :)  I finished panda today, and now it's time to show him off! But first, I'll show you the pics leading up to his creation.

 Here are panda's various disembodied parts. >
 His arms at the top.
His ears in the middle.
His legs at the bottom.

















                              

                        <  Here are pics of panda being assembled.                              I've learned that it is not only helpful, but almost necessary to have work-in-progress pics if you are going to write a pattern to sell.Before I learned to write my own,  I used to buy patterns, and print them off of the internet. The patterns that were all text were at best O.K. But patterns with pictures to illustrate the idea or technique were much easier to follow.

                                                                         

Here he is all sewn up! >

 And here he is with his little shoes!! They turned out a little different then I expected, more like sneakers than rainboots.

Aren't they cute though? :)

I think I may write this pattern up to sell. Usually if I write the pattern down for myself, it turns out sloppy. However, If I have intentions of selling the pattern, I'm more careful (counting stitches, writing out complete sentences and not just scribbles...etc.) I have been trying to train myself to write ALL my patterns down carefully.If I write a pattern down hap-hazardly, and I want to try and sell it, I have to re-make the item, making sure to write down any details I may have missed, and to count my stitches. After I write them out, I have to type them into the computer, add pictures, and double check my design. It takes a lot more patience then I used to think, but filling my little notebook up with my own original patterns, makes me feel happy! I love writing my own patterns. It's a great feeling when I see pictures of sweet little plushies somebody made with my Designs!

                     Panda turned out pretty cute, so maybe I'll make some more! ^-^
                             I'll probably put panda in my Etsy store soon.

                             Be sure to check out everyone's final design posts, here.

Knit And Crochet Design Week: Day Five, Mess-Ups

Ok, So this is gonna be a fairly short post, because I haven't really made very many mistakes with lil panda so far (I'm happy about that lol). Anyhoo, the biggest problem I had was picking the yarn to go with my white. I delayed starting because I couldn't find a yarn that I liked. I ended up using Caron's Simply soft, in light country blue. It matched my felt, and it's, well...soft.

It's a tiny bit thick for the yarn I'm using for the head, but with a tiny (and I mean tiny) crochet hook, and tight stitching, it's working out alright.


The biggest mess-up I've had so far is panda's nose. I must have stitched it up and pulled it out three times! Here is a slightly disturbing picture of panda as i ripped out his nose for the second ( or third, I kinda lost count) time.

                                   It kinda looks like he's being eaten alive by blue worms (shiver)
Thankfully, that problem was resolved. I have finished panda's body and ears, I should have more pics tomorrow!

       Be sure to check out Stacey's post, and see what my fellow designers are up to HERE!!