Benson - The Morkie

Here is the first feature of NightLady's custom order: Benson the Morkie.

I have never heard of a "Morkie" until now. For those of you who are unfamiliar as well, a Morkie is a mix between a Yorkie and an Maltese, and look at the super cute result!!

Benson's nickname is "Hightower" because he's a little taller than his parents, so I made him taller as well! Look at those long legs! :)

Custom Order - A Bundle of Love!!

I just shipped one of my biggest orders ever from Nightlady on Etsy! Check out her shop here. She sells the loveliest flower pins and brooches, like this one:

So pretty, right?

Well, Nightlady really surprised me a month ago for an order for 12 Fuzzies!!! WOW! Five items were already in my shop, but the rest of them were custom orders!! Three dogs belonging to her, three dogs belonging to her parents, and one raccoon. The ones in the shop she was going to use as prizes for her students.

I certainly had my work cut out for me, but after a couple weeks of bending a twisting, I eventually finished! Here is the entire gang:

I'll be posting more detailed pictures in the upcoming days, so stay tuned!

Custom Pipe Cleaner Pup: Val

My best friend's (Luisa's) 31st birthday was yesterday, and as a present to her, I made her a custom Fuzzy of her adorable Pomeranian, Val. I believe Val is short for "Valentine" because she was a gift to my friend from her husband for Valentine's Day. Here is Val (the only recent picture I could find of her on Facebook--- I have no idea why she has a cone on):

And here are a few from when she was a pup:

HERE is Val, FUZZIFIED!!

Turned out Val was pretty hard to fuzzify. I don't know if it's because she's so darn cute, or if I had just put too much pressure on myself to make Fuzzy Val "perfect" for Luisa. Either way, I think Luisa liked it.

My New Squidoo Lenses

OK, so I have created TWO Squidoo lenses to see what this is all about! Check them out and let me know what you think!!

Here's one for Fuzzington. I think I'm going to need to update it with more pertinent information:
http://www.squidoo.com/fuzzington

This one is a running list of why I love Swap-bot:
http://www.squidoo.com/10-reasons-to-love-swap-bot

We'll see if we get any royalties, just cents even!! :)

New Mini-Monsters and Sci-Fi Items in the Shop!!

Halloween is not that far away, and there are now some cute new items to get you in the mood!! I don't make nearly as many monsters (cute ones, of course) and sci-fi creatures as I should, so here is the start!! Hope you all like them!

Mini-Mummy:

Vampire Bunny:

Love Robot:




And, back by popular demand, Tarantula Ring:

More to come in the upcoming weeks! It'll be SPOOK-tacular! HAHAH!

Squidoo Lens

So I was looking around in the Etsy Forums this morning, I and I stumbled across a post that talked about "Squidoo Lens." I had never heard of this before, so I clicked on the link and found a new promotion tool before that I am just DYING to try!! Here is the link to the tutorial http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-use-the-etsy-module#module106749681

The intro of the tutorial says this:

A lot of people with shops on Etsy complain about lack of traffic to their stores. There is the mis-conception that by opening a store one is guaranteed sales. That is not how things happen. Most of the people with an Etsy shop are looking for quick, easy, and cheap answers to this problem.

While many people know about Face Book and Twitter and how they work, few on Etsy seemed to have heard about Squidoo. And Squidoo is the perfect answer. On Squidoo one can make a web page that can be as simple or complex as one wishes. And it is free.

Squidoo itself is a complex entity with many different parts to explore. But, starting at the beginning...

What is Squidoo? Squidoo is a web site, set up for sharing information. On it one can build a web page, called a lens, using a variety of different modules. And with these web pages one can gather views and direct traffic.

Has anyone tried this? I'll be putting mine together today. Anyone with some tips on this, please let me know!!!

Cool New Widget for Your Etsy Shop!

I just added the Craftcult Etsy Widget to my blog (see top right). You can choose from a bunch of different styles and animations. It's pretty slick. Try it for yourself, and see how cool it is! You can also get one of your own at http://www.craftcult.com/shop_widget.php?userid=

Enjoy!!

IT'S FUSILLI RICK!

Okay-- so this isn't made out of pipe cleaners... BUT--

My financial advisors, Rick Nerad and Steve Deppe, are AWESOME! I love these guys because they're personable, fun, and really care about my financial well-being. My hubby and I have been with these guys for almost 5 years, and we always have the best time when we meet with them. Shameless plug: If anyone reading this is looking for some top-notch "wealth management," feel free to contact them: http://nd-wm.com/

ANYWAY, it turns out Rick is a huge Seinfeld fan, and during one of our meetings last year, he did the best impersonation of Jerry Seinfeld and showed us the "Fusilli Jerry" episode. For those of you who need to be clued in like I did, here's a link to the video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdiROsB-yJI

Here's a picture of Fusilli Jerry that I found on the Internet:

Since then, I've been meaning to make a "Fusilli Rick." I purchased a bag of fusilli late last year to make Fusilli Rick as a Christmas present, but ran out of time, and that bag of fusilli has been sitting in my crafts drawer for over 6 months. I finally was struck with inspiration this weekend... With a bag of pasta and LOTS of glue, I present to you:

FUSILLI RICK!!!

I was really happy with how it turned out. I tried to stay true to the spirit of the original one. I even used the blue base!! This little statue shows Rick waving HI (because he is a really friendly guy) and reaching for our file.

I spelled out "Fusilli Rick" with alphabet pasta.

The little file holder also doubles as a business card holder!!

Here are some pics from the "Making of Fusilli Rick:"

My hubby will be delivering this little guy to Rick today. Unfortunately, I won't be there to see his expression when he receives it...

Next on my list, "Spaghetti Steve!"

Custom Pipe Cleaner Pups: Chippy and Dale the Maltese Twins, and Daisy the Yorkie!

In my last blog entry, I showed a picture of three dogs that my buddy Jarrod sent to me to Fuzzify for his Mom's birthday. Chippy, a 10 lb Maltese; Dale, a 6 lb Maltese; and Daisy, a 4 lb Yorkie, the smallest of them all!!

These adorable little pups are so petite as it was, I could hardly see how I could make them any smaller with pipe cleaners! Hahahah!!

Somehow I managed to make some time in my insane workweek and make these little guys! Here they are!

CHIPPY - 2 inches


DALE - 1.75 inches


DAISY - 1.5 inches


THE GANG!

I tried to make them proportional in size based on their weights. Now all I need to do is put bows on these little ones and wrap them up for Jarrod's mom. I hope she likes them!!! Happy Birthday, Jarrod's Mom!! :)

New Custom Order!!!

What will I be doing this weekend besides WORK (which I have a ton of)? Well during my breaks (in case you're reading this JJL), I'll be working on this week's custom order: 3 little fluffy dogs from my buddy Jarrod. Here are the pics that he sent me... they are SOOOOOOO ADORABLE!!!

The two Malteses remind me of our little Maggie.

The fuzzified versions of them will be a birthday gift for his mom. I will post pics of them as soon as they're done!!

New Fuzzy Friends in the Store! Fifi and Harley!

Introducing some new fuzzy friends!

Fifi, the Pink Terrier! She's pink and bubbly, and looks like cotton candy!

Harley, the Skinny Doxie.
All he's got is this bone! Take him home and feed him a ham sandwich!

Come check them out in the shop!

More Swap-bot!!

Man, oh man, my creative juices have been FLOODING lately, and all because of Swap-Bot!!! Here are some things that I've made for swaps. Swap-bot has given me a creative outlet to work on new types of creations for fun. I'm still in love with my pipe cleaners, but a little break every now and then never hurt anyone.

Kawaii Matchbox Swap

Handmade Postcard Swap




Some funny postcards made for the Recycled Postcard Swap:

I've gotten some really cool things back in return!! I'll post pics of some of the things I've received in another entry. I'm really loving it!

Happy St. Urho's Day!!

Every year, my good friend Big John throws a St. Urho's Day celebration, with an abundance of make-your-own-pizzas and Grasshoppers-- mainly in the form of a minty, blended, alcoholic drink (although one year someone actually brought little lime and chili sauteed grasshoppers-- which actually didn't taste half bad).

For those of you who are wondering who St Urho is, legend states that "St. Urho drove away grasshoppers (rather than frogs) from Finland using the incantation "Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen!" ("Grasshopper, grasshopper, go from hence to Hell!"), thus saving the Finnish grape crops." (Wikipedia)

Well, Big John seemed to have all sorts of St. Urhos decorations, like St. Urho's cocktail napkins, but his decor was missing one crucial thing: a Fuzzy Grasshopper!! So during the two-and-a-half-hour car ride to Big Joh's party, well-equipped with green pipe cleaners, beads, and wire wrapping tools, I made this little present for him.

Even St. Urho himself would have a hard time shooing such a cute grasshopper out!!

Another Matchbox - Good Luck Charm for the Hubby!!

My poor hubby has been studying his butt off for the last 6 weeks, holed up in his home-office, for the California BAR exam. For those of you who aren't aware of this, the California State BAR is notorious for being among the hardest BAR exams in the country. I guess a lot of people want to be lawyers in California, though I'm not exactly sure why.

At any rate, with all the studying, the hubby was getting stir-crazy and was looking forward to getting the exam over-with, but also dreaded it at the same time. As a pick-me-up gesture, I made him a little good luck gift and gave it to him the weekend before the test (he took the test last week, and is now a much happier camper!) :)

I made a little green matchbox and affixed stickers with some words of encouragement.

Inside I put a little Fuzzy 4-leaf clover to bring him a little luck. How could you not smile with this little guy around?

The hubby brought it with him and while he claims that the exam was as tough as he had anticipated, he hopes this little guy brought him a little luck during the three-day test. Coincidentally, the results will be available on my birthday, so I'm hoping for a good present from the BAR Association for the both of us!! Keep your fingers crossed!!