Hip Hop Hippo Necklace

Plastic animal crafts are pretty trendy these days so I decided to jump on the bandwagon.  Here is my creation, a funky hippo necklace.

Start with your plastic animal toy of choice.  I found a tube of small animals at Michaels and used the hippo because they are one of my favorite animals.  Use acrylic paint to paint it your color of choice.  You will probably need several coats.

Now use gold leaf paint to add polka dots (or any design you so choose).

Once dry, finish with a coat of clear acrylic varnish and screw an eye screw into the top.  Finally, you will attach a long piece of chain to the eye screw using a jump ring.  I made the chain long enough to go over my head without a clasp.

Ta-da! That's it!  I rocked my necklace for date night.  Gotta love a night out without the baby :)

Want to try some more animal crafts?  Here is a sampling of tutorials from around the web:

Animal Coat Rack
Animal Jar Lids
Animal Candle Holders
Animal Magnets

Chimpanzee in Progress

I was recently asked to donate a piece of art to the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.  They will be hosting a fundraising event on March 24th called Sippin' for the Seven; this includes an art auction!  I was happy to donate to this event because I have spent a little bit of time volunteering with this group and am so happy to help provide for these chimpanzees.  These seven chimpanzees came from horrible living conditions in biomedical research and now live in an enriching enclosure, complete with access to the outdoors.

I have been trying my hand at drawing chimpanzees, but it definitely is a challenge.  My first attempts at detailed drawings did not go so well so I decided to do a simple sketch in watercolors.  I'm just about done.

I chose to draw a chimpanzee smiling in a characteristic chimpanzee play face.  Unlike chimpanzees you may have seen in media, chimpanzees actually smile by covering their top teeth with their lip and showing only their bottom teeth (I recommend trying to smile like this right now; it's pretty fun).  Unlike us, chimpanzees grin with both sets of teeth when they are scared.  Sadly, many chimpanzees are trained by fear in order to produce the smiles used in media.  Hopefully, this painting can help show what chimpanzee joy really looks like.

To learn more about the sanctuary and these awesome animals, visit their blog here.

Cat Bed or Backpacks?

Obviously, the backpacks.  Things like this are why we have stopped buying cat toys.

Have I Mentioned I Love Orange Tabbies?

Because I really love orange tabbies.  Check out these finds.

Octopuss- Adorable!

Kitty Charm- You can even order a custom kitty!

Cat Print- What a cutie!

My Cat's Not Very Good At Hiding

This isn't craft related, it's just cute.  Yes Milo, I can still see you.

Otis Gets a Day: Pug Finds

Since I talked about orange tabbies yesterday, I thought I should share some fun pug finds today :)  If you don't know why, this is in reference to the movie Milo and Otis.

Pug Pouch

Pug Love Mixed Media Piece

Pug Love Cards

Pug Pillow

Pug Brooch

I Love Orange Tabbies

I have an orange kitty that I adopted five years ago from a shelter in Kansas City.  At the time, I was going to look at another kitty that was advertised.  I entered the "Kitty Weight Watchers" room which was reserved for the chubby kitties on diet food.  It was then that I laid eyes on him.  A big ball of orange fluff that climbed right into my lap.  There was just something about him.  He was mine. 

His name was Coors, like the beer.  I tried calling him that for a day because he was six-years-old and I thought he might be used to the name.  But I just couldn't do it and renamed him Milo after Milo and Otis.  Since then, he has been my annoying, loving, licking, kitty companion.  I'm so glad I could give him a home since so many older kitties don't get adopted.  In honor of my little buddy, here are some cute orange tabby finds.

Oliver the Orange Kitty

Sinister Tabby Print

Orange Tabby Pendant

Orange Tabby Notecards

Ceramic Orange Tabby

Random Cuteness: Animal Edition

The weekend has been too busy for my own crafting.  I better just show you some awesome things that other people have made.

Cute Plush Bunny

Hedgehog in the Flowers Print

Tabby Dragon Greeting Card

Owl Plushie

Going North Print

Featured Artist: KAW! Studios

Today I am happy to feature Kaili from KAW! Studios.  She is a painter and wild-life lover so I can definitely relate to her pieces.  She even paints birds!

Mr. Owl Painting

Isn't he a cutie?  I think so too.  Kaili says "nature is my biggest inspiration! I am an aspiring wildlife biologist, and I love animals. The variety of beauty within the natural world is what fuels my art work."

In addition to painting, Kaili does some awesome photography.  I'm swooning over this cute dog print.

Greyhound Dog Photo

If you are an environment-lover, you will be happy to know that she takes care to be thoughtful of this in her packaging.  She says,  "I like to package & present my work in a way that makes it feel like you are opening a gift, however I also like to re-use materials. I re-use packaging materials, old magazines, cardboard boxes, and other items in order to package my work for shipping in a safe and earth-friendly manner. I am always looking for more ways to be eco-friendly in my work."

Octopus ACEO

Want to know more about this artist and budding wildlife biology, visit her shop here or her blog here.

Photo Session Helper

I was taking some product pictures yesterday when my kitty Milo decided to help out.  One minute I'm taking a picture of my necklace and the next thing I know, there's a kitty in my photo.

He's cute and all, but i would rather not sell him on etsy.

Skirt Project

Do you remember that I had my friend Mallori in town last week?  Well, she is so cool that she brought me some beautiful fabric all the way from New Zealand.  It is pretty green (my favorite color) with turtles on it (one of my favorite animals). 

She also brought some for herself and we set to work making skirts for ourselves using this tutorial.  We didn't get a chance to make the skirts until the very last night she was here so it was an intense evening of sewing.

Here's the final product.  I'm pretty proud; my sewing skills have not always been the best (aka-I lack the precision required for most projects- "oh yeah, that's about 2").  Luckily this tutorial was really easy to follow and worked well for a first skirt project. 

Sadly, Mallori had to leave the next morning super early so we didn't get a chance to wear our skirts out together.  Hopefully she will send me a picture of herself wearing it so I can post both of us together (hint hint Mallori).

Cat Swap

No, I didn't send Milo away.  But I did participate in a craft swap where we sent each other handmade items for our cats.  The only store-bought toy my cat likes are little catnip mice.  So for my swap-partner, I made a little catnip bird.  I used this pattern I found on pinterest and just shrunk it down to cat-size.

From my partner, I also got some cute little cat toys.  She sewed some little fabric balls with pom-poms.  Milo has been quite pleased with them so far.

I'm Back Again

My travels are over for the time being.  I'm back in WA and am very excited to have my friend Mallori visiting for the week.  Here are a few cute things in her honor.

Mal is visiting from New Zealand where she is in vet school.  Kiwi necklace on etsy.

Her favorite color is pink.  Rustic bench on etsy

She loves dogs.  Jack Russel key chain on etsy.

and elephants.  Elephant sewing pattern on etsy.

Cat Tag Update

Do you remember the tag I made for my cat awhile back?  Well, I had to redo it.  After nearly 3 months of normal cat wear, the lettering was starting to rub off. 

So, I made another one and this time I sealed it with clear varnish.  I'm hoping this will prevent the lettering from rubbing off.  I actually think this new design is even cuter.  And Milo looks pretty happy, don't you think?

I covered over the phone number in this photo b/c I didn't want to share it on the internet.

Here you can see where the phone number would be, but it's pretty blurry in this photo.

Kansas Visit Wrap-Up

Since I just got back this week, here is a brief photo-tour of my visit home:

My beautiful niece Adriana-a month and 2 days here!

My parents' new house-this was my first time seeing it-they just moved.

My guest room-still painted for a little girl (adorable)- I helped pick out end tables and lamps.

My boy Buster-fetching extraordinaire