The Bunnies Are Finished, on to the next item!

I've got my Hogwarts bunnies, all 89 of them, finished up and ready to take pictures of. Soon as we have a day of sunshine I can take the camera outside and get a decent picture in natural lighting. Not that the background will look great....it's all mud, dead grass and leafless trees out in this pre-spring time of year. Still, it's better than the yellow cast light inside the house.

THEN I can get the picture up on the website. Actually get some new things on it for people to see. I'm sure a lot of people think it's an abandoned site or something, so little has been updated in the past year. I'm trying to change that.

On the plus side, I'm going to have a whole slew of new paper dolls by August. Ferrets, cats, sheep, rats, fish, dogs, owls---different animals with different outfits.

I've done up a black and white pirate set of a cat, costumes, weapons and treasure chest for the international paper doll convention's program book, they're having a coloring contest and wanted an animal paper doll for that. It got sent out in the mail yesterday, so far as I know I'm 'official' in the program book with it.

Looks like I'll need to make another trip down to the east side and hit up the comic shop there for more of the plastic sleeves to package all the new sets in. He's the only place in the city that I know of that carries the magazine size, which fits an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of card stock perfectly. They're $5.50 for a set of 100 of them, and I've been using these since 1990. They work great for packaging. I've gone through what must be 800 sleeves in 16 years. So yes, paper dolls do sell!

Creative Surge Today

Been trying to come up with a lot of new items for this year's Pennsic War since it's the 35th anniversary of the event. Lots of people will be there this year, we may top over 15,000 attendees.

So....I was thinking of what someone asked for last year--a pigeon with big feet and legs that they could tie a message to, toss into a camp, have the person read the message and send the pigeon 'back' with another message responding to the original. Carrier pigeons, basically.

Good idea, I sketched up some cute small birds, came up with something I liked, then thought hey, why not white doves to send a message the same way? So I figured I'd get those little heart beads and stick one on the chest of each white dove as well. Then got another thought about 'bluebirds of happiness' which would work with the same pattern, still have the heart, but be missing the leg ties. Ok, so I have three new items.

Then I thought back on the deadly ninja throwing parrots I used to make. Those are too much trouble to do anymore, but there's no reason I can't pick an easier creature to do--so Ninja poison frogs are on the list now too. Black frogs with bright yellow, pink or blue bellies.

Then, maybe a pirate corner. I need to make up the little pirate parrots again (parakeet size), but decided to do some large full size macaws, but the fabric store only had blue fake fur in stock, so blue & gold macaws only, no scarlet macaws. Then.....why not do up a peg legged eye patch one as well? AND maybe do up a Jack Sparrow/Pirates of the Caribbean style with the red head scarf and the dangling beads? Ok, that works--I can call them Pirate Parrots of the Caribbean (they're in time to take advantage of since the second movie is due out soon). That, naturally degenerated into a spoof of "Pirate Carrots of the Caribbean" which I want to do now as well.... Then it was suggested that why don't I do up a few brown sparrows with the scarf hat and beads and have a Captain Jack Sparrow as well.....

People are going to hate us this year........we've already been told by many that we're very 'strange'. I know I'm going to get some weird looks for the plague leeches (they have the plague) and the leeches in sheep's clothing. Might as well sink lower.

Unlike A Really Bad Movie With The Same Name ---

Tonight is enthusiastically the "night of the bunny". Not big monster bunnies, no, these are furry little green or red or purple bunnies that'll be tagged to say they're from Hogwarts School of Magic And Wizardry. The explanation on them runs along the line of 'not all the first year students were able to turn these rabbits back to their normal color'. It's a good explanation for why they're not the standard rabbit shades.

That $20 a yard fake fur at Joann Fabrics (use the coupon, then it's 50% off) will make 20 small bunnies per yard. The upper fur on this fabric is gray, the undercoat is a different color. I did up only 20 of them last year for Pennsic since they were new and the cost of the fabric was sort of daunting... and they all sold out pronto at $4 bucks each. I think now that they were definately underpriced and might raise them up to $5 each. Six is too high, I want them to be pocket change, that gets people interested enough to start picking things up. Once they've got something in their hand it's like the sale is half completed. Anyway, I got 4 more yards of the stuff in the three different colors they offer, so should have enough this time around to last at least a few days. It's nice to know you have an item that'll sell out. They really did turn out cute.

No, I did not die and fall off the edge of the planet. I've been brain dead. Not a whole lot of difference between the two, but one you can recover from.

I've been too busy to post actually.