Peg Doll Family

I'll be the first to admit I have craft ADD -- when I see something new that I love, I have to try it out, even though I'm in the middle of 15 other kinds of projects.  This happened to me recently when I stumbled across GooseGrease on etsy.  I fell in love with their adorable custom peg doll families.  Then I noticed they had a separate shop (GooseGreaseUndone) where you can buy the unfinished dolls, mixing and matching a wide variety of sizes to match your own family.  Yes, please!  I ordered 5 little dolls for my family right away, and I've finally had a chance to finish painting them!  Here is our little family:

I painted them with acrylic craft paint and did a lot of the details with waterproof markers, then finished them with a coat of matte Mod Podge.  I learned a lot doing these and would definitely do some things differently next time (like waiting for the paint or mod podge on the heads to dry completely before picking them up -- I had to redo a few things because I was so impatient).

I let the boys tell me what they wanted on their shirts.  Sam, lover of all things learning and super excited about the approaching start of the school year, requested an A+.  I also gave him "distressed" jeans, because he had just told me he thought those were cool.

Joshy wanted a silly face on his.

Eliza got a cute pink princess-y dress in front...

And a super-hero cape in the back, because that how she rolls...

I mod-podge book paper on for my dress, then painted on the yellow cardigan and turquoise flower.

Dan has recently developed an affinity for plaid shirts, so that's what he got.

So there you have it!  This was such a fun little project.  Now the dolls live on the cabinet in our entryway, cheerily greeting everyone who comes over.

I'm not the only one who loves them, either.  Eliza plays with them pretty much every day -- I'm always finding them in different configurations, as though they are in the middle of a conversation or on some adventure together.

An elephant never forgets...

Our challenge over at Bitten by the Bug this week was to use the Elephant from Zooballoo. This is one of my favorite little shapes, but I've only ever used it for very kid-oriented designs, so I challenged myself to come up with something grown up (but still fun!). Here's what I did -- I found this notebook in the $1 bin at Michaels a long time ago -- the cover was cream with the green stripe and a green T in the bottom right corner. I used stamps from the Fancy Pants Pollen Dust set (got these for $10, I couldn't believe it!), the cute little elephant, and the flourish-y shape and title are from Alphalicious. I put that shape/title together in Design Studio -- easy peasy!
I made this with the thought to give it away as I gift, but it's so cute I think I might just hang on to it! :)

I'm in love...

So a month or so ago I took the plunge and bought Sure Cuts a Lot, the software you can use with your Cricut that allows it to cut any TTF font (including dingbats!) on your computer, but I haven't gotten much of a chance to play with it until now. Well, I discovered that not only can it cut fonts, but it will also let you cut any SVG file. With the programs I have, that basically means I can cut anything I can draw -- yippee!

I've been doing some reorganizing and in my scraproom and needed to find a new home for my flower collection and the magnet board I did a while back. (I'm sure some of these flowers would like to find a new home on a project -- since I almost never use them -- but that's a post for another time.) I bought this shelf unfinished from the craft store, and I'd also just bought a big pack of Quickutz vinyl on a really great deal at Costco, so I decided to fancy it up. I drew these flourishes and the little birdie using my Bamboo pen tablet (love it!), then turned them into SVG files and cut them in vinyl with SCAL. Voila! I LOVE how this turned out! I used Cricut Design Studio to create the rows of dots for the ledge. I think I'm going to have a LOT of fun with these new toys.