Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #5

For those of you following along with my crochet adventures, you know that I signed up for five separate art trades via Facebook in January 2014.

It's been on my crochet to-do list, and I knew that I had to get all of my projects done within the calendar year.

Well, I'm famous for procrastination.  And 2014 was no exception.

But.

I finished all five before December 31st, so it's a win!

The final project was for Midori (Mike the coworker's wife) and she and I had already discussed what she wanted.  After seeing the VintageBeef pillow, she requested a pillow for her Minecraft skin.

And voila:

Her skin is a redheaded ninja.

So now the crochet queue looks like:

- Guude plushie

- VintageBeef plushie

- Enderman

- Purple and black scarf

- Plushie D20

I may have gotten sidetracked by some other projects, which I will share with you in the future.  I also made some other gifts, but can't post any information about them until they've been opened.  

Hope you all had a great Christmas, and I wish you an adventurous new year!

Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #4

I ended up getting confused at one point--I thought one friend had signed up for the Art Trade and was worried about which Doctor Who or Avengers project to do...

...and then discovered I was wrong!  My good friend from college (granted, she worked for me) graduated as a nurse and is working up in Ohio.  I believe her husband teaches for a Christian/private school, and they're probably getting lots of snow this year for Christmas.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do; I needed something that would be simple, preferably in colors I already had on hand, and perfect for a nurse (making other nursing coworkers jealous is just a plus).

There's things like stethoscope cozies, and little crocheted caps (do people actually wear those?) but in the end I found myself looking up search words like 'bacteria' and 'virus'.

See, ThinkGeek.com carries plushie microbes you can get for your friends.

And, well, if it can be a plushie...it can definitely be crocheted.

I found this charming $1.00 pattern from Jana Whitley (Ravelry link; purchase necessary) for a red blood cell amigurumi and fell in love.  (She also has a white blood cell pattern, too!)

It took me two separate nights, but only because I didn't realize I needed a tube sock for the stuffing (how else do you think it has that doughnut-like shape?) and asked my fabulous husband to raid his dresser for any lonely socks.

Some eyes, a little fabric paint, and some finishing touches while watching The Expendables 3, and voila:

Microbial adorableness!

He's even concave in the middle!  Now to have the "shipping department" of my crochet emporium dispatch this cute little guy to Ohio!

And now the modified project list:

- Plushie D20

- Facebook Art Trade 2014 - #5

- Guude Plushie

- VintageBeef Plushie

- Baby Groot II

- Purple & Black Scarf

Also, stay tuned for Broken Buttons news this Saturday (with some sneak peeks at our new map, Alucard)!

Facebook Art Trades 2014 - #3

When I agreed to do the Facebook Art Trades of 2014, I signed up for two trades.  I already posted about the fabulous jewelry and handmade cards from Dr. S.

The second trade was with Roger (Tao from LARP) whom I met through Mike the coworker.  I joined a Star Wars RPG, and Roger played Maru, our unofficial leader.  We started spending more time together after he graduated from college.  We actually played through the Mass Effect trilogy together at my house (because my hubby has all of the DLCs).

Together, we played a FemShep with an engineer background, who romanced Liara and made a few more 'renegade' decisions than my original FemShep playthrough.

Anyway!  Roger invented and mastered making fluffy brownie cupcakes.  That was my trade, and believe me, it was long gone before there could be any pictures taken.

In exchange, when I went up to the last LARP session of this year (during the "Polar Vortex" -- it was below freezing for more of the weekend than the sun was out), I crocheted him some fingerless gloves, by tracing his hand and estimating using this pattern by Vampireweasel (purchase required; Ravelry link).  It was made much simpler when he decided he didn't want the extra thumb piece.

I then brought a bag of random yarn colors with me to LARP, and made and sold another pair to Mike F., a plot member.  He was generous and paid me double what I asked for (really, they're a quick project, even when you can't really feel your fingers due to the polar vortex).

Here's the pictures:

Strong man hands, ladies.

Here's hoping that's not an unintentional gang sign.

This takes care of all the projects I've finished that I was ready to share with you!  Hopefully, I'll finish those house slippers tonight and be able to post about them tomorrow.

(Did I mention I'm trying to blog every day in December?)

I'm trying to blog every day in December!  ^_^

Here's to 9 days!

Facebook Art Trades 2014 - #2

The second art trade went to another of my husband's former coworkers.  We call him 'Biester'.  He's Swiss.  There are a lot of jokes at his expense.

Biester has yet to finish the final game in the Mass Effect series, but he asked if for the art trade I would make him something in that theme.

I did some research for charts and graphs, and found something suitable.  I had to reduce the size a little; otherwise the coasters I made would have been better off as trivets:

If you squint a little and tilt your head, they're great!

These didn't get a very good reception on the Mass Effect subreddit, but I keep telling myself that as long as Biester likes them (he wouldn't stop thanking me), then that's all that matters.

I hope to finish work on the last pair of slippers in the House Slipper Collection!  From there, I will probably give Guude some much-needed attention.

Until tomorrow (I hope!).

Facebook Art Trades 2014 - #1

So I've been promising this post for awhile; it just took me a long time to get pictures!

On January 8th of this year, I copied and pasted the following status to my Facebook:

"I'm trying something different this year!

Welcome to Pay It Forward art-making project for 2014:

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say "YES, I want in". A 'like' alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea.


You must in turn post this as your status update and make something for the first five who comment on your status.

* The rules are simple: it has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.

* It can be anything art-based: a drawing or a conceptual work of art and anything in between. See? SIMPLE.

Yes, you can be on each other's pay it forward lists."

I had to check and make sure that crochet items counted as "art"...since I think of it more as a "craft".

Anyway, I had five sign-ups!

...let's not even examine the fact that it is now December of 2014 and I've only finished three of the five projects.

Moving on...

I had signed up for one of my former professors' art trades; when I was in grad school, I was prepping to teach English in China, so I took Cultural Anthropology, as well as History of Asia in the same semester.  I didn't know that the same doctor taught both classes, so it ended up that I saw her every day of the week for an entire semester.

She's an amazing lady; also a little bit of a geek.  She loves Doctor Who and frequently referenced it in the class my husband took from her, a special class about the concept of time throughout history.

So...I had already successfully completed the red Dalek for Deevius for her birthday during the summer.  What could be simpler than doing another?

Thus, I set out on the quest to create...The Purple Dalek.

Cuddly extermination may commence.

Throw in some Lego figures for scale.

Pretty good!

We met up at a Starbucks near my workplace and must have spent an hour just catching up and talking.  She had her art trade for me:

Fabulous handmade cards, and white shell jewelry!

I'm a huge fan of the abalone shell beads.  There's a particular store in Charleston, SC that I have to stop in whenever I'm in town that sells long strings of them.  I loved everything about this gift!

Thank you, Dr. S!

More on other art trades in a future post...