It's Show Time!!

Hi Everyone!! Well I have 2 days till the Arts Festival, getting a bit nervous now! I haven't been to this one before and not totally sure that my 'art' will really fit in, but it was relatively cheap to show at this one and it gets my business cards out there and people looking at my work. So it's worth doing, just a bit nerve wracking!

I don't think I will get any more bears made in the next couple of days, but here are my last pieces, this first one I am particularly proud of. He is felted from Alpaca (I seem to be taking a liking to this fibre) and I just love his big nose and old fashioned style. I used a damp paint brush and a water colour pencil to shade him. Meet Cedrick......


This little fellow is Billy Bear, he is my first 4 legged bear and such a little sweetie. I just made him from a basic brown coloured corriedale.

This little fox is felted from a gorgeous hand dyed wool called Misty Rust. I thought it was just perfect for a fox. I got the idea from a book a friend of mine (Thanks Veronika) loaned me, it was all in german tho so I had to wing it, he turned out ok in the end but was rather a hassle to make!

Another idea from the book, these little guys were very quick to make, I might do some bigger ones as these are teeny, the biggest is about an inch long.

Well, wish me luck. The show is from 10 till 4 and is just for the Saturday. I wish you all could come and visit. I think Veronika is going to be my only visitor on the day so she can tell me how the table looked, but hopefully I will get lots of public attention (not the 5 fingered discount variety of people hopefully) and make lots of contacts which would be nice.

Have a good weekend everyone and catch you later on!

Huggles

Liza

Something a bit Special

Hello Everyone! I hope you are all doing well and happily crafting or collecting to your hearts content! :o)

I've got something a little bit special for you this week. A fabulous friend of mine gave us some air dry clay so we had a play over the school holidays. One of the things I came up with was a wee paddling pool. I had this image in my head of a wee bear wearing floaties having a little splash in it.

Well for once what was in my head came out on my needle and here we have little Floaties the toddler bear playing in his pretty little pool. He even has zinc on his wee bear nose! I have to take some more pics as these ones weren't very good but you get the idea! Hope you like him.

This little sweetie is Blossom, she is felted from a gorgeous pastel blend of wools with peach and pink and lavender. She is wearing a pink star necklace too.

This fine fellow is Patrick. He is so sweet in his brick red and sea green wools, just the loveliest little face on him!

Well, I hope you like these 3. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve and I have been working on some 'sweet treats' to show you as well! Now that the holidays are over I can get my mind back into it and spend some time being more productive!

Not long until the show now, it's on 23rd Feb!! Eeekk

Huggles

Liza

Time for another Show!!

Hello!!! How is everyone doing?? I hope all you crafty peoples are happily creating to your hearts content! There is just nothing like that sence of achievement when you finish something you are really pleased with!
Speaking of which, I have some new things to show you. I am really pleased with some of them, and they are all pretty good really, I guess, kinda, lol.

First up is more of a 'sculpt' as it were. Missy is a big girl at almost 9 inches tall. She is felted in natural wools over a wire armature! I wanted to do something a bit different as the show that is coming up is the Arts Festival and I wouldn't consider a lot of my work to be 'Arts' really! (wonders what the heck she is doing having a table at THIS show! eeekk)

Her tail is wired also and enables her to stand alone.

Her clothes are felted on, tre chic!!

Trying to decide if she needs whiskers, she will probably get some!

This is how she started out, the wire armature has had one layer of wool in this pic.

Wilber is felted in a mix of corriedale which was hand dyed and a fibre called Glitz so he is a little shimmery and sparkly. It's a really fine fibre.

Not sure of this guys name yet, currently it's Jim. He's a bit different, felted from a lovely hand dyed Alpaca which is quite unique.

This little guy is felted from a gorgeous hand dyed rainbow mix!

Dress ups! This little girl bear has gotten into Mums best dress and her pearls!

Alpie is felted from natural Alpaca and I'm really pleased with how he turned out! He was my first bear for 2008 and I think I am off to a good start! :o)

Well, that's it for this posting. I have lots to do tho, working on my next piece already and I have plans to do more 'sculpting' for the show so that I can fit in a bit more! :o) Thanks for taking the time to look through my work once again!

Huggles

Liza

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Hello and welcome to my blog for 2008! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We sure had a great time with the kids and got up to lots of mischief! I have had a lot of trouble getting going with my bears again, having lost my inspiration for about a month over christmas, only making balls and the odd sewn creation.

I have a show coming up in February and I've been stressing over not having enough to put on my table! This is probably the reason why I couldn't create, putting to much pressure on myself. But I am off and running now, having created my first bear for 2008 and almost finished my second creation which is really different.

As I haven't taking pics of my first creations for this year yet here are some pics of the last bears of 2007. I didn't get to show these earlier so I thought you might like to see them now!

This is Harris! He is just a nice simple bear, I get a lot of requests for 'traditional' bears so I try and make the odd browny coloured one occasionally!

And this is Molly, she is made from Merino which as you know I don't use very often. I love the colour combination and she went to a new home over christmas!

My newest bear is made completely from natural Alpaca and turned out really well. I'm working on another Alpaca bear and something a bit more along the sculpting lines as well. I'll be sure to show them off to you soon!

Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for dropping by yet again!

Huggles, Liza

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Just wanted to show you something I made recently. This is a little felted angel was so fun to make. I sculpted up her big chubby cheeks and her nose, her hair is lovely long curly mohair and she even has a little rosebud mouth.

Her wings are real feathers with glitter on them and her dress is wire edged ribbon in organza and gold spots. Underneath this is a felt dress.

Just look at that little face! She has a halo too of course, what self respecting angel would not??

Hope you are all having a wonderful time getting ready for christmas day!

Huggles,

Liza

A week of Christmas Creations!

Hi Everyone!
It's almost December and I am getting into the Christmas groove! lol With my lovely online groups having challenges and swaps in the Christmas theme it sure has gotten me more interested in the season.
I had thought it was going to be a non event for me this year as I am working through much of the holiday period. I didn't want to say no to all the dates they required me at work but it was starting to get depressing as the time nears and I realise I won't get to see my kiddies much over this special time. I put my foot down tho and said no to Christmas Eve and Boxing Day tho they are still trying to get me to change my mind! lol

Anyway, enough of that! Look what I have been up to for my groups!

This first lot of pics are something I made for the WhirledOvWhunOwnlees group in the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge. I am most pleased with it. As you can see it's a pear (as in, Partridge in a Pear Tree) with many of the 'characters' from the song in it.

Here you can see some of the Partridge, the Lords a Leaping and the Swans a swimming!

Here you can see the Drummers Drum, the Golden rings and part of the turtle dove

In this pic you can see the rest of the turtle dove, the Pipers Pipe and a Lady Dancing

Here you can see the Partridge a bit better!

This next photo is for the WOWOwnlees swap, the theme was a Christmas Carol and I chose Away in a Manger. Which pretty much explains the pic. But I made the little manger from cardboard 'planks' and it turned out quite well. With a clay baby and a felted star I used lots of different materials, and it was a lot of fun.

And now on to what else I have been making!

The Christmas Balls were a hit last year, but not good enough for my tastes. This year I am much happier with them. These two in particular turned out well.

This lil guy is one of my favourites, he looks like a bit more of a baby bear!

These ones are a bit more modern, I was making them to put bears on but decided they didn't even need the bears!

I love this one, it kinda has a bit of a gothic feel but still manages to be christmassy. I have someone in particular in mind for this one!

I've made a few bears as well, but I have lots more to make so I will show you those all together next time! I hope I have bought a little christmas into your day and that you have enjoyed seeing what I have been up to this week!

Happy crafting from Liza and the Little Handfuls!

Here's some Bears!!

Hi Everyone and thanks once again for dropping by to visit! I hope you will enjoy your visit even more this month as I am so pleased with these new creations. I seem to have found my felting niche at the moment and I'm really enjoying it. Fingers crossed that it doesn't disappear too soon!

I have experimented with different wools lately and there are a few merino ones in this lot!
Hope you like them! Liza

Luna

This little bear is felted from a gorgeous merino blend, I just love the big paw pads!

Snookie is felted from wool I dyed myself! Yay, so pleased with lil ole me! I used Koolaid and it's so easy. I've got more experimenting to do yet tho! :o)

Yes, it is indeed a Mermaid! Rather a big one too, she's about 10 - 11 inches long but sits with her tail curved etc so is about 6 inches tall sitting. She is felted over a wire armature and has soy silk hair!

Not sure if she is completely finished yet, needs fatter arms I think and maybe some embellishing.

Bronson is my favourite this week. He is so sweet, felted from a rather coarse fibre he is nice and scruffy but I just love the toes and the glasses. Doesn't his bow tie suit him so well too!

Camey is my cameo bear, she comes with this gorgeous mini shoe and wears a crochet ruffle at her neck.

Citra is another felted from wool I dyed. I mixed a lovely soft lime shade with a soft orange, I really like the effect. I enjoyed making big eyes again too! :o)

Eddie the Teddy! He's just a basic bear but still a sweetie. He is felted in an apricoty wool and I made him as my example bear for my latest felting class.

This little darling doesn't have a name yet, guess my creativity is sapped a bit today, it's just not coming to me like they usually do. I finished this one a few hours ago, and just love the colours. I suppose I could call her Mandy because of the mandarin colour she is made of!

Ok, hope you liked them all, guess I had better get to the business of making my tags!! Huggles to all!! Liza