Hi guys

I'm very sorry I am so late completing the barbie clothes swap. I've been a terrible swapper and I don't have any excuse.

But I have finished the clothes and I'll be sending out packages tomorrow. Hopefully they won't take more than a week to get there.

Thank you all for the outfits you sent. They all arrived safely and they're lovely.

I took a picture of my barbies together wearing your outfits. It worked out really nicely with each outfit being a great colour to suit each doll.

Question: since there's only 4 people in the sawp, I'm assuming we only have to make 3 copies to send out?

My Barbies aren't traditional ones - for eg they have smaller boobs and bigger waists - but the dress I designed is stretchy so hopefully it will fit on all body types.

I did a photo shoot before I saw ecopp's message, so I hope no one minds if I post my pics.

Something I learnt about erica_tattoos during this swap. If you say to her that something is nearly impossible, what she will hear is possible with the sacrifice of enough pink experiments.

But first up - the box! When it arrived it was wrapped in so much bubble wrap I literally couldn't even see what colour it was. That sucker was safe! I took to it with a pair of scissors and revealed was this lovely, shiny wig box.


And opened to reveal that it has six slots.



On my birthday one year, I logged in to find Alarm (my main toon) in the dancing troll village - where the trolls are always dancing and partying. It's the Cancun of Azeroth. Except not as easy to get to. Before we got cheap flights in Azeroth, the only way to get there was walljumping. I'm not going to tell you just what happened to Alarm there, or the kind of hangover he had when he woke up because:



And where would we be without some pets and toys.



They say

Grindgear toy gorilla.
Item Level 1.
Use: Unleash your inner ape!
"Now with jungle jumping action"
(20 second cooldown)

Sludge
Item Lvl 70
"Just Sludge"
Sell price: 2s50c

And some Dark Moon Faire trading cards. Based of the artwork on the banners around the faire. They should totally introduce this idea into the game. It would be like the nessingwary quests.


And we traded extras for our wow-playing guys. Mine has a rogue as his main.




The pic on the chest is the rogue icon. The rest of the pics are all rogue abilities - sap on the head, pickpocket on the pocket, backstab on the back and kidney shot right in the kidneys. So clever! He'll be lucky if I pass it on to him.

And finally the star of the show!

Here is Alarm.


And here is the amazing doll erica made. Her own pattern. I really thought it was too hard to even consider, but she did a stellar job. The photos aren't brilliant as he's so black. But Hopefully you can see all the sculpting she did of the legs and arms, and the fingers and the tail. Even the exact right hairstyle. Alarm isn't wearing his guild tabard in the screenshot, but the doll Alarm is.






And finally, all together again. It's no wonder my bags are always full.

Finally, I was home when there was sunlight and I took photos of Leslieshappyheart's lovely house that she sent me.



I just realised this is showing some fluff, but that is no fault of Leslie's/ It wasn't like that when I got it. I just have 3 fluffballs living in my house. Much like the one you see in the window.

It's got so many gorgeous little details. I see more things every time I look at it.



And I wanted to show off the lovely stamped card Leslie sent with it. Isn't that the coolest logo?



Huge apologies to Leslie for taking so long to post. I know it would drive me crazy having to wait. But I wanted to take photos that would do it justice.

I needed to alter a matchbox for someone, and fresh off the Tiny Houses swap, I decided to do another little house.

This was made using a large matchbox (because we use the long matches to light the wood fire), heavy construction paper/card, PVA glue, a black pen and a wee bit of polyfil for the smoke.





I added a floor to the inside box and covered the inside with some decorative origami paper I had, to simulate wallpaper. A bit of ribbon stuck to the bottom as a tab lets you pull the box out, since you can't push it out anymore.

My tiny house for the Anything Goes Tiny House Swap arrived at its destination, so now I can share.





The design was inspired by this real beach hut in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk in the UK. Currently for sale for £60,000.

The base of the hut is 30x40mm. Which is about 1/72 scale. It is to be a dollhouse for a Blythe doll. It's made from balsa wood. The wood I have is all 3mm thick, so I had to split some of it to make the finer details.

My painting needs some work, but I covered up the worst flaws with some weathering. I did fix up that verandah post after I took the photo.

The door opens. In fact, it doesn't stay shut without a blu-tac doorstop.

And that's real beach sand it's sitting on. Though transported to my backyard.

I'd love to see a cushion cover swap.

They are inexpensive to post, with lots of scope for different styles of decoration and levels of difficulty. I was inspired to post by the brilliant but simple bag that LimeRiot made. The same technique would make a fab cushion. http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=412436.0


Plus my couches are sadly in need of some craftster love.

[body and head]

I was doing a swap over on swap-bot where we had to send crocheted or kitted animal fridgies to our partners. Turned out though that there weren't a whole bunch of patterns to choose from. Not ones that were free anyway. So, starting with this one of a giraffe for inspiration, I made some of my own.

As you can see I went with a rabbit and a deer. They are nothing terribly exciting, but I thought it worth writing down some patterns.



I've never written a pattern before, and as you might be able to tell I made them a little different each time, but I shall do my best to explain what I did.

bunnies!


sc = single crochet (american style i think - the one you use for amigurumi)

• chain 7
• sc into the 2nd chain and sc into each chain after that (6sc)
• sc 3 or 4 more times into the last chain to make the tail.
• turn and slip stitch into the next link
• do 2 rows of 6 sc, chaining 1 and turning at the end of each
• on the next row skip the first loop and do 5 sc to start the back curving, chain 1 and turn
• on the next row do 4, skipping the 2nd last loop, chain 1 and turn
• then 3 sc, skipping the first loop, chain 1 and turn
• 2sc for 2 rows, chain 1 and turn at the end of each
• in the last loop of that 2nd row do 3 more sc into the same loop to make the nose. chain 1 and turn
• sc into each loop (5sc)
• chain 5 for the first ear.
• slip stitch down the front of the ear
• slip stitch in the next 2 loops on the head
• chain 5 for the next ear
• slip stitch down the front of the ear
• slip stitch to the next loop in the head and tie off

weave the loose ends back into the body and then glue them down when you stick the magnets on

deers!

sc = single crochet (american style i think - the one you use for amigurumi)
body and head

• chain 7
• sc into the 2nd chain and then into each chain after that (6sc), chain 1 and turn
• do another row of 6 sc
• chain 3 for the tail and slip stitch back down the chain to the body
• slip stitch into the first loop of the body
• do another row of 6 sc, chain 1 and turn
• 3 sc, chain 1 and turn
• skip the first loop and 2 sc, chain 1 and turn
• 2 sc, then 3 extra sc in the 2nd loop to make the nose, chain 1 and turn
• sc into each loop (5sc)
• chain 3 for the ear, slip stitch back to the head
• slip stitch into the next loop
• chain 7 for the antlers
• slip stitch back down 3, then chain 3 to make a new prong
• slip stitch back to the main part of the antler and down 2 more
• chain 3 for another prong then slip stitch back to the main part of the antler
• slip stitch down to the head
• slip stitch into the next 2 loops on the head and then tie it off.

Now the legs

• connect a new bit of yarn to the back, bottom corner of the body with a slip stitch
• 3sc into the first 3 loops, chain 1 and turn
• skip the first loop and 2sc, chaiin 1 and turn
• 5 rows of 2 sc, chain 1 and turn at the end of each row
• do a final slip stitch and tie it off

• connect a new bit of yarn to the 2nd loop in from the front, bottom corner of the body with a slip stitch
• 5 rows of 2 sc, chain 1 and turn at the end of each row
• do a final slip stitch and tie it off

weave all the loose ends back into the body and then glue them down when you stick the magnets on.

My wonderful badges from MissCrafty29 arrived! Ok, they arrived a few days ago and I was slow to photograph them, but now, here they are.

I love how she used buttons and beads on the badges. It's something I will have to try in my own work.

As you can see she did a camera, in my favourite colour. I love photogaphy and cameras (I have 7 cameras I think (8 if you could this one) - one of them is even an original box brownie that was my grandfather's - and I'm sure I'll collect more). Shameless plug --> you can see my photos on flickr. Just have to go back past all the craft stuff I've been posting.



And some Pacman. Not that I was ever any good at pacman. Isn't it weird how such simple games can be so much harder than modern games? Though I heard recently that there is a safe spot in pacman where the ghosts never go.

At first I was going to do this as a felt badge, but realised it was going to be a wee bit big. So I put it onto fabric instead (flanellette) and added the words. The stitching of the words is a bit wonky, I know, but I was getting to the end and I just wanted to finish it.

It's made up of lots of different bits of felt, which was to give it some texture and dimensionality. I think the texture part worked at least.