Bobbin4apples Blog - Handmade Goodness

Oh hey! New Prints

2012-02-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

We've got some new prints in our shop, with fairytale themes! Much more to come in the nearing days. Definitely something to look forward to!

Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty

Snow White

Elise and the Wild Swans

Practical and cute!

2012-02-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

We've got new stuffs in our shop! Handy and adorable wallets for all your wallet-y needs. :)

And a different animal for each wallet! <3

Oh, hello there!

2012-01-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

The newest January issue of Stuffed has a gallery spread of our mochis! It's so exciting to see them in print; their monstrously cute expression staring back at us. O.O Goose Chills!

It's so exciting!

There were lots of other really great plushes in this month's issue as well; A lot of colorful monsters, a few crocheted plushes, and some awfully cute handmade dolls. So if you come across an issue, be sure to pick it up!

The Wonders of Paper

2012-01-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Glittering Japanese paper and an exacto knife can certainly make wondrous things!

What can be better than a shadowbox with a giant paper skeleton bee? :)

Kusuda Origami Ball Tutorial Part 2

2011-12-20T08:10:00.000-08:00

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Part 2//Creating a Flower, Assembling a Ball
------------------------

Step 1:

So, in the last tutorial you created one petal. To make one flower, you'll need five petals. To assemble those flowers into a dodecahedron, you'll need 12 flowers, or 60 petals... So fold away! This certainly is the most time consuming part.

Step 2:

Once you're passed the 60 petal endeavor, you're pretty much finished. Assembling is a cakewalk. To create one flower you'll want to add your adhesive to the areas that connect the folds in the petals.

60 petals, and 12 flowers later you'll have a pretty pile on your work area.

Step 3:

Connecting the flowers can be a little tricky, you'll want to conjoin three petals at a time so that they connect at a singular point. Don't worry about being overly precise, but you'll need to focus a little at this point if you don't your ball to turn out misshapen.

Six flowers later, you'll get a hemisphere of your ball. Now you can start on the other hemisphere.

Step 4:

Now you've got two hemispheres and hanging material with some sort of decorative stopper. I've fashioned a paper cloth wire and a decorative bell for this example.

Before conjoining the two hemispheres be sure to embed the hanging materials of choice. Then add your adhesive, and complete your ball.

Yay! All done!~

Kusuda Origami Ball Tutorial Part 1

2011-12-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Origami has always been a great interest of mine and I'd thought I'd share this fun project with you guys. It's pretty easy, and can easily be assembled by the very novice of origami connoisseurs and yields pretty impressive results... Although it may take some time to do, maybe a couple of hours.

Things you'll need:

-60 sheets of square paper (makes 12 flowers)
-1 roll of double-sided tape, other tutorials I've come across use liquid glue, but when working with a three-dimensional shape, I like to use an adhesive that bears almost complete control.
-Wire or string with some sort of decorative 'stopper' to hang the completed ball with.
-Patience, focus, and about two hours of your time.

------------------------
Part 1//Creating a Petal
------------------------

Step 1:

You've got your paper! Turn it over so that the decorative side is facing the surface of your work area. Then fold the paper shown in the second image. The third image is what your paper should now look like.

Step 2:

Now, taking the bottom corners of the triangle, fold so that the bottom points meet the top.

Step 3:

Now, where the two orange-yellow lines are indicated, you'll want to fold so that these two edges meet. Apply this step on both sides.

Step 4:

Open one of the 'wings' and flatten, apply this step on both sides.

Step 5:

Fold, indicated by the orange-yellow line. Again, apply this step to both sides.

Step 6:

Fold again, indicated with the orange-yellow lines. Repeat for the other side.

Step 7:

The surfaces marked with the orange-yellow lines are the areas where you'll want to add the double sided tape or adhesive of your choice, make sure not to fold and flatten, merely bend until the two surfaces meet. Now you have a petal! Congratulations!

I'll upload the second part of the tutorial tomorrow, so stay tuned!~

Holiday Scrapbooking Extravaganza!

2011-11-25T10:37:00.000-08:00

So! We're going to be participating in something called:

Hosted by Dutch Sparky on her blog here

Here is a preview of our origami inspired holiday set, available from Dec 1- Dec 31. Stay tuned!

Brave 2012

2011-11-14T17:33:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I'm super late to knowing about this. I think I might be, but who cares! I'm a pixar child, so I was ecstatic to learn that there's a new movie ready to be released next summer 2012, 'Brave'! The last kid's movie I've seen recently was oddly enough, 'Secret of the Kells'. A really superb movie, adorable and beautifully animated and drawn. I wonder how pixar's 'brave' will own up to being influenced by an Irish/Celtic aesthetic.

If you haven't seen 'Secret of the Kells', I highly recommend it!

I love you so beary much

2011-11-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

It's too much to bear! Haha! New prints! Oh yes, I'm so clever with words.

Bonus! This beary special illustration is made into a blank card, blue coordinating envelope is included!

Chinese Inspired Paper Cutting Prints

2011-11-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

I've always really loved the art of ornate Chinese paper cutting, or the actual term: "Jianzhi". The shapes are so simple yet the play on positive negative space makes a whole web of intricate designs. So here are my Jianzhi inspired fox prints!

Sitting Fox

Sleeping Fox

Curious Fox

Attentive Fox

Naturally, I picked the coloring to be red. :)

Artist: Cristina from Sombras Blancas Art

2011-11-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

Cristina is a talented self-taught artist residing in Spain. Her work is so entrancing! I love the line work she mixes together in her pieces, very weighted and textured, yet simple and clean.

My favorite is the snail! She's mainly a print and paper artist, but she also sells brooches and pins of her work. You can check out her etsy shop here.

The Secret World of Arrietty!

2011-11-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

It was announced recently that Studio Ghibli's newest film, "The Secre World of Arriettt" is going to be released here in the states on February 17th 2012, by Walt Disney! How devastating! Waiting until next year is too long!

I didn't want to spoil myself by researching too in-depth into the storyline, all I know is that the main little girl lives under the floorboards of a house...>__>

I.Can't.Wait!

Drum Roll Please!

2011-11-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

We've been wanting to put these new dolls up for FOR-EVER! And finally on a great sunny day we took pictures to show the world our new line of plush dolls! Introducing the fabulous.....KIDDO DOLLS! Here's Looking at You, Kiddo!

And amazing stickers!

A bundle of Sorts!

2011-10-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

More for the glory of Mochis! Now we've got kitties and goldfish both in plush and sticker form at our etsy shop! A-dorable.

Baby Longbottoms are born!

2011-10-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

The newest additions at our etsy shop to our ever growing Longbottom family! Introducing our Baby Longbottom animal scarves, made with love, to adorn and keep your younglings warm and toasty!

Originally made for children, but we discovered that they fit adult adults as well, although more as a 'scarflet'. ^__^;

Onward to the pictures!

Stickers MANIA

2011-10-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

What happens when you've got a sticker-paper supply and cute mochi characters? THESE!

Adorable sushi mochis ready for slapping onto your favorite things!

Available in sacks or select your own big stickers!

Nice matte paper with pre-cut backs, making the sticker peeling process a breeze!

Various sizes from small to extra large. ^_^

Stick them anywhere!

Available at our etsy shop here

Strangefolk 2011!

2011-09-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

We went to visit an old friend yesterday! The annual Strangefolk festival located in O'Fallon, IL is a celebration of family fun, craft, and local St. Louis artisans. As a tradition in the strangefolk way, there were llamas, live music, fresh stall food stuffs, and the ever growing DIY crafty population.

Over a hundred stalls on a beautiful day! Strangefolk is a great place to see a variety of pups and dogs too.

It was pretty crowded, as it always was. People were hustling and bustling about trying to get to the goods. Pretty unaware of anyone else around them...

Tasty pork steak in sweet honey bbq sauce on top of bread slices, with a side of baked beans and potato salad. Delicious!

Llamas! There were only three this year. Two juniors and one baby. We could hardly get to them due to the number of children wanting to pet them....for hours. They were brought in from Circle B Alpacas.

New this year was something called Tenth Life, an animal rescue organization helping strays and abused animals find homes. The kittens they brought were heavily sedated presumably because of the amount of people at the festival would have surely stressed the kittens out.

Overall, it was a nice outing for a Saturday afternoon. Really great if you like crowds and socializing with local handicraft vendors, but most of the time you're too busy trying to not get trampled over. It's definitely different being just a visitor instead of a vendor at this festival. Strangefolk still runs until the end of the day Sunday, Sept. 25 so if you're in the area, go check them out! It'll make for an interesting experience.

The Longbottoms are back!

2010-03-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

Maddie the Bear, Bianca the albino Bunny, Baron the Kitty, Red Panda, Panda and our ever-growing Longbottom family are updated with new friends and 3-dimensional structured tails!~ So come by and see what's growing in the garden!

The new additions!:

Black Sheep
Red Fox
Koala
Sea Otter
Sheep
Siamese
Siberian Wolf

A New Commission! OKAMI in our MOCHI style!

2009-07-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

Our gamer selves got to boogey a bit recently! A wonderful client asked for a MOCHI commission to represent a couple of characters from the beautiful game OKAMI. Rem paid great attention to detail to make sure our client was satisfied with Amaterasu and Oki fitting the kawaii MOCHI build! Please contact us if we can fulfill a special commission for you :D

"Oh, our Merciful Mother, Okami Amaterasu...

Has been made into a mochi! And she's accompanied by her friend Oki! How adorable!~ His fierce personality and Ammy's willful spirit encased in mochi form!

+ A mochi's body is 3" inches (7.6 cm) tall and roughly 3.5" (8.9cm) inches wide.

+ Our mochi tails are poseable!

+ Glittery flames support Ammy's shield which is not permanently attached to Ammy

Please note that these plushies weren't originally made for children though they are soft, adorable and sturdy. They are meant to be decorative pieces, please handle them with care and try not to be too rough with them if you DO give them to children.

Please contact us if you have any questions or would to place in an order for your own special commission!~"

bobbin4apples@gmail.com
bobbin4apples.etsy.com

Yaaay!!!

2009-06-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

We've hit 100 sales!

Yikes!!!

2009-04-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Oh geez! So it's been quite a while since the last update ::blush::
We have been getting things done, but have been slacking on posting >_>

Here's an update:

MOCHIs!!!!
Rem's newest endeavor in the crafty world of yarn! Please visit our Etsy store for more!

New Goodies!

2008-12-14T17:55:00.000-08:00

This week's updates:

Check them out! Here : Etsy

AND I've built that light box, works grand! There will be a tutorial posted soon, I promise!

~Lucid

Giving my eyes a break

2008-12-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

Whew! So recently I've started down the long winding path of jewelry making. It has been quite fun to experiment with, vastly different from say drawing and sculpting. I tend to have squirrel-like hoarding quirks so my stash of beads have been accumulating for quite some time (like since 2nd grade :cough:) and I had a bunch to work with.

A con however is all the frickin' squinting I have to do when making all this jewelry. Which would have been not too shabby if it weren't for my horrible eyesight and the sizing of some beads (a mere 2mm across!).

So, now that I have concocted a few creations, waiting to be adorn on fancy ladies necks and ears, I have to first take pics (frumph). There is a little voice inside of me that throws a tantrum when it comes to this step. I've never met anyone who adores taking pictures and writing out descriptions for Etsy. Not that it's a chore per se, but more of an arduous task to complete.

Usually I go about (or Rem does) using the sunlight for all the pics, but this blasted winter has stolen any good chance of getting natural light. I had to eventually revert to the good ole' lamp with daylight bulb routine. The pictures didn't come out too grand so it got me thinking. What could I do to get better shots of our miniatures and bling?

After some researching, a light box or tent seem to be the solution. I figure you can easily build one and would cost a bit of pocket change (like $5). I'll take pics of the process and post a tutorial so everyone can build their own :D

Stay tuned!

-Lucid

P.S.

Heres some of the stuff that's going up on Etsy today:

"Lola"

"Steph"

We're being non-compliant with our posts! D:

2008-10-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

Whew, it's been busy around these parts. Along with 1/2 of our creative juices tinkering at school and the other 1/2 at work, we haven't gotten a chance to update.

Well! Time to blow off the dust that's been collecting atop this blog and boogie.

Lucid has been divulging into the mysterious realms of mold making. Let's wish her luck and hope that she comes out of it with all her limbs!

Rem has recently acquired trade skills from the elusive crochet gnomes. She has many tricks up her sleeve and we will be revealing those soon!

As this post comes to a close, let me share with you something that will involuntarily make the corners of your mouth turn upwards:

Rosetta is Stylin'

2008-08-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yaaay! New and cute handmade animal hats at our etsy shop!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What, this old thing?

2008-08-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

It's our new line-up of handmade clothing! Pink elephants, coffee, and cherries?! Come see what we're talking about at
our etsy shop. Hurry, before they're gone for good~~~

Pink Elephants on Parade Jumper Dress: SOLD

~♥~~♥~~♥~

Beatin' the heat.....with a blunt object.

2008-08-02T13:22:00.001-07:00

Argh.
It has been so sweltering hot the past few days that we've been afraid to trek outside. You can find us most days staying in and playing various games of awesome-ness like Okami and SOUL CALIBUR IV!!!! Wheee!

We have actually finished up some of our creations recently so be on the lookout! Stay tuned for an update of garment wearing proportions!

*.*.*LUCID*.*.*

Do you want to know how I got these scars?

2008-07-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

Just as we were about to buy our tickets for the Dark Knight movie, a man in a business suit walks out yelling to everyone about how awesome the Batman movie was. And aside from his drooly excitement he has absolutely right. Rated as PG-13, the writers must have done a lot of editing just to insure no kiddies would have been too scarred. But the two hour and a half long story was full of everything from psychological social experiments, that would make the code of ethics go into epileptic seizures, to unpredictable loops and turns and an ending narrative that bundles the whole package in a nice big batty bow.

What I really liked about the movie is that you didn't necessarily have to be a hardcore fan to still be able to enjoy it. The movie appealed to the young and old alike and was impressive enough to make a couple of middle-aged women dance in their seat regardless of the feelings from their embarrassed families.

And the casting is really up on the scale--Micheal Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman are all terrific actors and such a treat to see on screen. And come on, the late Heath Ledger makes an awesome psychotic Joker, it really makes up for Batman having a 60 year-old smoker's voice.

JunP's Dollie ♥

2008-07-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

To put it simply, I just can't wait! She's already been released in Japan but she won't be arriving here until August-September, sadly enough. Fully articulated, with eyes that open and close, separately if you'd like them to or if in case you just wanted her to wink at you-AND, just too cute to pass up. I mean really, look at those adorable geta shoes. And check out that hair!

And if you wanted her to be really special, she's just as customisable as those huge expensive dollfies or Volks or what not. I mean, sure, buying wigs and different acrylic eyes can be a bit of a hassle and painting the face can leave it horribly ugly, and yes sometimes if you DO customise them, things can go badly and *poof* your doll could be scarred for life but hey it's better to have at least tried, right? Besides, what makes her different also makes her unique...at least that's the moral of the story for today, children.

Oh...but I can't resist putting up more pictures from them:

♥ Bright Cherry, Oktoberfest partying kinda girl!

♥ Ah well, I like her because she reminds me of Bjork...

♥ And yes, that's right a My Melody doll...the sugar cuteness is just too much.

Like whoa...

2008-07-15T07:42:00.001-07:00

The latest installment of the Final Fantasy regime (FFXIII) won't only be for the ps3! As I hear it, it'll take place on the 360 as well. It's just so strange to think about, the ps3 is so sleek sexy and yet...It's like Square Enix just cheated on their spouse of 20-something years for some horribly expense and flashy hooker. That's gotta hurt for the ps3 fans...and really, playing FF on a 360 is just plain....eww.

01-19-08 More Goodies!!

2008-01-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hey there kats, just letting you all know we have mucho goodies up this week at our Etsy store:

Bobbin4apples.etsy.com

Heres a preview:

Hope you stop by!!

This week at our Etsy Store!

2008-01-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

Hiya everyone!

We finally finished up on our first line of adorable animal friends, The Longbottoms! It would be great if you can visit them at our etsy store at: bobbin4apples.etsy.com

We are always working on a bunch of things so keep on checking for more goodies to come! Thanks so much!

Come on by to our Shop!

2008-01-03T22:22:00.000-08:00

'Ello everyone! We have updated our shop with more goodies and will hopefully be listing more items every weekend. Please check back often to see if anything catches your eye!

>Bobbin4apples<

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