My greatest project EVER!

You may have noticed that I have been a very, very, very bad blogger the past few months. Well, I have been working on the greatest and most difficult project EVER...and it has nothing to do with plush or crochet. I have been on the long, hard journey of becoming a homeowner, and am happy to say we have been successful! It took months of looking at houses and losing out on a couple before we finally found the perfect house for us! And the best part it, I now actually have a room just for my studio!!!

We are just about moved in(but far from being unpacked), and the studio is still a mess of boxes, but check out the progress I made thus far in forming the new creative space of Yummy Pancake:

This is the before shot....

Mr Toastee couldn't wait to help me paint over those stripes!

We first had to put 2 coats of high coverage primer on the walls to cover up those yucky stripes:


After the stripes were gone, we painted the walls the most awesome shade of pink! What a difference.....and more Yummy Pancake style than blue and orange stripes!

I still need to unpack and organize, but at least the walls look fabulous ^_^

My etsy shop will be re-stocked very soon! And be sure to come see me in Cleveland at Oddmall on November 6th!!!

Plush Team Virtual Book Tour - a Detour to the Land of Yummy Pancake

Next stop on the Plush Team Virtual book tour is the wild imagination of Yummy Pancake!

Earlier, I posted about the awesome-tastic Plush Team annual that the fabulous Plush team, which I am a member of, put together and published earlier this year (get yourself a copy here!). Not only does it contain the history of the Plush Team, it also contains pages upon pages with pictures of each member's work. Everyone is so talented and unique. It makes you wonder how the heck they come up with the ideas for all the plush they create....so, on my stop of the virtual book tour, I'm going to give you a little glimpse on how I come up with the ideas for my plush!

I get my inspiration for my designs from many different places. Sometimes, it's just from something that I like and enjoy. For example, my husband loves Guinness - it's his favorite beer. I thought the harp on the can looked really cool and decided to whip one up:

We also enjoy a shot of Jager every now and then. I love the bottle - it is such a pretty green color and such a cool label:




Another place I get inspiration from is other people - family, friends, co-workers, etc. My brain can only think up so many things, and I'm not the only one who can come up with cool ideas. Below is a custom order I designed for someone. They wanted a lighthouse with a 'stache similar to a lighthouse in NJ and a crab. I put on my thinking cap, and this is what I came up with:



A giant source of my inspiration is food. I like food. Food is good. It's even better with faces in my opinion. After Thanksgiving dinner one year, I looked at all the leftovers on the table and thought that they would make a really cool monster if I put them all together....and the Thanksgiving Leftover monster was born:



And one of my favorite characters, Mr. Toastee, was born from a BLT plush I had made. I was looking at the bread I designed for the sammich and thought it would look cute with a face and butter ^_^

And I combined 3 of my favorite things - bacon, eggs and jellyfish to make the Bacon and Egg Jellyfish ^_^

Locations can spark inspiration as well. When I was vacationing at the beach last year, I saw a jellyfish in the sand. Then for some reason I kept thinking about peanut butter and jellyfish sammiches....so i made one. My thought processes can tend to be a bit strange, but I just embrace it ^_^

Sometimes it's a button or type of yarn that will give me an awesome idea. I bought some red glittery lip buttons earlier this year. When I saw them, they made me think of a Las Vegas Showgirl for some reason. So, I used them and created a Las Vegas Showgirl Toastee:

And sometimes an idea can come from just seeing a cool type of yarn. I found a really cool, chunky, colorful yarn at a knitting store in NC. It just screamed at me to make a jellyfish out of it.....so i did ^_^

You just never know when inspiration is going to strike. Do what I do - I carry a little notebook with me at all times to jot down plush ideas when they come to me. That way, I don't forget them. The stranger the concept, the better! I never run out of ideas, just time.

So make sure you stop by the Plush Team's etsy shop and pick up your copy of our awesome annual. You will be amazed at the talent on out team. I know I am!!!

The Plush Team Annual is Available NOW!!!

The Plush Team is ecstatic to present to you our first ever Team Annual, containing 120 pages of plushy goodness!

What is in store for you upon opening this marvelous book:

• An opening by our team founder, Megan Green, describing how our team came to be.




• An insightful, informative, and all-around fascinating account of the history of plush craft by our team co-founder Christina Ward.




• 42 two-page, full color features of our Plush Team members. Each includes photos of the artist's work, and text written by the artist explaining motivation, process, and inspiration.




• A time line of Plush Team activities through over the years.Profile pages providing a comprehensive list of Plush Team artists, including artist head shots and Etsy shop addresses.




• Photos of PT Stitchy, the team mascot, scattered throughout the book in his various incarnations as interpreted by our team members.

The book is full color, professionally printed, and soft cover. It measures 6.75"x6.75" (or 17 centimeters square). This is volume 1 of our Team Annual, featuring the artists from 2009. Our intent is to make this a yearly publication, updating it each year with our newest members and their incredible work.

Visit the Team Shop today for your copy!

Plush You LA - let the crocheting begin!

As you may know, I was accepted to participate in Plush You LA and Seattle this year. Woot! I did a lot of brainstoriming and finally came up with what I am making for these shows....it's going to be EPIC!

Check it out - I went and picked up all the supplies I'm going to need(minus the yarn - already had that):

This weekend I scheduled myself to focus on completing my Plush You LA pieces. I decided that I'll post teaser pics just for fun....like this one:

any ideas on what it could be?

Yay! I have been featured in STUFFED magazine again ^_^

Guess what! I've been featured in the current issue of STUFFED magazine along with tons of other talented plushmakers. Be sure to pick up your copy today!!

I have been turned into a plush!!!

My husband and I recently celebrated another wonderful year of marriage together, and the celebrate, I decided to commission a set of plushcatures from the wonderfully talented and fabulous Leeanna of PlushGoodness. Words cannot even describe how awesome they turned out! It's us, but plush! And the detail is amazing...from my graphic tee to my hubby's famous 32 polo!

Oh No! My brother has my husband in a choke!

My west coast adventure to Maker Faire ^_^

I can't believe that just over one week ago today, I was flying back to the east coast from Maker Faire! We all had a blast! I don't think that words could adequately describe our experience at Maker Faire, so here are a few pictures we all took of our experience:

Abby snapped this awesome pic of me and our gelatos ^_^

We all sported awesome PT Stitchy Name Tags by Abbydid ^_^


dkoss took an awesome picture of some of the Young Makers and their creations from our Felt Creature lab on Friday


Plush Goodness took a great picture of us getting the sweing machines and yarn ready for the classes we taught


Here is Zazu and Christina leading one of our many classes thoughout the weekend(taken by dkoss)

The Plush Team got a ribbon for Editor's Choice From Craft Magazine!! Woot!

Zazu took a picture of Abby and I making friends with R2D2 ^_^

You can also see a really cool gigapan pic taken of our booth at Maker Faire here.

I'd like to thank everyone who came out to see us at our booth and took part in our classes, all the new friends we made, all the awesome staff at Maker Faire, the members of the plush team for sending along a spectacular variety of plush, the plush teamers who made the trip to San Mateo - abbydid, Christina Ward Creatures, Absolutely Small, Cutesy But Not Cutesy, Plush Goodness, Moons Creations, Zazu Faure of Los Angeles, and Brian, an honorary Plush Teamer - who all busted their butts with no complaints to make this experience a giant success, to Craft Magazine for awarding our booth with a ribbon for editor's choice( and for letting me do a little improptu demo at their booth), our fabulous sponsors: Mendel's, Monterey Mills, Shannon Fabrics, Kunin Group/Foss Manufacturing, and Singer. We couldn't have pulled this off without any of you!

In closing, I just want to say that the Plush Team rocks. I am really lucky to be a part of such a hard working, talented, dedicated, and awesome team.

OMG! I'm going to Maker Faire!

Wow. I can't believe it...it's finally here! Tomorrow, I'll be hopping on a plane and flying out to the west coast to participate in the Maker Faire with 7 other fabulous members of the Plush Team! I can't wait! If you are in the San Francisco area, you really should come and say hi!!

Check out the Plush team blog for more information about who will be there from the Plush Team and what we will be doing. I'd detail it here, but I really need to back and get to bed!!! Don't worry, I'll be posting pics and video when I get back ^_^

Yay for Oddmall!!!

Oddmall ROCKED yesterday! I had such a great time, hung out with fellow Plush Teamers Abbydid and the Itsy Bitsy Spider, met a lot of cool new people, and a lot of my plush found wonderful new homes! Thanks to everyone who came out to the show! Oddmall was so fun and well organized - I will totally be back there for the November show ^_^

This was my first big show and I learned a lot of things.

I learned that collapsible wagons are the way to go when transporting your goods:

Those wire storage cubes that come apart are great for displays:

I changed the display around a couple times before I was happy with it:

Proper table signage is a must ^_^

Coffee is a MUST:

Make sure you eat:

And most importantly, the Plush Team reeks of awesomeness!

Oddmall Sneak Preview!

Here's a sneak peek of all the stuff I made for Oddmall this Saturday! Make sure you stop by!!!

OddMall!!

You may have noticed that I haven't been too active lately. It's not because I'm lazy - I've actually been getting ready for my first BIG craft show - OddMall! If you are in the Cleveland area, or even it you aren't, I'd recommend stopping by and saying hi ^_^ There are going to be TONS of awesome crafters and artists there!

OddMall is on Saturday, May 8th from 10am - 6pm which is the day before Mother's day! Pick up something awesome for your Mom! Here's the address of where it is being held:

Clarion Hotel and Conference Center (Akron area)
240 East Hines Hills Road
Hudson, Ohio 44236

Hope to see you there!!!

Blessinz of teh Ceiling Cat be apwn yu!!! kthxbye!!1!!

Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem. Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz. At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz. An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin. An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!! -- Exerpt from Genesis 1 of the lolcat bible.

The latest Plush Team Challenge was to create a plush based on something from world mythology...gods, mythical creatures, demi-gods, etc. The first thing that popped in my mind for this challenge was Ceiling Cat, God of the lolcats ^_^

I decided to try something a little different this time. There are elements of crochet, but I also did some handsewing to create a super fun wall hanging with an embroidery loop(it just didn't work right on the ceiling). I cut the letters out of sparkly felt and hand sewed them on using glow in the dark embroidery floss(it looks cool in the dark, but was impossible to photograph). And look at the little cheezeburger detail on the exclamation point ^_^ It's like Ceiling Cat is coming out of the wall to eat yer cheezburgers!!

Pounce on over to the Plush Team Blog to check out all the fabulous creations for this challenge and to vote for your favorites. Ceiling cat would really like your vote! If he doesn't get your vote, he told me he would send basement cat after you....just kidding!

Want Ceiling cat for your wall? He's available for purchase in the Plush Team Etsy Shop!!!

Happy Easter!

I hope your Easter is filled with Ham, Peeps, and Plush ^_^

The Plush Team Annual Has Arrived!!!

I never knew you could STUFF this much awesomeness in one book!

The PlushTeam, of which I am proud to be a member of, is ecstatic to present to you our first ever Team Annual, containing 120 pages of plushy goodness!

What is in store for you upon opening this marvelous book:

*An opening by our team founder, Megan Green, describing how our team came to be.

*An insightful, informative, and all-around fascinating account of the history of plush craft by our team co-founder Christina Ward.

*42 2-page, full color features of our PlushTeam members(including me!!). Each includes photos of the artist's work, and text written by the artist explaining motivation, process, and inspiration.

*A timeline of PlushTeam activities through over the years.

*Profile pages providing a comprehensive list of PlushTeam artists, including artist headshots and etsy shop addresses. We are a good looking bunch if I do say so myself!

*Photos of PT Stitchy, the team mascot, scattered throughout the book in his various incarnations as interpreted by our team members.

The book is full color, professionally printed, and soft cover. It measures 6.75"x6.75" (or 17 centimeters square). This is volume 1 of our Team Annual, featuring the artists from 2009. Our intent is to make this a yearly publication, updating it each year with our newest members and their incredible work.

Get one for yourself in the Plush Team's Etsy Store!

Look...it's good enough to eat!

nom nom nom

Give me back that crochet o fish! Give me that fish!

Okay, so my brother and I really get a kick of that stupid song in the McDonalds filet o fish commercial, and my mom totally hates it. Yes, I am a dork. But last night I was inspired to create a crochet version....lasts longer than the real one.

I really wish i could find something I could ecord the song on and then put inside the plush so that it plays everytime you squeeze it ^_^

Come to the dark side....we have filet o fish!