A Look at My Messy Desk

Here's what's been accumulating on my desk lately: a giant jar of recycled wool stuffing, a refreshing glass of root beer, a plethora of needles & scissors...

a huge pile of fabric scraps (which I save for use in future toys and fabric collages)...

and this adorable parade of toy elephants in various stages of stuffed-ness!

Snuggle Herd Mystery Revealed!

All of you who guessed "elephant ears" were correct, and Meredith, you are the winner! I will contact you later today about your prize, a set of my "Say What?!" coloring cards. I was very amused by all of the creative answers - thanks for playing, everyone!



I've been working on a slight re-design of Elsa the Elephant, so it was sort of a trick question! The ears I'm making now are quilted, so they look a bit different.



The material I'm using for the body is now quilter's cotton instead of upcycled t-shirts. Using cotton allows me to skip a couple of steps & make them more quickly & easily. However, I think I may still keep making the t-shirt ones as a "luxe" type of item because they are sooooo cuddly soft, and I like the re-use aspect. I'm going to be using many vintage & re-purposed fabrics for these new cotton ones, too, to keep them earth-friendly.



I hope to have these new elephants listed in my Etsy shop soon. Also working on a few other super-cute animals... stay tuned!

A Zandra for Zandra!

I had to share this story with y'all because it's so cool! As you may have read, The Snuggle Herd was recently featured on Little Austinite with a giveaway of one of my Zandra the Zebra stuffed toys.

This caught the attention of a gal named Shannon, so she visited my Etsy shop & the EtsyAustin blog & left a couple of comments about what she found. When the contest ended, a commenter was picked at random, & Shannon was ecstatic to learn that it was her. She sent me an email explaining why:

"There is special meaning to this for me. I have a very dear friend who lives in Minnesota (where I grew up) and her name is Zandra (we call her Zandy). She never finds anything with her name on it, so she will be completely blown away when I send her my awesome Zandra the Zebra!"

Cool, huh? Zandra the Zebra is now on her way to her new home with Zandra in Minnesota. I'm sure both Zandras will be very happy to meet each other. And here I thought I had made that name up!

Bunnies.

It's really feeling like Spring around here, so it's high time to get some bunny things out into the world! I first mentioned my new Betsy Bunny design back in December, and I was all excited about being "ahead of the game."

yeah... and now it's March and I'm sitting here with a huge pile of half-finished bunny clothing in my work room! I did have a few bunny shirts & onesies in the tote full of stuff I took to The Oasis gift shop last Friday, so there's that to feel good about. At least I haven't been totally unproductive!

My brain just keeps spinning around with thoughts like, "oh my gosh; it's already March! I've got to get the bunny stuff listed in my Etsy shop & out to the boutiques I consign at right away!" Like I won't sell any of them otherwise & then I'll be left with a huge pile of bunny stuff nobody wants come May. Is this crazy of me? Do you other crafters out there suffer from this same kind of self-inflicted hysteria? Do people buy bunny-themed stuff after April? Someone reassure me that the world won't end if I don't get these bunny things done today. Please. Because I really don't feel like finishing them today...

But, lest you all think I'm a lazy good-for-nothing, I have also done a cute little bunnies coloring sheet for the activity book I'm (still) working on. You can download & print it for your favorite little artist!

And I've been meaning to put that image on some coloring cards as well... geez! So much to do, so many distractions!

Want to win a Zandra the Zebra toy? 4 more days to enter!

I've been featured on Little Austinite this week! It's a great website & I'm so honored by the write-up. You can read my interview & leave a comment for a chance to win your very own Zandra!

You have up to 4 ways to enter this giveaway so do all 4 and increase your chance of winning!

1. Visit The Snuggle Herd or The WonderCraft. Leave a comment on Little Austinite in this post about something interesting that you saw or learned from either website.

2. Visit EtsyAustin. Poke around and find an Austin Etsy artist that you like.

3. Post about this giveaway on your blog. Leave a comment with a link to your blog.

4. Retweet about this giveaway. Leave a comment with your Twitter name.

This giveaway began March 1, 2010 and will end March 7, 2010 (Sunday) at 11:59 pm CST. A winner will be randomly drawn and announced the following Monday. Good luck!

Fun Freebie: A Snuggle Herd Dot-to-Dot

I've been hard at work on an activity book that I hope to have ready this spring. It will have coloring pages, dot-to-dots, complete-the-picture pages & more! I wanted to share my first completed page with you, and would love to hear what you think. If you have any kiddos at your disposal, please print this out for them & let me know how they like it.

How to print: Use the "Download the Original size" link on this Flickr photo download page. The "original size" file is sized to fit on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. Enjoy!

Introducing Betsy Bunny

Tah-dah! It's still December & I've already got a product for Spring! So excited about this - I'm actually ahead of the seasons for once! Earlier this week I decided to schedule a block of time every Wednesday to work on a new product idea for The Snuggle Herd. I have sooo many ideas in my sketchbook just waiting to come to life that I really want to get moving on, but I never seem to progress beyond the initial sketch or idea. I'm so proud of myself that I stuck with my goal & actually made something new this week!

So how did I manage to accomplish this in the middle of what is perhaps the busiest week of the year, you ask? Simple: My internet has been down for 2 days. It's been really frustrating because I usually spend most of my mornings sending & replying to emails, reading my favorite blogs, skimming Facebook & scheduling things on my beloved Google calendar - and of course, checking back in on all 4 throughout the day. So it has been quite difficult to deal with this technical blip, but it has allowed me to be way more productive than usual, seeing as how I usually spend my mornings sending & replying to emails, reading my favorite blogs, skimming Facebook... you get the idea.

Here's my original sketch. The applique turned out a little differently, with the nose/mouth area much smaller in relation to the head than it is in the sketch. I can't decide which I like better - the smaller nose, mouth & teeth of the embroidered design, or the larger face that takes up more of the head, as it is in my sketch.

What do you think? Please let me know in the comments; I'd love to ge
t some feedback!

New Item: Sweet Little Baby Hats!

Just a sneak-peek at a new item I'm making now - sorry for the less than stellar photo. It was taken last weekend at the Hill Country Arts & Crafts Fair, about a half hour before it started pouring down raining, unfortunately. All in all, the show was fun, but not a great one for me. But at least I got a lot of things made! I've been wanting to do these baby hats for a while now - they are so cute! The little appliqued stars are made of cute prints that coordinate with the onesies. And the great thing is that they are adjustable up to a toddler size because of the knot on top.

I'll have them up in my Etsy shop soon, but if you're a local, you can find them in the WonderCraft's Airstream boutique on the East Austin Studio Tour! The tour starts this weekend and runs through 11/22. We'll be out at stop #45 as guests of Courtney Gray/Creative Side Jewelry Academy. Hope to see you!

So much going on!

There are so many things I've been wanting to post about - 1920s hair & makeup inspiration; the Bookmaking class I just finished teaching; the Printmaking class I just started teaching; the upcoming East Austin Studio Tour...

But right now I am just working furiously to get ready for a big craft show I'm doing this weekend, the Hill Country Arts & Crafts Fair in Georgetown. I am really excited about it because it will be my first really big show (2 days, 140 artists/craftspeople & an estimated 2-3,000 attendees!), which also makes me nervous. So I better get back to work, but just wanted to post the info here, because if you're a local you might wanna check this out! Buy handmade this holiday season! There will be jewelry, pottery, clothing, accessories, hand-carved wooden items, quilts, stained-glass products, ceramics, silk-flower arrangements and Christmas items. Five food vendors will also have their wares for sale including kettle corn, hot dogs, burgers, fries, hand-dipped ice cream, corn dogs, fudge, soup, sausage wraps, and nachos. and admission is free! So come on out!

Behind the Scenes: Make-shift Photography Studio

Product photography is all about illusion. Have you heard about all the crazy things food stylists do during a photo shoot? We're talkin' ice cream made of mashed potatoes, milk that's really glue, and lots more truly weird food substitutes like motor oil & cotton balls. Well, thankfully I don't have to worry myself with that kind of stuff, but we do have an illusion of sorts going on in our Snuggle Herd photo shoots. Check out the setup:

This is Patrick's office. He sets our backdrop (2 drawers from my nightstand) up on his desk. For a cute clothesline look, we hang the clothing on a satin ribbon, which is clipped to the top of the drawers. A piece of brown fabric on the desk and lots of clamp-on lights round out the scene.

Thanks to the magic of PhotoShop - some major cropping, a little adjustment of the levels & color balance - we get a pretty nice lookin' photo out of all of this! Funny, huh? We're living proof that you can take decent photos of your work all by yourself. There is a lot of help available online, too. This Storque article on feature-friendly photos is a good place to start.

It's also worth it to take some time to learn how to use your photo-editing software to brighten your photos if you're lighting is less-than-perfect (as ours certainly is!). This very helpful article on the Switchboards talks about editing in PhotoShop and building your own light box in a Rubbermaid container. I tried that for myself & it worked pretty well, but most of my products are too big to use with it. It might work out well for you if your work is small, like jewelry.

Hope you've found some interesting information here. If you have any other good photography tricks or resources, please leave them in the comments!

p.s. All of these new baby blue items will be listed in the Snuggle Herd Etsy shop very soon!

Progress in My Work Room

Gettin' stuff ready to take to the lovely Sanctuary boutique in West Austin. Back to work - most of these little animals still need faces! Plus, I just found out I've been accepted to the Cherrywood Art Fair, so that means I really need to get busy!

A New & Improved Crafty Mishmash

Crafty Mishmash is a creative archive & journal written by me, Beth Hempton, the gal behind The Snuggle Herd and 1/4 of The WonderCraft. I'm an artist, designer, maker, teacher and lover of all things artsy, crafty and handmade. You can read more about me on my WonderCraft profile.

My husband, Patrick, is my patient product photographer, web developer and tamer of all things technical. He also works really hard at a full-time job doing web development, and is an avid gardener and musician.

We both feel that leading a balanced life, enjoying the little things and making time for what is most important to you (i.e. what makes you happiest), is the only way to live. Life is too short to get bogged down with the rest, which is why I recently made the decision to simplify my online presence and house all of my creative endeavors (or at least most of them, all but The WonderCraft) under one virtual roof that I can maintain myself, making life a lot easier and more enjoyable for both of us. My previous Snuggle Herd website has been decommissioned in favor of a combination of my Snuggle Herd Etsy shop and Policies & FAQ page, and www.snuggleherd.com now redirects to this here Blogspot. So much simpler! Note that as I am writing this, it's September and the Snuggle Herd website still says "Happy Spring!" I just couldn't keep it updated like I wanted to, so I am letting it go. No more spinning my wheels and always feeling like I'm lagging behind - what good comes from that? None, I tell you, none.

R.I.P. old Snuggle Herd website

I hope you will enjoy reading Crafty Mishmash, a busy hub of creative goodness where you'll find news and updates on my two businesses as well as the EtsyAustin team that I am founder & Co-President of; cool things I find online that I want to share; and posts about Our Little DIY Victories in home improvement and What's Growin' On in our garden. I also love writing my Tutorial Collection (mostly by others on the web, though I will occasionally post some of my own, too) and Creative Geniuses posts. There are so many amazingly talented people to be found on these interwebs!

Patrick & I live in Austin, TX and love the creative vibes radiating from every corner of the city. I often post about the many unique businesses, events, places & people of this fabulously kooky city, and you'll find those posts labeled Homage to Austin. I also have a series of interviews with Austin artists called Local Talent Tuesdays.

Feel free to contact me any time at beth.hempton[at]gmail[dot]com. I love hearing from my readers and fans of my work. Thanks so much for taking a peek at my blog!

New Fun Freebie: Monkey Hangers

Yesterday I finished a new Fun Freebie for May (which I do realize is practically half-over - sorry for the delay!). Fun Freebies are a new monthly thing I'm doing to promote my line and try to build a following on my blog & website. They're also a fun diversion from sewing for me - I really enjoy drawing & it's a nice change of pace. I also plan on doing kids' activity books & craft kits in the future, so most of these Fun Freebie illustrations will find their way into those as well. And of course, I can use them for my ready-to-color stationery line, too.

{Editor's Note, 1/29/10: I'm no longer creating new Snuggle Herd Fun Freebies monthly, but will continue to add new ones periodically. You can see them all in my Fun Freebies Flickr set.}

I'm really happy with how these little monkeys turned out. They're based on my newest almost-finished toy designs, Max & Molly. I'm really close to having the stuffed toy versions ready to go, but I've run into a bit of a snag with the design of Max's hat. Hopefully I'll be able to work that out & get them listed soon. I'm hoping to have a few ready to take to the Green Market Festival at Austin Children's Academy this Sunday (gee, isn't that what I said before the LAST craft show I did?!).

Anyhoo... I will have some of these monkey hangers cut out to use as giveaways, in any case! I think I'll put them out with crayons as a little craft activity for the kiddos. I sure had fun coloring some of my own, as you can see. I'm partial to drinking coffee while I color and drawing wonky stripes & polka-dots in the background.

After I colored & cut them, I went around the house finding places to hang them. They're cute hanging just about anywhere! on a lamp or bookshelf...

on a wardrobe...

or in the kitchen as a reminder to buy more bananas!

Photo Styling... Which Do You Prefer?

This pic of Zandra was featured on the tchotchkes blog today, in a great post called "Storytelling Photography." Soulyluna, the writer of this blog, has a wonderful biz called Treebottom Wool. They make the cutest little kids' clothes, using "luxuriously soft cashmere or other itch and scratch-free wool made from re-purposed sweaters." They also "fancy unusual applique designs, vintage buttons and collecting pockets." Their stuff is really cute & unique, and so full of imagination.


When a fellow whimsical-stuff-maker like Soulyluna writes nice things about my photos, it's very flattering of course. But it's also been a little unsettling... Self-doubt is creepin' in & it's got me wondering about the new direction I've taken with my photos. Patrick's been re-shooting all of the toy pics so we can phase out these old ones with the painted background scenery. Personally, I like the new photos' look so much better than the old ones. I do like the old photos, especially how the backdrop is not the natural setting for these animals (giraffes & elephants in a grassy field among trees whose trunks looks suspiciously like oaks). In my mind, the imaginative setting of the pics sets the tone that these are toys meant to inspire creative thinking. And I guess that's why Soulyluna likes them, too.



But there was always something that annoyed me about those photos: the setting looked too unnatural, as in not organic or healthy. The watercolors I used to paint the grass in the backdrop ended up looking too blue (which made it really difficult to achieve the right color balance in the pics) & the shiny Astroturf used as a stand-in for grass is as unnatural as you can get.

Those old photos didn't seem to hit the right note for The Snuggle Herd, which prides itself on being earth-friendly. I wanted photos that played that aspect up, with a warm, inviting look to them that amplified the animals' soft & cuddly-ness (as opposed to the strange, fake look the painted background & Astroturf have that seems to say "you better keep your distance").




So we decided to use softer, natural materials like wood (drawers from my night stand) and fabric with warmer tones. As an added bonus, this modular drawer setup makes it much easier for us to accommodate products of different sizes and different display situations. We can hang the onesies, lean things up against the drawers, etc., while still keeping a consistent look to the photos, which I think is really important for branding our shop.



But now I'm totally curious, which do you prefer?

Hey, is my mouth too low?

That's what Max is wondering, I bet. And I'm thinking: yes. Yes, Max, you're mouth is strangely low. Why is it way down on your neck? Come to think of it, you don't really have much of a neck at all, poor guy.

These are the kinds of details I've been working out with my prototype monkey toy over the past couple of days. I'm trying to finish a few to take to the Austin Handmade Market. Seeing as how it's only a few days away, I should probably quit playin' on the interwebs & get back to work. Will post more pics of Max soon(with a perfectly cute face & a neck). He even has a little girlfriend, Molly.