Daily musings of the creative team of Jack & Ella Designs. Showcasing the talent of other Etsy designers, as well as life according to us. - Enjoy!

http://jackandella.etsy.com

Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts

Friday, October 23, 2009

Crazy Sexy Cute

Crochet Pattern- Bess in the cow costume amigurumi doll

One of my favorite new craft projects is to make amigurumi dolls and toys. According to Wikipedia, "amigurumi" can be described as:

"The Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include artistic renderings, and inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. Amigurumi can be either knitted or crocheted. In recent years crocheted amigurumi are more popular and more commonly seen.

"Amigurumi are usually crocheted or knitted out of yarn. The simplest designs are worked in spirals. In contrast to typical Western crochet the rounds are not usually joined. They are also worked with a smaller size hook in proportion to the weight of the yarn in order to create a very tight-looking fabric without any gaps through which the stuffing might escape. Amigurumi are usually worked in sections and then joined, except for some amigurumi which have no limbs, only a head and torso which are worked as one piece. The extremities are sometimes stuffed with plastic pellets to give them a life-like weight, while the rest of the body is stuffed with fiber stuffing.

"The pervading aesthetic of amigurumi is cuteness. To this end, typical amigurumi animals have an over-sized spherical head on a cylindrical body with undersized extremities."

Cuteness - I'm all over that. So far, I have created two monkey dolls, an easter bunny, an easter chick, a ball-shaped penguin and three peeps. The best part about this craft is that if you can crochet a simple SC, you can make most amigurumis! They are great stash-busters, too.

Here are some particularly adorable patterns from our friends at Etsy. The possibilities are ENDLESS!!

ANIMALS
Amigurumi Cute Alien Rabbit- Crochet Pattern

Bee Gurumi Crochet Pattern
by LuvlyGurumi

DOLLS
PDF Pattern - Pippi
by AmigurumiParadise

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan Amigurumi Pattern KaiLan
by CraftyisCool

TOYS
Ace, The Airplane - Amigurumi Pattern
by DeliciousCrochet

HALLOWEEN
3 PDF Crochet Patterns - Jazzy Witch, Devil and Halloween Gang - Amigurumi
by kandjdolls

THANKSGIVING
Crochet Pattern- Chester the turkey boy amigurumi doll
by Owlishly

CHRISTMAS
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer - An Amigurumi Pattern
by KawaiiGurumi

Friday, September 11, 2009

ORANGE you glad...

Feeling very orange today - inspired by a beautiful treasury I saw on the front page of Etsy this morning. I decided to do a bit of surfing through the Etsy pages myself with the search term "orange", and came up with these goodies...


by JCGemsJewelry
by consideringnature


by vividcolors

Reclaimed Wool Sweater Brooch

by thejunebride


by mtuent


And because this little guy was too cute to resist (and is a perfect portrait of me before my morning coffee:

by theringleader
Thank you so much to all these sellers for quenching my thirst for orange in such unique and beautiful ways! I hope it makes your day bit more JUICY!
- Annmarie