Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas...


Merry Christmas to each and everyone! I thought I would share with you my Miniature Vignette made this year to celebrate the Christmas Season.
Two mini bears, a decorated tree, presents, a plate of gingerbread cookies, and a cup of hot cocoa make this Christmas extra sweet!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Tomorrow is the 25th....

This is the last altered CD that I made for my photo tree. Hope you've enjoyed them!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Friday, December 14, 2007

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Season's Greetings!

Altered CD #2, titled "Season's Greetings".

Monday, December 3, 2007

Let it Snow!

Yesterday it snowed and snowed all day long. It was so beautiful. I decided to share one of my altered cd's I recentlyfinished. I have been meaning to alter old cd's for several years. This year I decided to do a set of 10 Christmas ones to put on a photo tree. Here is the first.

I used scrapbook paper, silver embossing powder around the edges, rubber stamps, and mini embellishments.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Ginger Spice...an Anime Gingerbread bear

Meet Ginger Spice...an Anime Gingerbread bear. Hand sewn from wool felt, Ginger has decorative rick rack to simulate icing, and a beautiful needlefelted nose. I have always liked this design and I usually make one to sell on ebay at this time of year. And finally, I made one for myself to keep for my personal collection. Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

On ebay now....

I'm trying out a feature on ebay that will display my auctions. Here tis...

Monday, November 26, 2007

New Bears on ebay...











I've been listing many of my Christmas bears on ebay, last night, and today. Some of these bears may be sold already but you can still take a peek at them if you like. *Ebay* I'm offering free shipping on all my bears and patterns during the Holiday Season. Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A Primitive "folk art" style of painting



As promised, here is a photo of one of the acrylic paintings I was working on the other day. I had to clean off my crafting desk, put away the thread, felt, and other bear supplies. Finally, I was able to pull out some paints, a stretched canvas and see if I could come up with a project I had in mind.

Since the weather is getting cooler here I wanted to do a snow scene. I looked back through my stash of decorative painting magazines and found the perfect backdrop. Of course, I didn't have the recommended paint colors, so I improvised. I wanted to attempt a primitive "folk art" style of girl with lightened forehead and long nose. Here is what I came up with. It's titled "It's Snowing!".

Friday, November 16, 2007

Still Fall...for a little bit longer.


The weather seems to be getting colder and there are only a few leaves left on the trees. I thought I had better put my "Autumn" bear up before it was too late.
The last couple of days I have been playing around with acrylic paints. It has been quite awhile since I have painted. Several years ago, I did quite a bit of decorative painting on terra cotta pots. I then took them to a Farmer's market where I set up a stand to sell. After painting hundreds of pots, I was exhausted and haven't done much till now.
In a couple of days, I should be finished with 2 projects that I'm working on. More later...

Sunday, November 11, 2007

VictoriAnnie Snowgirl Doll

Finally completed my cloth doll with a paper clay head. I've had this wonderful pattern "VictoriAnnie" by Barbara Willis Designs for several years. A week or so ago when I had my paper clay out, I decided to sculpt the head. Digging out my sewing machine (I sew almost all my bears and other miniatures by hand), I whipped up her dress, apron, and hat. I think she will look just great sitting amongst my other Christmas decorations.

Friday, November 9, 2007

A Pumpkin colored Chibi Bear

Today a mini Pumpkin-colored Chibi arrives. A little mini crochet bear with a felt ruffle and a matching tiny green button on his chest. He has a great big smile and a triangular polymer clay nose.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

A set of Anime Pilgrims


I'm gearing up for the American Holiday of Thanksgiving. To help celebrate I've created a nice little couple of Pilgrims for display. John and Priscilla are a delightful pair of miniature mixed media Teddy bears now appearing on ebay. They are being sold as a set.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Barnabas Bellhop Bear


The very first felt character bear that I made was a Bellhop bear. My inspiration was a vintage bellhop bear made in 1923 by the company "Schuco". I was so excited to hold that little bear in my hand and knew that I would make many more.
In commemoration of that first bear, each year on the anniversary of my initial bear making, I create a new bellhop bear in a new size, with a different twist. This year I designed Barnabas in my new Vintage Style Design.
He is made from wool felt and paper clay. He is currently available on ebay. He comes with his little black change purse that he is hoping to fill with tips!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

A Honey of a Bear...

I love making these little Mixed-Media Bears. With their loosely jointed limbs and woeful expressions they just want to make you say, ahhh, isn't that cute! Honey Bear is the newest offering that can be found on ebay. It is a 7 day or Buy-it-Now Auction. Have a great Saturday!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

New Mini Panda on ebay.





Happy first day of November!




"Bamboo Shoot" is my newest bear on ebay. He is quite the unusual little Panda. Instead of a black and white Panda, he is made of Spring Green and Coral colored vintage rayon fabric. He has German glass eyes and is 3.75 inches tall.

Also on ebay you can find one of my Mixed Media Bears. "Woop" is a solemn little clown made from dusty rose and green melon wool felt. His arms and legs are made from paper clay.




Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Boo to You!



Boo to YOU! Happy Trick or Treat day!

Monday, October 29, 2007

"Hallie" a Mixed Media Bear for the Holiday.


Meet "Hallie" a bright Halloween Orange and black Mixed Media Bear. She now lives in the UK.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Only 2 more months till Christmas!



Only 2 more months till Christmas! I'm not sure where the year has gone, but it has gone quickly!

This morning I was able to put the finishing touches on "Mr. Snowman". He is molded from paper clay and placed on a paper mache box. His hat is made from cardboard ribbon spools decorated with xmas paper.

This project came from Stampington & Company's publication: Somerset Holidays and Celebrations. There are other cool projects by Julie Bergman. You can find the publication at: http://www.stampington.com/html/holidays_celebrations.html

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Busy with lots of Projects


I've been busy working on a lot of different fun projects lately. I like to do a little bit on one, then do some on another. Pretty soon I'll have a small number completed.
I'm working on a paper clay snowman project that was featured in one of Stampington & Company's publications. Today Mr. Snowman is air drying...

I'm also making a cloth doll from a pattern that I have had for over 7 years. The head is made from paper clay, so it is drying also. I've stitched the arms and legs and am now ready to stuff. (Once I'm finished, I promise I'll show photos).

So, today's photo is one of my dolls in my EggZactly Egghead Series. This is one I made last year named "Calabaza" meaning "Pumpkin" in Spanish.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

A Beautiful Fall Day

It is a beautiful Fall day here in the Pacific Northwest. The sun is shining, the leaves are dazzling in their orange, red, golden hues. It is nice and crisp out side. This is my favorite time of year.

"Punkie" is another of my Vintage Style Anime Bears. He is hand sewn from wool felt and has paper clay arms and legs. He recently appeared on ebay and has now found a new home.

I'll share more of my "Fall" Creations in the next couple of weeks.

Friday, October 19, 2007

My Miniature Chibi Anime Crochet Teddy Bear Pattern is now available!

One of the projects that I finally completed this past summer was to make a comprehensive crochet pattern for my Chibi/Anime Bears. I had worked out the pattern about a year ago, but my directions would have been illegible to anyone else. Finally I set aside time to get it done.

I worked for 8 hours a day for 6 days straight, figuring out, photographing, writing, and then trying to arrange it with my Corel Drawing software. It took a lot of time and experimenting to get the final layout the way I had imagined it. In the process, I learned a lot of new techinques with my software! I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

If you would like to know more about it, or purchase one you can find it on ebay or in my etsy shop. They are a lot of fun to make. I'm building my own personal collection and hope to have at least 50 before I quit making them. I'm half way there! From time to time, I'll share some photos of the ones I've made.

For my ebay auctions go to: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcalvinawalsh
For my esty Shop go to: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5032207

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Welcome Back, Calvina! Hey that's me?!

Hello there! After a 5 month absence...I am finally back to blogging. It has been a tremendously busy season in just about every area of my life and hopefully life will slow down a bit as I enter the cooler weather of Fall and then Winter.

My goal in starting my blog was to document my desire to work at being creative...a little each day. And during the last months I have indeed found many new ways to be creative, but I just did not have the time, nor the energy, to keep a record of it. So, I'll take another go at it!

This morning I took on a cute little project by Jennifer Murphy as seen on The Martha Stewart show. (You can find a project list and a video on http://www.marthastewart.com for the October 15th,2007 show). I have using a lot of wool felt the past couple of years to make my mini teddy bears, when I saw the advertisement for this adorable "Pumpkin Man" made of felt, I knew I would love to try it.

Now I have a wonderful little addition to my Fall decorations and can say a Big "Happy Fall" to everyone!


Thursday, May 31, 2007

This week's bears are here...






This week I was inspired to do a bear with Patriotic Spirit...Meet Patriotic Pete! I had been thinking of Memorial Day, Flag day coming up, and then of course the 4th of July. Pete is hand sewn with wool felt and has a "flag" incorporated in his little body. His arms and legs are made of paper clay, scraps of book pages, and an acrylic wash. I really enjoy making these Vintage Style of bears with paper clay limbs. I'm also working on a rabbit...check for photos in a couple of days.



Lil' Dreamer is my latest crochet mini in my Chibi Crochet Bear Series. He is a 2.5 inch beary made of acrylic thread in a gorgeous deep wine red color. He carries his Dream Wand with him.


And finally a little light lilac color bear made from vintage rayon fabric and hand sewn....meet the little Lea Liu flower bear. With her little flower halo she seems to attract a silver color butterfly (charm).

You can find each of these little ones at: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcalwalshQQhtZ-1 Enjoy!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Photos from the past...ATC's and Dominoes










I love looking at photographs from the past. I have several CD's full of vintage photos that I can use for art projects and peruse for inspiration. Seeing these wonderful images reminded me that my mom has dozen of old photo albums of her family. This summer I'm hoping to go through all of the photos and scan these cool images of my very own ancestors.


When I've needed to break up the monotony of scanning I've taken some of these familiar faces and put them to good artistic use. My mother and her little brother, along with their cat, made a nice simple ATC. The second ATC on the upper right was a a practice at working with my Adobe Photoshop Elements software. It took me an hour to figure out how to merge a background photo, and the image of my mom (from a separate photo) into one! Then to put the focus on the Lil' Cowgirl I colored her clothes with artist chalks.
The next project was to make decorative dominoes.

Using a template size for a domino 1" x 2", I moved several photos of my Grandparents onto the template. Printed them out, then cut the templates out, added adhesive, then a quick spray of Workable Fixatif, and then gold leafed the edges. I love the heftly feel of the dominoes and the nice little clicking sound they make when they brush up together. I like to display them on flat surfaces around my craft room where I have a chance to admire them as I move about.




Tuesday, May 22, 2007

A Little Lavender Bear of Thread




Inspired by my lovely purple Iris flowers in the yard, I created "Little Lettie Lavender" a 2 3/8" miniature crochet teddy bear. This little bear practically begged to hold a "fun" sign. So she does. She is from my Chibi Anime series and has a hand sculpted polymer clay nose and a fun clown hat. She is able to stand on her metal stand due to very strong magnets in her feet. And the good thing about her little lavender personality is that she will still be around long after my lovely irises have faded away. You can see more pics at:




Monday, May 21, 2007

A Bloomin' Anime Bear...and my Etsy Shop Link



Purple is one of my favorite colors. When I spotted some Purple iridescent faux flower stems, I grabbed one to make a special Flower Bear. "Petals" is the result. She is made from wool felt, an original design and hand sewn. Her oval nose is needle felted with black wool.


I picked up some unique beads at a craft store the other day. The label said "blue/gold beads". Next to the flower petals they seem shimmery purple in the light. Petals is appearing on ebay at: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150124845986


I have also started my Etsy shop and have listed my first Anime Bear on the site. You can visit my Etsy shop at:

http://www.calvinawalsh.etsy.com

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Scrap Paper and Cardboard










I've been staring at a left over empty container on my table. It seemed like a nice sturdy little piece of cardboard that I might be able to use someday. I don't like to throw things away, although inevitably I do, then of course decide I need it. I resisted the urge numerous times and decided to finally "do something" with it.



I found a nice little decorative floral envelope that I have saved for several years. I cut the paper to fit around the container, used my handy Xyron tool to add adhesive to the paper and pressed it to the sides. I then took a brown paper bag, cut into a thin strip, cut with decorative scissors for a lovely edge, and then hand stamped a border. I placed this in the middle of the container. To finish off I used a 18 kt. gold leafing pen to give the top edge a little bit of glimmer. Voila'


I liked my new little decorative container so much I made another and stuffed them both with some of the loose tools around my desk. Much nicer to look at and took very little time.





Friday, May 18, 2007

An Introduction...

My first name is “Calvina” pronounced as “Calvanna”. My husband and I live in a small town in Washington State in the US.
I have been “creating” things as long as I can remember. My hands have always found something to make and my mother was always positive that I could accomplish whatever I had set out to do.


I have always dabbled in a variety of arts and crafts and I love the challenge of learning something new or just experimenting with different materials and techniques. For the last 11 years though, I have focused mainly on the craft of making Miniature Artist Teddy Bears. My bears have had the privilege of being featured in Teddy Bear and Friends® magazine and a few of my photos of bears have been published in Teddy Bear Scene® . The majority of my bears have been sold on ebay.

While making mini teddy bears has occupied the bigger part of my creative life I have wanted for the last year to get away from just “producing” bears to enjoying once again the creative process of creating new things.

I decided that in 2007, I would endeavor to slow down my “production mentality”, find pleasure in even small acts of creativity like straightening my Craft/Studio, and take the time to dabble in other artistic interests.


In short, I want to live more creatively…a little bit each day.