May 19, 2012. SPECIAL SPRING GIVEAWAY!!! :D
This year has been off to an amazing start — I’ve been more busy than I have ever been before, but I’ve achieved goals that I had previously thought were only wishful dreams. For example, I am finally starting my own little online shop (it’s still under construction lol), and I JUST published my first amigurumi pattern!! I’m celebrating this HUGE milestone in my crafting life by giving away lots of FREE STUFF!! :D
I’m hosting FOUR giveaways on Tumblr and Facebook, and there will be a total of TEN WINNERS! Visit me on either site (or both sites!) to join in the fun! YOU CAN ENTER ALL FOUR GIVEAWAYS!!! :D
**This is a giveaway for FREE SPRING BUNNY CROCHET PATTERNS!**
How to participate:
- REBLOG this post (ONCE) IN ITS ENTIRETY (please don’t delete any text!) AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS WHEN YOU REBLOG: What will you name your bunny and why? That’s it! Simple, right? :)
Winners:
- There will be FOUR winners!!! These winners will be chosen using a random generator. Please enable your ask boxes so that I may personally notify you when you win.
This giveaway ENDS on Saturday, May 26th, 2012 @ 11:59PM (PST). Winners will be announced on A Morning Cup of Jo Creations on Sunday! :)
SNEAK PEEK:
To get a glimpse of my super detailed, super cute Spring Bunny Crochet Pattern, visit me on Craftsy!
GOOD LUCK! <3 I can’t wait to see who wins!
Still moving my old posts from A Morning Cup of Jo to A Morning Cup of Jo Creations! Please excuse the currently jumbled timeline! You can think of it as having flashbacks… or time traveling! :P
June 12, 2011: This little guy was fun to make! After adding the black stripes, he definitely looked more like a tiger than a bear! (Some of you may remember how worried and unsatisfied I was during the work-in-progress post.) I’m loving the look of the stitching now that I’ve applied new techniques that I’ve learned. :) Also, switching to a smaller hook feels like it creates more work because it takes longer to build up to the same sized animal, but I think it’s worth it! The stitching is much tighter, which means that less stuffing shows through. Yay!
This tiger took about 9 hours to make (counting the time that it took to take apart and remake some body parts). If I make a tiger again, I’d like to change up his proportions a bit to enhance the cuteness factor.
January 15, 2012. Work-in-progress pt. 2:
After the initial shock of seeing the crocheted catastrophe, Millie and Mumbles decided to take action.
It looks like they borrowed my crochet hook and yarn to help fix Nibbles! How sweet of them. <3 That frees up my schedule to work on new amigurumi projects. :)
Will they be able to sew him up properly?
January 12, 2012:
Zeebo loves getting in the way whenever I’m working on a crafts project! He’ll come and sprawl all over my poster boards, sit on my boxes of supplies, play with paper, and make it impossible to wrap gifts or work with ribbon. This time, he decided to visit my amigurumi photo shoot and block all the light. Haha :D I should really make a light box sometime… but he’ll probably some sit in that, too! Darn cat. Gotta love him. :)
This little baby panda was made for a good friend of mine. He’ll be traveling to San Francisco, CA, and then to his new home in the Philippines! How exciting! <3
I’m still working on editing/testing the crochet pattern for my panda (which means more panda friends are on their way!!). Many more photos and work-in-progress shots to come… I had a bit of fun with the WIP photos this time around. :P Can’t wait to share!
June 12, 2011: Hugo the Unicorn stands 5 inches tall and took about 10 hours to make!! Adding the rainbow mane was more time consuming than I thought it would be. @__@ This was one of the first amigurumi I crocheted with the RIGHT SIDE out, a smaller hook, and a different color-changing technique.
Update: January 11, 2012: This little crocheted buddy will be living in the UK soon!! It’s so fun to know that my amigurumi animals will be traveling the world and having adventures thousands of miles away. I guess I can live vicariously through them while I work on more crafts projects from home. :P
June 2011: Monty the Inquisitive Penguin and his friends. :) I designed and crocheted these amigurumi animals in May of 2011, and I’m so happy they’ve all been adopted into new homes! I hope to make more penguins in the future… maybe smaller ones and in different colors?
June 3, 2011: My raspberry pocket pony needs some work. I’m not happy with how the stitching looks, but it’s a good thing that I’m fixing these issues now while they’re still prototypes. The next ponies will definitely look nicer!
From my January 2012 perspective: As I’m archiving all of these old posts and reviewing my pictures of amigurumi, I’m reminded of that day when I realized I had been crocheting my animals inside out!! Here’s the link for my June 2011 “Crocheting Confession.” It’s fun to know that there are always new things to learn and new ways to improve. ^___^
January 3, 2012.
I WON THE CRAFTS CONTEST!!! :O
The excitement that pulsed through my network of family and friends today was amazing! I received tons of happy phone calls, texts, and messages from the ones I love to tell me about how they reacted and how happy they are. My friend accidentally screamed at at work when she saw the results, my aunt ran across the street to share the news with her neighbors, and there was lots of dancing and jumping. Hahahaha <3 It’s an indescribably good feeling to know that others care so much about what I create and support my goals so strongly. That kind of love is so much more important than any material prize. I am genuinely thankful to have these people in my life.
Everyone wants to see my crafts room makeover. LOL I don’t even have a crafts room TO make over! If Michaels lets me (I don’t know if I’m allowed to request this), I hope to save most of the prize money they’d spend on a makeover and use it for future classroom supplies when I become a teacher. I’m crossing my fingers for a “Yes, you can do that” because a pretty room is not as important to me as using the money for a better purpose. >.<
Now there’s paperwork to be filled out and lots more to do! I’ve been working really hard with my aunt, cousin, and friends during these last couple of days on ideas for our future shop as well. We’re thinking of eco-friendly and nature-inspired handmade goods, logos, logistics, and so much more! Starting an Etsy shop is much more difficult than I thought, but we’re having tons of fun. We’re even starting a Tumblr soon to document our journey and share our crafts, experiments, failures, and photos! ^___^ I can’t wait!
What a way to start off the new year… :)
April 24th, 2011: This tiny giraffe, named Stanley Winston by a friend of mine, is about half the height of Little Raffie! Stanley has a habit of hiding in purses, pockets, and in your hair just so he can tag along wherever you go. He’s quite loving and doesn’t hesitate to smother you (or your cat) with lots of kisses. :)
December 2011: This was the first Stanley Winston I ever crocheted and my favorite. Because I never write down patterns and because my techniques change so much over time, it’s tough to replicate something I made several months ago. I’ve tried over and over to replicate his proportions, but it just never works out the same. Oh well. :/ Each new one is unique and has a personality of its own! Maybe I should start giving different names to every new giraffe I add to the Winston family. :P
Something I noticed when looking back through these photos is that I had not yet learned the jogless color change technique (you’ll notice this if you look at Stanley’s leg in the photo with the blue background). The color change from brown to yellow was abrupt and unappealing. Thanks to NeedleNoodles’ tutorial, I learned something new and improved my amigurumi animals!
April 2011: Easter bunny sisters!! These sweeties took FOREVERRRR to make, but I’m happy with how they turned out. It’s fun to compare these with the first amigurumis I made and see how much I’ve improved. :D I had to learn how to crochet a flower for these twins for the first time, so I learned the basics from a youtube tutorial and then just winged it from there. I can only hope that I learn more techniques and continue to improve my skills! There are many things I want to make.
Update - December 2011: To this day, those bunnies are still the largest (or at least tallest) amigurumi I’ve attempted to crochet — they were about 14” tall while my typical amigurumi are 4-6” tall! I probably put about 40 hours into designing, crocheting, dismantling, reshaping, and remaking those bunnies, so I don’t know if I’d try it again. :P Maybe on a smaller scale next time? I was using a size F crochet hook and loose tension back then, so making another amigurumi that tall with my new E hook and tight tension might take even longer! @____@ At least I can look back and say that I HAVE improved my skills during these last several months and I HAVE made more animals! Yay for accomplishments! :D
April 2011: These are a couple of work-in-progress photos of two customized amigurumi bunnies I was making for a former high school teacher of mine. She wanted twin Easter bunnies with long legs and arms, but I thought I’d play around with the idea of limbless bunnies before I finished crocheting them. :P
From my December 2011 perspective: If I made these bunnies again, I’d definitely try this design (limbless, with ears leaning toward one side). It might have trouble standing, but at least it would be really cute. :)
April 2011: This amigurumi baby bear may only be 6” tall, but he is jam-packed with love! I worked on him for hours and hours, making and remaking his limbs to fit the cute design in my head. :)
From my December 2011 perspective: I used felt and buttons for eyes when I was learning how to crochet animals because I had not yet heard about the magic of SAFETY EYES! Once I learned of those, I never went back to felt and buttons again (unless I chose to do so intentionally for a design). Safety eyes changed my life. Hahaha. :P
April 2011: I’ve crocheted another baby giraffe! This is Little Raffie, and he is slightly different from his brother. As I’m getting the hang of amigurumi, I’ve been having a lot of fun making these guys. :)
From my December 2011 perspective: When comparing my new amigurumi to these older ones, switching to a smaller hook and tighter tension made a HUGE difference.
Check out this link for more —> A Morning Cup of Jo Creations
