So Shiny
I love bouncing around from project to project, medium to medium. Next week, I’ll show you a fun little project Myla and I did together. But in this post, I’ll tell you how I’ve been a little focused on these guys: our Dream Creepers.
If you don’t know the story, they were created when I was trying my hand at resin casting and made a monster doll for Myla. Once, when she had it with her, a little girl told her it was creepy. She thought for a moment, and said, “Well, they have to be a little creepy to chase bad dreams away.”
And every Dream Creeper that finds a new home arrives with a little pamphlet on the story of how the Dream Creepers came to be.
Lately, I’ve had family that’s been able to help me sew, so I’ve been able to make a LOT more of these little fellas, and signed up to the the Austin Wizard World–a comicon we’ve enjoyed in the past. So we’ve been focusing on that. And with the extra sewing help, I’ve even been able to offer custom Dream Creepers in my Etsy shop!
Recently, when I took a trip to my local craft store and walked past the fabric section (totally not intending to buy fabric), I didn’t WANT to see this sparkly mermaid fabric. I didn’t want to….but I did. And then I had to get it.
I quickly asked my sewing helper: can we make Dream Creepers out of this? And with a little struggle (and a lot of pins), it was possible…
If you’ve never seen mermaid fabric, it’s fun, because it’s so shiny, and if you pet the sequins one way, they turn one color, and if you pet them the other way, they change. (The fabric kind of freaks me out a little, because my Type A brain wants them always to be facing the same way…but I think it really works for these guys!)
We liked it so much we later got some in black…
So we decided to do these special shiny fellas as a limited edition release–and we’ll have a few in my Etsy shop on August 1st at 1:00pm central time! There are only a limited amount, and we’ll probably not make many more of these (the fabric is REEALLY expensive), so if you’ve ever been interested in a shiny little monster who can chase your bad dreams away, then please set your alarms for AUGUST 1st!
There will be a variety of faces with a variety of fabric combinations, so there’ll be several options to choose from! If we have any left from the sale (often times, they sell out), we’ll take them to the convention in November.
Soooo if any of you happen to be located near Austin, Texas around the 17, 18, and 19th of November, I hope we’ll see you at Wizard World (there are going to be SOOO many cool people at this one), and you can come by and check out our Dream Creeper booth–we’ll have all sorts of goodies to look at!
And don’t forget: to snag the special shinies, keep an eye out on August 1st!
Making More Monsters
After the last couple of conventions, I was surprised to come home with only a handful of our little monster puppies…I thought I was done making them…until I realized that they’re kind of relaxing to make. And as long as I enjoy it, why not, eh?
So I sculpted and cast couple of new faces to add a little extra to the group. I’m not sure I’m as attached to them as some of the others, but they do make me smile.
But what I realized, talking to people at the conventions, was that although the dolls themselves were weirdly cute, it was the story BEHIND them that people seemed to enjoy the most. So I’ve been working on a little foldout flier to put in with each of my orders (and eventually to have at conventions) that explains the story of how the Dream Creepers came to be.
This is the story I usually tell in person, over and over again, several times a day during the span of a convention, to anyone who ever seemed curious about them. It was nice to make it into an easy little flier with cute little drawings that better explained it.
So I thought for fun, I’d share the little pages with you right here, right now…
So there it is! The mostly-true (because–alright, I’m not ACTUALLY a doctor, and Myla’s name isn’t really “M”) story of how the Dream Creepers came to be. As I said, people seemed to find the dolls interesting, but once they heard the story, and learned that Myla named them, they would nearly always find them a little more sweet.
Myla has about 9 of them (she’s not obsessed or anything, she just thinks they’re all cuuuuuuuute), and whenever she starts to worry about something at night, I pretend to suck out her bad thoughts and feed them to the Creepers. Weird, sure, but that’s at least good for a bedtime smile.
I only have a few guys left in the shop right now, but I think I’ll be making more soon, for as long as I find it fun. I don’t really like to do customs with them, as they usually come together based on what fabrics I have, what fur is available, and what faces I’ve cast. They’re much more fun when I get to play!
If you’re interested in adopting the ones I have left, take a look at the Etsy shop and get them while you can–I’ll be closing the shop next week for family visits, but then opening again on the first week of December! I’m not sure how quickly I can build more for the holidays (as I still have my own gifts to work on!), but like I said–for as long as it’s fun, I’ll be sure to do more.
Sweet Dreams!
busy mockingbird 