Giveaways and Perler beads

My Giveaway ends in a week and a half!

Here are some other giveaways you might also be interested in:
Blue Box Studio
Designs by Vanessa

Now for an update about what I've been up to

I've been busy making bead sprites for a large custom order. I'm making pretty much all of the characters and props from Super Mario World 3. It is quite the project, but I'm making good progress so far! It's been encouraging since I haven't sold many bead sprites on Etsy thus far.

What is a bead sprite? I'll tell you!

In old school videogames(Atari, Sega, Nintendo, etc) the characters, enemies, and anything that moves is referred to as a sprite. A sprite is made up of pixels, and is animated. To make this craft project you use Perler beads(Hama beads too, but they are like the off-brand). Perler beads are marketed as a children's craft, but it's fun for adults too! You arrange plastic beads on a peg board and use a hot iron to melt them together to make a design. 1 pixel of the sprite = 1 Perler bead. This is how a bead sprite is made.

I've Gone Bananas

Well, to be fair I've always loved bananas. I have banana soap, banana lip balm, and banana body spray. So I just had to go with bananas as the theme of my treasury! One of the tastiest cookies I've ever made were frosted banana cookies from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

Here is my banana treasury:
(click here to go to the treasury)

If you want to enter my Banana Giveaway you can post a comment here, follow my blog, or scroll down to see all the ways you can enter!

Banana Giveaway

I created a banana pattern (click here to buy the pdf pattern from my shop), and now my demo banana needs a home!

There are many ways to enter your name into this giveaway, some ways get you more than one entry.

Ways to win this banana:
1. Post here leaving a comment.
2. Tell me what your favorite item in my Etsy shop is.
3. Post my giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter, or other accounts and post the link(s) here.
4. Follow my blog.
5. Any purchases made in my etsy shop also receives an entry(let me know in seller notes, convo, or here).
6. Send a friend to my shop and if they purchase something you'll get an additional entry. (You must let me know who you sent once they make a purchase, so that I know who to give credit to).

I will draw the winning name on August 1st, 2009.
And so you know it's legitimate, I will upload a youtube video of me drawing a name from a hat.

*Make sure you leave your contact information so that I can notify you if you are the winner.*

How To Make A Magic Adjustable Ring

If you want to make amigurumi, or just crochet in the round without that hole at the end you started at, then you need to learn my favorite trick....

The Magic Adjustable Ring

Step 1: Wrap the yarn around your pointer and middle finger twice making sure that the end of the yarn sticks straight up, and is long enough that it is past the top of your finger(about a half an inch).

Step 2: From the right, take your crochet hook under all of the strings and draw the leftmost string out.



Step 3: The loop should still be on the hook as you go over all the strings to the leftmost string again and yarn over.

Pull it through the loop on the hook.

Pull up on the end of the string and the leftmost string to tighten it up.

At this point you can slip the ring off of your fingers and use your pattern to determine how many single crochets you need to make into the ring.

For example: if you are using a pattern that wants you to do this...
Ch 2, 6 sc in second chain from hook
Then just make 6 sc into the ring!

Step 4: Now that you have made however many sc into the ring as directed by your pattern you may tighten the ring by pulling on the free end of the string. Do NOT tighten all the way! The loop that shortens when you pull the string is what you need to pull to make the second loop tighten. (look at where my thumb is pulling at the strings in the images below)

Step 5: You may begin to crochet in the round into the sc that you made! Success!

There are other ways to make this if you are having a hard time with this method.
You can find videos on youtube by searching "crochet adjustable ring"

I've been featured!

Here are some blogs that I have been featured on recently:
Etsy Studios, Miss Malarky's DIY Blog, Garden Gwyn's Blog, Life's Big Canvas

Also, I have relisted a shop favorite; Tiny Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Amigurumi sale!

I am trying to get rid of some of my inventory to make room for new things, so I am offering some items for a reduced price(40%-50% off) with $2 shipping for US residents.

Click here for the sale!

This sale will be going on through August 30th, and whatever doesn't sell is not going to be relisted.

Also, check out my facebook fan page:

Link from Legend of Zelda

Link is finished!

This is the first Link I am selling on Etsy. It took more hours to make than I thought, but it was worth it. I'm not sure if I'm going to let this one be OOAK(one of a kind) or make another one in the future.

If you would like to purchase him here is the link to Link.

Coming soon... Blog giveaway!

I'm not sure what I will be giving away, but it will be something cool. More details to come later this week!

Toon Link Crochet

I love video games, especially the classics.

Link from Legend of Zelda is such a cool character, and he has many different designs as the years have gone by. Toon Link is one of my favorites because he's just so darn cute!

My boyfriend also really like him and has him tattooed on his arm.

This is my second try at crocheting Link. I hope my boyfriend dosen't steal it!

WARNING: This is not finished yet! I have to affix the eyes, brows, and embroider the mouth.

I also plan on adding a shield and sword. This item might be a little pricier than what I usually make, but there is a lot of work that has gone into it!