And the winner of the 2013 Bear Crafters Challenge is...

... Sally White with her gorgeous fairy bear! Sally has won $150 store credit for www.furaddiction.com.

We had SO MANY gorgeous entries come in over the last 24hrs... it ended up being a really hard choice selecting a winner. All participants will get a FREE POSTAGE coupon for their next furaddiction.com order (coupons are being emailed to you all currently - let us know if you entered a bear but didn't get yours).

A huge thank you to everyone who participated  - we've had a lot of fun with our first bear competition, and we hope you guys have too! We will have to think up a new challenge for later in the year!

Bear Crafters Challenge - DEADLINE tomorrow!

We're nearly at the end of the Bear Crafters Challenge for 2013. Today is the last day to get your entries in (email a photo of your finished bear to sales@furaddiction.com).

These are the entries we have so far - such an incredible mix of bears all made in the same pattern and white fur!! I love it!

Mark and I will choose a winner tomorrow (when we get back from a wedding we're just about to head out the door for!) - and that lucky person will get $150 gift voucher to spend at www.furaddiction.com on anything they like: mohair, faux fur, eyes, joints, accessories, artist bears, kits and/or patterns!

Bear Crafters Challenge 2013

We've decided to do something a little different this year in place of our usual 'annual giveaway' bear... so I am proposing a Bear Crafters Challenge!

The Challenge will be open to EVERYONE who'd like to join in, not just the bear-artist likers/followers on our page. We're just looking for the MOST CREATIVE version of this plain white bear!

Step 1 - choose your kit. We will offer two discounted kits for sale in our furaddiction.com store, one will contain the pattern for the challenge bear (our 'Jonas' design), the white faux fur, black glass eyes, T-pin joint set, nose thread and white paw pad material. The second option will be the same kit minus fur.

Step 2 - make up your bear. For those using their own fur, the only rule is that it must be white (can be faux fur, mohair, alpaca, wool, viscose, cotton - any fur fabric you like). 

Step 3 - detail and decorate your bear in YOUR style. You might like to use a colourful paw pad print, or give your bear some clothing, or add shading/highlighting, pull toes, use coloured eyes, a sculptured nose, give your bear claws, antique it... anything you can imagine. 

Step 4 - email a photo of your finished bear to us by the 1st July. 

We will choose the Challenge winner who will receive a $150 gift voucher to spend at furaddiction.com!

{All four bears are just slightly different variations of the same, original plain white bear. I think you guys can do even better than this and am So excited to see what you all come up with! }

Teaser!

In my last post, I finished with a scrappy picture of my work-in-progress lambswool bear... This was the next progress pic I took after about 3 hours of assembly. It was at this point that I really understood how long this big girl was going to take to finish! If I wanted a challenge, I'd found her!

A day or so later and I had her 90% done. (shes stuffed, but seams aren't closed yet here). I wanted to try and show just how big she is - so I posed her with an apple! And it was a big apple too! lol

She measures in at 24" standing, and 20" x 20" when sitting (she becomes as wide as she is tall!)




I wanted to make her eyes/face more expressive, so she has a cute little 'Marilyn Monroe' inspired beauty spot, and I sculpted her some polymer clay eyelids and eyelashes. It looks brilliant, but I do worry that it makes her a little too fragile now. I've coated the eyelashes to strengthen them, and the thickness of the fur around her face really acts as a protective buffer, but it would only take a curious child's fingers to snap one off! She will definitely need to be for adult collectors only!

I don't have a final picture of her - because we have something very special planned for her... think 'the biggest bear giveaway ever!' Stay tuned! ;)

Facebook Fan Page GIVEAWAY

I've had a number of blog give-aways over the last year or so of running this blog... but I've never had a facebook give-away. So I thought it might be fun to try that too!



Head on over to my facebook page to check it out. You could be taking home this sweet little guy.



The winner will be drawn on Mother's Day, 8th May 2011 at 9pm EST.

And the winners are....

Janie Karr wins Shelby!

and 'annie2006' wins Wombat!!!

WooHoo! The excitement is too much :D



I had so much fun writing down everyone's names, cutting out the little pieces of paper, making sure they were all even... I should really get a job as a raffle drawer! :P If you are Janie or Annie and you didn't get my email, could you contact me at eleb2000@hotmail.com please?

And a big thank you to everyone who participated and put links up and commented. It means a lot to know that you guys are out there actually reading what I post!

(oh - and still no sign of baby :P)

Give Away is Drawn Tomorrow!!!

Oh my goodness - time really does fly. It's the 24th tomorrow. The final day of my latest giveaway draw. Woo Hoo!

Any last minute entries are very welcome. You can read about the two critters being offered here. You can choose to go in the draw for one or the other - or select a preference.

Good luck!!!

Emma's Bears GIVEAWAY Clear-Out

In case you've been under a rock (or otherwise occupied like myself), you may not have noticed that its a totally New Year!! And as such, I was thinking that it's time for a bit of a clear out! Or maybe this is a bear-makers version of 'nesting'... who knows!

My 'available bears shelf' is spilling over with bears, bunnies, guinea pigs and baby toys, and it just feels cluttered and messy to me. I don't know about the rest of you, but my creations feel a little stagnant when they sit for too long without finding homes.

So, in a rather pathetic and small token gesture to make some space, I'm offering two of my longer-term resident critters up for giveaway - Shelby and Wombat.


Shelby was made in the last few months, but is a little badly portrayed in her photos. She is a less than 'cute' bear, but not as odd as she appears. I am hoping that whoever scores her for free will find some charm to her!




Wombat is a stylised guinea pig critter that was made quite a long time ago... probably about the time I found myself pregnant again actually! (yes, it has been that long!). He's quite a charming chunky fellow, but again, a little odd.





All I require you to do to go into the draw for one of these creations is to leave me a comment below (or email me at eleb2000@hotmail.com) with some way of allowing me to contact you in the event that you win, and an idea of which creation - bear or guinea pig - you'd prefer. (You can also specify that you'd like either of them as well which is probably the smartest move as you'll go in the draw for both, thus doubling your chances of getting something!). Postage will be completely covered by me and as a thank you for spreading the word you'll get an extra entry for telling a friend/posting on your blog/ leaving a facebook comment/ twittering etc etc. (just let me know you did this or your efforts will go unrewarded!).

I plan to draw the winners on the 24th January 2011 (my due date) - this is subject to change depending on whether or not I'm in hospital giving birth that day etc etc... (they do say that less than 5% of babies are born on their due date though... so chances are low!).

Some goodies to show you all

Just wanted to take the time to show you some of the goodies that have arrived in the mail for Chelsea and I over the last week.






















This is a gorgeous little handmade skirt and top I bought for Chelsea from the 'MadeIt' website. The lady who makes these has heaps of awesome items in her store - Karousel Kids. I also got a very brightly coloured overalls and sun-hat set for the new baby.
















This is a super sweet handmade cloth book I also bought from the MadeIt store 'Creative Wishes' for Chels. Each page has different shapes made into pictures. Chelsea's favourite page is the one with the circle caterpillar (she likes to try and pick off his eyes! :P).























And lastly, I got an awesome surprise package from the runner-up winner of the Onion Skin Twins giveaway. There was a Lithuanian coffee mug, a gorgeous handmade card, a cook book of traditional Lithuanian recipes and the most gorgeous little angel I have ever seen! How brilliant is she!? Chelsea was immediately demanding that I hand her over, but I've decided she's going somewhere safe until we put our christmas tree up. Then she can go right to the top!

The first Free Pattern bear to show you

I currently have a free pattern available for anyone to download and make. (I'm sure many of you are aware of this... cause i keep on about it so much!). But I'm bringing it up again as I have the first finished bear from this pattern to show you all.

This bear is named 'Emma', and she is just stunning. Fully hand sewn by Viv of Viv's Bears. I am loving this colour, and the paw detail. Thanks so much for having a go at the pattern Viv, AND for sharing this pic!

and Molly has arrived home now too..

Molly, the second of the bears in my last giveaway has arrived in her new home as well. You can check her out at her new mum's blog.

Cuthbert is home

Cuthbert has arrived at his new home!
Check out the awesome place he gets to live in now! I think he's going to enjoy it more than being cramped onto my display shelf with all the other bigger bears taking up all the room!

Free Pattern!

The free Emma's Bears Pattern is now ready for download! Many Many Many thanks to my amazing friend who helped me get this looking so professional too.

I am totally hanging out to see how this bear looks made by others in different fur, different eyes, different techniques! So, if you do make a 'Gracie', and feel happy with showing it off to the world, send me an email at eleb2000@hotmail.com with your name and blog/website details if you have them, and I'll publish it here.

Happy sewing guys!

Gracie

Earlier this week I purchased some really sweet handmade dolls outfits from the display of goods the local craft group had for sale at the shopping centre. There were some amazing quilts and baby clothes and incredibly inventive stuffed toys... I could have gone crazy buying up things! But I limited myself to two outfits. One was a tiny pair of hot-pink doll's overalls, and the other a sweet dress and bloomers set. They are both so well made and even include some amazingly neat and tiny hand stitching! I really don't think they charged enough for the time that would have gone into them!

Tuesday I sat down and tweaked some of my existing patterns to make them work for the size/shape of the outfits. Gracie is the bear I built to fit the dress and pants set. They fit her so well you'd think the clothes had been made for her - not the other way round!

I used some of the design points I learn from playing around with Booth and Acorn's patterns last week to give Gracie's pattern a more girlish shaped head. The bear I made from this pattern originally was called Totole - and had quite a different look. I also knew I wanted Gracie to have fluffy cheeks, and know that sometimes my bears looks more boyish with facial hair - so tried my hardest to get her looking like a lady.

I think she does... just a grumpy lady! And her eyes were a bit of a pain in the rear end as well. They are handmade glass eyes, in the exact colours to match the dress, so I really wanted to use them. Being handmade though, the pupils aren't exactly centred, which leads to a slightly squinted look from Gracie. Its definitely not as bad as some of the other bears I've tried to make with these eyes... but enough to annoy me. After many attempts at re-setting the eyes and placing them differently, this was as good as they were getting! I think it actually gives her a bit more of a comical look as well!

So, as I promised on facebook, I will be offering Gracie's pattern as a free PDF download for anyone interested in having a go at making an Emma's Bears bear. Its a pretty simple pattern with nice shape, so should be suitable for most levels of experience. I hope to have the pattern available in the next 24hrs or so. So stay tuned!