SnipPets Celebrating!

My newest little SnipPet critters are ready to celebrate birthdays, baby showers or simply the joy of every day! I created these with the hope that they would be very special, unique cake toppers that could be displayed and treasured in a child's room or nursery for many years. Happy celebrating!!!

STJ update tonight!

The other two pieces in my Halloween Circus animal trio will be available tonight at midnight for the Spookytime Jingles update. I am thrilled that the giraffe and owl piece sold this weekend, so that is great news for the auto body shop cats! 100% of the sales of the pig and elephant will also go toward feral villas and feeding stations for them. (See previous post for more details.)

A little twist on The Owl and the Pussycat...

First of all, I hope each of you had a wonderful weekend and a lovely Mother's Day. I got started on spring cleaning and was finally able to get outside yesterday to work on the patio and backyard. The weather was perfection! I scrubbed the patio floor, cleaned the grill, pulled out the furniture and did some planting and "decorating" in my flower beds. Then I turned up my tunes and took a nice, long run. It was a GREAT day.

As for my artwork...finished up this piece on Friday afternoon....

The owl and the pussycat have decided to trade in their boat for a hot air balloon and take their romance from the sea to the sky! This piece is sort of The Owl and the Pussycat meets Alice in Wonderland meets The SnipPets :). It will be available tomorrow for the Pfatt Marketplace update.

Sailor Sam has come to life....

Smiling Sailor Sam SnipPet is finished and has packed his bags to head to the UK! Paws crossed that he has a safe trip to his wonderful home.

Next project on the table....

First of all, Happy First day of spring!!!!!!! I have been counting the seconds for warm weather, flowers and chirping birds to arrive and it is finally here. I am BEYOND thrilled that the snow and ice are over for now. It is so nice to see my feral kitties rolling around in the sunshine and napping comfortably in the grass. I can't wait to join them in the yard and clean up the flower beds and get some new lovelies planted. But for now, I have lots of work waiting at the art table.

I am working on a few custom rabbits and this very special "Sailor Sam" doll. I am creating this by request for a wonderful children's book writer and illustrator. I will give more details about her and the significance of Sam soon. Here is my sketch of him and the armature I built last week.

Alice has stepped off the pages...

...and come to life! I just finished this custom order Alice doll. She is 8" tall and will live in her very own "Alice's Palace" in Atlanta.

I have never done a sculpted piece in black and white, so this was a challenge and also very fun. You know I LOVE color, but it was nice to not have to worry about picking the perfect colors. I used black paint, ink and pastels to get desired illustrative effect.

A little magic for the Pfatt Update!

Ta Daaaaaaa! I pulled a rabbit out of my hat for the Pfatt Update today...ha ha, please excuse that terribly obvious pun!! The Pfatt Marketplace opens up today at a new time: 10 a.m. Pacific (11 Mountain, noon Central, 1 p.m. Eastern).

...and the pull toy armatures are built!

I decided to document the steps of the process involved in creating my pull toys. So, here is step #2...armatures! I laid the illustrations down on my desk and cut pieces of computer packing foam to match the shapes and sizes of the animals. I then glued everything together with epoxy. I used dowels and wire for legs and tails. The wire then has to be wrapped with floral tape to help the clay stick to it.

I added a rough layer of clay to all of the armature yesterday afternoon (not shown in photo), so hopefully today I will make some headway on the detailed sculpting. This part takes awhile because I have to let certain parts dry before adding more clay.

More soon....

Silly Sketches...pull toys are on the way!

I realized that it has been almost a year since I have made an animal pull toy! I love creating them, but they require lots of uninterrupted and focused sculpting time. So, I decided to dedicate the next few weeks to making 3 fun little critter carts. I have my work cut out for me, and I am excited to get rolling on them!

Here are the sketches that I will be working from. I usually do very VERY rough sketches for my dolls, but for the pull toys, I really need to plan them out and illustrate the animals in a more detailed, accurate way. And I am also trying to work on my illustration skills for a future project that is brewing in my brain.

A grinning kitty with a major sweet tooth...



A blissful bunny acrobat on a dotted ellie...



...and a stack of farm friends in fun colors.

Hodges the Holiday Hedgehog

Hodges has been dreaming of sugarplums and lots of holiday treats. It looks like he has already filled his tummy with plenty of yummy!

This cutie pie guy just headed into my Etsy shop.

Pfatt update sneak peek!

I feel like I have been totally out of the blog loop over the past few weeks. I have had some challenges lately, but hopefully things will be back to normal soon. I have LOTS of ideas for fun Christmas SnipPets and am anxious to get rolling on them!!!

I just finished up a holiday owl for the Pfatt update tomorrow. This one is a bit larger and more detailed/realistic than my Halloween owls. I think he has sort of a Scandinavian look. He is quite dapper with his golden acorn cap, diamond dust encrusted star wand and red and green collar.

Another Halloween Trio and an Angel Cat!

Here is a little trio of rascally raccoons in their snazzy Halloween costumes! They are dressed and ready for the Spookytime Jingles update tomorrow night at midnight.



This happy holiday angel kitty will also be up for grabs.


This happy holiday angel kitty will also be up for grabs.

WIPs VegHeads and Mini JOLs

My desk is looking like a vegetable garden at the moment. I just started a series of "VegHeads" and a few miniature jack o' lanterns. While I was at the beach, I sat at the edge of the water pondering new designs and decided to combine my Tweedle boy faces with my vegetarian tendencies. Seems like a good combo for summer, I hope?? So, here is what is transpiring so far....a turnip, a carrot and a corn cob. I am about to sit down and finish their faces and feet and figure out how to attach the leaves to the stalks. Stay tuned!

The Tweedles

I finished up this pair of tiny Tweedles this weekend. I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed creating them! If they weren't commissioned by a special customer, I never would have attempted them. I am grateful that I had some gentle prodding to push me outside of my comfort zone. They are 3 1/2" tall and will go into a miniature Tweedledee and Tweedledum inspired room. Bon Voyage, boys!!

Summery SnipPets available tonight!

Hop on over the the Pfatt Marketplace for a new array of artistic treasures from all of the wonderful Pfatt artists! I will have a frog candlestick doll and a butterfly silhouette necklace up for grabs. Here is a sneak peek!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mamas out there!!!!

Presenting Puss in Boots!

It seems like it has taken me forever to finish this gleeful kitty! I think I posted a photo of him unpainted weeks ago. Anyway, it's a happy Friday because he is live and in color now! I think that his ear to ear grin purrfectly illustrates my feeling about this warm, breezy spring weather.

So, without further adieu, meet Puss in Boots! (I was intending to save him for the Pfatt Marketplace update on the 10th, but haven't decided for sure yet...will keep you posted.)





And here is my REAL Puss in Boots. Rooney is our exquisitely handsome orange tabby boy. Love you, Rooney!!

Princess Pekingese

Shoowee, i just got home from delivering little Lulu to her new home. It about did me in. I was a wreck all day and then started crying about an hour before i had to leave. Then, as i peeled her away from her brother, i lost it again. Ugh, why do i have to get so emotional???! Thankfully, Lulu's new family was extremely nice and fell in love with her even more when they saw her in person. I just get so worked up because there are never any guarantees when you let them go. You just have to use your best judgment and take a leap of faith. I'll never, ever forget that one eyed sweet pea and her tough tiny spirit!

As for my artwork....haven't been getting much of that done lately and need to get focused again! I did finish the commissioned pekingese princess piece that i have been working on for quite some time. I had a hard time getting decent photos of her because of the size and shape of the sculpture, but here she is anyway....

Halloween SnipPet Munchkins!!

I FINALLY have some new SnipPet art dolls to share! I have had lots of creations in the works on my table...it's just taken me awhile to get any completed with all the cat craziness going on.

These Halloween munchkins are little trick or treatin' critters....spooky cute ghouls dressed in their favorite costumes! I really wanted to create some small dolls that reflect my love of vintage toys and retro style. I did some research and made a list of common themes in the styles of old fashioned dolls and toys. Very simple, sweet faces and shapes were a definite detail that needed to be utilized.

I haven't decided where i am going to list them. I had intended to include them in the next Spookytime Jingles update, but i may put them in my Etsy shop and make some more for the update. If any of them strike your fancy, let me know!

So, without further adieu, here are Emmie Elephant, Clara Kitty, Paulie Pup, Rosalie Rabbit and Pippin Pig.

Fairytale Frog and Cat Temples

Oh my gosh, I thought that I would never get these two creations photographed and posted in my etsy shop!! These two pieces have a lot of hours in them with many little sculpted and painted details, so I wanted all of that to show well! I tried EVERYTHING to get good pictures of them and finally had to settle with what you see below. I went inside and outside...tried various backgrounds, lighting....nothing seemed to work. The frog looked SO dark and shadowed if I used a light background but dark tones didn't work either. So, a fern and the grass ended up being the best option. After all of this struggling, I went ahead and ordered a mini photo studio on Amazon.com. It includes a light box (20" x 20"), 2 lights and a tripod. I can't wait for it to arrive so that i can start experimenting!!

Presenting my fairytale frog and cat temples with topiaries.....both will be available in my etsy shop shortly. The frog and the cat are both about 14" tall. Also, i wanted to let you all know that if you ever want to purchase one of my pieces but just can't afford the full price all at once, I am more than happy to take payments in monthly installments...just shoot me and email and we can chat! snippetgirl@gmail.com

New SnipPet Spooks for the SpookyTime Jingles Update!

It's my favorite time of the month...SpookyTime Jingles update day! These pieces will be available at midnight tonight on my STJ Halloween page.

I am starting on a tower/temple/topiary series that I am really excited about. So, i decided to create a Halloween version first. This Frog Temple is full of little spooky cute hand sculpted details....a frog, an owl, a mini moon, tiny perching blackbirds and of course, a happy jack o' lantern. The cone part of the piece was layered with paint to give it a mossy, aged effect, and I painted small creeping vines all over it.




My juggling circus animals seem to be the favorite in my etsy shop, so a black cat juggling pumpkins seemed like the purrrrrfect Halloween version! Esmeralda the Cat is having a fabulous time with her giggling pumpkins and her favorite pair of mouse shoes! Again, I used several layers of paint and stain to give her more depth and texture.