New Year 2015

Good afternoon crafty types,

Plenty has happened between now and my previous post, and the delay was a wonderful long-term visit from friends and family alike. Friday (the 9th) was when our last guest left and so I've been able to find the time to get back on the computer to post for you all.

First, the new year greeted me with two sales! Yes! Two in one week! Two separate customers who both wanted custom cross-stitch patterns. The first was a simple conversion with my program, unlimited colors (ended at 206) and took around five hours to get all the symbols properly readable. The second took about six hours to do and was hand-drawn (digitally) over the original artwork to make the pattern, as she only wanted a small amount (ended at 19). So two totally different projects ending in two totally different results! [You can buy your own pattern here.]

On Etsy

On Etsy

It snowed on New Year's Eve, the twelfth time I'd ever seen snow in person, and so naturally I ran around taking photos. It made the perfect background for my two holiday-related dresses.

Mysterious Mysteries was revealed and enjoyed! The lovely ladies who received them are both listed on the deviantART link (their dA usernames) and now on the right side of this blog. You can read all about it on deviantART.

Mysterious Mysteries also included those spools I mentioned some posts ago. Yes! I was hiding them in plain sight! The spool patterns are also for sale right now, in a nice bundle of seven patterns. They took about an hour each to do so it would make a great beginner project. You can find those right here.

The promotional period for free shoes with purchase of a dress ended this past week. It didn't really bring anyone in like I would have hoped, so those are back to the regular sale slot on Etsy. In good news, though, a matching pair was sent and happily opened to the Halloween Mermaid dress that was purchased last summer.

The two sewing projects I've been working on have hit their 24+ hour marks which is always the sign that I'm ready to put them down and go work on something else! They're almost done, of course, it's just at this many hours I seem to want to go unpackage a different pattern and start my cycle all over again.

The flowers and butterfly has taken leaps and bounds since the last time I posted, so here's a great update picture for you. All that I have left are the leaves, the background, and some backstitching. Then, since I'm not going to be doing the fancy framing the kit suggests, it'll be for sale. (Surprise! Didn't see that coming, did you?)

My peacock is at the stage where he just needs the background and backstitching. He's turned out far prettier than I expected him to! He'll also be for sale at the end.

Now here's something that has been surprisingly difficult to find sources and information on: Nintendo allowing fanart to run wild. I've managed to track down [this page] and its source is a forum that I've never heard of, and so on. The other information (that I've been aware of from the start) is that this specifically applies to Japan, and I'm on edge waiting to see if it will apply to the USA. This is important to me because of the work I've been doing on Princess Peach. Yes, Peach! She's at 27 hours now and I'm just starting the lace up her gown. My original plan was to just have her as a personal piece, something I could use to become a Juried Member of the local art club, and generally show off my skills so that people might ask me to do custom commissions for them. I am hoping that I'll be able to sell other dresses made from this pattern. I feel that selling them should be okay, say if someone wants her in the black and gold coloring scheme, since I am not anywhere near "mass production" (each piece would still be hand made, and so on). For those wondering, yes, I do have plans to create a Princess Daisy version in the future, it's just not on the table at this time.

I've contacted the glorious Hannah Alexander of deviantART for permission to create some cross-stitch patterns based on her beautiful artwork. She has said yes! And now I'm just waiting for the handful I've requested without watermarks to be sent to me.

Hoo! That was a lot to cover! I hope all your holidays were splendid.
Until next week,
Ashley Mae
Pinky