Me and My Studio Archives - Page 6 of 34 - Ruffing’s

Posted on July 26, 2012July 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

I signed us up for Twitter

We’re now on Twitter, under my name, Elizabeth Ruffing @elizaruffing. So far, I look like this slug, and my name is Eliza because someone else already had my full name. I figured out how to Tweet, and have three followers so far, each one a friend 🙂 If you’d like to join me, please do.

I’ve been editing photos and updating our Ruffing’s blog today, along with making and resizing this background photo for our Twitter page. That took me I don’t know how many tries, before I got it to fit.

These are some of the miniature kitten dolls that are coming up on our Ruffing’s blog. I’ve got lots of photos, that we took yesterday, and some from before, to edit, and posts to post. I hope I can get some sewing in.

I entered our Opal the Pixie Kitten, by Max Bailey and myself, in the DOLLS Magazine Discover a Dollmaker Cover Contest. The staff will pick finalists and then open the contest up for voting on their Facebook page. They’ll post them two at a time, each business day in August. Each round only lasts 24 hours.

My mom helped me out by taking a photo of me with one of my bunnies, for Etsy. She took a million photos because I kept laughing. It was so hot out there on the porch. I used this one on my Etsy “About” page, which I set up yesterday. It has a little slideshow of photos and some biographical information. I feel like I’ve been glued to the computer for at least a couple of days! I need to pull myself away and go get an order in the mail.

Posted on July 12, 2012July 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Printing prints, cards, and tags

I spent my day printing, trimming, signing, and bagging my art prints, and my mom’s. The ones above are mine. I still have more printing to do. I printed until I ran out of art paper and had to order some more. We ordered more of the same archival-quality heavyweight cotton rag art paper I was using. We get ours from inkjetart.com. I’ll have to wait for it to get here before I can resume my print-printing project.

I made up these Hug Me Slug cards to include with my toys, along with my business cards. I printed these greeting cards on card stock, with our website information on the back. I printed my business cards on Epson watercolor paper.

I trim everything I print by hand, with a pair of scissors, including my hang tags, which I then glue onto scrapbook paper and trim again.

We have rain on and off this week, which is a nice break from the record heat. These two found another use for our umbrella. They’ve made it into a boat. They must be planning on going sailing.

Posted on June 19, 2012July 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

All eyed and hearted

This is what I’ve been up to for the past two weeks. I picked up more batiks, feeling inspired after going to a trunk show that featured colorful paper-pieced quilts by Deb Karasik.

I started with greens. I finished the edges of my fabric and prewashed it before I cut and sewed a batch of Hug Me Slugs and Hug Me Bugs.

The batik toys, and cotton toys in general, take more time to make and are a fussier to work with than the fleece toys, with so many curves to clip and Fray Check on the inside.

After the machine sewing and the stuffing are done, the hand sewing begins. Their bottoms are sewn on by hand. I embroidered their smiles and attached the whites of their eyes with a blanket stitch and floss. They looked like zombies. Then I moved on to the hearts and pupils. Now they can see!

I still have to photograph them individually, and post them in my Etsy toy shop.

Hope everyone enjoyed Father’s Day. This is my dad holding me when I was new to the world.

Our lawn was covered with and abundance of pretty dandelions this week, and the butterfly bushes and the shoal creek chaste tree have been in bloom.

The bees and butterflies love them, and they are such beautiful shades of lavender, blue, and purple.

The one above is the shoal creek chaste tree, and below are the two, the butterfly bush arching over the other.

And this is a special sleepy cat flower.

Posted on May 29, 2012July 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Rainbow bugs and slugs

The rainbow bugs and slugs I was working on in my last post are all up and ready.

I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop.

I’m still sewing together Hug Me Toad bodies.

I finished some solid color slugs too.

We are starting to get some hot days. I ordered a bike trainer so I could ride my bike in the living room, where I can enjoy air conditioning.

I thought the “kittens” would be afraid, but they were both curious, especially Phoebe, who is the nosier of the two. They may be getting big to call kittens, especially Bertie, but they still look like kittens to us.

I have a climbing block on the front tire to keep the bike level.

My mom took some photos of me and I stitched these two together, clones of myself.

I have more photos to edit of Max Bailey’s cat and kitten dolls. I’m in the process of getting these posted over on our Ruffing’s blog. The kittens above are, from left to right, Ingrid, Francine, Mitzi, Stephanie, and Lola.

I’m also going through my rescue cat and kitten photos of the past couple years, seeing what might work for the Alley Cats and Angels’ fundraiser calendar.