Soft Dolls and Art Toys Archives - Page 42 of 56 - Ruffing’s

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Custom Hug Me! Slugs

These are Speedy and Sluggo, my latest custom Hug Me! Slugs. Speedy is made of fleece, and Sluggo is made from quilting cottons.

Sluggo is going to cheer up someone after his heart surgery, which we hope went really well, and Speedy is going to be a new friend for a boy. He’s going to join Phillippe, who was adopted by the same family. I enjoy hearing where my toys are going. It makes me feel good that they are making people happy. That’s very rewarding for me, and I like seeing people doing nice things for each other. That cheers me up.

You can find my Etsy shop listings for naming your own slug by clicking here. Or, of course, you can just ask me 🙂

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 2 Comments

Say it with a bird

This is my new little “Love Bird”. He’s part carrier pigeon.

I’ve been fiddling around for two days, investigating all the things he can say in addition to “I (heart) YOU.”

He favors brevity, but he gets his point across.

I’m going to be offering these as custom orders, with a choice of one or two colors, and a choice of message. Each one comes with a handmade hang tag. The message will also appear on the tag in quotes. I can do initials and names, as long as the names aren’t too long. Eight or nine characters or fewer, including spaces, seem to look best. Contact me for details about ordering one.

My Love Birds are made from 100% cotton quilting fabrics, which have been prewashed, and they are stuffed with Poly-fil polyester stuffing. Their features are machine appliquéd, and their tails are hand quilted. A small pouch of Poly-pellets in their tummies make them sit nicely.

Some of you might remember my Valentine Bird, which was my inspiration for making this pattern. For my Valentine Bird, I had added a tail and a heart to an existing Martha Stewart pattern. For my Love Bird, I drew a more compact body and tail, incorporating the whole top of the bird in one pattern piece, and machine appliquing on the wings, beak, and eyes.

Of course, the most important part of all the bits and pieces that go into making a Love Bird is LOVE.

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Pixie Kitten in progress and a new slug

This is actually the second Pixie Kitten original, one-of-a-kind folk art doll Max Bailey and I have been working on together. I got some really cute photos of the first, a Siamese, the other day, which I can’t wait to show…but I have to color correct them first. This Pixie Kitten is going to be a tabby with an orange tutu, or that is the plan so far.

She’s made of paperclay and cotton cloth. Her paperclay is still drying. Next she’ll be painted with acrylic paint, and varnished.

This is “Hope the Hug Me! Slug”. She’s spoken for already. As you can see, she’s excited and happy about this.

She and the Pixie Kitten have been speculating all afternoon about what her new home will be like.

Hope has her own, personalized hang tag too. I think she’s in my workroom trying it on right now.

Posted on September 9, 2009January 18, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Annie the Antelope, Handmade Original Sock Doll by Elizabeth Ruffing

New original, one-of-a-kind art toys are sprouting up around here. This is Annie the Antelope and her new Sluggie friend, my first custom Hug Me Slug.

I have to admit, I was having so much fun making Annie, that I wasn’t paying much attention to making her too realistic. In fact, when she was done, we were debating over whether or not she might be a new species. My friend, M., suggested she might be a Huggalope.

My mom won out and named Annie after herself.

This Annie is largely hand sewn, with big brown, hand-embroidered eyes. She has pretty eyelashes too. Annie is a sock doll, made from pink and brown socks, with a pink calico skirt, which has an elastic waist.

Her legs are long and graceful. I think she’s studied ballet.

I love her tail. It’s springy and has a pink yarn tuft on the end. It bounces when she dances.

Sluggie is very excited about the birthday party he will be attending soon. I hear it has a slug theme. I’m sure he will enjoy it tremendously.

Today we got an exciting package. I made a Labor Day sale purchase from Staples and used my $30 coupon that I got from their ink recycling rewards program.

I needed some help getting it out of its wrapping…

Ah, a new office chair. Finally, something comfortable to sit in while I work. It had picture assembly directions, and I couldn’t figure out how to use the tilting lever. I could call and ask, but I don’t feel like tilting anyway.

I’ll probably be wheeling this around from one desk to another, until we get another one.