Soft Dolls and Art Toys Archives - Page 23 of 50 - Ruffing’s

Posted on July 16, 2011July 31, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 2 Comments

Three fleece Hug Me Kittens who scampered off already

I finished three new fleece Hug Me Kittens this week, and they were snapped up before I was finished photographing them. 🙂 They went on their way yesterday. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop.

I love this lemon yellow,

and the silly expression,

and the funny tail.

These came out about 8 inches tall.

These are my gold and orange fleece colors.

More custom Hug Me Slugs went off this week too, to their new homes.

I received this adorable photo of a new collector of Hug Me Slugs! So cute.

I visited the handsome Jack and Ignatius, two rescue kittens. Jack just got neutered this week and will be up for adoption soon. Update: Jack has been adopted.

He’s so photogenic. These are two of my favorite photos of him.

His playing and cuddling buddy, Ignatius, who is beautiful too.

Ignatius is available for adoption already. Update: Ignatius was adopted today, at his very first adoption event!

Posted on July 8, 2011July 31, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Batik Hug Me Slugs handmade stuffed animals and an original art quilt

Years ago, we collected a box of beautiful batik fabrics for me to use in my art quilt projects, such as “Stargazer” above.

I decided recently that I’d try them out on my Hug Me Slugs too. These are my first batik slugs. I had to alter my pattern a few times, to get them the size and shape I wanted them to be, as the cotton fabric handles differently from the fleece I use. I had to make my pattern shorter and wider to get them to be the same size as my fleece slugs.

I have three 9-inch batik slugs, and three 7-inch batiks slugs to start. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop.

One of the slugs above was named by her adopter in honor of our Josephine! Josephine is such a devoted office assistant. She has been helping me with our orders. As you can see, she keeps tabs on me too, to make sure I do everything right.

When we are not at the computer, I sit and sew and watch movies. It has been sweltering here. The ducks have been staying mostly on the pond, but we were lucky to have a visit from them last week, along with their new ducklings.

We were amazed these tiny babies made it all the way up the hill. We were delighted that we had the opportunity to see them. We had only seen them for the first time, from across the pond, a day or two before.

Posted on June 30, 2011July 31, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Hug Me Slugs helping cats and kittens

I have twenty 7-inch slugs up for adoption. Five dollars from the sale of each of them will go to a local cat rescue, Alley Cats and Angels of NC. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop.

I have a limited number of Hug Me Slugs in the 7-inch size, as I pre-cut my fabric to stay organized. Sometimes I have a small piece of fleece, and there is just enough room for a little slug like these, which means there are some unusual prints in with this group too.

Some of these prints are really neat, like these stars, and the stripes below.

The 7-inch Hug Me Slugs fit right in a toddler’s hand, like this adorable little boy’s.

These red slugs grew a bit more than I expected, and they are a little taller and more slender than the others. A friend dubbed them “super model slugs” 🙂

As always, Josephine has been helping me, but today, she was extra helpful, obsessively helpful, you might say.

She felt the need to pitch in with my, or “our”, computer work more than usual. She has been an integral part of all my photo editing and posting today.

Jack has been doing great. He is in a foster home awaiting adoption. Stormy, who is Josephine’s cousin or half-sister’s sister (no one knows for sure as the mamas in their colony were sharing mothering duties), was adopted by Jack’s fosterer. Stormy is crazy about Jack, as you can see in this photo from a couple of weeks ago. Update: Jack has been adopted.

I have more art toys to finish, crowds of them. These custom slugs went out this week. One went to someone on Buckingham Palace Road, in London. I thought that was so cool. Had the slug gone to the actual palace, that would have tickled me tremendously, but she is pretty nearby. I wish people would send me more photos of their slugs in their new homes. I always enjoy that.

I got a new camera this week. The sensor on mine went. I need to learn a whole lot about this new camera! I am looking forward to working on my camera skills. I haven’t even read the manual yet. I was relieved just to be able to take these photos!

Posted on June 12, 2011July 31, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Ever-growing piles

My workroom is getting very full! I took this video last week, and now there are at least twice as many art toys in progress, squeezing me into the center of the room.

I received such a nice email from a lady who purchased a Hug Me Slug for her daughter’s eleventh birthday. She said her daughter gave her a list of ten things she wanted for her birthday, and a Hug Me Slug was number one! Not only that, but iPod was number two! She told me I beat the iPod out. How cool is that?

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

For some time now, I’ve been meaning to make a big Hug Me Slug for my cousin, who is still battling peritoneal cancer, and who has been unable to eat for weeks now. I found it hard to do, I guess because I felt so sad about the whole situation. I sent this blue guy out and I hope he gives my cousin a smile.

Over the past two weeks, I have been stuffing toys by the bunches, mostly in the smaller sizes, but I stuffed one extra in the 12-inch size, for no one in particular. This Friday, I received a request for a custom 12-inch Hug Me Slug, and in the color I had just happened to have chosen. From the gift note, it sounded like the Hug Me Slug was for a seriously ill person. I checked and it was indeed for a baby, who was potentially going into the hospital this weekend, and who may need a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy. I am so glad I had that slug ready! I will be able to get her out right away on Monday. I hope that little girl gets all well very soon, and I hope her new friend gives her some comfort.

I wanted to make a special card for her. I digitally colored the card above, using Painter and Photoshop Elements. This is one of my first efforts. I am still very much uncoordinated with the Wacom tablet and pen, and I still feel lost when I open Painter. I was pleased I was able to sign my name with the pen! I still have trouble even staying in the lines. I wanted a card that was simple, that would appeal to a baby. I hope to make more pictures for kids, once I get the hang of this.

Josephine has been helping me in every way she can. She tried to take my Wacom pen away many times. She still takes all my pens, turns on the Wacom tablet, and jumps on the keyboard. She even tries to call people on Skype!

“nnn” is not on our contact list. One day she may pick someone who is.

Marie, who is fostering Jack, brought him over for a visit. Jack is doing very well. He played in his carrier, with a fresh catnip knot I made.

He’s been healing up nicely.

Eventually, he wanted to come out and play too. He had just had his leukemia test, which came out all clear. So, he was able to run around with the other cats.

Once he discovered the Bigfoot cat gym, he was obsessed. Jack loves to climb! That’s not surprising, considering I found him living in a tree.

He was determined to make it to the top, as small as he is.

Of course, he made it, because he is a go-getter. 🙂 I hope he gets his own cat tree in his new home, once he is adopted. Marie is still taking care of him, and he’s still got that stitch to get, to reattach his lower lip, but he’s been doing great. Update: Jack has been adopted.