Secret Project

I’ve decided to work on a secret non-demonals project which seems crazy since I just started my site a few weeks ago. What would possess me to not only spend my time creating something that is not even related to my line of stuffed animals, but to also make it secret?? I guess I caught the craft bug!.....Hmm, I wonder what a craft bug would look like or be called?

Anyway, back to what I was talking about. The idea of doing projects that would be non-demonals came to me after I created my sun demonal. It came out so wonderfully, with the two different colors and it looked so pretty and cheery, that I felt sure some people might want it without the wings. So, I considered doing other stuffed crafts and I'm taking that plunge now. Plus, I figured I may have ideas that would be better suited as a non-demonal and it would keep my mind flexed, interested, and unlimited.

I’m currently working on things that will be gifts for people which is why they have to be secret. However, it will be an extreme step forward because I will be moving from a kind of 2-D design to a more 3-D design. Not only that but I will be using fleece instead of felt, so I’ve made that next commitment into making my crafts with material that is in line with the texture and feel that I want. After all, if they’re stuffed animals they need to be soft and plushy. You might not really be able to snuggle up with them because of their size, but you should want to nonetheless!! That is one of the absolute joys of stuffed animals, you know. : )

So, yesterday I met up with Puppatoons whose enthusiasm for crafts and fabrics and creativity and fun little things to use is just so endearing that she made me want to be more skilled than I currently am just so I could do more!! We went to Hobby Lobby and she showed me various parts of the store, pointing things out that I could think of using and giving me tips on what to consider with my own crafts. I bought a yard of fleece material and hope to start using it this weekend. I have patterns for some of the things cut out already, so once I cut them out in the fleece I can start sewing and figuring out how to make stuffed crafts with more contours. One of the gifts is more complicated than the other in this regard, so I believe I’ll have to look for more tutorials. I’m having a hard time visualizing how to take a drawing, puff it up in my mind so it’s 3-D, turn it around so I’m cutting it down the middle and then flatten it back out again so I have the shape I'll need. I don’t want to limit myself to only sewing pieces together the way I’ve been doing. I won’t necessarily move away from that type of stuffed animal, ones with a front and back but no real sides, top and bottom, but I want to have options.

Unfortunately, I won’t have any pictures to show for a little bit so I hope that won’t hinder anyone’s enjoyment of my site. I plan to still blog with information about what I’m doing since I don’t want the site to lack content while I’m working on this. If I’m lucky, these projects won’t take forever and I can post pics of my efforts in the near future.

The Demon Hearts

I had all of the demon hearts on our dining room table to keep them out of the way of possible destruction. They looked so colorful, cute and inviting all together that I just couldn't resist taking a picture of them. Their existence has been short, both individually and as a group, but I'm already in love with entire bunch. I mean just look at them!! Don't you just want to hug them?! They have such personality and life that I can see them flying off this page and around my head. Wow, what a twisted mobile over a baby's crib they'd all make! Sorry, that's neither here nor there in terms of my demonals site but the thought just came to me. That would actually make a pretty neat decoration in anybody's home, whether it was some sort of mobile hanging in a room or displayed all together on a shelf. *happy sigh* Please don't mistake that for self-congratulation! I'm a sucker for stuffed animals, no matter who has made them.

Last of the 7 Demon Hearts!

Here they are......the last three hearts!! Let's count them off.....Neurotic (pink), Surly (purple) and Lazy (brown). I finished both Surly and Lazy this weekend, and it feels like these last hearts went faster than when I first started out. Hopefully, I'm getting better at the whole process, and I don't need to linger over each part because I feel more confident.

Neurotic needs a bit more work, I think. When I was positioning the eyes, I decided I liked the aesthetic of placing one eye higher than the other. It made her look a little off balance, squirrelly, unstable. I enjoyed the possibility of that so much that I did the same with the wings. However, the execution failed a bit once the demon heart was stuffed. The difference doesn't seem to show up as much, at least to me, so when I do this one again in better material I'm going to have to offset the eyes and wings a bit more.

Surly is pretty straightforward. He's just a grumpy guy that's going to take offense to most anything you say and do. I thought the sharp indent at the top of the heart helped to separate him from Argumentative, as well as having eyes that look narrowed. Both make him look annoyed rather than ready to pick a fight. Hopefully that is. I picked purple because it's a bit darker and more muted than some of the other colors, yet at the same time it's a strong one so I felt it might match his personality.

Lazy is probably the least distinctive of the demon hearts, at least in terms of its shape. I didn't want to go with fat because I did that for Gloomy, but more importantly I didn't want the connotation of lazy = fat. So I made it a bit taller than a normal heart shape, yet plump enough so it's not very angular. The eyes too are essentially basic in their regular old rectangular shape, but by tilting them up they make Lazy look a little sleepy. I decided to droop the wings down to hammer home that lackadaisical attitude. I'm a little afraid though it's just going to make him look depressed, but we'll see. Now that I think about it, I probably should have down that to a lesser extent with Gloomy. Something to keep in mind! I originally assigned yellow as Lazy’s color, but it’s such a cheery color that I decided it just wouldn’t work. There weren’t many other color choices at Hobby Lobby without going with a shade of one I was already using. So, I’ll have to live with cocoa to see if I like it.

Say Hello to Argumentative and Mischievous!

My family of demon hearts just got bigger by two. I'd like to introduce all of you to.......Argumentative (green) and Mischievous (orange)! I'm quite happy with them. In fact, I think they came out spectacularly! To my mind they have so much personality and verve, what with the vibrant colors and those expressive eyes. I'm still amazed at how well those scraps worked out as eyes from all the wing pairs I did first. Seeing the different shapes the scraps made helped me realize I could have eyes that weren't just your normal round ones or even half circles.

The thickness of Argumentative's eyes just help to make him look that much more confrontational and miffed. I love the thin shape to the heart too. You can just imagine him standing straight and tall, eyes narrowed and in your face! I stuffed him a little tighter than the others to add to his nature, making him that much stiffer.

Then there's cute little Mischievous! With those sassy, upturned eyes, the tilt to the wings and the slant to the shape of the heart, she's out to cause trouble and loving every minute of it! I'm quite excited about the design of this one too. The slant to the wings was a wonderful coincidence. When I pinned them on the back piece, I happened to have the top of the heart straight rather than positioned in its natural slant. So when I flipped it around, those wings added this great character beat that seemed to perfectly match the trait of the heart! Plus, I love orange so she's got that going for her as well. : )

Meet Gloomy and Megalomaniacal!!

I didn't get much done this past week. I had a headache a couple of the days, was really tired another, and was essentially lazy for the rest or just wasn't into working on my demonals. In my own defense, however, I did do something at work during my lunch and breaks. Rather than come up with another demonal, I thought I'd concentrate on nailing down the 7 demon hearts. I already had the colors for them, and I decided I would try to make each one a different shape with eyes to "match" the personality. So during the week, though I didn't do much at home, I drew the 7 hearts at work. It doesn't sound like much, but I had to erase and erase and erase trying to get both sides of a heart to match as well as make sure each heart looked how I wanted. One night later in the week, I did feel guilty as I was lying in bed getting ready to read or watch television, so I ended up working on a couple of designs for a new banner on the demonals site. (Ha, I wasn't as lazy as I thought!! I just didn't sew anything until Friday and the weekend.)

Shawn and I were off this past Friday, and we ended up cleaning the apartment, so I didn't start on the demon hearts until Friday evening. Over the weekend, I cut out the heart patterns as well as the wing pattern I drew to use for all of them. I looked at the felt that I had and realized that I wouldn't be able to do every one just yet. But, I ended up changing the color for one of the demon hearts because I had this really great blue that I wanted to use and thought it would be a good match in terms of one of the demon heart traits. So, all in all, I was ready to work on 5 of the 7 hearts.

First I cut out the felt and sewed all the wing pairs I would need. That way I could get that out of the way and completed. Then I did the same for the 5 demon hearts I could do. After that, it was time to pick out the eyes. I spent a decent amount of time doing this, searching through some of the black scraps I had to find shapes that could help convey the trait of each one. With those chosen, I was ready to start sewing!! By Sunday night, I had two of my hearts finished.....Gloomy (blue) and Megalomaniacal (red).

Looking at both of them, I'm not sure the wings are going to work. I think they may need to be shorter and less pointy. I wasn't sure if the position of the wings worked either, and mentioned to Shawn that they might look better coming out from the back like the sun demonal. But he said he liked them the way I had them, and thought it made a better aesthetical design for the demon hearts. So, I guess I'll keep them coming off the sides, but just smaller. I'll work that out later with a quick test heart to be sure.

Demonals is a Go!

Shawn and I worked on setting up my site at Blogger yesterday. By early evening, my demonals site was launched!! I picked a template that I liked and then we fiddled with the colors to make it more representative of me, added a couple of things to the sidebar, and uploaded all my posts and pictures. I started writing blog entries prior to this because I wanted to get a little bit of a buffer going. That way I wouldn’t have just one post and one demonal when I started out online. Once everything was in place, I scrolled down to view it all and thought it looked great! It was pretty, to me anyway since I’m crazy about purple and orange, and it was simplistic in design so not too busy. At some point I’ll be working on changing the header and putting up something more interesting, but for now what is there will do.

I’ve been tweeting to a certain extent about what I’ve been doing, but I don’t think it felt fully real until I announced my site. I was both excited and nervous as soon as I pressed the update button on Twitter!! The longer I sat there the more nervous I got, so I went into the living room and started thinking about what demonal I would make next. My mind was empty of ideas, the knowledge that my site was out there now swirling around in my head! It’s kind of stupid in a way to be so anxious about the whole thing. It’s not like there would suddenly be this influx of people as soon as I made the announcement. In fact, most likely demonals will be yet another site on the internet that is being visited only by the person who created it. But it’s still nerve-wracking to me because I’ve officially put myself and my idea out there for all to see. What will anyone that sees it think? Will they like it? Will my lack of skill make them wonder why I’m humiliating myself by showing it to anyone that comes by my site?

Whatever people may think, I need to focus on doing this for myself. Other people digging your idea, your imagination, and your creations would be great, but even if no one comes to my site and my demonals are only ever displayed in my own home this is my project and something I’m enjoying. Bottom line, it’s all about whether I’m happy with making them and blogging about them. As long as I have that, I can’t place too much importance on the rest. For my own sake.

The Demonal Duo Becomes a Solo Act

Still going with simple shapes, I decided I’d do my fourth and fifth test projects in tandem as a sun and moon. It’s actually caused a strange thing to happen so soon in the start of my new hobby. I’ve started thinking outside the demonals before I’ve even truly begun with them. I drew wings on the moon and they ended up looking cloud-like which I thought would be a nice compliment to both pieces. I ended up drawing a different design for them, something a little more wing-like, but I still went rounded so softer and perhaps a little cloud-like. But it made me think that a moon with clouds attached to it would be a great piece and the sun would be decorative with the rays in a different color. I’ve already considered doing a couple of things separate for the demonals to give to some people, so I’m keeping that in the back of my mind. Perhaps I’ll end up having the demonals as my main line of stuffed animals and supplement it with certain pieces that I just want to be stuffed crafts by themselves. But that will be fodder for the future. I need to keep myself focused and headed in one direction not to mention run with that for awhile before I even consider branching out into anything else. It’s fun to think about it though! I’ve even thought the demonals would make a really cute cartoon given that we’re very cartoon centric in our house, but that’s just me being all fancy-free with my musings.


I completed the sun this weekend and I’m pretty happy with the result. I think the rays will look better with different colored thread, but for now I’m not worrying about it because I intend to do all the designs that I like over again. At this point, I’m just seeing what works and trying different things. This time I attached the wings to the sun on the back so they’re more realistic as far as wings go. Not bad all in all. This piece was a bitch to work with given the wings coming out of the back and all the rays! The thread kept getting caught in something, but I’ll either figure out a better way of doing it or that will just be what I’ll have to deal with when making the sun.


I started on the moon late last night, but after stuffing it I called it quits on the design. It’s too thin and just doesn’t work as a stuffed animal. If I made it bigger, I’m afraid I would need to make it too big in order for it to look and feel right. Either that or do a different design for the moon, more like a three-quarters moon, and I didn’t really want to use that particular aesthetic. I may go back to it one day, but for now I’ll move onto another one. Not sure what yet.

The Thing

My third test project was quite nearly a bust! I started it before we went to Florida over the July 4th weekend, and then packed up all my stuff so I could not only keep working but also have something to do while we sat around with Shawn’s parents. I did indeed work on it and from start to first finish, I kept making mistakes. It just didn’t seem to be fitting together the way the others had, not physically but aesthetically. I began with the idea of making a demonal 8-ball, but I hadn’t purchased any white felt since I don’t tend to like the color white. I decided to make it Halloweeny and replace the white with orange. I wanted to try sewing the wings on so they stuck out the back of the piece rather than off the sides. I ended up also making the wings orange as well since I thought the wings might get lost in the black of the main part of it. That was one of the mistakes I made……I forgot to leave the ends unsewn so I could do that! Well, after sewing the last stitch I looked at the end product and thought……meh. I didn’t really like it at all. There just wasn’t anything about it that appealed to me. I told Shawn that it kind of looked better when I flipped it a quarter turn, but then of course the wings weren’t right. In disappointment, I set it aside and started watching an episode of the TV show I had on in the background while sewing. After it ended, I picked the 8-ball back up and snipped the threads that attached the wings to it. I had almost ditched the whole thing a couple of times, but since I had powered through instead I thought I’d at least improve upon a bad design. So, I turned it so the 8 looked like eyes and then re-attached the wings. Now, it’s just this…..thing, but at least I consider it to be better than it was. Sew and learn!

My Beautiful Green Balloon

For my second test project, I decided I could use the balloon doodle I had already drawn since it was an easy shape to do. So I picked the green felt because I liked the neon color and it always looks great with black. I did the same steps with this one as I had done with the heart with one small exception. I wanted to see how you could create a stuffed animal without the stitches showing, so I sewed the balloon pieces of felt together and using the small hole I had left for stuffing it I turned it inside out. It worked pretty well, though I’m going to have to get different colored thread if I want to hide the stitches. That will be easier to do with a matching color than with black. Doing it this way also gave it a different shape and feel to the stuffed animal overall, so it was a new technique I could use for the demonals based on type or even just whim. However, I still need to figure out what I can do with the hole that’s left for stuffing. I had to sew that on the outside, so I’d like to change that to make sure the stitches are at least nearly invisible. I believe that will call for some research on my part!

One neat thing that happened with this project was due to a mistake I made. If you’re going to make a mistake, a happy accident is the best outcome! I stuffed the balloon before I added the eyes. On the one hand, I was afraid that polyfil would end up all around the eyes having been pulled through by the needle. Luckily that didn’t happen. What did occur, however, was that I wasn’t as adept at keeping the stitches close to the black felt of the eyes. It resulted in some of the stitches being slightly away from the black felt and much more visible against the green felt of the balloon. The great thing about it though is with the thin, long shape of the eyes those stitches ended up looking like eyelashes in a way! Hey, who says the balloon demonal wasn’t a girl all along?