Cabin Fever & Toy Fair

On Sunday in the South End in Boston, I was at the Cabin Fever Show selling my handmade toys. After doing a lot of holiday shows back to back, it was nice to have some time to replenish stock. It felt great to have a large variety of animals in different sizes and colors. I loved seeing some of my SOWA regulars, and also meeting new people who just saw our work for the first time. It makes me look forward to the start of the outdoor show season in May. I'll be at the SOWA Market almost every Sunday from May-October.

After Cabin Fever on Sunday, I went to New York on Monday to participate in Toy Fair. Every year, thousands of people in the toy industry come to New York to see the latest and greatest toys. This year, Etsy partnered with a booth called the Creative Factor and invited some Etsy toy makers to give live demonstrations of their craft during the show. It was an interesting contrast to see people actually making toys in the same setting where most of the toys are manufactured in large factories overseas. We had a lot of interesting conversations with convention-goers, and met some great people along the way.

 Two of my Etsy seller neighbors were Ana & Aileen, who did crochet & needlefelting. I really enjoyed showing my step-by-step process of how the toys are made. I was also pleasantly surprised by the number of people who had already seen my toys (and were fans) either online or in person at a craft show.
Now it's time to get back to work and fill the orders I got this weekend!

Papercraft - Rabbit Lantern Box

Just in time to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit & Valentine's Day! Make a special little box for a loved one. It is small enough to be precious, but large enough to hold some small candies for a surprise treat! You can download this free papercraft project at Zooguu.com.

Year of the Rabbit!

To celebrate the year of the rabbit, February's desktop wallpaper calendar features a circle of adorable bunnies.

You can find this and other free downloads at zooguu.com in the Free Stuff section!

Weekly Download & Game: Silly Story!

When I was a kid, I loved playing Mad Libs. I know you loved playing it too, so you'll really enjoy the latest download & yes, finally, a Flash game: Zooguu Silly Stories! In the PDF print & play version, you can come up with your own words to fill in. The Flash game has some provided words to choose from for each of the categories - but there are a lot of possibilities! Visit the Zooguu Free Stuff page to start having fun!

Weekly Download: Coloring Page

For this week's download, I've created a new coloring page to add to our activity archive. This one features two penguins who have tangled their scarves together! Color the scarves in to help the penguins tell them apart. Enjoy!

Weekly Download: Thank You Notes

Have you written all of your thank you notes yet? If not, using the new Zooguu Thank You notes might take some of the pressure off. The newest free download is a PDF with four notes per page. Simply print the file out on card stock, cut the sheet into quarters along the provided lines, fill in the blanks and post them to friends and relatives!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Many thanks to those who purchased a handmade toy from us in 2010. It's because of you that we can continue to work full time as artists/toymakers. We're excited to share what new things we've cooked up for 2011... Starting with a pretty tough New Year's Resolution: We're planning on launching a new free download/activity every week on zooguu.com!

Our first is part of a monthly series of desktop wallpaper calendars - January showcases penguins playing in the snow! You can download it in 800x600 or 1440x900 format on zooguu.com's free stuff page.

Squids w/ Masks - Fool's Mansion Halloween Art Show

I originally wanted to make a squid wearing a ghost costume for this year's annual Halloween Art Show at the Fool's Mansion in Salem, MA. A good idea in theory, but in reality, covering up your hard work in a white sheet with eye holes doesn't really do it justice. So, I opted for making a mask. Then, I loved it so much that I had to make three. :)

Squids without masks, waiting patiently for Halloween to finally come.

The squids are really happy to have their masks and their "trick or treat" bags.

A better view of the details and hand embroidered bag.

The Halloween Art Show at the Fool's Mansion in Salem, MA opens on Saturday, Oct. 2. There will be an opening party that evening. Come check out some amazing local artists!

Plush You - Zooguu Angler Fish

This two-foot plush angler fish is heading out to Seattle to be part of this year's annual Plush You gallery show. This plush is particularly interesting because I tried a new technique, making my own pattern for the fabric. The body is made up of two pieces of fabric. The top layer is all free form drawn and hand cut, then appliqued on top of the lower layer.

Chicago - Renegade Craft Fair

Gubicza and I just got back from Chicago, a short 16-hour drive away. It's nice to take some time out and do a weekend show in another city. Since we had friends coming in from all over to do the show, we were able to relax, hang out, be tourists and eat some great food together.

Saturday started out with rain (we were booth 171):

Here's part of our setup:

The ornament display I built last week:

Friday night in Millenium Park:

Deep Dish Pizza:

And us at "the bean" (Cloud Gate):

Thanks, Chicago, for another great year. Even with the rainy start to the event, we ended up having an even better show than last year! We met some wonderful new people, saw familiar faces and had a great time.