Friday, April 8, 2016

Gale's Gallery XXII: New Plush Dies & What To Do With Them!

Hello Crafters!

I told myself that I wasn't gonna fall for this latest trend, but when I saw the chicken, it was all over.
I won't be buying tons of these "plush dies" as they run in the mid to upper $20 price point.  However, they are large, come with their own magnetic back, are precut and can be used on more than one surface (paper, chipboard, etc.)

I really try to find off the label uses for things to justify the expense.    With one tiny modification, I made it into a duck.  I think a quilt with hens/ducks in cool fabrics is on the docket, but for now I had some baby gift decorations to make.  Since they were for babies, I kept the embellishments to a minimum. They are lightly stuffed.  These can be made into ornaments or if you have toy dogs or cats...put a squeaker or catnip in them! You can definitely use other dies, they just won't have the holes.

The dies are available from My Favorite Things and Simon Says Stamp so far.  You will want to use a wool blend of felt and not the kids stuff as it will disintegrate.  If you get your felt from Ellen Hutson you can get individual colors for around $2 a large sheet.  These would be good dies for sharing among several friends with different dies.  I believe they will work in about any die cutting machine.

I only have the chicken die so far and here are my thoughts:

I love how it punches the holes, but beware it makes a mess if little felt dots bother you.  I poke them out over my craft table, then take the pieces up to sew in front of the TV.  It comes with a tiny little beak and eyes, which to me are too small to deal with.  I used a french knot for the eyes and

TIP ALERT!  I used the heart die for the beak!   Just flip it around and you will have a nice area to catch in your stitching of the body.   I feel so clever for doing that because none of the "famous" crafters have mentioned it to my knowledge!


Chick...

Chick...

Duck!!!


I just use plain old embroidery floss (3 strands) and do a backstitch around, but any stitch you like will be great!  There are several more pieces to the die cut set, but I didn't use them here.

Well, that's it for this time!

Gale

Coming very soon...How many animals can I make with one SSS plush bear die????  I just got it and I'm shooting for 10!


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