Sweet and Salty Gingerbread Men

I usually don't do Christmas specific items, but these little guys were begging to come out of my silkscreen machine.  I did a few nice, a few mean and a few mangled.  I really love how they turned out and am anxious to see how my little gingerbread army does at my event this weekend!

See what else is cooking over at www.flakyfriends.com! 

Happy Halloween from the Flaky Friends!

Not that I can compete with that owl that was posted last, but I did want to share my latest plushie technique. After thinking about it for a year, I finally got set up with screen printing supplies and have added that to my plush making arsenal. My very first plushie/screen printing creation turned out better than I'd hoped. I'm proud to present Mr. Bones. The palm sized plushie with a lot of Halloween bite. Great for little goth babies to chew in in their cute little coffin cribs. I even stuck a big rattle in him so he sounds like a big bag of bones.

Then of course, no Halloween plush maker could hold her head up high unless she threw in some bloody mummies and vampires!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  Sarah Flake

www.flaky-friends.com

California Style Plushin'

I made a batch of hippos to send off but before I stuck them in their box, they insisted on one more California sun tan. Those hippos are finiky little pests! But hey, no tan lines!

Gerty the Ill-Tempered Hippo

I'm on a hippo kick lately. Allow me to introduce Gerty. Gerty just got dumped. She's just about ready to snatch a water rafter and shake him around until all his limbs come off. Just about. Please tread softly around this scored woman.

Gerty stands on her own cankles at 10" tall and 20" long. She needs a serious dose of Visine after all the crying she did last night after the scoundrel broke the news that he'd found a fatter, meaner hippo lady-friend.

Gerty is made from ultra cuddle fleece and stuffed with jingle bells so you can hear her as she hits the fridge for midnight pity ice cream. Don't you dare try and stop her.

Old Girl Scout Patches

I've had these patches in a bag for 20 years now trying to think how to best display them and then yesterday I hit upon it. All my patches from my Brownies and Girl Scout years now are displayed proudly on the shells of three new turtle friends! I think it's the perfect way to enjoy them :)

He's too sexy...

The other night I was feeling octopusish so I made this little guy thinking we could be friends but it turns out that he's WAY too cool for me. It was a little awkward after I finished him and was all excited but he wanted nothing to do with me. I guess you can "make" a friend but not have a friend. Who knew? I'll just have to admire him from afar while he sits in my corner and pines to be bought by some younger, cooler person.

Tiny Flakes

I've been sewing 10+ hours a day for the past few weeks trying to get ready for my first craft fair. I realized that I didn't have any smaller ticket items - most of my pieces are bigger, detailed animals. So I've been whipping up masses of small friends all week and I've got to say, I'm very pleased with the results! I really did think bigger was better until I discovered all these pint sized pals! My fair is tomorrow at a farm at Cal Poly Pomona so I'm hoping my farm-friendly friends sell well. I can't wait!!

Lucky Rabbit's Foot, Unlucky Rabbit

Some days you're the rabbit, some days you're the foot. You'll see these two at the Crammed show!

il bacio

Sometimes it's hard to be an alpaca when it's the llamas that are getting all the love. I'm going to have to make my poor, pink alpaca a boyfriend. Her best friend Mariana the llama found a guy and now spends all her time with him instead. Love is cruel.

Just Plain Ugly

I'm finishing up my creations for the Crammed Organisms show and had a frightful surprise yesterday. I decided to make a sad Sasquatch and the more I sewed, the more terrifyingly ugly he became. Not the cute kind of ugly, not the pathetic kind of ugly, just flat out ugly. My husband was speechless when he got home and saw him. No wonder Sasquatch is so sad. I'm calling him "Saturday Night Sasquatch" because I can't think of anyone else on the planet who would be this sad and alone on a weekend.

Flaky Friends, favorite color swap

Haha say that 3 times fast!

Yay, she's here! I cracked up to see this face sticking out of the package and tissue paper, I love her!!

"Allow me to introduce Hot Dog. One and a half feet of blazing pink perfection,but be warned, she has a major attitude problem and will try to still your man!"
By: Sarah of Flaky Friends

If you haven't checked out her blog/shop do so now she has made at least one of everything and they are all super cute and funny. Thank You Sarah!!

-Danielleorama

The Republican Frontrunner

My First Craft Fair! Advice Please?

I signed up for a very low key craft fair next month at Cal Poly University and am SO excited to get my table organized. There will only be 20 tables for one day. As a newbie, I wanted to get any advice you guys could think of for how to make the most of my 6 foot long table space for a Saturday. I just got a bunch of business cards printed up, I am working on some tiny plush giveaways/promos for my table, and am thinking of putting together a photo album of all my work for people to look at.

So here are a few things I'm wondering about:

Do customers usually bargain or should I set a firm price? If they do bargain, how much should I be expected to come down? I try and price my items fairly and am REALLY bad at bargaining because I always just give it to them for the price they want because I'm flattered they want to buy my stuff at all.

Is "cash only" pretty standard or is there any safe way to accept personal checks?

Aesthetics: Any great tips of how to present plushies with just a 6 foot long table? I was thinking some kind of stacked crate formation rather than just throwing them all on top of each other? My stuff is all different so grouping like with like isn't an option.

Should I give attendees a promo code for my Etsy shop? What kinds of these types of enticements seem to work?

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance :)

Jessic Hedgehog

She's not the most confident hedgehog in the hedge, but tries to make herself be social out of principle. With a killer rhinestone nose and luxe fur, Jessica has no reason to be so shy. She battles her social anxiety by always having a stash of pretzels on hand to munch nervously. Jessica loves pretzels. Like REALLY loves pretzels. They almost make her forget to be afraid. This is one of my sweeter creations. Her humility just tickles me. She's 7 inches long and stands on her own sweet yellow feet. She was well worth staying up till two last night for!