Nerd Dollz

I don't normally do this, but I found this Etsy shop when I was browsing "Supernatural" things (talk about going down the rabbit hole... It all started because A Dog's Life Animal Rescue posted a Groupon, that charity coincidentally being one that Jared Padalecki endorses [I chose the charity as the one I wanted to donate some of my ebay proceeds to since it seemed cool and I <3 my dog... and then see that there is a random Supernatural connection to it, haha]).

I digress.

I found this shop, NerdDollz, on Etsy. Normally, I see something like this and am a bit "meh" about them, but not only are these dolls seemingly very well made and designed, but they are realistically priced. (I am NOT a fan of overpriced sh!t on Etsy... it, IMO, goes against the community feel). I am very tempted to buy myself an early present of these:

How awesome are those?! And they're just, like, $70 for all 3.

Also quite fabulous is this:

Yes, that is Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed. Cute, right?

Think of a nerdy character and this shop seems to have it! Star Wars, Harry Potter, Kick Ass, Avatar, Shrek... even Twilight. And I'd imagine the seller is open to suggestions as well.

I've seen other amigurumi (though not Sam, Dean & Cas) and am seriously inspired! I'm going to have to see if I can make anything nearly as cool (maybe as gifts, but also maybe just for me). And if & when I am unable to (whether it be skill or time lacking), I'm going to have to pay the awesome Shannon Nix from Shawnee, KS to make me some!

Speaking of fantastic crochet nerd amigurumi, I also wanted to plug PigCorner.com's ami patterns... She, too, has an Ezio that is awesome:

Pattern and video tutorial found here.

Creative and crafty nerds are so fun!

Castle Crashers Etsy Treasury

To honor craft Castle Crashers fans, I created a treasury.
Check out the awesome-ness here: Castle Crashers Treasury.

New Baby Hat Design - Fox

I have a few designs sketched out for various types of hats and finally had the chance to crochet one. :) I give you, the baby fox:

This hat is available in my etsy shop and can be made to order. :)

I have also made several more "newsies" hats in a variety of colors and textures. Pattern for this hat is available on Ravelry.

Why are baby's hats so darn fun to make?

I've finally started on the Owl hat my friend wanted for her daughter, inspired by one she found online. I have several photos to go by and am really trying to recreate the hat as best I can. So far, I think I've done pretty darn well! And I'm not sure that it makes sense that people are trying to sell patterns for similarly designed hats for $5-10! IMO, patterns should only be sold if they required a bunch of frogging to design/create because, otherwise, it was easy enough to figure out that most anyone should be able to do it! If one really wants to charge for their pattern and it's pretty easy, make it a couple bucks at most! Or, at least, allow people to sell items they create with the simple pattern if you must charge them $10 for it.

I don't mean to be a tease, but I'll post my pattern (for free) when I am done and can post some photos along with it. Stay tuned!

Also on the agenda, a couple of stegosaurus hats for etsy customers. It's seemingly a hit among moms with boys, despite it being pretty darn cute on little girls too! (if a dinosaur can be blue and orange, why can't it be pink and purple?). I'm working on a green one with dark brown plates (spikes?) and then on to a light green hat with orange plates. Hmm, green seems to be the color of choice.

When I'm done with these, I'm totally itching to come up with some more! I want to make a bee hat and a flower hat, but will likely need to start focusing more on just bunny hats first. Fortunately, baby hats work up pretty quickly (2-3 hours for me, generally), but I still need to figure out colors and such! I also imagine that most people would prefer natural fibers to acrylic (honestly, I would LOVE to be able to  work basically solely with fibers like bamboo and silk, but it's just too $$$ :( ), so I will probably look into at least getting some more Peaches & Creme yarn in colors other than ombres and white & ecru.

Speaking of cotton yarn - anyone out there have any luck dying it? A few months ago, I wanted to see about naturally dying cotton yarn with things like dandelions & strawberries, but never got around to trying it.

Also, how about "tarn" (yarn made from t-shirts)? I have a rotary cutter and a self-healing mat and am itching to try to make some, but don't really have any shirts I want to cut up! (unfortunately, we've donated quite a few of my husband's old t-shirts over the years!) I guess I need to hit up some garage sales and thrift stores to find some...

Castle Crashers!

This past month, I've had a couple of people ask for some custom items that I'd never done before for the game Castle Crashers.

First, I made a custom animal orb, Install Ball:

The finished product!

The image from CastleCrashers.com that I had to work with.

Then, a bit later, I had someone order 3 custom hats. The first was The Industrialist, the second the Ninja and the last was the Bear (Bipolar Bear, Bear Shaman... whatever you'd like to call him!). The Industrialist was probably the most difficult of the three for me and my least favorite of the hats (though Brian, my customer, was pleased with the results! :) ). I couldn't figure how to keep the pointed top of the hat from being a bit limp and teletubbie-like.


The Ninja was much easier and I quite enjoyed making the skull & crossbones for it. :)

And then there was my favorite, the Bear. I wanted to give him the furry texture the bear in the game so obviously had, but hadn't had much luck with any textured yarn I had tried (I had previously tried both Lion Brand Homespun and Joann Sensations Boucle and hated them both). So I researched a bit to see if I could find a way to pull it off. I was considering some of Red Heart's yarn and then wound up getting some I'd never even heard of before. My husband was the one who discovered it when we were at Michaels and I'm so glad he talked me into trying it out! I bought Red Heart Buttercup in white (tell me that color isn't being discontinued! I can't find it online anywhere... But I have bought about 8 skeins of it, just in case!).

At first, I was not enjoying the yarn any more than I had the others, even with my new 8.0mm bamboo crochet hook
(the recommended hook according to the label). But then I had an epiphany - the yarn was
textured and you couldn't really tell where the stitches was. Which was my problem, of course. But if I couldn't tell where the stitches were, how could an untrained eye? So I sort of fudged my way through, not always going through both front & back loops or even necessarily going through either properly. And, before I knew it, I was actually making the hat! Eventually, I did find my stitches more clearly and crocheted properly, but I do think that helped me get used to the tension to use and get over my frustrations.

Out of curiosity (and after running out and buying more skeins of this wonderfully soft and plush yarn!), I tried out some Homespun again, with the 8mm bamboo hook (despite having tried it and a 10mm hook previously). And I was able to make a bunny hat with it! I am so overjoyed at the fact that I can now use Homespun!! I've always loved the colors, the texture, and the softness (though not the squeakiness you get when you use aluminum or plastic hooks) and thought that was such a tease since the yarn was horrible to work with. And now I know how to use it properly!! I intend to use a bunch of it for hats in the near future and will no longer pass it up when I see the mill end bags for $6 at Big Lots.

And, just in case someone stumbles upon this because they are looking for any of the above, I may or may not have them listed in my etsy store, but that doesn't mean I won't make you one! Just convo me on etsy or e-mail me or leave a comment here!

And the custom kindle cover... :)

I got a request on etsy for a custom cover/sleeve with purple and pink flowers instead of normal round buttons. I think it came out pretty well!

Get your own custom kindle/nook sleeve at my etsy store: crazystars.etsy.com

Ctrl Alt Delete Esc Coasters!

I'm not exactly sure where the inspiration came from for this little guy, but boy was he an exercise! His trunk is pose-able (fun, no?) and I'm likely going to attach a heart to his hands that can hold a love note or gift of some sort. :)

These are currently available in my Etsy store!





These are currently available in my Etsy store!


CTRL ALT DEL ESC Coasters by Samantha Bilodeau is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

White Elephant for Valentine's Day

I'm not exactly sure where the inspiration came from for this little guy, but boy was he an exercise! His trunk is pose-able (fun, no?) and I'm likely going to attach a heart to his hands that can hold a love note or gift of some sort. :)

He is currently available in my Etsy store!




He is currently available in my Etsy store!