Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Thank you for all of the great tips!!  It's very much appreciated

:hug:
~Chrissi

Doreen,
I always practice on a scrap of the Mohair I'm using.  Doesn't matter how many times I've done the technique or used the color, I always grab a scrap and practice.  I practice/test run on the Mohair "fur" itself and on a trimmed area of the scrap...just to be sure I'm going to be happy with the outcome.  I have the markers (I like the prismamarkers and the blenders personally over the copic..that's just what I've found to prefer) and for paints I like the Shiva Oil Stiks.  They're a paint crayon almost..no mess.. and they're already "buttery dry" so using it very sparingly with a good brush is easy.  I don't ever use a lot while shading a face...don't want a stiff feel to the fur. They're fadeproof, non toxic and used by lot of fabric artists.  I've never airbrushed, but hope to soon.

Paula...GREAT example of the painting to the fabric back!!  I love it. 

:hug:
~Chrissi

Hayley,
Ditto to what Shelli said.  Prescreen and then you decide if your kids are at the right age to see this one.  Like I said it really freaked me out. It's just real and raw. 
If I had kids who were old enough to go off to a friends house and watch some goofy movie like Hey Dude Where's My Car or some other movie that made drinking and drugs funny and cool...then I might counter it with this one.

:hug:
~Chrissi

One of my all time favorites is "fester fester fester rot rot rot" and being a non dairy eater I love the whole "lactoooosse intolerance" bit.

Oh boy, may have to watch this one tonight too!!  :crackup:

Ok, then i don't feel like such a geek now  :crackup:
I actually got a coat and bag that year because they looked "so French Kiss".  I still love the bag/back pack.

 
Oh jeez , and I named my dog Brinkley because of You've got mail. I loved the opening email with  "Brinkley is my dog...." I thought it was such a cool named for a dog.
I need help  :crackup:  :crackup:

Both are full of priceless quotes.

:hug:
~Chrissi

THIS is the movie that changed movie watching with my hub forever... whenever he asks what I want to see I say "happy-funny-love....NO DRUGS".  The movie was very well done, and would scare any young teen into never touching a drug.   It was just sensory overload for me...it still freaks me out. Poor hub rents "his" movies and "her" movies now...BUT he still watches mine :crackup:  :crackup:

:hug:
~Chrissi

Hi all!

Ichabod will be traveling to Denmark (The bears travel way more than I ever will!!! :crackup: )
And I've never shipped Internationally before.  I've seen blips here and there about a materials list for customs.  Do you type out a materials list and place it in with the bear?  Do they open and search the boxes, is that how it works?

How do you package your bears for international travel?(I know I'm placing him in a ziplock to prevent any kind of water damage..who knows!)   

Thanks for any tips!!

:hug:
~Chrissi

Hi Doreen,
Yes, people are talking about shading directly on the fur/fabric of the bear  .  When you say yours "aren't coming out right" what are you going for that's not working for you?  Maybe it's the shading tools your using? What do you use now?

You CAN do some stuff on the back of the fabric too.  I just started lightly using paint the back of the mohair on certain bear muzzles and paw pads.  With certain Mohairs this creates an aged affect I'm going for.  You can just see the tones and it creates a more natural aged and grizzly look, IMO.  I know of other artists who do this, even with more vibrant colors.  Depends on the bear really.

:hug:
~Chrissi

Raisins, Onions are not good in large doses. 
The chocolate thing:  it's the type of chocolate with consideration to body weight.  My dog, who just recently passed, got into a BAG of milk chocolate candies once as a younger dog.  I freaked out calling the vet...he said she would likely get ill (#2 and all ) and that it would not be lethal.  Now, if it had been that much in bakers or good quality dark chocolate...then we'd be in the ER.  As far as the sweetener...If it helps you as a human go for it...but a dog, probably shouldn't be getting anything that would use this alternative sweetener anyway.
Here's a little blip that may be helpful about chocolate:

Toxic Levels

The good news is that it takes, on average, a fairly large amount of theobromine 100-150 mg/kg to cause a toxic reaction. Although there are variables to consider like the individual sensitivity, animal size and chocolate concentration.

On average,
Milk chocolate contains 44 mg of theobromine per oz.
Semisweet chocolate contains 150mg/oz.
Baker's chocolate 390mg/oz.

Using a dose of 100 mg/kg as the toxic dose it comes out roughly as:
1 ounce per 1 pound of body weight for Milk chocolate
1 ounce per 3 pounds of body weight for Semisweet chocolate
1 ounce per 9 pounds of body weight for Baker's chocolate.

So, for example, 2 oz. of Baker's chocolate can cause great risk to an 15 lb. dog. Yet, 2 oz. of Milk chocolate usually will only cause digestive problems.

:hug:
~Chrissi

Hi Jodi,
It's www.robshelp.com (really easy, huh? )  It took me a day to get use to it (I went through the tutorials and all), but now I just fly through with saved templates. It's not hugely fancy-smancy..but it works for me!

:hug:
~Chrissi

Ewww..love Forest (love Tom Hanks).  I have several favorites that I play over and over as background noise in the studio. I like music, but I feel more creative when there's a familiar "conversation" going on...odd huh?

You've got Mail, French Kiss, Sliding Doors, Story of Us, Everafter, The Way We Were, Pirates of Car., Truman Show, Fun with Dick and Jane (this movie is hysterical!!), Along came Polly, Neverending Story, Goonies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Milo & Otis, 50 First Dates, Midsummer's Night Dream (kevin Kline....LOVE him),Overboard.......there are probably 100 more, but this is what I see on the most watched shelf right now :crackup:   One of my ALL TIME favorites from when I was a kid is The Point, a cartoon narrated by Ringo Starr and music by Harry Nilsson.

:hug:
~Chrissi

Is it something you use to create a template?  I use Robshelp...it's pretty easy (free) and I don't supply it any info other than my email to upload pictures.  It's in no way "connected" to eBay or your auction actually..it just builds and supplies the html you cut and paste into the ebay description area. You don't have to know squat about code...which is good for me right now :crackup:
:hug:
~Chrissi

Oh no Dilu, these are FAR from ugly!!  I think they're really really cute!!  Very elfin, not gnomish at all...nope they're definilty elves, cute ones!!   

:hug:
~Chrissi

Judi, Mandi looks great!! What a tough cookie she is!!
Thank God Rachel was not hit!  Sometimes animals are like guardian angels. Mandi may have been there to protect Rachel that afternoon, who knows. Ever watch Miracle Pets on PAX?  I'm a cornball...I know but I just love these darn animals so much

:hug:
~Chrissi

This link here is a true story of a dog in the towers prior to collapse:http://www.guidedogs.com/news-Hingson.html
and so is this one :http://dogsinthenews.com/issues/0109/articles/010914a.htm

http://www.ctlegalguide.com/SlideShow/caninetribute.htm

Maybe Daisy was created out of the stories above, who knows. Maybe we need to hear amazing stories about animals to know that we can be better ourselves.  The African dog story I mentioned earlier is indeed true.  A dog picked up, by natural instinct, where humans failed terribly.
We could be a better world if we paid attention to the animals a little more.  From domestic to wild they show us up everyday. 

:hug:
~Chrissi

I was so mad about this one that I googled "ebay phone number" and found 2 out online...I called and the erp said it would be removed. (they really don't like you to call...but I don't care! This one deserved a phone call!)
UGH!!  What is WRONG with people anymore.  I know teddy bears are a huge sell on ebay, but do these whackos think that teddy bear collectors might skip the teddy bear and go for the [INVALID] instead??  :doh:

UGH...good grief.....
Off to make a teddy bear!!
:hug:
~Chrissi

I just went out to check out my bear and others and the first listing under bears..before I could hit "ooak" is the most HORRID [INVALID] listing with the most HORRID photo.  I'm disgusted with some ebay users anymore, it's just terrible that this is out there with teddy bears.  I'm in utter shock right now.

All during my dog Shelby's illness I said prayers to St Francis for her.  When she was first diagnosed all vets said 2-3 weeks...she was happy and with us for 15 months!  Now we did a lot for her care, but those extra prayers didn't hurt!!  We have St Francis statues in the back yard (most say it's why every injured animal or animal in need finds our yard...they know we'll take care of them!! )

You can even buy St Francis dog/cat tags for your pets collar.  They're usually little silver medals that simply say "protect our pet".
"Brother sun Sister Moon" is a movie about St Francis, made in the 1970s.  With all of our animals and me always loosing something...I have St Francis and St Anthony on speed dial  :crackup:

:hug:
~Chrissi

Oh no praying for animals is NEVER silly or stupid..we're the silly and stupid ones, not the animals.  A dog in Africa once rescued and cared for a infant baby boy left abandoned for dead.  The DOG knew it was a tiny life in need of saving, the humans tossed this baby away. (This made news a little while back)

St Francis is the patron Saint of all animals.  He comes through all the time.   

I'm so happy to hear that Mandi's going to be ok after her surgery.  She's one tough cookie!!

:hug:
~Chrissi

I love these stories!!

Way back in 1997 I lived at home with my folks and the internet was a new thing for us.  My youngest sister had set up her aol account over the summer at the shore and had been messing around with it all summer...local chat rooms, yada yada.  So they get home from the shore and she helps me set up a user name and basic no fuss bear bones profile. Well, next day I'm online poking around and I get this bell noise and a pop up that says "hi". What the heck is this I'm saying?!  Sis explains it's a message and a guy is trying to talk to me. How WEIRD!! (remember I've been online for a day)  I'm fresh out of a recently broken engagement and in no mood for boys, so I was kinda sarcastic with this person, nice but..yah know "whatever" about it all.  Next day..ding dong bell noise again..and so on and so on... day after day.  We wrote for weeks...anyday I was online he would just pop in to say hi and chat. Then he gave me his phone number, I wasn't about to give out mine...even back then. We talked on the phone for a few more weeks.  He had a picture of himself to send (cutie)...and I couldn't even begin to know how to do that..scanner what???  So we set up a first date and he went into it totally blind. (My choice of locations, I drove my own car and he had to follow me from place to place).  Nearly 10 years later we're married and probably never would have met outside of that.  This was 10 years ago before dating services online and all of that...plus neither one of us ever did that before or again. We weren't "looking".  I ask my hub all the time what made him write, he swears he never did it before, it's really not in his nature at all...he said he liked that I said "I love my dog" in my profile. 
The next year "You've got Mail" came out...it's still my all time favorite movie.  There's a song by Carole King called Anyone at All...that's THE song for me and my hub

:hug:
~Chrissi

I just changed my password and in my ebay alert it clearly states from IPS address and server the change came from!  If they have this information why can't they block the repeat offenders?  eBay really needs to step up the security measures.

:hug:
~Chrissi

Oh Judi I'm so sorry.      I'm saying prayers to St Francis for your little Mandi.   :pray:

:hug:
~Chrissi

With all of this talk about eBay scams I decided to take a spin around some ebay sites out there.  I think ALL artists should check out ebay CHINA.  There seems to be one ebay ID out there that is listing a bunch of bears (acid attic, ed spencer, sylvia humphrey, mary holstad to name a few) and all the write ups claim this person is the artist "made by me".  This ebay ID has a "0" next to the name.
Now I can't read Chinese so I just typed artist bear in the top search box area....these all came up.

I sent an email to Marion about her Vincent bear....he stood out for me because I just loved him and knew he just sold.  Secondary re-sells are fine, but this listing is claiming artistry and creation, so it seemed fishy to me.

I think watermarking and encrypting photos is a "need be" at this point. 

:hug:
~Chrissi

BEST of luck with your interview!!! :dance:
Keep us posted!

:hug:
~Chrissi

You're very Welcome Paula!  I love paging through that book...the photos are such high quality and the instructions are very easy to follow, I think. Some of the dolls are just breath taking. 
Can't wait to see what you create!! 

:hug:
~Chrissi