Hattie & Milo

Hattie the rabbit and Milo the monkey are from a book Lisa illustrated for her kids. So exceptionally not a kid's but an adult's drawings were turned into soft toys. Lisa was doing a degree in illustration and wanted to have a 'real' Hattie and Milo to go with her  book. She would have liked to get a Hattie plushie as close to her drawing as possible, including even the different overlaying colours. I had no idea how I would be able to create this effect, but Lisa is a very co-operative woman and she advised me to use fabric pastel sticks. Which was impossible to find in Budapest… But that’s what E-bay is for! :-)

Hattie, the custom stuffed bunny

Milo's drawing turned into a soft toy with certain changes - I added a smile and some hair by request

Plush friends forever

As Hattie dresses up as a bear in Lisa’s book, she was trying to make a teddy bear costume for her with a bow on the top of it, but it was impossible for her to find the fabric I used on the internet. And I am a co-operative woman, too, so I sent some of the fabric to the UK, and our common project could have been completed!

Hattie's bear-costume

Hopefully Lisa’s book will get published and Hattie and Milo will be famous! If you are interested to see some of Lisa's work, have a look at this link: http://www.cambridgemashow.com/lisa-sheehan

And a little extra: Lisa had a model of Hattie made using a 3D printer. Will 3D printers ever take over a softiemaker’s job..?

You can also create your own toy with a 3D printer - well, it's not soft... ;-)

Stuffed animals with and without wings

How to classify a big bunch of soft toys? Well, check whether they can fly or not!

First the ones that can fly. Or at least they have wings...:)

Greg's green goose

Christa's graceful ostrich drawing turned into a soft version

A penguin in pink - adults can create their own toys, too ;)

Another playful adult's cuddly toy

He has wings, doesn't he?!:)

Mousebro plush, the mixture of a Wyvern and a mouse, of course

Finally a kid's drawing, and a classic one: Rainbow Pegasus Unicorn

And the plushies that still wait for their wings:

Ellie's pandas, big and small custom stuffed cuties

Cherie's reborn squid toy

Platybunny plush for Sara's "other half"

Anniversary stuffed toy crab for Mauro's girlfriend

Michael's caterpillar - cuddly toys for adult, too!:)

Daniel's mammoth softie

Ethan's plush dino and the happy designer

And two very clever sisters, who can read my mind - so one of them drew a bird, the other one a unicorn :-)

Two kids' drawings to choose a detail from - hard job, isn't it?

Girl dolls, boy dolls

Pretty people's drawings turned into custom stuffed dolls from all around the world!

Efrosini from Greece:

Turn your self-portrait into a soft toy!

Princess Peyton from Nevada:

Custom stuffed princess

A fantastic drawing to work with! Isabelle's self-portrait from Australia:

Are you feeling like making your own stuffed version, too?:)

Danielle' cuddly toy from The Netherlands:

Custom portrait with custom doggie

 Rashid's drawing into a doll also from The Netherlands:

I made a mom very happy with this special softie

A sad girl from California:

Soft hair, soft tears, soft heart - a soft toy altogether

Veda's doll from Michigan:

The perfect custom doll to play with: your own self-portrait

And a young couple from Vancouver:

Custom dolls as a wedding gift - a little something to start their life together:)

Stickpeople softies

This time we have to use this politically correct term, because these soft toys are women and men, girls and boys from around the whole wide world.

First two plushies for Fiona's family:

Custom stuffed dolls can dance, too!

Esmi's daughter drew a picture of herself: "A brown hair girl with green and red hair barrettes with black shoes ;)"

Esmi's drawing into a happy softie

One of Bogica's last drawings turned into a doll for her father:

A plushie to comfort a daddy

Connor drew himself together with his baby brother:

Cute brothers turned into cute plushies

And "Grandma's hair sticks up in the morning when she wakes up" - a kid's drawing with the longest title I've ever seen :-)

Make your own stuffed grandma ;-)

One more plush cat

And a special one! The "love-at-first-sight" kind of cat. The model is Alice's family's cat called Mocha. Important info from Alice's mom: "Mocha has claws in the back, not the front and she has very furry ears and face :-) "

Alice's drawing was great, but the plushie version of Mocha cat wasn't very photogenic... black face, repositioned head and claws - you know this time I think it was necessary to turn the drawing into a soft toy with certain changes. Anyway, we did our best, softie cats are pretty patient photo models!

Lazy custom stuffed animals make patient photo models

Still not running anywhere - that's why it's great to spend time with soft stuffed animals:)

Cats again

I haven't made exact statistics but I dare say cats are one of the most popular animals put on paper by kids. And yes, tigers are cats, too! Just a little bigger and wilder ones.

Daisy's Crazy Color Cat drawing coming to life:

Daisy designed her own stuffed cat

Sweet little white kitty by Anoushka:

This is a really, really soft toy!

And finally Fluffy, the tiger softie for Emma!

Fluffy has a story: Royal Mail is usually very reliable, but this time it was slower than ever... which means Fluffy didn't arrive in time to wait for Emma under the Christmas tree. Emma's mom found out a story for her daughter: "Santa noticed the elves hadn't written Fluffy on your tiger's chest, and he only noticed when they were loading the sleigh. So he has sent Fluffy back to the elves workshop for them to add Fluffy's name and make her perfect. He'll have to though send Fluffy by post from the North Pole and she'll arrive in a few days." And the story with a print out photo of Fluffy plushie worked! :-)

Another kid's drawing born as a stuffed animal

Doll and facts in black and white

To tell you the truth it is so much easier to post a softie on Facebook when you are in a hurry. And the advantage of Facebook is that you can get immediate feedback, which is not so common here on the blog but it helps a softiemaker to survive everyday struggles. This is the main reason why I neglected my poor blog for a while... I'm trying to return back :-)

I loved every little detail of this black and white self-portrait made by Sally's sister at the age of 4 or 5. She was turning 24 last December and she was pretty surprised to get the custom stuffed doll from her drawing for her birthday.

All the details of a drawing turned into a cuddly toy

And some details that are not often shown on Facebook:

A real custom doll - can you imagine to find a copy anywhere in the shops? ;-)