200 Items For Charity; My Big Charity Knitting and Craftivism Personal Challenge!

I went into 2019 with two loom knitting goals; Make at least one item to donate to every cause/organization I donated to in the previous year (if they were still accepting donations, of course), and push past last year's count of 176 to try for a whopping 200 items to be given away this year.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you know all about my slow start, but surprisingly productive end of the year. Didn't think it was going to pan out really, but then I realized how close I had gotten to my goal by December, and the realization that this was in fact my last challenge of the decade motivated me to buckle down and basically make toys and dolls for a solid week (knowing you're doing nice things for kids really helps too) - All of this resulting in *boom* 200 by the first week of 2020! (Well, actually I ended up counting out 201 total,...So even better)

The pics in this post are everything donated this year. If you'd like to see every single item in detail, please head over to Instagram; https://www.instagram.com/kylelefortcreative/

Charities and positive initiative programs donated to this year include;

  St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Centers of Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY; https://www.buffalodiocese.org/st-gianna-molla-center

 Lockport Care Net Pregnancy Center in Lockport NY;
 https://www.facebook.com/Lockport-Care-Net-Pregnancy-Center-476881162376546/

CLICKforbabies, NCSBS HQ located in Utah, with programs across the U.S.;
https://www.clickforbabies.org/index.php

Welcome Blanket, the Fuller Craft Museum exhibit in Brockton, MA; https://www.welcomeblanket.org/

Mother Bear Project, HQ located in Minneapolis MN, most bears are sent to countries throughout Africa; http://motherbearproject.org/

Knit and Crochet for Charity, Warren Michigan; http://www.knitandcrochet4charity.org/

Tiny Hats For Tiny Babies/Warm Up America, sent to Texas, tiny hats to be used by doctors in countries across Africa; https://tinyhatsfortinybabies.org/ , blanket sections for WUA's box of 500 program http://warmupamerica.org/ , and also Hats to be given to Veterans through B Hooked's 2019 challenge; https://www.bhookedcrochet.com/2019/01/31/crochet-challenge-for-warm-up-america-2019/

SCM Medical Missions, based in Seattle WA, items shipped to refugee camps in Jordan; https://www.scmmedicalmissions.org/

Little Hats Big Hearts, for Buffalo NY babies; https://www.heart.org/en/get-involved/little-hats-big-hearts
   

Knitting4Peace, located in Denver Colorado, but items go all over the World; https://www.knitting4peace.org/

Here we go!

11 red newborn hats

6 purple newborn hats 
2 misc. newborn hats

1 46X45" Welcome Blanket

4 adult sized hats
5 child sized hats

1 39x34" baby blanket

55 assorted preemie baby hats 
22 Peace Pals/comfort dolls (shipped)
13 blanket sections
6 cat plushies

And not shipped/ongoing projects, but finished so far;

3 Mother Bear bears

40 Peace Pals/comfort dolls
32 misc. dolls, puppets, and plushies

Oh my goodness this was a doozy of a project! We're well into 2020 with this post now and I still have a few boxes that I'm working to ship out, but I am glad I pushed myself to do this. I don't think I'm going to do a count for 2020, not officially like the past couple years anyway, but my goals are more bears for kids, more tiny hats for babies, and we'll see whatever else comes my way!

Mortimer The Book Explorer ... OR ... Kyle Made a Weird Bookmark

Why hello there readers and fellow bloggers, long time no see. ^_^

Meet Mortimer! He’s an Explorer. He loves books. He is a Book Explorer! (It’s a bookmark, or is it?)
What I’m saying is that I created a classy eyeball person with ambition, and then made him into a delightfully weird laminated bookmark for you to enjoy, and quite possibly get creative with yourself. - As it turns out the average size of a standard bookmark is almost equal to a very tall 1:12 scale (dollhouse size) human, so while I was photographing Mortimer he wandered around the studio a bit.
 
If anyone wishes to bring a copy of Mortimer home and use him in weird photo ops, by all means please do. (and feel free to let me know what you’ve come up with!)  
#mortimerbookexplorer Wouldn’t be a bad tag for your pics, just sayin’. 

Ok, but how do you get a copy of Mortimer? 
 
Well here’s the thing: Because this was a weird/random project, I printed and assembled these neat bookmarks in-house. 
Depending on feedback, I can make many more runs of Mortimer and his friends to come, but for now there are only 12 Mortimers available. 
 
3 ways to snag one for yourself;

1. Head on over to ART247 in Lockport NY. There are some for sale just outside of studio 233
2. My Etsy shop, under the *NEW* Misc. Fun! section.
3. Now that you’ve read this far - This post is actually a giveaway announcement! *gasp*

That’s right, I am giving one of the very first copies of Mortimer the Book Explorer away to one of my lucky Facebook followers! 
To be entered, head on over to my Facebook page and hit the like button - You can find a post with the details there.

This is my first online giveaway ever and if it goes well I might just do it again, so share this post to make this giveaway happen and to get Mortimer out there exploring the books and world I would imagine he’d love to see! #bykylelefort #art #giveaway #bookmark #eyeballpeople #characters #dollhouseminiatures #artstudio #lockportny

* The 2016 Gingerbread House Series *

~*~ The 2016 Gingerbread House Series ~*~

Ha! You thought I wasn't going to get this year's tiny gingerbread houses done, but you were wrong! Here they are;

 I wasn't up for polymer clay and all the baking though, so this year I went up in size a bit and sewed a gingerbread pillow village + 3 gingerbread pillow friends. Brown flannel coated in Polycrylic for the gingerbread. Once again I used puff paint for the frosting and polymer clay was used for the candy details. I doubt the tiny dollhouse people would want to eat these, they're meant to be throw pillows or plush decor items this time around.

No scene at the moment, I just finished these today at home and I haven't quite figured out a good way to sign and date them yet..., I will figure that out after Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, if you missed it on Instagram, my fern buddies have gotten into the spirit;

 And if you celebrate the holiday, I hope you have gotten yourself into the spirit of it too (or at least finished with presents - avoid being that eleventh hour shopper, it does not sound like fun to me). 

As of typing this it is just a few hours until Christmas Eve, and I am officially done working. Time to take a break and spend time with my family.

Merry Christmas, and if I don't hear from you until then - Happy New Year too. ^_^

Undersized Urbanite - The Surrealism House

Hello fellow miniaturists, bloggers, lovers of all things dollhouse, random visitors, voters, and other special guests! It's that time again - The big reveal for Undersized Urbanite!

As stated in my WIP posts, my dollhouse did not get as 'done' as I had hoped, but I do have a pretty interesting exterior to show off, so here we go;

Now for close ups;

I think that the egg carton mosaic turned out beautifully

The re-design for the new front door was a last minute miracle. A big Thank You to one of my "Mantis" prints, which I decided to cut up for the cause (to be fair, it was a damaged print, but I just couldn't throw away those pretty metallic colors - planned to use it throughout the house actually).

I know that I changed my color scheme from gray to purple halfway through sketching out the mosaic siding, but I'm still not sure what possessed me to start painting clouds on the purple after that - It did turn out really well though,...

...So well that I decided to paint the top floor sky blue and keep those clouds going. ^_^

What house wouldn't be complete without some trippy racing stripes, right? XD

And then finally, I give you a little bit of Steampunk, 

because I can't stop going back to Steampunk (it's fun).

So there you have it - The exterior of My Surrealism House. ^_^

---

There are a couple other things I did get a chance to work on, but they're part of the unfinished interior, but you know what? I'm going to show you anyway (Why not?);

Did you notice all the gold accents on the outside of the house? Well I got the idea for that while I was attempting to get the inside of the house painted. This painting/mural on the third floor is a mix of green, copper, and three shades of gold metallic paint. No sketching, just painted whatever I felt like painting.

And on that third floor, I also started a pond. It's acrylic paint with a few coats of Polycrylic to get the water effect. (I was hoping to add ducks - maybe someday) The green around the pond is more of the "Mantis" print - I was hoping to cover at least half of the floor with those shiny sea-foam tiles I was making (again, someday...). Oh, but what's with the puddle on the unfinished second floor hardwood? I'm glad you asked!

 I don't know if it was ever mentioned here on the blog, but one very rainy weekend last fall I walked into the art studio to find a huge puddle on the floor and rain pouring down in through the ceiling. It was just traumatic enough that I won't forget it anytime soon, but thanks to the studio visitors (some of which are friends now) who didn't seem to think a flood made the space any less awesome, that day was also just entertaining enough that it made it into this project. (Of course, I'm sure there was not actually a duck pond on the roof -it's more fun to to think about than cold Fall rain though).

I even made sure the ceiling is leaking.

Maybe I'll hold onto to the house and complete the interior next year, maybe when I have some time I'll keep working on it just for fun, maybe I'll finish it for an upcoming show - who knows? - For now though, this project is finished. As with any other year, I would like to say Thank You to Christina over at Little Victorian, for hosting Undersized Urbanite once more (Thank You!).

 Best wishes to the other entrants, hopefully you all finished in time. Can't wait to see everyone's entries. I think voting is open to everyone, so if you're reading this I encourage you to head on over to the official contest page and pick your favorite dollhouse.

Undersized Urbanite - Not Sure I'll Finish On Time ...

I am pretty sure I will not quite get the dollhouse done on time this year, still trying, so without spending a whole mess of time blogging progress - Here's a quick shot of the newly finished mosaic work and pretty, pretty blue door. 

(You can also view this on Instagram)

 

I'm hoping to at least have the exterior all nice and pretty by the deadline, so back to work I go. ^_^

Undersized Urbanite - Progress With A Bit Of Purple

Update Time!

At the moment I am torn between working on the dollhouse for Undersized Urbanite and posting updates for you all to see, so bear with me while I try to fit in time to take/edit photos + compose the quick write ups. As of typing this, I am actually weeks ahead of what you are seeing here, but I still have a ways to go (Will she meet the deadline? Stay tuned...).


Theme - wise the surreal house has been coming along nicely, the plan in my head has changed a bit though. Not that you could really see what the original plan was to begin with, I just thought I'd let you know that there is a lot more purple now (with even more on the way). ^_^


 Here's how the dollhouse looked the last time you saw it;

(Artwork in the background by studio co-artists:

 painting on the left by Dan Covey, 

2 digital pieces on the right are by Michele Mirabella)

 I planned to do some faux-stone mosaic work siding, 

so first I had to sketch out that area.

For new readers: By "faux-stone", 

I mean that I'm using egg carton/packing materials 

made out of recycled paper products. 

It looks great, as demonstrated in past projects.

 I painted the mosaic area gray and then started cutting out the carton.

I'm going with a mix of triangles and some free form shapes this time around.

Painted the pieces purple and started gluing them in place.

 The tricky part is finding something to use as the mortar/filler that goes between the carton pieces. Previous projetcs I was using clay, but that can be time consuming and a little expensive. So this time around I am using Puff paint/dimensional fabric paint. 
So far, I am enjoying the results.

I tested the puff paint out on a few pieces at the back of the house - looks good.

And here is the first finished section of the mosaic wall. It needs some touch ups, 

and I might do some light painting over the bright white to dull it a little bit, 

but this turned out really well. I am super happy with the house at this stage.

For anyone looking for this paint to try out on their own projects:
I am using Tulip Dimensional Fabric paint, Slick White. 
If you can't find it at your local store, it is available on Amazon.

 (Yep, ending this post with an ad, but I do like this paint, so why not?)

Undersized Urbanite - Pretty Sure I'm Entering This Year

Christina over at Little Victorian is hosting The Undersized Urbanite Dollhouse Contest once again, and although it's been open for entries since September - I'm just now getting to it. And honestly I wasn't sure I was even going to enter this year, but between months of working like a crazy person, and more recently coming down with a cold bad enough that it killed my ambition there for a bit (and got me thinking about how much I'd been working lately), I decided that it was time that I get back into the art studio and work on something just because I wanted to make something cool/for my own enjoyment. Sound good to you? Ok, then here we go;

A year or two ago I stumbled upon one of those puzzle dollhouses on a clearance rack for $3.00, because the packaging had been torn open and it looked like there were pieces missing (turns out it was all there, but either way $3 is a steal for any kit) 

I spent an evening in the art studio with my friends/co-artists. They worked on their projects while I popped together the dollhouse before deciding what to do with it.

A couple days later, at 5am or so while I was at work, I had this idea that the dollhouse is going to end up looking pretty weird this time around. At first I was referring to the idea as a "mushroom" (it does sort of look like that in my head), but my friends were getting too caught up in the idea of it being a mushroom house when really the better term is just to refer to the plan as a Surreal styled dollhouse - There you go, My plan is to make a Surreal looking dollhouse. The photo above is the color scheme I think I've chosen for the exterior (here's hoping that the red/green/purple combo doesn't come back to bite me). And I also had these 2 little wooden birdhouses I thought I could use as odd shaped additions.

Since the studio gives me more space to work I might attempt a small yard, and for that I might just use some of these floor tiles I picked up at a garage sale last summer. They look like stone and I've been wanting to find a use for them. Have to get a board or something to use for a base first, but it's do-able.

The puzzle house is not one inch scale like I'm used to (half inch scale maybe?) and I don't have any furniture that fits. Luckily, I did buy this furniture puzzle hoping the furniture would work with a different dollhouse, but it too appears to be closer to half inch scale and will probably work better for this project. If that doesn't work, I'm sure I could manage with scratch building, but since I only have until February it would be nice if the puzzle furniture worked out.

Back to the house building now;

After following the directions to see how the house is supposed to be put together (which you just saw), I started making changes. Here's me figuring out how to attach the bird house rooms.

And here's how I left the house in the studio on day #2 of this build. The roof is off while I paint it red. The porch is being all torn apart and redesigned to make room for the bird house on the right (which is attached with nothing other than tape and paper towels for now). I know it's starting to look funny, but the idea in my head is pretty cool, so I'm hoping I can make it turn out the way I want.

No promises that I can make the deadline on this one, but I'm going to try. Stay tuned. ^_^

The Reptile Show

Sorry about having to take a month to post this, work + a small business + life = The blog takes the back seat a lot, but I get to it when I can.

While I'm at it: I would like to thank everyone who's left nice comments under my blog posts - I read all of them, but lately I've been so busy I just can't respond to every comment I receive. I do appreciate all of them though. I love it when someone takes the time to let me know I'm not just talking to myself here. XD

Ok, so now the much delayed post about the reptile show
- The Buffalo Niagara Reptile Expo!
- It was interesting. (I mean that in a good way)

First the setup;

As I said earlier, I was really at this show to help out Nate. I did bring some of my own art/mini work, but it was off to the side and I forgot to photograph it once that portion of the table was set up (oops). Look how many displays this kid made though.

I don't really have much to write or say (other than recommend you go to the one next fall, you will see some some cool stuff, I promise ^_^ ), so here are just some of the odd/fun highlights I managed to also take pictures of;

The table right next to me was a case full of pythons. The people running the table had no problems letting you hold these guys.

Some of the friendliest snakes ever, I've been told. Actually, I've held these kind of snakes before, didn't have any problems. But still, table full of snakes 2 feet away from me all day. I did not hold any snakes at this show (just because), but my mom did, which is a big deal for her since she doesn't like snakes at all.


There was this guy;

I would've tried to get clearer photos, but despite being in this building for hours, after this turtle person walked by once, I never saw them again...

And one thing that I really wanted to bring home with me (but sadly didn't),

Baby Tortoises!

Baby tortoises are so cute because they act like big old tortoises, while still being adorably small. And I do like great big tortoises too, so please no comments about how irresponsible it is to buy a pet when it's a cute baby and forgetting that it will grow. :P Maybe someday when I can afford one I will add a new reptile to the family....

And there you have it, The Buffalo Niagara Reptile Expo!
Honestly, I don't know what else to say - If you live in the area, I recommend you check it out next time, and if you don't live nearby go to the reptile house in your nearest zoo or something - Go see some cool snakes/turtles/lizards and such. Maybe there is even a show like this near you. ^_^

The Curious Concepts Project: Finished! Hooray!

Well it's done, totally finished. The Curious Concepts Project, for those who haven't been following along, was a small Kickstarter project I had been working on. Originally planned out to last 6 months, life thought it would be funny to cause a whole mess of tiny yet annoying delays, so the project stretched out to a little longer than a year. Otherwise I think it went well.

Summing up what I was asking of backers: " See some cool illustrations, Help make them available online, & Take part in the creation of a whole new series". And I'd have to say this project was pretty successful in doing those things. For one thing, these now exist;

(Read more about my illustrations on DeviantArt)

Some of them are available on Etsy, along with many of my other illustrations/digital paintings. And thanks to the funds from this project - They're actually affordable and easy to ship now.

There's also a whole mess of Haiku Letter Drawings, which you can see on DeviantArt. Here are some of my favorites;

N.C. Sailor Boy - Haiku Letter Drawing by Kyle-Lefort on DeviantArt
Desert Sunset - Haiku Letter Drawing by Kyle-Lefort on DeviantArt
Thank You Flowers - Haiku Letter Drawing by Kyle-Lefort on DeviantArt
Bubbly Frog - Haiku Letter Drawing by Kyle-Lefort on DeviantArt

If you would like to see all the blog posts about this project, just follow the Curious Concepts Project tags.

In closing, I would like to thank everyone: For backing the project, for re-blogging/sharing the project so others knew about it, for following, for reading my posts, for commenting,... Thank you so much. I appreciate it, I really do. ^_^

So what's next? We we'll just have to wait and see.

The Curious Concepts Project: "Devon" & Done

So funny story...I was getting ready to wrap up the Curious Concepts project (double checking that I've done everything, getting ready to order prints, etc.) when I noticed something - I never posted the finished "Devon" illustration. At least, I couldn't find any blog post for it. Part of extending this project to a full year can be blamed on computer troubles, so I'm guessing that post just got lost in the shuffle. Oh well, it's done and I'm posting the WIP images now. ^_^

(If you would like to see the original W.I.P. post for this illustration, click here)

I was getting stuck on the background (the original photo was all black), and the forshortening of the fingers was tripping me up, so I started drawing in semi-random shapes and textures in the background (to make it more interesting), and then ended up just cropping out the arms all together.

More textures in the back, and I added in parts of the original photo. 

The face looks a little more realistic now.

The background was getting a bit too busy so I decided to make it blurred and monochromatic 

~ Green was not a good color choice.

Gray was a much better choice, and I found a neat square texture brush in Photoshop - Now that's what I call a nondescript background. ^_^

I also did some erasing and cleaned up some lines, but that's not as noticeable here.

And there we have it, "Devon"