I like to do some arts and crafts in my spare time, when I’m not plugging away at my drawing table. I buy them as little pre-prepared kits online, which comes with pieces of material and assembly instructions, meaning there’s less waste and less random materials floating around. As far as hobbies go, this is actually quite rewarding, since creating little arts and crafts gives you a tangible goal in sight and a sense of reward when you’ve finished your miniature masterpiece. Which is why I’m posting these up to share with the world. It’s cute, fun, and you do take pride in the results.

Knitted Toys

I’m not a great knitter, but I’ve been knitting since high school. I mostly made scarves, but I eventually decided that knitting cute animal toys would be more fun.

Crochet/Amigurumi

Crocheting is something that took a long time for me to learn, but once I did, I managed to make some amigurumi! Amigurumi is the Japanese word for cute little crochet dolls, and crochet in this sense beats knitting since you need less skills to do crochet toys than knitted toys, though the toys turn out to be a lot smaller.

My Toy Crochet Patterns – 30 Stitches Wide or Less

I’ve made my own crochet toy patterns, mostly of popular and well-known cartoon characters. I have a rule in the patterns I create: 30 chains or less in width. I don’t like being stuck with huge toys that take forever to make, so I make sure my own patterns are quick and easy to make.

• Pikachu (From the “Pokemon” games)
• Big Grey Totoro (From My “My Neighbour Totoro” Anime)
• Blue and White Small Totoros (From “My Neighbour Totoro” Anime)
• Red Angry Bird (From “Angry Birds” game)
• Whited Angry Bird (From “Angry Birds” game)

Felting / Sewing

Felting” is basically cutting up pieces of felt according to scale-diagrams printed on paper, then sewing the bits together to make huggable soft toys. Felting produces some very cute and huggable toys, and while size-wise they are unable to be larger than a certain size (unlike knitted toys), they have a lot of uses such as making boxes. I also started doing embroidery, which is a much more complex form of sewing.

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Embroidery

Not unlike felting, embroidery is basically a more complex form of sewing. I started doing embroidery after I realised that there were embroidery kits out there, mostly for good luck charms.

Wool Felting

Wool felt is also known as “needle felting”, and produces some of the most delicate and lovely pieces of small “crafts” ever. It involves getting a piece of wool, rolling it into a ball, and stabbing it repeatedly with a sharp needle. The needle has very small “teeth” on it, and as it penetrates the ball of well, it snags parts of the wool and interlinks the fibers together. After some stabbing, you can mold the ball of wool into any shape you want, and attach other parts to it. The only downside is, most wool felt products tend to be quite small, though they make lovely ornaments.

Papercraft

Anything involving paper is in this section, and there are many different kinds of paper craft. There’s the kind where people build complex sculptures out of cardboard, there’s origami, there’s quilling, there’s paper cut-outs… it goes on and on. Personally, I like the models built out of Chinese paper triangles (also known as 3D Origami).

Odds and Ends

Here is where I put all the the other bits and pieces I do in my spare time, those that don’t fit in any of the other categories on this page.