One too many craft books...

I own several dozen craft books with more on the way.  The sad part is only a small handful of them have I actually used! *face palm* So, I've decided as motivation to get around to producing projects from these books I'll challenge myself by writing a blog review for each one. There's one condition prior to writing the review: I gotta finish a project in the book first!

I have a ton of Japanese craft books and sometimes it's hard to find reviews on some of the titles, so I'll probably start with those books first. I'll start with the small goal of one book review a  month and hopefully bump that up to at least 2 a month.

Anywho, I finished an amigurumi project recently:

She's Angel Salvia from the anime Wedding Peach.  I haven't really watched the anime myself; she was a request from my cousin. 

In addition to that, I finished an amigurumi elephant for a craft swap I'm in: 

His pattern came from Ana Paula's first amigurumi book, Seriously Cute Crochet.  This is a good book to get started with making your own amigurumi animals. *smile*

More Sailor Moon Amigurumi: Sailor Mercury

Well I've finally found time to crochet another Sailor Scout. This time I give you Sailor Mercury:

Isn't she cute? :) I'll probably take a break from crocheting for a bit to work on some clay related projects.

Sailor Moon Amigurumi!! :D

I have a goal to eventually make all of the Sailor Scouts, but for now I'll just share a picture of the ones I've completed thus far:

Starting from the left, we have Queen Beryl, Sailor Venus, Moon, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter.  I will start working on Mercury sometime this week.  Eventually I will complete the rest of the outer Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask too! ^___^

Here's a close up on Sailor Moon. :) Adding hair was a pain, but in the end I'm happy with what I got. :)

Not Sailor Moon related, but I did a character from Dragonlance, Raistlin Majere, for my Dungeons & Dragons craft swap partner. (I apologize for the poor picture quality x_x)

He stopped looking cute once I painted the hourglass eyes. Also in the picture is a "magic-8" ball, "Should my character do it?" and a dice bag with a silhouette of a rust monster. :)

Mwahahaha...Vampire Toast!

I made my first plushie!!! Yay me! I'm so proud of myself. :D

It's for the Weird Stuffie Swap on Craftster. Two of the themes my partner listed were vampires and food, so I combined the two and got this:

I think they're freakin' cute! XD And now with that done I have more confidence to make more plushies. I really want to make an anime-styled plushie of my D&D character and eventually make plushies of the entire party. :)

In other news, I've be crocheting A LOT lately. I'm working on making Sailor Moon amigurumi dolls. :) I've been trying to cipher and translate a Sailor Moon pattern posted at the Sailor Moon Obsession blog and I've just about got it done. I'll post WIP pictures later. I'm also working on a smaller Sailor Moon amigurumi project for another craft swap I'm in. I'm making Sailor Saturn. It's coming out well. I can't wait to add hair.

So what do you think? :)

UPDATE

I added hair last night/in the wee hours of the morning.

Getting cuter! XD Thinking about making her staff with polymer clay.

Ambitious much?

Okay.

It is most unfortunate. Despite the size of my ever growing craft book collection, I've not one craft to show for it. This fact is very discouraging and has prompt me to create a goal of sorts: At least one completed project a week.

Simple enough, no?

I think so. This week I shall start with a small amigurumi project, a really cute and free Onigiri couple pattern curtsy of HandmadeKitty. I've actually almost completed one save sewing on the details, and I've got two more in the works. Maybe I can complete each project before Monday. We shall see!

If I some how pull this off by Monday, I shall complete a bunka doll next. My book came in today. :3 It's full of pretty pictures and one full pattern. It really sucks that I cannot understand a single word, but fortunately (as with most Japanese craft books), following the instructions is pretty straight forward. :D

(If you would like to create a bunka doll of your own, but you're unable to find a copy of this book, here's a really good tutorial at Three-Fourths.)

Well anywho, wish me luck!

EDIT:

Hmmmm...I almost forgot. I ordered some polymer clay tools this past week. Should they arrive by Wednesday, let's add the goal of making at least one piece of miniature food in polymer clay. :D