The prototypes are in!

I'm happy to announce the factory prototypes are completed and I'm ready to begin manufacturing on 25,000 Flaky Friends!  The characters who made the cut were Bookworm, Monsieur Carrot, Professor Foster, Sweet Pea and Black Eyed Pea.  Now I have to do all the fun stuff like finding sales reps, publicists, and (last but certainly not least!) vendors!  The toys should arrive in July and my days of sewing peas and carrots all day will be over!  Here's the mug shot of my factory fresh prototypes.  I'm really happy with how they turned out and will be able to offer them for sale for considerably less than the versions that I handmade myself.

Career Day at Tartan Elemantary

I participated in my first ever career day last week at a local elementary school (John Tartan in North Las Vegas) and it was a total blast!  I'm not sure it's exactly what the parents expected when their little darling came home and decided to be a toy maker rather than a surgeon, but hey, sewing up a plush is sort of like sewing up a body I guess ;)

I had time for a 25 minute presentation to three classes so I brought my big santa bag full of my toys, and a fun activity to teach the kids about getting a product to the market.  It involved giving each of them a small plush fabric sample to inspire them to create a toy of their own (they drew their toy ideas) and talking about target markets, price points, inspiration, and retail locations.  My wildest dream came true when they sent me a big envelope of thank you notes - I've always loved reading all the kid-written thank you notes that are framed in doctors offices, art centers, etc and now I've got a whole stack of my own to pour over when I need inspiration to get back on my sewing machine.  One of the classes even took it a step further and emailed me a picture of some tiny critters they made using the small scrap of fabric I left them with (see below).

All in all, it was ridiculously fun and felt almost wrong to be advocating to the youth of America that they could and should be toy makers when they grow up.  Hopefully by then I'll have a huge Vegas based operation and they can help fill out my gigantic staff of public relations, development, marketing, and customer service departments.  Ah, dreams.  But the take away point is, if you are in Vegas and want an eager participant for your child's career day, call a Flaky Friend!

First Friday Photos

I finally convinced my mom to fly into town to help us sell at our monthly First Friday event since words can hardly describe how awesome it and and she was able to take some great shots of the Vegas crowd last week. We even had an appearance from one of our new favorite customers, The Bearded Lady! I love, love, love my city and am always so happy to see everyone each month at the best little art event in Nevada! Enjoy the pictures.

Me in my new 10x20' space - holy smokes it's a lot of space to fill!

Happy customers with Monsieur Carrot and Misunderstood Pitbull

The Bearded Lady might love her Kitty Ball even more than her pet python!

Smiles all around!  I love this crowd :)

Makin' the sale - it helps that each one has a background story.

My charming husband Adam is my best kept sales secret.  Who could resist that smile!

The proud new owner of Sweet Pea and Black Eyed Pea.

I wub my momma.  

Come See Me In April!

It's a very busy month for Flaky Friends and for those of you in the Vegas area, you can come and see my and my goodies during the next few weekends.

On Saturday the 21st, I'll be set up and selling my one of a kind critters at the Tivoli Village Farmer's Market from 8am to 1pm.  I usually bring a lot of stuff to my markets that never will get listed on my online shop since I use fabrics that I can't get again, so make sure to come see what's fresh at the market.  The address is 302 S. Rampart, Las Vegas, NV  89145.  It's in the Summerlin area and the market has a great array of crafts and delicious, organic goodies. (www.fresh52.com)

On Saturday the 28th, I'll be managing the kid's Art Park at the Summerlin Trails Village Shopping Center for the weekend.  In addition to organizing all the fun crafts for the kids, my table will be set up and I'll have all the usual crowd of plushies for sale.  The Art Park is open for kids of all ages, and free to boot.  It is a part of the ArtWalk art fair that is held annually in this location and is chock full of all kinds of seriously amazing artists.  This event runs from 10-5, Saturday and Sunday April 28-29th.  Bring your kids, and enjoy a really fun weekend with us!  I've put together some beach-related crafts and am creating a beach-party themed area for families to hang out in complete with an industrial bubble machine and free face painting compliments of the shopping center.  Click here for a map and directions:  http://www.vegasartwalk.com/

Of course, I'll be back at First Friday on May 4th in my new, big tent!  I'm now filling a 10x20' space with the help of my friend, Autumn (sorry boys, she's got a boyfriend!) and my handsome hubby Adam.  This last event we broke our sales record by far and I'm really looking forward to another amazing month and seeing all my usual peeps at the event.  For event info, please visit the site here:  www.firstfridaylasvegas.com

Phew, that about wraps it up.  Happy Spring, everyone!

My Feature on The Nosh Blog

I'm so happy to be the featured shop on the Artfire Nosh blog for a few days!  If you'd like some insider info on me and my business, go ahead and check out the link to read the interview:  http://www.artfire.com/nosh/featured-artisan-flakyfriends/#comments

I love, love, love Artfire as a place to sell my stuff and encourage anyone to try them out.

Fabulous First Friday!

The Las Vegas First Friday art event this month was drop dead amazing!  We sold the most product by far that we've ever sold at this (or any) event and were feeling the local love in a major way.  I'm so pumped about the April event, even though I pretty much sold all my inventory last week and have to start from scratch on the sewing machine to make sure the booth is stocked.  For all you locals, this means lots of totally new creations, never seen before designs and fun new fabrics so make sure to stop on by to see the Flaky Friends!

In the Vegas area but haven't been to First Friday?  Tut tut.  Come.  Here's the event website:  www.firstfriday-lasvegas.org.  I sell in the middle of the street under a white canopy in the middle of Casino Center Blvd 1/2 a block north of Colorado St.

In other news, I'm milliseconds away from authorizing manufacturing on 17,000 toys to be ready in time for the holiday shopping season.  It's a totally exciting terrifying time and I'm already shopping around for my private island to retire on after the batch goes hot!  Thank you to all my friends and family who have supported and encouraged me to take this step, it really helps to know I'm not doing this all alone.

Moving forward with Production

I promised myself this year I would get help with my sewing, and am pleased to announce my friend, Autumn, has jumped on board to help me keep up with demand this year.  She'll be helping me sew up my silkscreened skeleton dolls, since I swear, if I have to make one more myself I'm going to give up the whole sewing business altogether!  I'm also happy to announce that I'm planning a factory run of 5 of my popular food plush items: Monsieur Carrot, Sweet Pea, Black Eyed Pea, Professor Foster, and the bookworm (okay, so most people don't usually eat bookworms, but he seems to fit in pretty well).  I'm working with an overseas factory and trying to fit all the logistical pieces together so I can roll out my plushies nationally.  I'm looking at getting about 25,000 toys made and am hoping this year I can spend my time I would have spent sewing those guys on other things like developing new characters and making buyer contacts.  Should be a fun year!  I guess I could have made a resolution like exercising more, but this seemed more fun!  Plushie fruit salad, anyone?

Happy New Year!

After a nice Christmas break where my hands did nothing but jigsaw puzzles, I'm back and ready for action.  I'm hoping to move the business along this year with a good round of manufacturing so I can keep up with demand.  Hopefully my limited edition factory items will be available in April.  I've got Monsieur Carrot, Sweet Pea, Black Eyed Pea and Bookworm all slated for production and may even be able so squeeze a few more in.  I'm hoping this is the year that I can do something with my business other than sew from morning till night!

Look for me as always at First Friday in a white tent in the center of Casino Center Blvd. just south of Charleston.  And keep your eye out for my new creations - follow me on Facebook or Twitter to get the latest scoop!

Happy New Year, Sarah

Locals Pick Up Your Christmas Loot Today!

I'm done with events for 2011, but anyone in the Las Vegas area can drop by HellPop! at The Arts Factory to shop where I've dropped off my remaining inventory until the New Year.  I'm the featured artist outside the comic shop there and you can find all sorts of characters including Misunderstood Pitbull, Lester the Tijuana Circus Giraffe, Monsieur Carrot and Mr. Bones.  HellPop is located on the first floor of The Arts Factory at the northwest corner of the building (right next to Happy Panda Toys).  Thanks for the great year and I'm gearing up for all sorts of new characters in 2012!

HellPop!
 107 East Charleston Blvd Suite 105, Las Vegas, NV 89104
Wednesday through Saturday, 12pm to 8pm
jason@hellpop.net
shane@hellpop.net
maria@hellpop.net
702-353-3228

Two More December Events

So I was going to end off the season with First Friday, but in the spirit of squeezing every last drop out of my capabilities (and then some) I've decided to do the Fresh52 Farmer's Market at Tivoli Shopping Center in Summerlin on  the mornings of December 10th and 17th.  I'm down to my very last of the 2011 stock, but if you want to come by and see my plushy spread in all its glory, come and say hi!  Here's the address:

Saturday

8:00 am to 2:00 pm

fresh52 @ Tivoli Village

302 S. Rampart

Las Vegas, NV 89145

I'll have my little gingerbread army which will make great stocking stuffers and Secret Santa presents for the young at heart.  Just look for the awesome tent with the prettiest gal inside surrounded by fluffy wonders. That'll be me!

Anonymous Awesome Person will Match your Contribution!

I just got an email this morning and found out that anyone willing to participate in my Kickstarter.com project will have their contribution matched by a fan of Flaky Friends!  Thank you so much to our anonymous "matcher" for your support of weird plush and encouragement for this project.  I am going to be dreaming of sugar plums and plush toys all the month of December.  Click here to visit the project page and see me making funny faces on camera.  If you are looking for a great way to support small business, Kickstarter is an awesome web idea and has tons of people like me looking for a way to get their artistic ideas off the ground.

Also, Flaky Friends found themselves on the cover of the December 1st, Las Vegas Weekly magazine!  I also had another full page photo inside as well as a synopsis of the biz.  You can check it all out here.

Flaky Friends in HellPop!

I'm really excited to announce that I'll have some of my larger toys featured outside of HellPop! comic shop during the month of December!  HellPop! is a very cool little comic shop with all your deepest, darkest comic needs readily supplied tucked into the Arts Factory amidst great galleries of art.  My toys will be in a foyer also connected to Happy Panda Toys with all sorts of designer vinyl and plush toys and Hiptazmic Studio with tons of very fun upcycled pieces of jewelry and art.  It's an amazing location for me with hopefully my kind of people  tromping through and I can't wait to see how their customers respond to my stuff.  I've got some of my classic characters there like Mr. Bones and Jane the Orangutan, and also some newer items as well as one of a kind pieces that I may or may not make again.

HellPop! is located at 107 E. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, NV inside The Arts Factory.  Thanks again to Shane and Maria for reaching out and giving me this great opportunity!

My Kickstarter Video

I've just launched a Kickstarter.com project to help me get my little skeleton rattle, Mr. Bones produced in a limited edition of 1,200.  I've sold hundreds of them that I've handmade myself and honestly, I just want to focus on developing other characters now.

Please take a minute to watch my video here:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1945838666/mr-bones-plush-silkscreened-skeleton-rattle

I'm offering all kinds of great rewards for project participants including custom toys, and your creative input into the Flaky Friends line.  Thanks so much!

The Holiday Surge

If I can just make it through December, I'll be okay!  Once again, I'm in the midst of a holiday whirlwind of activity and have my elf hat on 24/7 trying to fill orders and keep afloat.  I've had some really great press lately and am trying to get more involved in local art events so with about 10 balls up in the air, I'm a fantastic act to gawk at.

In December, you'll be able to find me selling at First Friday (on the sidewalk just north of The Funk House in Las Vegas) as well as in the foyer outside HellPop Comics at 107 E. Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas.  My work is also featured in the Jenny Valdez Inc studio in the Arts Factory, also at 107 E. Charleston Blvd.

I hope to see you in December and hope my poor sewing hands hold out until Christmas day so I can open some presents for ME.

Green T-Rex

Black Sheep

Skeletons

I made these using my new silkscreening equipment.  Now I can put my drawings directly on the fabric!

Crazy Hat Day

My five year old was supposed to wear a Crazy Hat for school yesterday, so I whipped up this little brain eater for her.

Butterflies

Ladybugs