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Posts Tagged ‘Stuffed’

Thanksgiving is usually a wonderful time of the year. It kicks off the holiday season and offers a time for family and friends to gather together to eat and enjoy each other’s company. But if you are hosting the get-together, the holiday can be much more stressful. Not only do you have to cook and serve the food, you also have to clean up your house before company arrives and make sure that it is decorated for the season. Although this can appear stressful, it doesn’t have to be if you plan carefully. Here are some tips to enhance your home with fun, festive and appropriate decorations through the use of stuffed animals. These delightful plush toys can do wonders in creating the right look for the Thanksgiving holiday and their cuteness can cut your stress in other ways.

Thanksgiving is associated with fall colors like orange, brown, dark red, and gold, so these colors should be your first priority in decorating. Your décor should reflect the beautiful colors of fall foliage. To use stuffed animals to their best advantage for Thanksgiving decoration, you should select some animals that fall naturally into this color range and get some plush toys in authentic shades. Some good ones include the rusty red fox, the brown bunny, chipmunks, the majestic moose, and cute squirrels. Soon you will have some excellent home decorating accessories.

Overall Home Decorations

Let’s start with your home in general. Try putting a rustic red fox or a brown moose on your sofa. It will be both cute and seasonal. You could add some acorns on the coffee table around the lamp and have a plush chipmunk or squirrel holding a couple. Anywhere you need an extra decoration you can make your own “salad bowl” filled with leaves, pinecones, or a some of each with a stuffed animal as the centerpiece. This can be charming and you are sure to have good results as long as you choose toys that are natural in color and appearance.  Read more...

All you need is…

Felt in assorted shades, PVA glue, thread, stuffing, lavender flowers, potpourri, or scented oils for fragrance.

The basis for any of the scented stuffed animals is a circle of fabric. Use a mug to draw around onto a piece of paper to create a pattern piece. Using the pattern cut out two circles of felt. This forms the animal’s head or body, and also makes up the main part of the bag.

Extras can be slipped between these two circles. Extras may be limbs, ears, horns, tails, or hair. Also tuck a loop of ribbon between the two circles to be used for hanging the scented bag up. Pin the ribbon and the extras into place so that the pins point outwards like the spokes of a bike wheel. This makes it easier to sew.

Sew a row of small stitches around the edge of the circle, making sure that the needle passes through all the layers of fabric. Leave an opening at some point on the circle, preferably where there aren’t any extras hanging out. This hole is to stuff the animal.

If you have access to a lavender bush, you can collect all the dead lavender flowers and leave them upside down in a paper bag to dry. You can use these dries flowers to scent your animal bag. Lightly stuff the animal with packing and add some dried lavender flowers. Similarly you can scent the animal with potpourri.

If you are using scented oils to fragrance the animal, drop the oil essence onto the packing before stuffing the animal. The oil can discolour fabric, so adding it to the stuffing means that it won’t spoil the finish of the scented bag.  Read more...

Finding the perfect stuffed animal is just the beginning of the gift decision-making process. Your next step is finding the right size. Plush toys are not one size fits all, and unlike shirts or pants, you can’t try them on to find the one that works perfectly. Of course, with plush animals, you know which size “fits” by looking at the occasion and the person who you are giving the gift to.

Let’s discuss what constitutes small, medium, and large stuffed toys before getting into the appropriate times to get what. Of course, unlike clothes, plush animals don’t have sizes on the label because they simply do not have a standard sizing chart. So to make things simple for the purposes of this article, let’s size stuffed animals within a 4 to 90 inch range, as they rarely get smaller or larger than that. For “small” stuffed animals, let’s consider them anything under or equal to 18 inches. For a toy to be medium, let’s put it between 19 and 42 inches. Lastly, let’s consider large toys anything above 42 inches long. Next, let’s look at the appropriate occasions and people for each size.

Small Sized Plush Animals

Whether they be small or extra-small, little toys are often the cutest of all. Because of this cuteness, small toys are especially appropriate for children. With smaller stuffed animals, there’s plenty of room for quite a few of them to be piled on their beds ready for nightly snuggling. These can also be a great “thinking of you” gift for a significant other, especially stuffed animals that are extra-small. This way the gift is still inexpensive for you, but still more than thoughtful enough to make an impact. For example, you could put out a small stuffed bunny who’s holding a post-it or a card with a loving sentiment written on or in it.

Choosing the right type of stuffed animal is a great start for picking the perfect gift, but you still have to select the appropriate size. Plush toys come in a wide variety of sizes, and you can’t try them on like clothes to get the best fit. The good news is, with plush animals, you can select the right size for anyone without asking their pants or dress size by simply considering the person to whom you are giving the present and the situation for which you are buying a gift.

Stuffed animals have a general size range from four inches up to six feet, with only the rarest outside that range. Unlike clothes, there aren’t any size labels on plush animals., so, to make things clear, let’s divide this range into “small,” medium” and “large” sizes, after which we will examine the appropriate occasions for each. For our purposes, a “small” stuffed animal is under or equal to eighteen inches, or about a foot and a half. A “medium” toy is over eighteen inches up to forty-two inches. So a “large” is any plush toy that exceeds forty-two inches. Now let’s move on to the best situation and recipient for each size.

Small Sized Plush Animals

The smaller toys are, in many cases, also the cutest. This makes them especially appropriate for children. Not only are they cuter, but they are easier to store. They will fit in a tiny bookcase, or a whole collection can be displayed on a child’s bed, which is a great place to keep them within easy reach for snuggling. Small and very small plush animals are also perfect for a significant other, even if there is no special occasion. The added cuteness speaks volumes. Sometimes it really is the thought that counts and small toys, while affordable for you, can be very effective at expressing sentiments that are hard to put into words. For instance, a small stuffed bunny with a note that says “Thinking of you” or any other personal message can make a big impact. Small plushies are also good for significant others because they are cuter and less likely to be perceived as tacky than the six foot tall green and purple bunny you won at the carnival years ago.  Read more...

Stuffed animals are one of children’s most favorite toys. These fun animals are great to have around, and sometimes go everywhere with your youngster. Since these animals are around for almost every event, even they get dirty and will need an occasional bath.

So how do you keep stuffed animals clean? Well here are some tips to keep them clean and in great shape:

First and most importantly read the care instructions that come with the stuffed animal on their label. Also take note of all materials the stuffed animal is made with.

Retailers of stuffed animals never personally recommend washing stuffed animals in the washer or dryer. What is highly recommended is to spray on a mild all-purpose cleanser or simply use soap and sponge it clean with a little water. Then leave your stuffed animal in the sun to dry.

However, many parents really feel like they need to wash stuffed animals in a washing machine to make them completely clean. So here are more tips if you desire to do so:

First, make sure none of your stuffed animals have the following before putting it in the washing machine:

* If a stuffed animal has excelsior, styrene foam, or any other form of foam material, such as foam beads, they must not be washed in the machine.

* If a stuffed animal has joints, or cardboard or any other form of stiffeners, do not put into a machine or they can be destroyed.

* If a stuffed animal has a sound box, please do not put this into a machine or any other form of major water.

 Read more...