Dreaming of Pencil Toppers

Dreams... they can be a magical escape and a wonderful source of inspiration where anything and everything is possible!

There are no boundaries or limitations. Rather, they stream fountains of pure potential that open the doors and windows to inspired ideas.

One of my latest projects this summer came to me in such a dream...

I was dreaming about a friend, who's daughter had a birthday coming up. In my dream, birthday led me to thinking about all the fun that comes with it, including the party gift bag!

My friend's daughter happens to be obsessed with My Little Pony. Naturally, this got me thinking of ideas for pony party favours for gift bags.

That's when it hit me... How amusing would it be to create a pony pencil topper!

As soon as that idea popped into my head, I woke up, excited and anxious to start working on it.

Left to Right: Cat/Fox, Turtle, Bear, Rose, Elegant Butterfly, Daisy, Ladybug, Unicorn, Basic Flower, Pony, Dog, Forget-Me-Knot Flower & Cute Butterfly

In the last year, I have been having fun designing no-sew amigurumi toys where almost no sewing is involved. I knew I wanted to do this for the pony pencil topper too.

I decided to try a simpler design first, namely a basic flower (see the orange-pink flower in the pictures), just to see what size the base for the pencil topper would be.

I had barely completed the basic flower, when I thought... Ooh butterfly! Of course, I had to make one right away (see the purple-red-orange butterfly in the pictures).

After I completed the butterfly, I had to stop myself because I was already thinking of more flowers and butterfly ideas and hadn't worked on the pony yet!

I used the knight from my chess set as inspiration for the pony pencil topper. I had to make it a little bit smaller, so it would fit snuggly around a pencil.

Once, I made the pony, I thought about two other patterns I have that could be translated to pencil toppers too - Kelly's Teddy Bear and Fashion Doll's Kitty. These led me to the bear, dogs and cat/fox pencil toppers. The pony also inspired the unicorn, which was created later.

I was admiring all of the ones I had completed so far, when I got to thinking how wonderful it would be to create more garden themed pencil toppers, which could be gifted together as a creative bouquet of flowers and useful tools for teachers!

So, I designed the elegant butterfly (purple-pink butterfly in the pictures), forget-me-knot flower (purple flower in the pictures), ladybug, rose and daisy.

Somewhere in the middle of creating more garden designs, I designed the turtle pencil topper.

While I was making it, I thought, awe... this can make a cute little turtle too. So, I made two!

As it so happens, I had several shades of green sport yarn on hand, so I tested the same turtle pattern with it and ended up with all of these turtle delights!

Is anyone else thinking chocolates and desserts now too?

Throughout the testing phase of these designs, we discovered that these patterns double as finger puppets when worked in an alternate yarn weight. How cool is that?!

Crochet patterns for each of these designs are coming to the blog for free this July and August. Plus, their PDF versions will be joining the loyalty program. Hurray!

Make sure you sign up to my newsletter, where you can grab one free pattern from the list each month in addition to five patterns when you join.

Here are the first nine patterns:

• Forget-Me-Knot Flower - Now Available!
  
• Ladybug - Now Available!
  
• Dainty Daisy - Now Available!
  
• Elegant Butterfly - Now Available!
  
• Pony - Now Available!
  
• Unicorn - Now Available!
  
• Basic Flower - Now Available!
  
• Cute Butterfly - Now Available!
  
• Rose - Now Available!
  

The patterns for the remaining designs will be coming later in August. All of these ones so far, should hopefully be available to you before school starts back up again.

Think fun back-to-school accessories and awesome teacher gifts! Or, if you happen to be an early planner, these will make great Halloween treats and stocking stuffers for Christmas too.

Stay tuned for updates...

Update - September 1, 2016: Turtle patterns are coming later this month. Other animal pencil topper patterns to come soon...

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Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a good one...