PlushTeam Las Vegas Challenge - Neon Sign Category

PlushTeam is at it again!  For those of you who are unaware of the sheer awesomeness that is the PlushTeam, let me fill you in.  The Etsy Plush Street Team, or PlushTeam for short, is an international guild of plush artists. Amazing as it may seem, there's more of me out there, 50+ of us, in fact, and this incredible team of supportive, inspirational, creative, brilliant, and hilarious artists has been a major source of strength for me these past few years.

Every few months the Team comes up with a fun challenge to get people to push our creative boundaries, to inspire us, and to just get us laughing.  These challenges are often ways to get us to try something completely new, and that could not be more true for me this time around!


This challenge was inspired by Vegas, Baby!  All aspects of Vegas - performer, casinos, signage, you name it, we were to take what Las Vegas meant to us and run with it.  This has resulted in some really crazy entries, and you'll have to go the the PlushTeam blog to check them all out (which is weirder, boobs on chicken or boobs on toast?  you decide!), but today I'll show you what came out of my noggin and pin-pricked hands.

Sometimes we make bad choices...

For the PlushTeam Las Vegas Challenge, I chose to enter the Neon Sign category and go with something I know Vegas is famous for - the quickie wedding.

A dirty martini can help facilitate making bad choices.

Nothing reeks of a Vegas wedding like the 24 hour, drive-thru wedding chapel with an Elvis on hand to conduct the ceremony, right?  If I had it all to do over again, I'd forgo all that classy expensive nonsense and do it right!

Sometime glitz and glamour distracts our sensibilities.

What we have here is a very large 18"x22"x6"; pillow made of velvet, lamé, and the funkiest trim I could find.  I mean, really - tassels, pom-poms and crystals - this pillow is practically a show girl!  The neon is cording covered in lamé and painstakingly hand stitched onto the velvet.  The backside is, you guessed it, more shiny, irridescent lamé.

Why is it every Team challenge I make something that looks like boobs?

Neon signs in the night often attract
bad choices like moths to the flame.

The pillow does not actually glow in the dark. If you are not familiar with lame', it is an extremely shiny material like you might see in dancers' costumes. It is extraordinarily reflective, giving the shot with the extra long exposure the look that it is really lighting up. 

"P" stands for prenup!

This was a ridiculously funky and fun challenge. Thanks for checking out my piece (which is available for purchase here and is available at a very special Vegas Wedding price), and to see more of my work go to www.abbydid.etsy.com .

Upcoming Shows

As usual, I've been neglecting the blog.  Bad Abby.

Anywho, I have a couple of Cincinnati shows coming up that are in neighborhoods I just love, and would be ever so touched if you came and cuddled some of my plush:)

First up is the Covedale Arts and Crafts Fair at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts.  This will take place on Saturday, August 21st from 10am until 4pm.  You won't miss me, I'll be the one in the parking lot in the fantabulous tent with the monster banner;)

Back in the day, this was a movie theater, and I remember having my dad drop me and my friends off to watch one of the two movies they would be offering.  I remember dragging two girlfriends to see Robert Downey Jr. in the Pickup Artist, thinking it was about an artist.  Well, turns out it was, but not about any artist my little 12 year old brain understood at the time.  And there you have a glimpse into the miseducation of Abby.  

Next up will be the Westwood Art Show, presented by the Westwood Town Hall Recreation Center.  This will be taking place on Saturday, September 18th from 10am until 4pm. There will be wine tastings thanks to Henke Winery, music, food and drink vendors, and lots of local artists (say, about 40 of us) selling their handcrafted goods to you, our legions of adoring fans.   

Westwood Town Hall, in all her glory.

I just wrapped up a happy, hot summer of Second Sunday shows in Over-the-Rhine, and look who stopped by - Mayor Mallory!  It was lovely to meet him, and I was flattered he chose my booth to visit.  Of course, he didn't have much choice, Jason pretty much shoved him in so as to get a photo op;)

Mayor Mark Mallory wonders what he's gotten himself into.

I made a big bunny.  The kids won't let me sell him
(seems he's been taken in as a sibling),
but he likes to come along to meet the people.

Can you guess which one is my tent?  I bet you can't:)

So, my kittens, that's all I have for you today.  Please come out and visit me if you can, if not, go *like* me at my facebook page, where I'm much more active than I am here on the blog, and of course, buy up all of my plushes and provide them with good homes here at the etsy shop.  Cheers!