Made: Bearly Dreadfuls for the wedding

For Halloween 2016, I dressed up as a dolly that I named Little Sally Smiles-A-Lot and carried around a frankenbear that I made named Mortimer.

People thought I was creepy (which is what I was going for) but Mortimer got all sorts of attention!  After that, Andy asked me to make him a bear which he brought to work and several of our coworkers have since purchased others from me.  I decided to call them Bearly Dreadfuls and will be opening up an Etsy shop in about 6 months at the latest.

The reason I am waiting to open up a shop is because I have been busy making a bunch of them for the wedding.

Wait... what?  Making creepy bears for a wedding?!?

Yep!  They are acting as our centerpieces, complete with paper roses that I also made.  Each one for the wedding is also decked out in a rainbow bow tie or hair bow since rainbows are an underlying theme for our shindig.  One,  I love all the colors and B) gay marriage rights are very important to us even though we, technically, are a hetero couple.

Here's a little sneak peak of a few that I finished over the weekend.

I have so much fun making these!  There's just something cathartic about cutting apart stuffed animals and sewing them back together again.

I never use brand new bears when making my Bearly Dreadfuls.  I either thrift them or take donations from people.  Even the yarn I used is reused/recycled.  I'm currently using strands from a grey sweater I picked up in a thrift shop quite a while ago.  I usually end up buying 20-30 at a time so I often wonder what the cashiers think when I come up to the counter.  In my mind, they are thinking that I am making some kids really, really happy.  Little do they know!  <insert evil laughter here>

The buttons I use for their eyes are new, though.  Mainly because it's impossible to find cheap bulk buttons in the thrift shops around me.  But I think the bears deserve something new and shiny before kiss them on the nose when they are done.

Yep, I kiss each and everyone on the nose when I am finished.  That's the magic that brings them back to life.  ;)

I only name the ones I am going to keep.  It's easier for me to let them go that way because I get way too attached.  LOL

In the Midwest where I grew up, it's common for people to take wedding centerpieces home at the end of the reception.  Apparently, that's not a thing here in Georgia so we're going to make sure we let people know that they can adopt one of the 16 wedding bears that will be there.