Hiccups -- And the Start of the Circus Set

At the beginning of the year, I make a list of the ornaments I want to make that year for the people who receive one annually.   Then I vary my strategy from year-to-year.  Sometimes I give myself the months of January and February to make whatever ornaments I want for myself and then move on to everyone else's.  Sometimes I take a one-for-them/one-for-me approach.  This year, I decided to do the ones for everyone else as fast as I could and then make whatever I wanted for the rest of the year.  That proved to be a valuable incentive because I was done with everyone else's by the end of March.  

I really like designing new ornaments and I have some of those to do this year.  But I also love the Carolyn DeAngelis patterns and there are lots of hers I still want to do.  Sometimes the timing works out so that I finish an ornament and don't have the time to design a new one before I have more stitching time.  That's when I reach for one of Carolyn's existing patterns.  That's what happened with this guy.  I finished an ornament in the middle of a movie and wanted to start cutting out another one right away.  I loved Clif's version of Hiccups and loved him when I did him for my nephew back in 2009 and always thought I'd like to make him for myself.  Here are mine and Clif's:

As I sat cutting out the little pieces, I thought of Carolyn's other clown patterns and thought maybe I'd make a set.  Caleb said, "You know what you should do?  Make a whole circus set!  And use beads and sequins like you did on the Wizard of Oz and Wicked ones."  He's nothing if not particular.  But a circus set . . . . indeed.  Yes.  This could work.  I'm not gonna lie, for several days I obsessed over the idea of this.  RING MASTER!  ELEPHANTS!  SEAL WITH A BALL!  I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at clipart on Etsy for inspiration.  And in looking through my DeAngelis patterns, I realized I already had a lot to work with. 

Caleb and I brainstormed and we came up with a twelve-piece set.  Yikes.  That's ambitious!  And with sequins and beads, no less.  Whew -- I'm tired already!  But I really do love the sequins and beads and the sparkle they add to the tree.  I wouldn't want to do them on every ornament, but the circus seems like the right place for them.  I get my glass seed beads at JoAnn Fabrics and I order my sequins from Cartwright's Sequins.  I use mostly metallic sequins in 4mm or 5mm.  Try not to spend all your inheritance on that site.

I'm through with the first half of the set and wanted to share them with you right away.  Here's the guy who started it all!

Popcorn

Once I finished Hiccups, I knew I wanted to do one of the other clown patterns.  My kids were displeased.  Apparently, they're not fans of clowns.  When did clowns get such a bad rap, anyway?  I had never seen the Popcorn pattern made up before, so I decided to give it a go.  I labored hard over color choice so he wouldn't clash with Hiccups because these are the things I lose sleep over.

I decided to use multi-colored sequins with clear beads on the body and white sequins and multi-colored beads on the sleeves.  I love how it turned out!  I also decided not to do a white face on this one.  I went with the flesh felt and then cut a piece from white for that area around the mouth like some clowns have.  I think he turned out great!

Hiccups

This is the ornament my older nephew, Alex, picked. He also chose every single color. You can't really tell in the picture, but the tie is purple -- it looks like it's the same color as the suit. This is another one I might have to make for myself now that I see the finished product. He's really cute!