Happy April, everyone! Don’t worry, I don’t have any kind of April Fool’s prank up my sleeve. Another busy month has come and gone with lots of new things on the horizon. Now might be a good time to mention that (just like for the past 10+ years) I’ll be attending Metrocon in Tampa, FL! 😀 I have some new products that I plan to develop and bring there, so I’ll let you know more about that as things develop.

Now that a few months have passed, I’m also getting really close to my next giveaway goal! Here’s how my stats look:
DeviantArt pageviews: 95,738/100,000 = 96% (almost there!)
DeviantArt watchers: 3,599/4,000 = 90%
Facebook likes: 1,249/2,000 = 62%
Tumblr followers: 762/1,000 = 76%
Wordpress followers: 1,214/2,000 = 61%
I’m thinking at this rate I should be able to do another giveaway around June-ish, but you can always speed up the process by visiting my Deviantart page if you haven’t already ^-^

But of course the main reason I’m here is to launch the new Monthly Crafting Challenge plush for April! And that’s this little dango plush!

Dango are a kind of Japanese sweet dumpling very similar to mochi, but served on a skewer and prepared different ways depending on the season. The ones you see here are modeled after Hanami dango, which are colored appropriately for the flower viewing season 😀 Others are sometimes grilled, covered in sweet syrupy sauce, or flavored with red beans. This is another kind of Japanese treat that I have yet to try, but they are definitely fun to sew up! If they’re like mochi, as they say, I’m sure I’ll love them.

You can get the pattern for this plush by signing up for email updates (found in the submission box on the right side of the page below the search bar). If you have trouble signing up, you can check out more info at the main Monthly Crafting Challenge page, the FAQ, or by emailing me. Also, bonus! for today only I’m offering both this pattern and the one from March when you sign up. After today though, the prize is just this guy 🙂 Though you can also purchase the older pattern through my Etsy if you’re too late.

If you’ve already signed up for emails, that’s where the challenge comes in. You can get this pattern if you make one of the projects from this blog, my books, or my Etsy then email me or message the finished project to my Facebook where I have a really awesome collection going of your creations! Keep it up every month and you’ll get a new free pattern, so don’t forget to check back during May to see the newest creation!