Restoring a Rushton Valentine Happy Bear...

 I had the amazing opportunity to adopt a fellow collector's vtg Rushton Valentine's Happy Bear! She was an early birthday gift to myself and I am so thrilled that he arrived safely to me last week!! He arrived with so many cute extras, I was very touched by my dearest friend, Alvina. My heart is definitely full and her kindness was just truly amazing. I feel so blessed to have her and her family in my life! Along with some really amazing collector friends via Etsy and Instagram, you know who you guys are! 

ILY always. ~ ggsdolls

Now onto the restoration!! I actually didn't have to do anything to him as far as his fur or washing him. Alvina kept him as is and she is one I know that is very good at making sure her plushies or any vintage item is clean and safe. At first, I thought I may try to wash him still. Mostly because, I wanted to refresh his fur. But, that would mean me having to undo his seams, take off his wings which are delicate as it is, remove his felt feet, his stuffing, etc. Ugh. I didn't want to do that. At least for now. So, instead I just simply wiped him down and used Mr. Clean eraser on his face, just to take off a bit of the aging. His facepaint was immaculate underneath. He only needed a touch up to his nose and hair. I did add some blush to him!

After sealing his face, I simply allowed him to dry and he sat for the past week. I was trying to decide, how to move forward with the other items he iss missing. He was missing the bow and arrow, and of course his felt heart with the message, "H-O-N-E-Y, I Love You." Hmmm, how is one to create something like that... I went to my local School and Office Supply Store, and picked up some foam sheets in colors, and also found a gold poster paper sheet! Yay!

The idea was to take the foam sheet and cut out a bow and arrow shape. Then, take the gold poster paper and glue that onto the foam sheet cutouts. I began that work yesterday and within just an hour, I was done with making his bow and arrow. I basically printed out a bow and arrow printable from online images. Then, cutout the shape, used that to cutout the shapes onto the foam sheet, and also the gold poster paper and glued both together.

I added a foam loop so that both the arrow and bow can be placed onto his paws without me having to staple or sew them onto him. You see, Rushton Co. either glued the props onto their plushies or stapled them on. I didn't want to do that. Staples will eventually rust and cause spots on the fur, and glue, just damages it. That's a No-no to me! So, now the task was to create the felt heart that is stapled onto his red satin bow... hmmm. In the end, I basically took a screen shot of a Valentine's Rushton online and cropped and enhanced the felt heart photo. Next, I printed it out, and blue the image onto the foam sheet I already had. I could've made it using felt, but that would take me way too long to do. Sorry, I was lazy, and then I sealed the heart with gloss spray paint. I sewed the heart onto the rest satin bow I had on him.

On a side note, sadly, I could not find a thicker red satin ribbon roll, ugh. Mostly were only 1 inch or smaller and sold out because of yup, you guessed it Valentine's coming up. The ones they did have were in white with red words. Ugh. Oh well. Next time. In the end, he turned out just lovely. His bow and arrow may not look exactly like the version the original bears had, but hey they are decent enough! Haha!

 

 

 

Now, he's ready for Valentine's Day! I hope to upload some spam pics when I do a set up scene with him soon!! He has the same face as my pink Happy bear, just taller and in red and white. He is a huge bear too. Not as huge as Papa bear, but definitely the largest I own now in my collection!

 

 Thanks again to Alvina for allowing me to adopt him! Have a wonderful weekend my friends!

 

 Thank you for reading! ~ ggsdolls