Japanese Super Fun Animal Plush!

I acquired some Japanese craft books via Etsy to help in my sewing endeavors... I'd like to make my own patterns, so I wanted some help in the construction, since I'm quite a beginner. My first project from them was this:

Alligator from Animal Mascot

(ISBN-10: 4391624206, ISBN-13: 978-4391624205 )

On Crafting Japanese

For Kathryn's (belated) B-Day,

made with vintage velvet from my bedspread as a child,

cotton fabric, wool felt, beads, and embroidery floss.

This book is pretty popular and fairly easy to find (on Etsy or Ebay) and has super cute designs with clear pictorial instructions (the text is all in japanese). I also picked up a couple without names (as in, I can't translate the names):

I haven't seen these anywhere else (I got them on Etsy), and they are pretty fantastic. The instructions are not as clear as Animal Mascots (and the projects are a bit more advanced), but I think I'll do alright with them still... There are more pics of them on my Flickr.