Modelling - Kitty Kingdom: Smaller details

In Kitty Kindgom, everything is cat related (of course) therefore I am going to create objects with a 'cat twist'. For example the trees are not going to be standard trees, they are going to be cat themed trees. As previously stated, I have asked many people what they think Kitty Kingdom would look like therefore i am going to combine ideas.

There are many stereotypical things that cats 'like' such as balls of yarn and cardboard boxes.

When I decided to make a yarn ball I was unsure of how to model it and could not find any tips online therefore I created a polygon sphere and put a polygon torus around the outside.

I then duplicated the torus many times and placed them in different positions around the sphere which resulted in this final model of which I was happy with. 

I then experimented with different textures and colours. 

From my experience, a majority of cats love cardboard boxes therefore I feel that there needs to be some in the scene.

This was simple to model, I created a cube, deleted the top face and extruded the edges to make the flaps. I then applied a cardboard box texture.

Another popular item with cats is a scratching post. 

As scratching posts have a rough texture, I had to try and replicate this to make it look more realistic. I found that the material used on scratching posts is called sisal rope so I found a couple of textures and experimented with which one gave the best visual. I also produced a bump map to give the texture depth. I felt that the second image looked more appropriate. 

Using the yarn balls and the scratching posts, I am going to make trees for the environment.