Hey Folks;
For those that care, I finally finished both figurines.
It took me a total of about 4 days, 2-3 hours a day.
The Alligator wasn't too bad, but the Lion was a P.I.T.A.!
I had to redo the Lion about 7 times (3 times for the head and 4 for the body.)
I just couldn't figure out how to make the arms when u start from the body, so I had to make them separately and then attach them to the body. The legs were no problem, just the arms. I think overall they turned out alright!
I hope my friend enjoys them and realizes the effort that was put into it, but she probably won't...sigh...
Oh well, this will be it for me as far as big crystal figurines go. I think I lost about half my sight working with these crystals and I will only be making small cellphone charms from now on, that is unless the boss (wife...no she's not looking over my shoulders right now) wants me to make one.
F.Y.I. the Alligator was about 200 crystals and Lion was about 500 crystals.
I used the 3 mm swarovski bicones and some seedbeeds...I don't like the figures when they are made out of the 4 mm, they come out WAY too big for my tastes.
Also, is there a way to contact the people in the picasso site to see if we could get a clearer pic of the diagram sent to us? Some of these diagrams are too blurry for my little eyes to read on the screen and if I could get them in a higher resolution, it would be great.

Thank you Vanessa and others for the advice and encouragement, if anyone needs any help just let me know.
Here are the pics....Yes, the colors are a bit different from the diagrams, but the person selling them to me thought they were the correct colors and I was too lazy to drive back to exchange them...and yes, the lions tails sticks out rather stiffly, but it looks cuter in person!