Shepherd's Hat

Kairi made a shepherd's hat for her bears and dolls using fabric and duct tape.

-- Kairi

Kairi's Newest Dolls

Kairi got two new dolls recently: she got City Girls Astor by Tonner Toys (which she has renamed Katie), and she got a Gene doll with an extra outfit. The new girls posed below.

-- Kairi

Gene (standing) and Katie (seated)

Make your own puppet!

From Santa, to Ellowyne: a make your own puppet set.

Ellowyne: This is what I made.

-- Kairi

Christmas Scenes

Our dolls are starting to get the Christmas spirit, so we took a few pictures of them enjoying the season!

-- Janet & Kairi

Libby opens the latest window on the Advent calendar

Annie and Bailey decorate the tree, Patsy tends to the Creche, and Mim wraps presents

Sewing fun: Ellowyne Trench

I cut out the fabric for a trench coat for Ellowyne several months ago, and finally had time over the holidays to finish!  The pattern is from a neat book I bought from Doll Reader that has just patterns for Ellowyne; you can find it online at http://shop.dollsmagazine.com/books/doll-reader-pattern-book-featuring-ellowyne-wilde.html.  The pattern was a little tricky, and some of the pieces were marked in confusing ways, but it is a very cute pattern and was worth the effort.  Below Ellowyne models her new trench, looking pretty smart!

-- Janet

Christmas Party #1

Kairi's Jr Doll Club had their Christmas Party (they do it in November, before the madness begins!) and their gift was a wonderful poodle skirt made by our friend Rhnee, a fur wrap made by Janet, rope and beads to make a bracelet and a cute heart pin to hold the wrap closed!  Christine is modeling her new outfit below!

-- Kairi

Halloween

I dressed some of my dolls for Halloween!  Mom made a witch dress for Bailey to match the hat she won at her doll club meeting, and I made a broom for her.  I also made a cat costume for Grace (the dog).  Ellowyne is dressed as a cowboy, Annie is dressed as a fairy, Patsy is dressed as a Disney princess, and Honey and Bee are dressed as princesses, too!

-- Kairi

Moo Moo

You can make clothes for your stuffed animals using socks.  I dressed my stuffed cows named MooMoo with baby socks from the dollar section at Target.

-- Kairi

Steampunk Hats

Janet bought Steampunk hat kits from a lady named Sissy who does great workshops for the Modern Doll Collector's Convention (see the boots she made at Sissy's workshop last year at http://janetkairidolls.blogspot.com/2012/03/ugg-boots.html).  These kits were easy and lots of fun, and Sissy put all kinds of fun trims in to decorate your hat with.  We're pretty pleased with our hats, and will probably make more in the future.

-- Janet & Kairi

Toni and Bailey model their steampunk styles

Bath Time!

Trina, Honey and Bee all jumped in the tub together!  (Kairi's fish tank is on the top shelf in the background).

-- Kairi

Doll Playground

I built a doll playground for my dolls using the My Froggy Stuff video (http://www.youtube.com/user/MyFroggyStuff?feature=g-all-u).  I think it is super fun, and would recommend it as a fun craft!

-- Kairi

New pet!

This weekend we tried a great idea I found on Pinterest for a doll-sized aquarium!  You use a paperclip holder as the tank, small rocks/sand, a small plastic plant to decorate and a small fish charm as the tank inhabitant!  I bought Quick-Water (it makes the fake water used with silk plants) from Hobby Lobby to make my tank look full of water (without worrying about real water spilling) but Kairi didn't use that, so she can move her fish around and play with it.  The instructions are at http://miniaturemaker.blogspot.jp/2009/04/dollhouse-aquarium_01.html and even include directions to add a light to the top (which we opted out of).  The top of my paperclip holder was pretty tall, and I didn't like the look, so I took it off, and finished the edge with some good-old duck tape.

Below are a few pictures of my dolls investigating their new pet (we'll post pictures of Kairi's in the next post).  Kaya is really enthralled by the fish!

- Janet

Nemo!

Doodling

This is Strawberina drawing on her new clipboard, made by Kairi.  She also has a pencil made out of a toothpick.  She is having much fun!

- Kairi

Doll Makeup

This is my doll makeup.  I got it from a video on My Froggy Stuff (http://www.youtube.com/user/MyFroggyStuff).  I made nail polish, lipstick, eye shadow, cotton balls, perfume and mascara.

-- Kairi

Eye Shadow

Nail Polish

Lipstick

Mascara

Cotton Balls

Perfume

New Doll!

This is my doll I made.  I made her from cardboard and ducktape.

She had a friend over.

The dolls come into her fitness class.

I made them yoga mats, barbells and a trampoline.  I got the idea from a video on My Froggy Stuff (myfroggystuff.blogspot.com).  Now, they are doing yoga:

And now they are lifting weights:

And now they are jumping on the trampoline!

And now they are getting ready to leave:

-- Kairi

Xenis Doll Kit

A few months ago I learned about the Xenis Doll Making Kit, and decided to try one.  Marlene Xenis and her daughters make gorgeous wooden dolls carved from hardwood-- you can see some of their work at The Toy Shoppe (www.thetoyshoppe.com).  In 2010 they created a kit doll that is fully carved, but not painted.  The doll is 11" tall, and fully jointed, and comes with underwear and a wig.  She also comes with painting instructions and pictures to help paint the face, which I desperately needed, being a complete novice at painting faces!  The instructions were well written, and the materials list helped, but I was still a bit nervous about doing this.

I first removed the head from the body following the instructions.  This requires quite a bit of strength, as the spring holding the head to the body is very strong.  That head is definitely not going to be wobbly.  Then I used the enclosed templates to draw the eyes and lips on the head with pencil (see below).

Then the poor doll head sat untouched for two months.  I had to work up the courage to do this.  :)  Yesterday, I decided to take the leap, and if all else failed, I could sand off the paint and start over!  Below are a few more pictures.

Ta daa!  I finished, and although it's obvious that I don't have a steady hand, at least it won't scare small children.  Ha!  Relieved that that was over, and excited to have a new doll (finally!) I grabbed the body and tried to put the head back on.  Except, somewhere in the last few months, the steel pin in the top of the head that holds the spring in place had fallen out!  Argh!  I searched all over, could not find it.  So I improvised: I took a small nail and trimmed it to fit-- luckily, it worked!  Below is a picture of my handiwork:

 And here she is with her wig on:

 The lips were awfully dark, so I pulled out the paints and did some more work.  Much better:

This kit was very neat, and I would recommend it.  It is pretty spendy ($249), but it is a high-quality, hand-carved wooden doll, which are much more expensive than my usual vinyl dolls.  It was fun to paint a doll face, something I have never done before.  And she looks cute in Bleuette's clothes!

-- Janet

Hat's off!

At the UFDC convention in New Orleans, one of the things Kairi and I did was take a hat making class with Sheryl Williams.  We have made hats before using kits from www.pnbdoll.com, but it was nice to take it from an instructor.  We learned about making hat forms from tagboard, which will allow us to make our own forms.  We ran out of time during the workshop, and weren't able to finish until this week (it always feels good to finish a project!)

The hat is too big for our 12" dolls, but fortunately, it fits my MiM doll just fine, and fits her quirky wardrobe!

-- Janet

Edith is a little bit traditional, a little bit goth and a little bit punk

Vacation Goodies

We spent a week in Wisconsin, visiting family, and one of the things we did was rummage through boxes of doll clothes at Grandpa's house.  One of Janet's favorite dolls growing up was a 16" vinyl doll by Mattel named Jenny.  Janet had given her to Kairi years ago, but there were still LOTS of Jenny clothes in Grandpa's basement.  We filled our suitcase with musty-smelling clothes and tossed them in the wash once we got home (twice!).  Now Jenny has a wardrobe to make any doll jealous!

We also found mini cheesehead hats that fit our smaller dolls-- they are probably meant to be ponytail holders, but look very cute on Trina!

-- Janet and Kairi

Jenny models a corduroy dress made by Grandma

Trina is now a Packer fan!

Kairi's Doll Scene

My dolls decided to go outside today, so Honey went in a hot-air balloon, Bee went for a ride in her car, and Strawber went paddling in her boat with her bear.  Ducky, their friend, went flying.

-- Kairi

The dolls playing outside

Bee in her car

Honey in her hot-air balloon

Ducky

Stawber floating in her boat