blythe goes to the office
I *love* my Rose Bud petite girl. She came to work with me on post-election Wednesday to provide some needed cheer.
As you can see, she found the coffee. (Wanna see her with the barista? Or maybe the platypus?)
Archive for crafts
a package of minis
I was so excited on this cloudy day because a package arrived on my doorstep at lunchtime. It was from LittleEgg (of the TIB forum) and contained three petites and assorted Blythe-sized food items.
The food is made by Re-Ment, and it’s super detailed. I can’t wait to get a Blythe house started so I can set up their kitchen. My favorite item is a birthday cake that Blythe can put together. Guess I’ll be taking some more pictures.
About the petites… first we have a mermaid with lovely blue hair. In the center is Madamoiselle Rose Bud, who is one of the cutest petites I’ve ever seen. I’ve wanted her for a while! Finally we have a green-haired cutie in a cat outfit.
Ginny is delighted not to be the only mini girl anymore.
plastic rockers
Wendy (honeymonkey) from Dublin sent me a surprise package yesterday, and the Blythes had a great time with it. As you can see, the goodies included a keyboard and camera–their rock band is underway! Of course I had to take a few pictures.
new lips for audrey
Being home with a cold isn’t enough to keep me away from my Blythes. I finally decided to remove Audrey’s painted-on lips (which I had done myself, and were started to flake a bit) and use the lipsticker that stellaluna from TIB had sent me.
It was a different shape — the retro, Kenner shape — but I love the way it looks on Audrey. The color is perfect for her.
And here is a close-up of her lips. Pretty, aren’t they?
pumpkin girl
Xanthe finally has some clothes that fit her personality (or at least that’s what MoonChild tells me). The dress came from Blythe Dressing Room, and the shoes from MyRapture on eBay. I *lurve* getting packages! (See other pictures here… plus a snapshot of what’s in my purse today.)
autumn colors
The trees are changing, and it was a lovely day outside. Audrey wanted to take a walk, wearing her new poncho from Chun. We actually had received another package from her today, and Audrey was thrilled to discover a dress just for her.
xanthe’s eyes!
To my surprise, I managed to get out all four sets of Xanthe’s eye chips. The orange set was hopelessly scratched up (from sawing open her head), so I replaced them with Audrey’s old pink chips. First I gave them the Mandy treatment: I painted the backs purple, gently scratched the paint off the raised sections, and applied glitter before putting them back in. So far, everyone seems to like them the best.
The other set of pink chips were foiled with purple holographic paper. I think they might be my favorites. I used the same paper behind the blue chips, and drew a rim on the paper with a black sharpie. The green chips were foiled with silver holographic paper, on which I added another rim.
What’s your favorite?
head in my lap
Such a triumphant experience: I succeeded in sawing Xanthe’s head open last night. Yay! I’ll be putting a different body on her, but first I’m messing with her eyechips.
Her head is on my lap as I type, because I was sanding the rough sawed edges while surfing.
And I’m still feeling chipper. I mean, it’s before 8 a.m., and I’m functional!
new bod for xanthe
The Volks mini EB body I’d ordered arrived yesterday from Hong Kong. Yayyyy! SpiritMan picked it up at the post office for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do anything with it last night. Actually, there are a few steps I need to take before I do anything with it at all.
Xanthe will need head surgery. I bought an Xacto-type hobby knife for the occasion. I’m going to have to do this, which should be interesting. While I’m in there, I’ll probably mess with the eyes some, too.
As you can imagine, I’ll need more than an hour. (Which is all I have left before work this morning…to shower, get dressed, make coffee, etc.)
new outfit from Puppy52
I bought the cutest outfit from Chun, who goes by Pupchun on the TIB forum. As soon as I saw the monster bunny, I knew Angelica had to have it.
vintage sleepytime clothes
My last vintage Skipper photo shoot. Angelica modeled the Sleepytime outfit. I still can’t believe how new it looks after almost 40 years!
more eye pictures
Fleige p-chips
Green glittered eyeshadow
Orange chips, painted brown
I took a few more photos for posting at TIB. Audrey looks pretty dreamy, no?
at the mind-body-spirit expo
Crystal massage wands
Angel photos and happy mums!
Our special assistant
Hmm…a bigger head than mine!
I want these boots… and…which coffee has the ginseng?
Audrey went with me to the Body Mind Spirit Expo, because she really wanted to experience some metaphysical stuff. She wore her Tinkerbell outfit for the occasion, and several of the attendees asked if she was a wood faerie. Rather etheral, she was! Getting into the spirit of things, she tried out a wand, had craniosacral therapy and adjusted her chakras. She also was up close and personal with the crystal singing bowls. Her vibration was certainly raised. So was mine.
the eyes have it
I finally, finally got brave enough to open Audrey’s head all the way, and take out the eye mechanism. It wasn’t easy–for one thing, I thought I was going to break the side of her face–but I did it. I decided not to take the whole thing apart, though. I carefully painted the eyelids with two coats of acrylic paint, then coated the lids with a thin coat of varnish sprinkled with extra-fine glitter.
Using the directions I posted a few days ago, I added glitter to the orange eye chips I had taken out earlier. They turned out so well that I decided to remove Audrey’s pink chips and use the newly glittered ones instead.
While everything was drying, I sanded Audrey’s eye holes and applied chalk pastels as eyeshadow. I put her back together (hooray!) and added a row of eyelashes as a finishing touch. Audrey will be getting a new lip sticker, and then she’ll be ready for her big debut.
bathing beauty
Remember the Skipper clothes that were so generously given to me? Well, I finally got around to re-shooting a photo of the swimsuit. (Angelica was my model.) P had also saved the inserts from her dolls, so I scanned the drawings of Skipper herself, circa 1963. I’m amazed by how new the suit still looks!
glittery eye instructions
Mandy from Bon Bon Blythe and ZooBeZooBeZoo was kind enough to share her technique for painting and adding glitter to eye chips.
To change the color, I use regular acrylic craft paint (the kind you get for $1 per bottle in most craft stores). In the first picture (Disco Boogie), I painted only the inside ring of the eye chips, where the ridges are. I thinned out the paint with just a little bit with water (be gentle when mixing, so that you don’t create a lot of bubbles), then painted it all around the inside area, making sure to get paint into the corners of the little grooves.
After it was dry, I used a dry toothpick to gently scrape the paint off of just the raised parts of that area (and also any that might have gotten on the outer edge of the chip), leaving the paint down in the grooves. Then I went over the raised parts again with a wet toothpick to further clean them up and get rid of any cloudiness. This technique gives a lot of definition and depth in the eye color, rather than a flat, all over color.
In the second picture (Love Mission), I used this same technique for the inner part of the chip, and then I also painted the outer edges of the chips in the same colors as the inner parts. The outer rim requires 3-4 coats of slightly thinned paint (make sure you let each coat dry thoroughly before applying the next). I recommend using paint that is cut slightly with water because it goes on smoother and thinner, and therefore won’t add too much extra bulk to the inside of the chip (this is especially important if you are going to add glitter, which is the next step).
On both pairs of eyes, after all of the chips were painted and allowed to dry overnight, I painted on a thin layer of decoupage glue (I use Mod Podge; you should also thin this out with a tiny amount of water), then I poured extra fine grain glitter on the wet glue (I got my fine grain glitter at a craft store like Hobby Lobby or Michael’s. It’s MUCH smaller than regular craft glitter). Let that sit for a few minutes so the glue can set up a little bit, then carefully pick the chip up and dump off as much of the excess glitter as you can. Allow these to dry for a couple of hours, then come back with a soft, wide paintbrush and gently brush off any leftover excess glitter. And that’s it! It sounds like a lot of steps, but it’s actually quite easy.
I’m going to work with the chips I had painted brown. I’m also thinking about opening up Audrey’s head, removing her eye mechanism, and painting the lids. That will also allow me to do a better job with the shadow. Eep! Now I just need some bravery.
silky smooth dolly
Audrey’s face is now silky smooth. I tried to put eyeshadow on her using chalk pastels, but it came out blotchy and uneven. I ended up re-sanding her, and I’m a little reluctant to give her makeup now. Maybe if I took her entire head apart, but that is so scary. In other news, her extra eyelashes came out when I was doing the eye chip removal, and I lost one set. Urgh. Poor Audrey!
when the chips are down
Even though Audrey’s head had been opened before, I decided to use the glue stick method for eye chip extraction. It was a little scary (and bizarre looking) but it worked pretty well. I took out the orange chips and painted them brown. I also painted the pupils of my fleige p-chips.
I wasn’t especially happy with how the brown eyes looked, though. They were too dark, and made Audrey look like one of those sad-eyed velvet paintings, all dark pupils. Later I discovered a post on the TIB forum that made me realize a solid coat of paint probably wasn’t the right approach.
Read the rest of this entry »
plans for audrey
Yesterday I gathered together some materials. Double-sided tape (for reattaching Audrey’s scalp). Acrylic paint. Glue gun sticks.
I already have soft pastels and a fleige p-chip.
I wonder if the girls have picked up on my devious plans. I’m going to remove Audrey’s makeup and sand-matte her. I want to take out her pink and orange eye chips and give them a thin layer of paint. Angelica is going to be the recipient of the p-chip, if I get brave enough. Excitement!
bendy arms and legs
The Licca doll that I had ordered arrived today, and I finally got brave enough to peek inside Audrey’s head. She had already been customized (sleepy eyes), so it wasn’t that difficult. The scalp was already loose, and the head opened easily. While it was open, I added a pull cord for the sleepy eyes so the lids won’t have to be closed manually anymore. Unfortunately, though, I dropped the pretty orange p-ring I’d ordered–and it broke in half. (I glued it. We’ll see if it holds.)
There’s one problem with the Licca body, though. The skin tone seems a good deal darker than the original EBL body. Audrey had it on long enough to try out the most popular bendy Blythe move (see picture), but the kids insisted I take it off. They thought it looked too close to the color of Audrey’s hair.
I’m still trying to decide. In some ways, I like the EBL body better, but it would be fun to have something different.
