Cute tutorial!

My friend Mary posted a super cute tutorial to make a doll head, which was taken from an article in Portuguese, but just by pictures you can figure the steps, plus Mary explained very nicely. THis is cold porcelain but any clay really, can be used.

Click to see her blog

Here's my DoD paper doll!

This Paper Doll mini challenge is an early Day of the Day/Dia de los Muertos celebration ;o)

Here's the doll, free hand drawing on water color paper, then outlined in black. A Micron, Sharpie, or any waterproof pen can be used. I wanted a thick line, but a thin line could work too.
Give it a coat of matte medium, or collage glue to make it sturdy, use watered down acrylic paints to give it a soft effect like watercolors, cut, put together with tiny brads and add accessories.

If you want to, you can print this one on cards stock, and have the kids coat with collage glue, cut, put together and decorate!

Here she is after putting the brads in every joint:

This is the end results, looks all happy!

September Dia de los Muertos ~ Day of the Dead Challenge

Well, first of all, an apology to be late in hosting the September mini challenge from ADO: Day of the dead ~ Di de los muertos paper dolls.
For those that visit my painting blog, it's not news, but my computer died, and I lost all capabilities to use my images, or even produce new ones. No scan, programs... not even favorite links. Really frustrating! Bu hopefully i will get fixed soon. For now I have this slow little laptop, bless it's little metallic heart <3
It can't read my camera's disc,or even plug to the scanner.... but I'm online and that is to say something :o)

It is very appropriate to have a dead computer, for the day of the dead event, right?

The graphics team made this cool avatar for the paper doll mini challenge:

Hopefully by my next post I will be able to show my paper doll for this challenge!

Big Maggie is visiting me!

Big Maggie has been  just kicking back for a while. First thing I had to do was fix the paint on her face, as she was not well wrapped and got here with her make up ruined :o(
At first I thought I would have to do the whole face since I had no idea what paint was used, but I managed to get a very close color! So I only refinished her little nose.

Since she just wanted to relax and it's been hot outside, I made some sandals for her, a nice little bag to match, and a hair band. Here's the video on how I made them:



She is almost ready to go back home to TX, this was her last stop. I will miss her. Her journal is beautiful, full of recipes! I really don't know what I will do to it yet.

It is so much fun to get to work and play with each doll! Thanks for stopping by.

Victoria in California

Poor Victoria had a stressing trip to California. It was 107 out there and she was in a box. She needed some rest and took it easy for a while, in the air conditioning :o)

Later on when we both were ready, I went to work on her and to my dismay, her leg came off!

I thought about options on how to fix her and the solution was to drill both legs and give her new knees.

After that, the rest was fun! She has new make up, fun stripes on her legs and shoes. And the best of all, a black fur stole that she loves.

She is on her way to visit Lezlie in Texas, then go back home to tell Moriah all about her travels!

Zeb and Calee in Oklahoma

(Text and images by Shauna Henry, from the TDP blog)

After narrowly escaping Moriah’s clutches in Florida, Zeb and Calee made their way to Oklahoma.

Surely no one would recognize them all the way out here!

Travel weary and hungry Calee had to have some of her favorite snack - POPCORN!

While she was munching, she failed to notice Zeb had disappeared!

After looking all over for him she happened to wander back stage at one of the tents. Seeing her wearing a fabulous feather boa, she was handed 2 feathered fans and pushed out on stage. She was mistaken for a burlesque dancer!

Scared and unsure what to do she was saved by Zeb who grabbed her and started running. Along the way she noticed he was missing his pants, and carrying a pair of women's bloomers. Confused by the small size she asked what was going on.

Zeb had found his way into the world’s smallest woman's tent and was almost seduced! 

Her husband walked in on them and Zeb turned tail and ran! Unfortunately for him, he grabbed the wrong pants on the way out and now he is stuck with too small woman's underwear!

Zeb and Calee are running for the hills to escape the wrath of the Oklahoma circus folk. Maybe they will be able to blend in better in New York. (Visiting Nicole Johnson of Mealy Monster Land)

Zeb and Calee in Florida

(Text and photos by Moriah Betterly from MLB Studios)

Zeb and Calee arrived on my doorstep and when I opened the box I was smitten.  Martha and Lezlei had done a fabulous job on these little cuties and I was dying to work on them.  However, they arrived when I had out of town family staying with me so I couldn't do anything with them for awhile.  Once I was able to work on them I decided to focus on Calee since Lezlei had done such a fabulous job with Zed.  Calee was looking a little bare so I stitched up a green tutu to match her fabulous green boa.

I decided she just had to have black and white striped leggings (because I love them so much myself) so I painted those on with acrylics.

Then I decided she needed some eyelashes and make-up.  After all, what circus performer doesn't have make-up?  I so wanted to keep adding stuff to her but I had to force myself to stop so the three people after me could work on her too.  :( 

Zeb and Calee in Texas

 (Re-posted from TDP blog, text and pictures by Lezlei Ann Young)
Zeb and Calee Learn More about the Circus: They talked a lot about other famous circus people while visiting Lezlei in Texas. They learned about Daisy and Violet Hilton, famous circus twins from Texas whose life was documented in a movie.  They learned about Baby Sun, the youngest clown on record and some REALLY tall circus guys. They collected some souvenir “faux cabinet cards” of the performers they learned about in Texas. They talked about clowns – Lezlei loves them! She made Zeb a little clown nose to wear so he might be less afraid of them.

Zeb Decides to Become a Ringmaster: Zeb was most impressed by the famous ringmasters. They are in charge of the center ring and look very handsome and commanding as they directed the performances in center stage. Off-stage they were equally commanding with their waxed mustaches and impressive grooming.

Calee Trysts with the Trapeze: As usual, Calee was attracted to all the beautiful shiny costumes of some of the women in the circus. Lezlei told her about some women trapeze artists from Gainesville, Texas. Calee tried the trapeze, but decided that the wires were too high from the ground and no one would be able to see her beautiful costume. She kept the costume, but decided to look for another circus job closer to the ground.

About the changes in Texas: Zeb and Calee were created by Martha of Ayala Art. They arrived in Texas safely with their faces sculpted with Paper clay over a soft body and painted with acrylics. The pair had minimal detail in order to protect their identities as they had left California with somewhat “tarnished” reputations. They made some changes in Texas to change their looks as they began to build their new careers in the Circus. Calee really missed Tobias and wished he had come along on the trip.

 First Lezlei gave Zeb and Calee matching blue-green eyes and added a few shadows to Zeb’s face. Zeb learned of the very famous Ringling Brothers and noticed that they all had mustaches. So Zeb also received a mustache and a pair of stern eyebrows so he would look more like a ringmaster. Calee laughed at Zeb’s mustache. Since Lezlei had sewing experience from years of making clothing first for her dolls as a child, then for herself, she made Zeb a shirt and a little red jacket with tails like a real ringmaster.

Zeb told Calee, “We’re going to be famous!”

The twin dolls

Since I got carried away painting my doll for the Traveling Doll Project I decided that it was just fair to send two. And although they look nothing alike, they were to be twins. (Reminds me a bit of the mommy dearest story! LoL)   So well, those 2 have been traveling since February 2011 for my 5 other team mates to play with.  They are made of cloth and clay and this is how  their begins:

Zebulon and Caledonia

Zebulon and Caledonia are boy and girl twins. Since early in their lives people kept asking them if they were identical twins but they would explain that they were not, simply because one of them was a boy and the other a girl. But still every once in a while, somebody will ask if they were identical. Now they just make a funny face and say nothing.

They both love the Circus. Zebulon’s dream was to be a Star in a circus. But he’s a terrible juggler and he’s afraid of clowns. Caledonia just likes the fancy outfits and the pop corn. They wanted to work in the Circus so badly that they decided to be Panda Bear Trainers, but they could never find a Panda bear, and renting one was too expensive! Not to mention, bamboo is quite expensive these days.

So they changed their act into Cat Trainers. At first Zebulon wanted to juggle cats, but it was too painful and noisy.

Finally, they made an appointment to talk to the Circus Director. The day of the interview they brought their cat Tobias to show how good they could train a cat…. Unfortunately, Tobias took off running to catch a mouse, who turned out to be a very special Talking Mouse, star of the Talking Mouse Show… Thank goodness the little rodent only ended up with a big shock and a scuffed tail. Zebulon, Caledonia and cat were kicked out of the office especially after remarking how the mouse never even squeaked despite his talkative attributes. After that, no one would give them a job. They had to leave California with a tattered reputation. So they came up with a plan…

Zebulon and Caledonia would disguise themselves and start traveling through out the whole country. The plan was fantastic; they would change their looks a little bit at every town.
They could bring nothing since they were in a hurry, but Caledonia said she could not live without her green feather boa so she brought it along. (I think she just likes it because it makes Zebulon sneeze).

After shortening their names to Zeb and Calee, they just needed to mark some important destination points in a map. First stop: Texas! 
(Originally posted in February in my painting blog)

Dolly tragedy and a solution

So I finally sit to work on little Victoria (From Moriah and the Traveling Doll Project team BBQs) And as I picked her up, her leg popped off from the knee. Aaaghh!!! I was in shock! I immediately tried to find a solution and see what could cause such a thing. Also went to tell Moriah because I was so moritfied that I had such a thing hapening to her dolly...

Well, Poor Victoria was very brave. She listened to our options and we decided that we were not going to use more pipe cleaner, as that would need a bigger hole and glue and all sorts of things that would probably not look so good.
The other option was to make her some long boots and cover the mishap, but she said that she kind of like to move her knees, so we went to a third option, which was to drill a hole in a new location and add wire.

She was very concerned that her skirt was climbing up, and that a garage shop was not really a place for a doll. But I told her we were going to be quick, and my son helped us to drill with precision. The last thing we need is to drill on the wrong spot, right?

We all were quite stressed, but things went smoothly and rather quickly. We did both legs so they would match. Right now we are waiting for the paint to dry in her new stripey nylons, and her new make up. I will be posting more pictures shortly!

Too hot!

I have not been close to the oven, it is hot enough as it is :o)   I have no new polymer sculpts, as I don't really want to leave them raw for a long time. So I guess it will be fall when I go back to it.
I have however, some little paperclay dolls that I need to finish. I had tu put them on the side because of the last school days, then the kids out for summer... then I went back to painting.
But they have been patiently sitting waiting for me. I have the hair, I just need to get the right glue. And selected the fabric too.