Browsing Tag

doll

Kiddie Land

Kiddie Land: My Studiogirl Sew Cute Family Crafts

04/09/2014

kiddieland

lg67163This week and last week happened to be spring break for our children so one day we decided to cruise the craft store for fun projects. Among many things such as paints, beads, paracord and vinyl characters we got sewing kits for our two girls. Mary got a hanging bird for her room and Colette got a sew your own doll.

Upon investigating this new brand I hadn’t heard of or seen in the store before I was smitten. The products are adorable and teach kids to sew really cute little toys, create sculpted characters and even how to paper maché kokeshi dolls. I adored their display and product boxes and of course hoped the actual product was as well thought out as it appeared on the box.

Inside both boxes were very clear instructions for numerous stitches (though we only needed the double running stitch for our toys), a step by step guide and everything you need to create the toys. The fabric was a printed felt and very child-friendly with tiny holes all around it to teach them how to sew. It was like an advanced sewing lace kit with something you actually want to keep upon completion. To see how easy the kit was I actually let my 7 and 9 year olds sew parts they chose (they needed help occasionally and it gave me a chance to teach them to sew which I loved) and I assembled the doll by stuffing and sewing her body parts together. In the end our children exclaimed it was so fun that they wanted to do more (and I thought they’d give up after all the sewing!) while Colette was just excited to have her doll. She had previously held the box all through the store telling everyone she’s going to have a doll and it only made it more special that she and her family had a hand in it’s creation.

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William, 7, and myself sewed the arms and legs.

William, 7, and myself sewed the arms and legs.

Mary, 9, sewed the kitty friend and purse.

Mary, 9, sewed the kitty friend and purse.

The toughest part, though still easy, was sewing the arms and legs to the body. I did finished this up, the hair and her dress.

The toughest part, though still easy, was sewing the arms and legs to the body. I did finished this up, the hair and her dress.

I HIGHLY recommend this brand and the sewing kits they produce. I believe the perfect age for their sewing kits is around 7-9 as my kids could do most of it with supervision and help but learned a ton about sewing plushes and didn’t even prick their fingers once as the needles are small and thin plastic ones! Perfect for teaching and a great family project. We are all excited to see what projects this brand comes out with next!

Colette, 3, is very pleased with the outcome and was a huge moral support.

Colette, 3, is very pleased with the outcome and was a huge moral support.

Mew for Today Visual Splendor

Mew for Today: Kawaii Tarot Cards

02/27/2014

testworld

Who says the occult can’t be kawaii? For a long time I’ve loved tarot card art and the amount of dedication it must take to finish such a large deck. It’s a stretch, something totally new I never considered really doing. I know this is the next step!

So my next huge personal project is designing an deck of TAROT CARDS >> This is big for me to admit. Dedicating my next year/s to producing extensively designed mixed media tarot cards (78 in a deck) that will be available as very limited large prints until the entire deck is complete and then they will be made into decks of cards included as a lovely kit complete with a book written by a friend on interpretations.

I’ve also recently become obsessed with cute tarot cards such as those by Sanrio, Aya Takano (THE BEST: top of my wish list), the numerous cat and animal tarot cards, etc so I had to feature them! I’ve always wondered how I can add a totally different style/take into the world of the tarot.

The first of my new prints will be on show RAW located at the Murat on [official date announced!!] March 19th (buy a ticket ($15), you wont regret it! if not in the area comment and receive a free print at $30~). “XXI The World” is the first card and, as stated, will be first available at RAW.

ayatakanotarot

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twintarot

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Escapeland

Vintage Pose, Boudoir, and Bradley Dolls

12/06/2011

I’ve recently become a little obsessed with another type of doll. The vintage pose doll. I’ve been planning an article on them for awhile now but digging up information on them proves more difficult than digging up a beautiful doll at a swell bargain! One blogger writes, “Certainly, Bradley Dolls don’t have the stunning quality of Madame Alexander dolls or those dear Betsy McCalls, but they’ve got nostalgia in spades.” I have to agree with that, just one glance at that kitschy face and many are hooked!

These dolls, manufactured in Korea and Japan by Bradley in 1954 to 1984, were most popular in the 1970s. They were known as boudoir dolls most often although they were also known as stockinette dolls, pose dolls, cloth dolls, southern bell dolls and more. A small selection of these kind of dolls have the big eyes and craved-for kitschy appearance. Many more of the dolls made by Bradley had more delicate and realistic features according to a catalog I saw in another blog.

Lucky for us, in addition to the dolls with victorian fashion, Bradley also put out a line of mod cloth dolls in the 1960s. These dolls had cute, cropped haircuts, huge hair and the sweetest mini mod dresses and costumes.


Buy this print here!

I found my first pose doll years ago in a large thrift store. She is a bunny doll which I’ve found, upon searching online auctions, was another semi-common style of pose doll. She won me over with one look and I’ve been hooked ever since. You see I had been hoping to find a pose doll for ages after falling in love with both Ayumi Uyama’s and Boopsiedaisy’s work. More recently I’ve been ogling these dolls again and I’ve decided to buy a few more and even start a side project devoted to these girls!

Do you own or want to own any of these beautiful dolls? 😉

All of the photos seen here are by Boopsiedaisy, Ayumi Uyama, and myself.

AND it gets better. I happened to be surfing around Flickr, another obsession of mine, when I found out that Super*Junk actually makes and sells pose doll kits. Gasp. The day I have one in my grubby hands is the day I am a very, VERY happy girl.

Crafts DIY

Quilt an Easy Blythe Doll Duvet

11/15/2011
pile of squares

This is an easy charm quilt pattern for a beginner. I am COMPLETELY new to quilting. In fact this is my very first quilt so I’ll be learning along with you! Because I am so new I looked at a few patterns, one for a rag quilt, one for a charm quilt and one for a baby quilt, and altered them a bit for my Blythe-sized doll quilt. Remember this is a rag doll quilt so it’s not going to look pristine unless you are a seasoned quilter which I definitely am not. Also be sure to read to the end of this post for things learned upon making this. 😉

cutting the squares
line them up (blurry!)

First cut out 25 1.5 inch wide squares of your chosen fabric(s) and lay them out as you would prefer them to look by your sewing area. If you want a rectangular quilt you’ll need to cut 5 rows of 8 squares = 40 squares.

sewing charms
sewing messily

Next sew 5 rows of 5 squares each with a 1-2 cm seam allowance. After you’ve sewn all of your rows press them and sew them in numerical order to each other (see how messy I sew??).

Next cut out a thin piece of fabric in your desired pattern the size of your quilt and piece them off sides together if you’re quilt stitching. Quilt stitching is the part I don’t understand so after doing extensive research online I found out that there really is no easy way to do it. You can do it yourself or ask a quilter to help you out. You can find a pattern online and follow the pattern by hand or machine. I chose to skip it.

sewing

To give your quilt a more finished look you’ll want to bind the borders with fabric — or make it easy and use thick-ribbon. I’m also new at binding so I decided to skip it this time and sew my quilt to the other panel as though I was making a pillow. I put them right sides together and sewed around the edges leaving a small (2-3 inch) space. Then I turned the blanket right-side out and, because I am not a quilter, sewed a line from one corner to the other making a big X to keep the pieces together.

sew a doll quilt

Things I learned: Next time I’m going to make it 5 squares by 8 squares for a Blythe-bed sized quilt. I didn’t think about how small it would be getting upon sewing it, duh!

Escapeland

I Love Paper Dolls

09/12/2011

Many of us enjoyed the fascination of paper dolls when we were young, they’re a wonderful toy that provided us with a cute creative outlet. I loved them so much as a child that I’ve decided to devote a post to them, including some history curtesy of Wikipedia. Not only do they inspire fashion design and creativity but they’re easy as pie to make!

Apparently paper dolls have been around for a long time, too, as long as there’s been paper. Centuries ago, in Asia, faces were applied to paper and used in religious rituals and ceremonies. The dolls at that time, however, did not have clothes. The earliest account of the paper dolls we’re more familiar with is in France during the mid-eighteenth century. They created puppets, called pantins, with hand-drawn and hand-painted fashions.

In America the biggest producer of paper dolls was McLoughlin Brothers, founded in the early 1800s. They sold out to Milton Bradley in the 1920s which is around the time paper dolls became popular.

These days it seems there are more digital dolls released than paper dolls, but they have have a lot in common. Digital dolls can have thousands of fashion and accessories for you to decorate your doll — tons of possibilities. However with paper dolls you can decorate with paper, fabric and other supplies which makes each creation much more unique.

Now let’s enjoy some of the lovely paper dolls our world has been graced with through the years (like these super cute vintage Japanese paper dolls)…

Thanks expo 67 lounge, Teri’s Paper Dolls and peppermint kiss kiss for the vintage paper dolls and Rushita for the Sailor Moon paper dolls!

Download Kisekae Dolls (Digital Paper Dolls)

My favorite Kisekae doll artist was always Kimiki, you can find her dolls here.

Escapeland

Making Noise for Printable Designer Toys

10/12/2010
Printable Panda!

Need a new, tiny photo model but don’t want to shell out cash for dolls and vinyl figures? Try a paper model, paper or not, I’m in love. (My husband says I’m like Michael Scott now because I’m in love with paper.)

Toobusytobreathe. I’ve opened back up my web design studio and have gotten so many exciting projects (did I mention we’re moving?) that I can hardly fit in the time to update Miseducated like I should — soon newnewnew. So much new you’ll bounce to the moon!

Speaking of bouncing to the moon, these printable toys make me so happy I could fly. I knew someday this would catch on again and I’m too excited!

Printable Pandas

Jessica and I have collaborated on a cute new surprise for Miseducated, her pandas in PRINTABLE FORM. Print them and you can have your own designer toy as soon as the paper cools. Put some pandas into your own world~

More Printable Designers

3 Eyed Bear
Macula
Fantastic Toys
Speakerdog
Chelstastic
mundosopa!
ROMMY
Shintaka
Sal Azad
CUBOTOY

Paper Toy Books

We Are Paper Toys: Print-Cut-Fold-Glue-Fun
Paper Wonderland: 32 Terribly Cute Toys Ready to Cut, Fold & Build
Karakuri: How to Make Mechanical Paper Models That Move
Papertoy Monsters: Make Your Very Own Amazing Papertoys!

Visual Splendor

Kiki Kinoko Juice Dolls Customized as SPANK! Gals

04/20/2010

I was just strolling through Petsugar’s blog and found the sweetest doll customizations I have yet to see. Have you heard of Kiki Kinoko Juice dolls? If you haven’t and are a geek for toys that make you squeel, you’ll probably faint. This doll customizer customizes the dolls to look like the girls of SPANK! (absolute fairy-kei eyecandy!).

The amount of detail she puts into her work is absolutely amazing! I can’t get enough of this in both doll customizations and doll outfits, especially when myself and the dolls have the same style. So much eye candy! I just. can’t. get. enough.

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Photos ar all thanks to *Super Sweet* !!

Crafts DIY

Customizing Blythe: How to Paint Lips Like a Pro

04/15/2010

Hello! I customize blythe dolls for both fun and for some profits. So far I have been doing it for just a little over year. I started when I was 15 and my first doll was quite terrible (as I wasn’t very careful), but I got better and better with every doll,and have now done 20+ dolls. So here is a tutorial for re-coloring or customizing the lips of a Blythe doll, hope you like it!

blythe lip tutorial

Step 1

Gather your supplies: Blythe, fine-grit sanding sponge, a small flat paint-brush and a bigger softer paint-brush, chalk pastels in a lighter and darker color, and watercolor-pencils in a darker color and white.

Step 2

Sand off the original lip color (you may have to scrape the paint in the crease away with a some-what dull x-acto knife). With the small paint-brush, brush the darker pastel color in the crease of the lips and lightly outward.

Step 3

Use the darker watercolor-pencil to define the crease and add some lip wrinkles.

Step 4

Use the white watercolor-pencil to add texture with quick strokes, and lightly color with it to blend with the darker color.

Step 5

Brush the lighter color pastel on with the bigger paintbrush and you’re done!

… and it make take a few tries to get it right, so don’t get frustrated! 😉

blythe

DIY

Design Your Own Munny (Qee)

03/08/2010
multicolor-munny

Hello, designers — chances are you’ve heard of a Munny or Qee. My husband and I have snatched up our own to take part in the fun design. Can you imagine how your action figure friend will look? I can’t wait.. join us as we design our Munny’s and send in your own as often as you please!

Feeling crafty?

In honor of the MUNNYWORLD MUNNY Multicolor Edition’s arrival on February 18, Kidrobot is featuring great MUNNYs of every color of the rainbow on the KRonikle!

Here’s how it works: make a MUNNY you’d like to share with the world and upload it to our MUNNYWORLD Flickr group. We will choose one MUNNYWORLD design from each color of the Multicolor Edition’s rainbow and award a MUNNYWORLD prize pack to the winners and feature their work on Kidrobot’s blog, The KRonikle!
The KRonikle

What is a MUNNY?

A cute vinyl creature often designed by designers and ran in a blind box set or offered as blank, DIY toys just waiting for you to turn them into your dream action figure! 😉 There’s actually a large culture of vinyl figure collectors and creators, even Hasbro’s My Little Pony jumped in on the action by allowing artists to design blank ponies for an NYC gallery years ago. There aren’t DIY Blythe dolls yet, but if you’re like me you see each of your Blythe dolls as a DIY-project anyway — tweaking her just to your taste.

Artist Designed Qees

More Qees to Inspire

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Photos from KidRobot.com

Crafts DIY

Decorate and Upcycle Your Shoes Sweetly

11/19/2009

This is a pair of old shoes I had lying around.. I felt they were a bit boring so I rarely wear them. hehe… I think a lot of people have a similar problem, there are always something we don’t want to wear / use, but we are reluctant to throw it away or be wasteful. It is a good idea to give them a new birth with alterations and decoration!

All we need to snazz up these shoes is some lace, two heart-shape cabochons, and some pearls.

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1.

First, wrap the heart-shape cabochons with some lace and sew it tight at the back.

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2.

Then, string up the pearls and sew them around the cabochons.

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3.

Sew some pearls on the ribbon (or shoe!) randomly.

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4.

Finally, stick the cabochons on the ribbon.

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5.

DONE!