A Tale of Two Elsas

Here I have two different Elsa dolls, one of which I was successful in restoring, and the other, well...is still a work in progress.

First up is this toddler Elsa doll, which talks and sings.  Got her at a thrift shop for $1.50.  Her hair was a mess and she had different colors of marker all over her face.

About 30 minutes later, a successful transformation!

Boom!  Ha ha!  Sold her for $9.  As for the other one...

Got this one for around $2 at a thrift shop.  My intent was to fix her hair, and *try* to repaint her into an Elsa Zombie (this was before I did my trade with Alyssa at Earth Wood Beauty dolls). I am STILL trying to deal with this hair.  Ugh.  I swear I've boil washed her hair and brushed it out about 6000 times.  I would do it a couple times, then set her aside for a few days, then try again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

I though about using a hair straightener, but I didn't want to use my good one, and the only other one I had didn't have an adjustable heat dial.  So I whipped out the iron.  I used a pressing cloth on her damp hair, and started at the lowest setting and worked my way up.  It sort of worked...a little.

Still not great.  Humpf.

So I'm not really sure what to do with her now.  Any thoughts?

She's Here!!!!!

Zombie Elsa is here!!  Yay!!!

I'll show you the preview photos I received from Alyssa at Earth Wood Beauty Dolls, then some of my own photos :)

Photo credit:  Alyssa at Earth Wood Beauty Dolls

Photo credit:  Alyssa at Earth Wood Beauty Dolls

Photo credit:  Alyssa at Earth Wood Beauty Dolls

While I adore the pink dress she made, I also asked for her signature dress to be distressed!

Photo credit:  Alyssa at Earth Wood Beauty Dolls

Here's how she arrived today:

Peek a boo!

Love the little tag!

The doll and the original dress.

She's fantastic!  As you know I take most of my photos with my phone, since I am lazy.  Today I pulled out my Nikon!

The lighting in my dining room was horrible.  So I moved outside.  Neighbors probably think I'm at weirdo.  Oh, well.  

I tried to pull her hair back into a messy braid, like her signature 'do.

I love her hands.

After laying on my stomach in the grass for a bit...I realized I was getting damp...lol...grass still wet from the rain!  I went back inside and found Prince Hans.

Braaaains!

I just love her.  I'll have to make her some sort of display box, as I don't have many doll stands.

Thanks for looking!

Making Monster High Arms

While waiting for my custom Zombie Elsa to arrive, I got a few Monster High dolls for free off a local upcycle page. They were from a day home, so in pretty rough shape!

I thought they would be good dolls for practicing repainting and the like.  Plus, Ghoulia.  I can't get enough of Ghoulia, she's my favorite!

I haven't cleaned them all up, yet.  I started with this Spectra:

Poor Spectra.

All Clean.

The first attempt at making hands (with polymer clay), I made the hands and forearms separately, and glued them together after baking.  I also tried making molds for the hands, but it didn't work out quite as I thought (I know now silicone is better for that).

First attempt.  Hands kind of clunky and uneven.

Second attempt.  I molded the hands right on to the forearms this time.  I watched a YouTube video for hand making and tried that method.  Worked out better, but still need some practice!

The arms on Spectra.  I have not glued them on yet.  Contemplating trying again.

Fingers still a bit clunky looking, but better than the first try!

Thanks for stopping by!

Earth Wood Beauty Dolls

I came across another gal who does Bratz doll and other doll repaints, and have been following her on Facebook. Her name is Alyssa and she runs the Earth Wood Beauty dolls.  She does wonderful work!  I love how she puts the Bratz heads on Liv doll bodies.  I want to try this myself but haven't gotten around to it yet!

Anyhoo...she had a post recently looking for a trade.  A certain number of Bratz/Liv/Barbie dolls for a custom!  I jumped on that!  I sent her this lot of thrifted dolls, some of which I had bought for $0.25.  I also sent her the doll that I want for a custom.  It cost me $30 to ship them to the US, but I think it will be worth it!  I love her work!

The cheapest shipping option for me was Expedited due to the weight of the package.

The doll I sent to her is a thrifted Elsa doll, that I would like to be turned into a Zombie, like the Once Upon a Zombie dolls but a bit more gruesome!

Gah!  Poor Elsa.

I asked her if I should try to wash the blue paint off her hair first, but she said she'd take care of it!  I shipped the package yesterday and I'm super excited to see how the custom turns out!

Now to wait!

Thanks for looking!

Monster High Repaint

Remember this girl?

Well, I finally decided to change her face, after looking at her purple hair and flowery face paint for long enough.  While I did like the purple hair, I didn't think it really suited the whole my-arm-is-a-chainsaw look.  Plus I thought maybe I should actually finish one of my started projects.

I though brown would go with her green skin tone, but didn't have any brown hair, and didn't feel like ordering any at this point in time.  So...I opted for this brown yarn from my stash.

It took almost a whole day to just root the perimeter of her head with the yarn.  I quit there, and decided to pull her hair back into a pony tail, which covered her scalp that I painted brown.

Ready to repaint the face.  I wasn't really sure where I wanted to start.  She has pointy ears, so I thought maybe some kind of elf?  I googled warrior elf faces but nothing really stood out to me.  What kind of elf has a chainsaw arm, anyway?  Hmm.

She's a work in progress...and my first time repainting a Monster High doll face.  I tried the water color pencils, but I don't think I had enough Krylon to make them stick.  I was worried about getting too much and having a sticky face (that's what happened to a previous Barbie repaint of mine), so I just continued with acrylics and gave up with the pencils.  

Anyone have any suggestions for her face?  Warrior paint?  I want to add a scar of some sort to the side of her face I think.

Thanks for looking!

Our Generation mini dolls

Okay, so this isn't the photo dump I was talking about doing. I went into a local toy shop the other day while I was killing some time before I could pick up my kiddos, and well, now some things link together for a cohesive post.

I got these two little dolls at a thift shop, in a package with a LPS Blythe doll (not shown here).  At first I thought they were mini American Girls, but the tags were cut off so I wasn't entirely sure.  I tried to Google but didn't come up with much.  Sometimes my Google-fu just fails me.

I was in the toy shop and stumbled across this display:

The Our Generation minis...they have been renamed to "Lori" by Our Generation.

Ooh...they even have some with pets.  How cute!  Fashion packs!  Score!

 While I was there, I also remembered why I purposely avoid that store.  So much stuff I wanted...but also expensive.  For example:

The Corolle dolls...very pricey.  They had a display of extra fashion packs as well.  

 Anyhoo...I picked up two of the fashion packs and another doll (just in case the dolls I have were older and maybe the body shape had changed...'cuz...ya never know!), and took them home with me to play.

 I also wanted to try the outfits on this little Madame Alexander doll I got at a thrift shop for 25 cents.  Yes, she needs a spa day, I'm workin' on that.  There torsos and feet seem similarly sized, but the Our Generation dolls have thicker waists and shorter limbs.  I remembered Emily from the Toy Box Philosopher did a review of these dolls, and I went and read it again.  I sure miss her posts.  I hope she is well.

The outfits are:  Wonderfully Warm, Glam Gal, and the doll's name is Naomi.  I've left her in the box for now.

The glasses don't fit as well in real life as in the photos.  The pictures are really cute!

Glam Girl out of the box.

The outfit *almost* fits.  The skirt is loose, and the shirt is a bit tight.  The shoes fit perfect, though!

These girls kinda stand a little funny, almost pigeon toed.  I couldn't get her to stand on her own.  I tried to tuck the glasses in under her hair band.

I thought this outfit would be harder to get on, since the arm warmers are attached to the sleeve, but it wasn't.  Look at that cute little infinity scarf!!

I didn't feel like fighting with the ear muffs AND the glasses, so I opted for just the ear muffs.

 Yay!  Now my dolls aren't nekkid anymore.

 Here is the link for Emily's review of the minis:

http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/2014/08/our-generation-mini-dolls-by-battat.html

 Oh...may I ask you fellow bloggers a question?  How do I put the link into a single word, as I've seen others do.  You know, the "click HERE to read this"...and the word redirects to the page?

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Lazy

So I'm lazy and haven't posted much lately.  So I'll just leave this here while I work on a photo dump:

Have a great day!