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Amigumi Mom and Dad dolls

I crocheted these mini me dolls for my Mom and Dad, for their respective birthdays (Dad in October, Mom 2 days ago).

Mom and Dad AmiguruME

 The dolls are very cute, and pretty big, standing at 18 inches tall.  They both have removable sweaters, and Dad has a removable baseball cap.  Mom has a tea towel, lol.

Mom and Dad AmiguruME

 I also found an eraser shaped like a wrench that is perfect for the Dad doll.

 I gave the Mom doll a little coffee cup, made from the lid of a hairspray bottle and some wire.
Mom also has a necklace and earrings, made from metallic thread. Her jeans have cuffs, and embroidered side pockets on the front. I gave her one embroidered back pocket as well  I tried embroidering seams down the side of her jeans, but I didn't like the way it looked so I took them out.

 

Both dolls have embroidered faces and safety eyes.  Mom has a wig, and I embroidered Dad's hair.

 

Mom's shoes are flats, but Dad's wearing sneakers with laces, lol.  Dad's top is not tucked in, but Mom's is.

I followed the pattern from the book AmiguruME .  Click on the link to check out the wonderful book, by Allison Hoffman. 

Polymer clay and crochet doll

I'm so far behind on my blog; sorry.  I've been sick a lot with my asthma and various flu bugs, but have managed to do some crafting.  OK; a lot of crafting, lol.  I was going to try to fit it all into one post but after realizing how very much I had to catch up on, decided I'd better do individual posts instead of one that would be scroll length ;-0.

Polymer clay and crochet min doll with needle felted kitten and plastic canvas house

 I sculpted this dolls head out of polymer clay, and promptly forgot all about her (if I put things away I forget they exist; it drives my very organized Mom crazy that I need things out where I can see them).  I found the head awhile ago, and decided she needed a body, but I wasn't in the mood to sculpt one.  I love all of my crafts, but my favorite is crochet because I find it relaxing.  Plastic canvas is relaxing too, but crochet puts me in a zen state so I decided to crochet her a body.  I wanted to do a silly outfit for her, so I did.

Polymer clay and crocheted doll with needle felted cat and plastic canvas house

Polymer clay and crochet doll with reborn doll

 Here she is with one of my early reborn dolls, to show scale. 

Sculpting, doll 2, a fairy

Little Flower Fairy polymer clay, crochet, needle felt

 

I am having so much fun learning how to sculpt in polymer clay.  Meet my second creation, tentatively named Sparkles.

Polymer clay doll head 2

 For this doll, I sculpted a bit bigger than my first, and gave her exaggerated features because I'm learning how to do them.  Noses are very hard for me, lol.  I painted this doll with chalk and eyeshadow.  I love fairies and elves and think I will sculpt as many as possible, lol, hopefully improving with each one.

Polymer clay fairy

She was sculpted without molds, in Sculpey Living Baby clay.
 I did her head first, on an armature made of wire embedded in a tinfoil ball, then covered with tape.
Then I sculpted her hands and feet and placed them on an wire armature that i made myself. Then I sculpted her hands and feet again because I ruined them while putting them on the armature :-).

Armature for polymer clay doll

 I needle felted her a body, around the wire.  That was the easiest part of dollmaking, for me.  The wire armature gave me the most trouble.

Needle felted body for polymer clay doll

 She's very bendy and poseable, but with closed eyes her poses are limited.  I want to learn to do an open eyed doll next.

Needle felted armature for polymer clay doll

Poseable polymer clay doll without clothes

 She looks very comfy, doesn't she?  I am very happy with her, considering she's only my second try.

Crocheted outfit for polymer clay mini doll

 I glued on some mohair for her hair.  It's a bit of a mess. I've trimmed the bangs since these photos were taken and she looks nicer now.

I crocheted this cute outfit using embroidery floss instead of yarn, and gave her flower "wings". I didn't have enough of the light green, or I would have made most of the outfit in green, with only a bit of the orange.   I've ordered some crochet cotton in pretty colors and it should be in next week. I can't wait!

Polymer clay fairy asleep

I do like the vibrant oranges and yellows of the embroidery floss, even though they were my second choice for colors.  This little doll makes me smile.  My aunt loved her.

I am really excited about learning how to sculpt because it's allowing me to combine so many of the crafts I already do (needle felting and crochet, reborning (the painting).  I can even make some plastic canvas furniture for the dolls.

Thanks for taking a peek at my flower fairy.  Should I keep calling her Sparkles, or can you help me with a better name?

Take care!

Sculpting a mini baby out of polymer clay

I am so excited!  I am finally learning how to sculpt babies out of polymer clay!  Here's my first shot;the baby parts are in the oven here.  I did the torso as practice; I'm planning on using the head and limbs with a soft body, probably a crocheted one.

Sculpting a mini baby in polymer clay,  for the first time

I had a lot of fun working doing this little guy, but it was also very frustrating because the clay kept getting so  hot in my hands that it was melting, lol.  A new sculpting friend from facebook gave me some good pointers; to put the clay in the fridge for awhile, or roll it between white paper to leach out the extra oils.  I tried the fridge and it worked so I didn't bother leaching the clay but will do so next time.

mini baby in polymer clay, parts in oven

The other problem I ran into was sculpting in such a tiny size.  My eyesight isn't great, and I wear glasses.  I couldn't see what I was doing on this doll's features until I borrowed my Dad's reading glasses, and then I could only see if I held the clay an inch away from my face, lol.

Tiny polymer clay baby bum, lol

Here's a shot of the little torso, with it's cute little baby bottom, in my hand  The torso is the same size as two joints on my baby finger, so very tiny. The head is even smaller.

Putting polymer clay baby doll parts in oven

Smoothing the head

 Here's the head, next to my finger tip, for scale. It's sitting on a toothpick.  I had to sculpt this head twice because the first time, it fell off the toothpick and splatted on the floor after I had it the way I liked it, lol.  Live and learn :-).

Cute little elf or fairy head

From this angle you can see his features.  I really like his cute little face, and was really surprised that I could get it the way I wanted my first time.  I was thinking I'd like the nose a bit smaller but it grew on me, so I'll probably leave it as is. It's really hard to get nice shots of such a tiny head. 

I ran out today to get an oven thermometer because my toaster oven wasn't getting hot enough when I set it at 275.  After I came home with the thermometer, I found out why; my oven, set at 275, only really heats up to 100 F!  I had to set it at just under 400 to get 275.  The baby is rebaking now.  I put some foil over him so the smaller parts won't burn.  I hope it works; I'd hate to ruin them. The little arms and lets are sooo tiny.

I also bought a hands free magnifying glass while I was out. I can't wait to try it!  Polymer clay was on for half price so I bought more clay as well.  My friend Albert wants me to try to make Smaug the dragon from Lord of the rings. That should be fun!

I can't wait to try to paint this baby.  I sure wish I had my genesis heat set paints and all of my good artist brushes, but they're in storage, along with my good convection oven and oven thermometer.  This is so addictive, and since I can't reborn here, I'm glad I'll still be able to get my baby fix!

Have a great day!

Baby Hippogriff crochet

Harry Potter and baby Hippogriff crochet

I wanted to make a baby Hippogriff but couldn't find a pattern, so I just sat down last night and made this while watching TV.

Horse end of Hippogriff crochet

Greybeak is half eagle, half horse, and I created him as Buckbeak's baby as part of a challenge for my  Hogwarts at Ravelry group. In the story, Buckbeak and his wife Cobeak ask Hagrid and I to babysit Greybeak while they fly south for the winter.  Greybeak's adult flight feathers have not come in yet, and he doesn't have the strength yet to fly all the way south.

Harry Potter and Hippogriff amigurumi

I have an Uncle Buck and an aunt Cobie, who we always call Co, so the names Buckbeak and Cobeak make me laugh every time I type them, lol.

Harry Potter and baby Hippogriff, Greybeak, crochet

My Harry Potter grouping is getting quite large now.  I'd like to learn how to do stop motion animations with them.

Harry and Hippogriff crochet

I have to move soon, and I really don't want to, so crocheting has been keeping me sane by calming me when I start to feel too anxious.  I have a beautiful backyard, fully fenced, and my dogs are going to miss it so much when we move back home with my parents.  I hope we won't be there for long, and I pray that we'll find a place with a fenced yard.  I'd seriously live in a one room cabin if it had a fenced yard for the dogs.

Harry Potter climbing onto Hippogriff's back, crochet

In the meantime, I'll channel all of my anxieties into crochet, and see how many Harry Potter characters I can come up with, lol.  

I already have Harry, Ron, and Hermione in crochet.  I have needle felted Hagrid, but I will probably do a new Hagrid in crochet soon; I want him to be taller.

Harry Potter crochet, with Hippogriff and Hagrid

I also have to update my blog because I also crocheted several other HP characters...but that will be a surprise for later.

Needle felted Hagrid with crocheted hippogriff

If today hold challenges for you, too, I hope you'll find relief with your arts/crafts/creativity, whatever it may be.  For me...my crochet hook is calling :-).

Dollhouse construction day 2 and 3

Inner house

Well I was wildly optimistic to think I could construct this dollhouse in one day.  Here's day 2, the inner house, complete.  It was saggy so I used small dowels in between the first and second stories to firm it up a bit.  Once the inner house is sewn into the outer house, it will firm up even more.

This video was supposed to appear later in this post, lol. I don't know how it arrived up here, and I don't know how to move it down; oops.

Inner and outer house, side by side

Day 3 of construction (yesterday), I sewed the outer house walls together, along with the floor.

Porch construction

Last night I added the porch roof, and the porch front and side walls.  These were awkward to sew onto the main shell of the house because the house is so big it was hard to hold and sew at the same time, yet too floppy to just leave standing on the table while I sewed.   I stopped after midnight last night.


On another subject, we had quite a snowfall last night.  We have a winter storm warning in effect today, with white out conditions.  Here's a video I took this afternoon, of the birds, eating at my deck.  They were so unafraid they let me stand right there with the door open as the landed all around me.  The bird video (above) is supposed to go here, lol.

Birds eating

Birds on my deck after March snowfall

Also on another topic, my reborn doll sold on ebay; woohoo!

Latest reborn, sold on ebay yesterday

Doll houses

I' ve always wanted a dollhouse, ever since I was a little girl.  My best friend had a little tin one that was cute, but I always wanted a wooden one.

Lately I've been making plastic canvas doll houses.  I did a small carry and play house called "Bear Cottage" which I blogged about earlier.  Then I did the Haunted Dollhouse.  That's a bigger one, 6 rooms/3 floors.  Now  I'm working on the  "My Pink Dollhouse" pattern.
My Pink Dollhouse

I have all of the interior finished except for the attic floor, which I'm working on now.  I took a break from stitching the house last week and started on the furniture.  I did the toilet first, just because it was so cute, lol.  Then I did the couch, fridge, and crib.  They're also cute:

Furniture for My Pink Dollhouse, with needle felted doll and bear.

The fridge doors open and close, to show 3 little shelves.  I liked it, but thought the fridge looked bare, so I googled "how to make miniature food".  I was amazed by the world of miniatures.  I discovered "printies", small printable decorative items for miniatures.  You just print them out, fold them into whatever shape is needed,  and glue them.  I tried it; easier said than done, lol.  First,  they said to spray the prints with sealant before use.  I didn't have sealant. Plus, my printer needs a new color cartridge so the prints weren't great...I figured I'd just use them as a practice run.  I discovered that none of the 5 types of glue that I have work at gluing photo paper.  So I ended up taping the little boxes together.  I ordered the right glue online.

Then I found a little tutorial on how to make a tiny clothes hanger out of a paperclip.  Of course, I couldn't find my paperclips, lol.  So I used a Christmas decoration hook thingie.  It's not pretty, but it works.

I wanted to also try to make canned goods, but I can't find my dowels (where did I put them?).

Here's what I have so far; they're not great, but you'll get the general idea of what I'm trying to do:

Now the baby feltie has some Cheerios to munch on in her crib.  Her dress is hanging on the little hanger.

When I get the proper materials, I'm going to try this again.  It's a lot of fun.

In the meantime, I took the plunge and ordered a "real" (read, non plastic canvas) doll house kit online last night.  Actually, two kits.  The  main kit is a 5 room, 3 story farmhouse with a wrap around porch.  It's called the Laurel. The second kit, the Primrose, is a two room addition to the Laurel.  Here's a link that shows both:
Laurel and Primrose doll house kits

I am so excited.  I can't wait to see them.

Last week I purchased several plastic canvas books, mostly dollhouses and dollhouse furniture, from a lady who was selling her stash.  She said she put some extras in the box, so I can't wait to see that, either.  So now I'll be watching for the mail carrier like a kid waiting for Santa, lol.

Take care,
Kat

Felties go house hunting