Monday, August 26, 2013

Pink is Best for Pigs!

I bought a Barbie vanity at a flea market at a great bargain price. Of course it was bright Barbie Pink and had glitter stickers on it. It was not Raleigh's style or mine, so something had to be done about it.


There are some great tutorials on the web for redoing plastic furniture. This one tells you how to make faux woodgrain:  http://www.dolls-n-daggers.com/Dolls/Forum/index.php?topic=297.0.

I decided to just paint it white. Normally, I would use spray paint. I didn't have any and as usual my budget is tight, so I just hand painted with acrylic paint. The key is to use several thin layers of paint to get good coverage.

The other problem with the vanity was that the only part of the stool that was included was the top.
I cut a section from a toilet paper roll to make a base.
Then I covered the entire piece with fabric and lace to match Raleigh's bedroom diorama. Here is the repainted vanity with the new stool.
I think it gives it a cottage look, which is much more to Raleigh's liking and mine.

While we didn't want the vanity to be pink, there are some things that color is perfectly suited for - PIGGIES! I adore pigs and one day I hope to have a teacup pig as a pet. In the meantime, there was no reason that Raleigh couldn't have one. I searched the internet for a pattern and found one here:
http://dollmaker.nunodoll.com/pig/pig.html. The pattern I used is on the second page. Raleigh is very happy to have a new friend.
Her piggy doesn't have a name yet. Could you help her come up with one?




Saturday, August 10, 2013

Little Did I Know

Little did I know that I have had 3 Blythe dolls and not just one. How could it be possible not to know this? Well, a couple of years ago, a friend gave me 2 dolls for Christmas. They were in sets called "Blythe Loves Littlest Pet Shop".  I love them, they are tiny little dolls withe BIG eyes and they have little pets. I have them displayed in my craft/sewing room so I see and enjoy them every day. I saw the big eyes and saw the relationship to my Blythe doll and to me that was it. That was until a week or so ago. I joined a group called Blythe Kingdom. It was on that site that I discovered that the Littlest Pet Shop Blythe dolls, also referred to as LPS, were made as replicas of the original Blythe dolls. They are approximately the same size as the Petite Blythes and are collected, customized and loved my Blythe collectors. I have Playfully Plaid

and Buckles and Bows. She is wearing the new dress I made. It is available on my web site Blythe - The Big Eyed Girl
I think there will be more of these little cuties added to my collection in the future.

Raleigh had some more items added to her living room diorama, from the office supply section of Dollar Tree, as usual. This is meant to hold paperclips and such.
I thought it made a great end table, so I bought two.
Here's a close-up with a new table lamp I made from Peruvian beads.
There are other items made with these wonderfully, hand painted beads on my site, on the Accessories page. Here is a picture of one the vases made with these beautiful beads:


Raleigh also got a great vintage piece this week - a manual typewriter. She thought it would be fun to doing some writing old school style.

I have also been working on Raleigh's bedroom this week, but we will save that story for next time.