Building more shoe shelves for dolls

Ever opportunity I get I make a few more shelves for doll shoes. I found so many used doll shoes to which there was no doll. I think I have a used doll shoe store in the making.

This batch of shelves works for larger shoes like Monster  High, Ever After High, Liv doll, Bratzilla, and DC Zora, just to name a few. I had the shoes sorted by doll but it was too irresistible to leave them in the bags. I just had to display them.

I got tired of the shoes falling over so I put a vertical piece of wood to hook the heels over. Still not all shoes have heels. Some of the shoes get tucked behind the vertical piece.

 I am currently holding the shelves up with pieces of kindle wood. Not quite what I want the final pieces to look like. Plus I need to do a bit of sanding around the rough edges.

 I'm also debating whether to paint, stain or leave the raw finish. 

I made this little Realpuki doll some more of my hand painted eyes. I found some 1/12th scale shoes and outfits for a buck a package. They were so cute and I figured I could use them for tiny dolls. I tried to get my Realpuki's feet in them and they were just the right size, but only get stuck way down in the shoe. I would either need to cut the shoe or leave the foot inside. I put tiny magnets in the bottom and removed the feet of the doll. Placed the magnetic legs down in the shoes to make them stick to the magnet. I glued the magnets in the correct orientation making the shoes permanently Realpuki shoes. I just thought the roller skates were perfect for the doll. The doll is happy for sure. The other thing about the doll I discovered was the hands easily come loose. I had been keeping the doll in a baggie so as not to lose any of the magnetic parts. Then I realized the magnets weren't flush and meeting exactly level inside the hands. I put super tiny magnets in each hand to shim them a bit and they are very strong now. I don't remember the size of the magnets right off the top of my head but they can be bought in almost any size and number at reasonable prices on Amazon.

 

I finished the wig and it was indeed too large for the intended doll. I had an old My Scene Barbie head someone sold me for a buck. It was just for practicing painting. I never did do anything with the Belle body that I didn't like the posing ability. So I snapped the practice head on the Belle body and came up with a recycled doll. I painted a new face on the head, sealed her with my usual art spray. Gave her a handmade Barbie dress and some Barbie shoes. She can't wear all Barbie shoes but the jelly ones that can give a little work. Belle's feet seem to be a bit wider than Barbie's. 

 The doll had what looked like a couple of red ink dots on her chin. I tried acetone and alcohol to no avail. So I put some freckles over them so they wouldn't look like zits. I thought it would be cute if she had zits though. Her mouth really is open, not just painted to look like it. 

 My wig making is pretty good. I would improve if I knew how. Actually styling hair is the worst part for me. I know absolutely nothing about styling hair. The color is close to copper, so I am thinking auburn. 

 Her eyes are aquamarine.

Tiny BJD Iris with new hand painted eyes

I painted eyes for another tiny doll. This is a tiny fairy doll recast that came with wings. I took the wings off of her to paint separately so as not to get paint on her. I fixed her up with a little paint. I dressed her in a Monster High dress. I was glad to find some ready-made clothes for her. The Monster High dress is a little long on her but I like it. It fits perfectly around her bust. The size 3 wig is a little too large. I tried to make her a wig last night but it kept getting stretched to a larger size. I will use the wig for another project. Meanwhile I need to come up with a better wig for this one. Her name is Iris. I like her as a fashion doll more than a fairy.

 The cute orange shoes came from a box of doll shoes secondhand. I don't know what doll they originally belonged to. I am going to search the box for some more colors for sure. 

Ceramic doll eyes from Morezmore just to customize my tiniest dolls

I got some ceramic eyeballs from Morezmore and painted some of them. Some dolls just never seem to have the correct eyes for me. I think their pupils are too large or the eyes that look good don't fit the sockets correctly. I painted a few pairs and got some dolls together, repainted and tried on the new eyeballs. What a difference it made. My poor little recast doll had just been stashed away in a doll box of odds and ends. I gave her some eyebrows, and dressed her in a cute new outfit. She just came to life for me. 

 The hardest part is getting the eyes positioned in such a small head. She's tinier than a house mouse. 

Shoe hoarding Barbie doll

My dolls have enough shoes to start a small store now. Belle is still working on her makeover. She is evaluating the golden colored jelly shoes to see if they are just too yellow for the dress. The dress is cheap but could look nice with some embellishments. I'm not a big fan of party dresses like this. I don't know why I even got this. 

It snowed all day yesterday and I made this shelf for some of the shoes my dolls have. I started one with taller shelves for boots and Monster High shoes too. I think the shelves should be deeper, because the shoes easily fall off. The dolls have static in their hair lately. It's funny when I was dressing Barbie, her hair just stuck straight up like an electrical storm after all the time I spent washing and styling it. I still got to work on the Christmas tree too. So snowed in is fun. 

Iris Apfel Barbie Doll is here

I might have mentioned this in a previous blog that I was looking for a doll to represent a more mature woman in my Barbie dioramas. I got a Minerva McGonagall doll and totally love her. I pre-ordered Iris Apfel and was hoping to get her for Christmas to myself. She got here early. I seriously had never really heard of Iris but was fascinated with her style when I read up on her and learned about her fashions. The doll is super nice and just look at all those jewels she wears.

 I like Barbie dolls to represent all ethnicities and ages. I saw a photo of custom Iris Apfel a while back online. I fell in love. The older eccentric doll just made the diorama look so realistic.  I was thinking why Mattel doesn't represent the mature Barbie or do something different like the Made to Move? A few weeks later it happened.

The outfit is super nice and the jewelry is fabulous. I am a jewelry lover. I even wear jewelry when working. I think it brings me luck or peace and happiness. I wear my own handmade jewelry 24 hours, 7 days a week just to test the materials and durability of my own work. Iris wears her jewelry the way I imagine wearing mine--like tons of jewels all at once. 

During the Black Friday weekend I found Laurie Hernandez Barbie online at Walmart for under 20 dollars. I was totally shocked. The doll's face has the biggest smile I have ever seen. The box was pretty nice. And she is a made to move Barbie already with no customization. I wouldn't want to do anything to this doll she is perfect just the way she is. Barbie has really got me interested in collecting again. She's come a long way these past few years.

 The quality is amazing. The face is so new.I haven't taken her out of her box yet. I just want to look at how nice everything is. 

 I noticed right away how smooth the arms and joints are on the doll compared to the usual Made to Move Barbie. I know Made to Move is not too expensive but more care went into the Signature Barbie. And I was thrilled to get this for such a low price. 

 Plus she has nice accessories like the gym bag and tennis shoes and a stand. How nice is all that? 

 Laurie looks like her Barbie too. 

I was raking leaves and getting ready for the snow when the mailman came with the doll. So now I have to get back to work. But I can't wait to open the doll boxes and give more of my opinions on the dolls. 

Thrift store doll props

I decided to stop by a couple of thrift stores on my way home Friday. I really haven't had time to go to a thrift store and really don't need to go, but I thought I might find some of those fixer upper dolls I see over on youtube. 

No dolls in our area. Though I did find some odd Christmas decorations that looked like they would fit in a doll diorama or something. I am sort of glad I didn't find much, because I really don't need more stuff. It was relaxing just to browse and walk for a few minutes.

Then I had to get my car checked out, oil change and to my surprise I had slick tires. I replaced them happily. I get so busy I had no idea I had slick tires. I thought something felt strange and I needed to get my car checked.

I stopped by a dollar store on the way home to pick up some treats for my Bichon. I added some of that tiny tinsel to my basket and some copper colored tea lights. I really like copper and red colors so much.

The two little Christmas trees I found were just the right size for Barbie dolls. I didn't really care for the decorations on them, because they were too large for the scale in my opinion.

So I spruced one up and started making little tiny decorations of my own. Here are the results so far.

 Barbie's TV will be out of the room for a while, because there is just no room for the tree. 

 It was really a task to string all those beads to look like ornaments. I used green threads I had from those little repair kits from the dollar store. There's never enough thread on one of those to do a large project, but perfect for small craft ideas. Maybe it needs more tinsel and an angel on top? The tree in front is how it looked with the oversized stuff on it. I am going to reuse the presents for under my other tree. 

Barbie Picture Frame

I worked on a dollhouse picture for a Barbie scale room. I had been hanging on to this picture for some time now, hoping to get around to it. I made myself stop hoping and just do it. A while back everyone at work was putting together puzzles and bringing in new ones. I bought these simple but lovely 3D puzzles from the local Dollar Store. And the front of each box had a 3D picture to help put the puzzle together. I cut out the box front after the puzzles were done and saved them for dollhouse ideas. Gave the puzzles away. They were just too much, since I am an artist after hours and have nowhere to hang another picture and too many hobbies. I made a frame from some balsa wood and left it open on the back to make room for adding a new picture and changing the scene. I used double-sided tape to hang it in Barbie's apartment room. I just kind of imagine Paleontologist Barbie collecting art from her many travels and this being one of them. It looks better than the TV, but it gives me problems photographing when the flash goes off. The flash causes a line of light across it almost every time I take a picture. Still I like it and it's Barbie's favorite for now. I painted the frame to look more like a poster frame with black acrylic.

 I found a really inexpensive Barbie knockoff doll for a very low price. I was really excited to see Barbie knockoff, because I have always believed it adds to the doll's friends. Apparently, it never hurt Mattel to have knockoffs of Barbie. This doll was under 5 dollars, has lovely thick hair and a fairly strong jointed body. And the real plus is she does wear Barbie shoes and can share Barbie clothes. I want to repaint her just for fun, so I got 2 of these. The Barbie shelf is in total disarray right now, because I went nuts with the Black Friday deals. Thank goodness I was unimpressed when I picked up the last doll last night. The things I liked were either gone or prices had returned to the usual. 

 Barbie Made to Move Blue Top came today from Amazon. I thought why did I order her? Have I gone completely mad? She could be head-swapped with Sasha Banks or maybe Alicia Fox? Oh I wanted her to make my Paleontologist doll into a Made to Move Barbie. I really loved Paleontologist Barbie. I really like that Barbie wears many hats, including a hardhat--Wow pink hardhat Barbie! Made to Move Blue top was the closest complexion to a hard-working paleontologist girl. But Blue Top is so beautiful, can I really behead her? 

 I did. I can get another blue top sometime in the future. But not the paleontologist girl. I gave her a real fossil from my own fossil digging days. I think it is called a Murex shell. It is somewhere around 3 million years old? It fits Barbie like a huge conch shell. She didn't find any Mastodon teeth but that's okay she had a good day, digging in Aurora, NC.

 Barbie can stand on her own a little while in those work boots. I was amazed the flat shoes can help a little with posing for the picture. I love the serious look on her face. She's really into what she does both work and play. 

 There was one unusual thing I noticed about head-swapping Barbie with Made to Move Barbie. The brown-headed doll has short-neck syndrome now that she is swapped. The peg that goes up into their heads is somehow longer? I still just had to have it. The Paleontologist looks like she has a longer neck.

My Moxie Teenz doll tried on the WWE Superstars dress and shoes and is in love with it. She wants a date now that she's dressing like a girl. The dress is tight and short on her but really pretty.  Her red hair is a wig I made. It isn't the greatest quality but it is easier to manage than the Monique Gold wig I have for her. I love the curls but they are harder to manage than brushing straight hair. The Monique wig is just very fine hair like my own and has flyaway days.  

Some more dolls from all the sales came in this weekend. I must of got click-mania or something. I was like did I really get that carried away over those beautiful dolls? To me they just look more like fashion models than any of the Barbie dolls ever. I liked this one for the pink shoes and dress. She is Brie.

 Alicia Fox is now in my collection. I wouldn't do anything different to these dolls besides dress them. They are just fabulous when it comes to looks.

 I decided to go ahead and breakdown and get the Wonder Woman at least one. I liked some of the others more but this one was on sale for a good price. The one that shoots the arrow, I only loved her shoes. I haven't taken her out of the box, but I do believe her feet are the same as the WWE dolls. Not 100% sure yet. I did try some Barbie clothes on the more athletic WWE girls. The stretchy clothes go on and are a bit tight. And of course Barbie can wear WWE Superstar clothes but not shoes. I didn't take any pictures yet.