Customizing Barbie Made to Move with a Fashionista Head

Thunderstorms are holding me indoors for now. It is great to get some rain around here. I want to root some roses, but I was afraid they would die if I cut them in this heat and dry spell. Now I can do it. 

I recently decided I would like another repaint Barbie. To be exact I want a Made to Move Barbie customized to my own favorite features about Barbie. I like Barbies with the two-toned hair more than anything. Blonde just looks more realistic to me when it is more than one tone, especially on an adult. I wanted to put a Fashionista #28 on a Made to Move Barbie. I found some good information about the Fashionista Barbie skin tones on Google search engine. Fashionista #28 is skin tone number 4. I don't know if I have the right to repost the charts I found but the info is out there for anyone interested in customizing a Barbie Made to Move. Skin tone 4 is supposed to match the redheaded Made to Move Barbie in the Light Blue Top. I don't have one and they are expensive to get now. So I decided to try the Fashionista on the newer Soccer Barbie. I took pictures of them together to see if it would work. I didn't change any of the photos and took them outside in the natural lighting. 

 Pink top M2M Barbie is not just a tiny bit lighter than Soccer Barbie, she has a pinker tone to her. At least that is what I see when I look at them together. I don't think it would be a big deal to do either Barbie, since I will be painting her face over. I prefer the hair and expression on the Fashionista.

 These dolls look like they could trade heads. I saw someone on youtube trade these exact doll's heads and it looked pretty nice to me. I really like the tall Barbies but the Fashionistas don't bend their knees and arms like the tall Black Label Barbie- City Chic I got also. I loved the one with the jungle outfit. I am not a big fan of animal skin outfits but the Barbie is totally it for me. She has bangs and really realistic sun glasses. I got a pack of tall and plump Barbie shoes for them too. Sure enough even if I can get tall Barbie's feet in the regular Barbie shoes they don't look right at all. So tall Barbies are all about to be robbed of their heads and clothes, so my favorites can have it all. 

 I had Barbies when I was a little kid and my mother used to make doll clothes for them, while she was babysitting me, my cousins and neighbors too. She would sell a shoebox full of Barbie things she made for like five dollars. I gave all the dolls away as I decided I was too old for the dolls. A few years ago I got a Barbie at a dollar store and made her a hat and scarf with some very fine yarn. I wanted it to be to scale with a Barbie. It looked nice but was very hard to do with threads that are sock weight or 1400 yards per pound or smaller. I still wasn't impressed enough to pursue Barbie because of the straight legs and arms. Then I ran across all these dolls with joints. I was like where has she been all my life. I wasn't too old for dolls at all. Barbie was too old for me.

 Here's the two blondes together. I don't know if others can see the Barbie on the left looks pinker. The one on the right looks tan with even a bit of yellow tint to her. 

 Pink top Barbie looks quite a bit lighter to me. 

 This is the final shot. I am dead set on putting the Fashionista on the Soccer Barbie body. I will keep the clothes for the favorite tall Barbie. I haven't even opened the box yet I was so pleased I just want to look at her. 

 Here are the legs of the Barbies. I noticed some comparisons are done only using the Barbie legs. So these legs show the colors aren't that close at all. I am still convinced it will work for them. Now I just need time to get them done. 

Now that I have learned more about Barbies than I ever even knew to ask, I need to start creating more and collecting less. I really don't know how I got so far off the path I intended to take. My favs do need some kitchen stuff though. 

Enhancing a Karito Kid Doll Face Up

I just realized it has been 16 days since my last post. I have been busy doing my own yard work and pressure washing. Plus it has been super hot around here in North Carolina. 

When it was too hot to work outside any longer I did work on some doll projects. I had a Karito kid doll I bought second hand and fixed her up some. 

I didn't take the doll's face off with acetone and start from scratch like a repaint. I cleaned any spots I could with alcohol or acetone. I enhanced the things I liked about the doll. I gave her more freckles, glossed her lips with resin gloss, and drew over her eyebrows a little. I sealed her new face up with the Krylon Matte finish. I put putty over her eyes while sealing her, since her eyes are inset and not painted. I wanted to preserve her eyelashes as well. Her wig was okay but it had been cropped unevenly in places like an attempt to make her into a boy. I removed her wig and put what I had on her that would fit. I braided it just to keep it neat while I dress her and work on her. I pierced her ears also and made her some jewelry. 

 I am happy how well she still stands and poses. She is a 12 year old doll from 2006.

I bought this doll because I actually like the look more than American Girl dolls. She is more mature looking and at the same time she looks like a little girl too. I did some photos of her next to American Girl and Maru and Friends 20" dolls. 

 They're both wearing AG sized clothes and shoes. Zoey can wear AG clothes. The leggings made for AG Julie are capri length on Zoey. The dresses are shorter also, since Zoey is 21 inches tall. 

Karito Kid Zoey can wear some American Girl shoes. Her feet are slightly longer and not quite as wide. 

 Both of my dolls stand well on their own. But Julie has a loose neck string. I haven't worked on AG dolls yet, so this is a new adventure for me. It looks like she needs a new string because the one she has now is frayed also. 

 Zoey wears AG eyeglasses.

 I compared Zoey to the Maru and Friends doll Jamie. Jamie is 20 inches. Jamie is slimmer and looks like she is too young to get her ears pierced yet. I usually pierce all my dolls' ears but not Jamie's.  Maybe if I had some cute little toy like earrings I could bring myself to pierce her ears.

She looks like she's five.

 I got a couple of Newberry doll packs last year from K-Mart. And I was just dying to know if the shoes would fit Jamie. They did. The Newberry dolls are supposed to be the same as Journey Girls but from Canada. I love the Journey Girls clothing and the fact they are the slim 18" dolls. It is a shame about what happened to Toys R Us. I have been reading that Journey Girls were the Toys R Us doll line. Does that mean we won't be seeing much more of the Journey Girl clothing packs? They were so nice.

The Newberry eyeglasses look so cute on Jamie.

Zoey's feet were too big for Newberry shoes.

I had a good 4th of July vacation and hope that anyone reading this did the same. Actually I painted a doll and just chilled out. I had to take a few more pictures of my dolls. Just had to.

I was in the dollar store and often I saw these little ornamental figures like elves and animals. I walked by them several times and wished I had one, but thought I have other things to do and don't need more things. One day there was one last dog figurine and I knew that It would be gone next time I stopped. I thought how good that would look with my Barbie Style. It was only a dollar. I bought it.

Here is a picture of the dollar store dog with Barbie Style. I had to do this and don't know what possesses me. I was so excited about fixing my broken Barbie I forgot that she does have pose-able feet and can wear flats too. I think this is what got me into collecting articulated and ball-jointed dolls. Dolls just weren't that good when I was a girl. 

 I love how the dog looks like he's posing for the photo. I'm not sure what kind of dog he is but I love him.

 The doll I painted was a 17 inch tall Madeline Hatter. I got this doll maybe a couple of years ago and she was pretty nice just like she was out of the box. I just wanted to practice painting dolls some more. I wanted to try the dress on my resin BJD too--doll chateau Elizabeth doll. Everything takes time and now I get around to doing some of the things that cross my mind when I am busy.

I pierced Madeline's ears too. She didn't come with pierced ears. I braided her hair to keep it back and because I didn't really like her hair from the start. I really like it braided, so when I get her dressed, I am going to finish fixing her hair and make her some nice jewelry to go with her purple and blue theme. I cleaned all the paint off of her but her mouth, I just loved the lip color. I had purple lashes to go on her but decided to stay with painted ones. I got so carried away with the lashes I am not sure the purple will work now. I sealed her with my usual Krylon spray and then a resin gloss to the lips and eyes. 

 Madeline has shorter legs and torso than Elizabeth.

 The dress is a bit snug on Elizabeth and too short but their body types are about the same. I experienced a similar situation with Monster high doll clothes on a doll chateau Zora. I like the hauntedness of the resin dolls and the cheerfulness of the Ever After High doll. 

 I have been hunting for a long time to get some doll prop for a 1/3 scale BJD. I found this used 16" tall bear chair that looked like it might fit. I was so excited when I put my Magical Angel doll in it and it suited her and the idea I had for her. She is pretending to be the Empress in the Ryder Waite Tarot deck of cards. She needs a costume really.  But I made her her own Book of Shadows, which is really just an art journal. 

 I got my hands on a bunch of antique doll wigs and tried one on her, since I like the more vintage look for her. It was perfect and not expensive at all. I was looking at some of my older pictures and realized she was my very first BJD made of resin. I learned that Magical Angel was a small company in China. I had visited their site online a few times and was excited to see the price of the dolls was not so high as all the other 1/3 scale dolls. Then Magical Angel became a part of Mirodoll. So the dancing dolls are still around but still not well known. I think my first impression was the best one. If I had it to do over, this would be my only resin 1/3 scale doll. I think. Hmm. I like them all.

 The book I made her is made from scraps off the back of office note pads that were about to be tossed. I did put some art paper in it to make it a realistic book. 

Then we drew some art inside it. To start a journal of our own. 

Barbie Style Catastrophe

A good while back I bought a Barbie Style on sale over at Amazon. I was totally enamored with this doll because she had poseable knees, elbows, and even wrists. She also had rooted lashes and two-toned blonde hair. I was never a big fan of Barbie but fell for it right away. At first she was stiff and wouldn't sit up straight. As I posed her and dressed her she kept getting better. Then one day I went too far and the spikey thing in her neck snapped. I was upset and the doll was no longer on sale anywhere. I put her aside and tried to think of a way to fix her. When I pulled the spikey thing out of her neck it was worse, the rooted lashes came out with a big blob of glue. Now I know where all the complaints about glue head Barbie come from. I attempted to root her new lashes but they looked like animal fur. So I pulled that out. Rubbed acetone on her face and attempted to paint her. Her rubbery head wouldn't take any of my pencils and pastels too well. I tried spraying her first. Didn't work. 

Finally I get out a bit of acrylic paint and began to see some progress. I ended up gluing some eyelashes in place just to cover the holes where eyelashes once were rooted.

  Then the head fixing thing. I used elastic string that is used to string tiny YOSD sized BJDs. I wrapped it around the straight bar in her neck and pulled it through a wooden bead with the hole large enough to string with elastic. Plus the wooden bead was easily sanded down till it could slip inside the neck of the Barbie head. Of course it had to fit tight so it would stay in. I tied the knot first, of course, before I worked it into the head. Wow what a difference it made too. Her head can pose up, down and all directions and stays posed where I put it. It is much better than what I had for a Barbie. I put good old-fashioned Elmers glue in her head to make sure her hair didn't come out too. Of course, I washed her hair a couple of times during the process of repairing her. It was a lot of work for a Barbie doll, but I am so happy, it's worth it. She's Make it Mine Barbie for sure. I just wish I could get a BJD that wears Barbie stuff ,is customizable with changing eyes, face up, and wears heels or flats. 

This whole scenario reminded me of when I wore make up for the first time. I would put it on, wash it off and imagine how I look in front of "Ken". I felt like I was bonding with Barbie. I bought her a Ken a while back too, so she has a date now. 

I put a casual handmade outfit on her for today. I wanted to make her picture. She insisted that she have make up on with jewelry and heels (that's all she can wear) just in case she sees Ken.  She went shopping and bought a hanging basket of flowers. It's the first time she has been out of the house in such a long time after her catastrophe.

I made the cute hanging basket and flowers myself. I started with some cardboard backing off of old used up notepads. I thought I should recycle some of this stuff while I am cleaning my office space. I made the beads with the cardboard and some Harbor Freight super glue. Then I made the basket with cardboard and Elmer's glue. I colored it with some acrylic paint and permanent marker. I sprayed the basket with Krylon Matte finish to hold the color. I used some hemp I had to do the micro-macrame. I used an eyepin to make the hanging hardware.

  I used some plastic Christmas beads and altered bead caps with wire and some bronze colored leaves to make the Victorian/Gothic style fantasy flowers.The flowers aren't glued in and can be put in a vase and other flowers can be added to the basket. I made one for my self and an extra one for Barbie. The hanging basket looks good in a 1/12 or 1/8th scale dollhouse. And it looks quite good with Barbie too. I just completely love handmade props. I hope to improve with doll painting too. Practice is the main thing. I thought about getting some broken dolls and practice painting them and repairing them. But I have too many things to do now. 

I am so looking forward to the 4th of July Holiday and I hope everyone has a safe Holiday too.