A good day

Last year I made a special domino necklace for my daughter and put it in a safe place so I could give it to her for the holidays. It was too safe - I couldn't find it when the holidays rolled around. This morning I was digging out some empty gift boxes to take with me to the bazaar and guess what I found in one of the boxes? So I guess she will get her present a year late, LOL.

The bazaar went really well for me. I moved a lot of my domino art but what was really special were the reactions people had to our dolls. We had tons of lookers and had to explain over and over how the dolls were made. People were amazed. It was great fun.

I was thrilled (but really sad) when my red ornie sold. The woman who bought her is going to give her to her sister. Her sister is in a life transition and my customer said she will help her sister fly through this period of her life. She struggled to try to explain to me how this doll was going to help her sister. You could tell the doll really spoke to her. I was really touched. She also bought the first one I made for herself.

Here is our table ... my friend Shirley's dolls are on the left (with my froggy doll in the middle) and all my domino art and boxes on the right. Jacque gave me a great idea to make a Charlie Brown tree to display my ornies on. Thanks, Jacque!!!

Click to enlarge

The blue ornie and the copper one came home with me.

Posted by judi at 7:00 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

A little bit froggy

I've had this piece sitting around for a couple of years - never finished it - the head wasn't sewn on and she didn't have any clothes on. So while the turkey was in the oven I finished her up so I could take her to the craft show this weekend. The fabric for the skirt and sleeves is totally wild - it's a multi color metallic and it's incredibly thready (hairy?). The fabric actually matches her body color really well - but it makes her hair look dull now. This is an adaption of a Lynne Butcher pattern - it has a totally different head. The head was designed by a gal down in Anchorage - Karen Smith. She came up and taught one weekend and this is what we made. She taught us to stuff the head so hard we had to practically hammer the needle through it to sculpt. Not my style but this head is smooth and beautiful. I think she needs false eyelashes again - she had some but lost them somewhere along the line.

Oh .. and I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

Posted by judi at 7:09 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

It's party time!

The girls had themselves a little party last night to celebrate being finished. They thought they were the Village People by the looks of things.


This is my very favorite ...


My next favorite one ...

The copper one ...

I will try to get better photos when I am able to hang them up - they don't look the same when they are lying down. I was going to sell these for $45 but now I think it might have to be a bit more, LOL.

More Christmas Ornaments

I'm working on three more of the Christmas Ornaments that Jacque Uetz wrote up in Doll Crafter magazine. This one is mainly purple/blue/green. I used some awesome glittery silk flowers for the bodice and all the way down the front. I will use the leaves to make wings with. Still needs a face and hair .. I'll probably do all the faces at once.

Here are the next two ... one is burgandy and gold and I think it will be really pretty when it's done. The other is brown/gold and I used so much eyelash that I think she is going to do the flamenco!! Big sleeves!!!

Time for a light tent !

I finished another batch of mini domino magnets today. These are 1/4 inch bigger than the last set. I think it's time for a light tent though - I'm tired of having to fight with the glare from the flash. I hear you can get good deals sometimes on eBay, I'll have to go look. Some of the dominoes have jingle bells on them - the ones that say Believe. I thought it was just perfect for the red and green dominoes; after all they will be for sale at a holiday craft show!

Can you knit?

Here's something you can do if you know how to knit. If I can knit it I'm sure you can knit it too ... it's just a simple garter stitch. Knit a scarf for a WWII veteran and send it to the WWII museum in New Orleans. Click here to get the pattern and directions.

You can sit and watch TV and knit a whole bunch of scarves. What a nice thing to do for someone during the holiday season. I used to have lots of old yarn that I could have used for this but I gave it away. The old guys probably don't want fancy eyelash yarn so a dark sport weight yarn would probably be just fine! I'll think I'll do this .. how about you?

Zee box ees done !

The box for the art gallery in Houston is done. I brought in a touch of red to it - which warmed it up a lot. I didn't add much to it in the way of embellishments - just a bunch of vintage buttons. I think I just had too much texture medium on it to do much else to it. I'm not super happy with it but what can you do. Nothing seemed to work. That happens sometimes. On to other things. Which just happens to be MORE severed hand pincushions. I received an order for two from a gal in Canada so I'll be working on those next. I think it's funny that they are so popular. But i won't complain!!!

Teapot Hats

I got my hats made! These are for the Holiday Teapot Swap at my FabricDollArt group. These were fun. I got to try a couple of new things. On the velvet hat I ironed designs onto the fabric using a stamp. On one of the blue hats I used my new crystal embellisher tool (it's like a soldering iron with special tips). Wasn't it nice of my Crash Test Daughter to pose for these pictures? One day I might even finish her!!!

	Hats I created for the 2006 Holiday Teapot Swap Sponsored by Sherry Goshon

Next up ....

This is a box in progress .. do you call those BIPs? I just added the stockinette around the faces. I used Paverpol so it should be stiff as a board by tomorrow and then I can paint it. This box will be going to an art gallery in Houston, Texas for a fundraiser. They have an annual $100 Box show and I thought it would be fun to do. If it sells I'll get $50 - but it cost me $10 to buy the box and it will cost at least $10 to mail it back .. so .... I'm doing it more for fun than profit.

Here is how I made the background. I glue crumpled tissue paper to the whole thing. Then I squeezed on Texture Magic in white (you get the stuff in tubes at the craft store) and I used my fingers to smooth it and then pull upwards to get the peaks. When everything was dry I painted it with 14K Gold (Delta Gleam) acrylic paint, gave it a wash of black, and highlighted it with blue/green lumiere paint. All the faces are Bliss - a mold by Fran Parrigan-Meehan.

I'm going to be really busy creating 'stuff' this weekend so stay tuned !!!

Posted by judi at 2:46 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Domino Magnets

I finally got a picture of the mini-magnets I talked about last week. These are TINY !! They are 1 inch long by 1/2 inch wide. I didn't know what to display them on so I used the top of the domino tin - painted, of course.

Got 'er done !!

I finished the Christmas Ornament doll yesterday. I like the new wings. Here's how I made them. I cut out the paper from the old burned wings - leaving the wire paper-covered. Then I glued on some sheer silver fabric that has glittered snowflakes on it. Let dry overnight under some heavy books (ummm, the wings were between sheets of wax paper, of course). Then I painted the edges of the wings with 14K Gold - Delta Gleam paint. Painted the inside with Blue/Green Lumiere paint. It nearly matches the fabric for her outfit. I'm pretty pleased with this. I'll probably take it to the craft show and try to sell it. Not sure what to ask for it though. She's 13" long. Suggestions, anyone?

OOPS !!

The instructions called for singeing the edges of the wings. I had an accident or two. I guess I'm out of practice at burning things. I'll lose my Pyro status if I keep this up !!!!!

A bit further along

She's quite a bit further along now. For a Christmas Ornament she's an odd color. But then again - I do have a whole slew of purple decorations so I guess any color goes now a days. Hard to tell but there is copper ribbon ruched down the middle of her 'legs'. I don't know if I want to give her hair or use the apoxy sculpt like the directions call for. We will see!

Here's a tip: Look at the bottom piece - just above the tassel - see the vertical piece of yarn? If you make a vertical loop on something - then do your horizontal wrapping (or criss-cross) you can loop a tassel or other object on instead of sewing it on to the body.