Carving, and NOT the Sunday roast!

I've been itching to do some more Blythe customising but didn't have a faceplate here to work on.  I'm already happy with Heather (PD Heather Sky) and Noelle (Nicky Lad) and that only left Hershey, my Simply Chocolate.  Well Hershey got a new face when she arrived here back in the winter of 2010 and I've not done anything with her since then apart from change her body from her stock Takara one, to a jointed Pure Neemo one, so I decided that I would do some work on her. 

I spent yesterday morning carving a new mouth for her, I really wanted to create fuller lips but I don't really know how it's done....but I had a theory that it has something to do with carving and sanding the area under the bottom lip but above the actual chin area.  So I gently shaved upwards from chin to bottom lip using a sharp curved Xacto blade.  Then I carved the lips using my diamond needle files, then it was just a matter of sanding, sanding, sanding, until the whole lot was smooth and ready for new makeup.  It took me a long time, several hours, to get the plastic faceplate as smooth as I'd like, but once it was done, I was happy and ready to move on.  However, by then I'd lost the light so had to leave it until today!

Then this morning I started on her makeup.  I use chalk pastels for the faces as I'm hopeless with paints, and gave her a soft, child-like look.  I also gave her new eyelashes as her other ones were a bit thin....I painted her eyelids in a coffee brown colour but then decided to brush them with gold powder, so she has very nice shiny eyelids now!  I kept thinking that I'd not be able to seal it all because the weather today has been awful, lots of heavy rain, and humidity can play havoc on the sealant, Mr Super Clear Flat,  spray.  But thankfully I was successful and I'm very happy to say that she is all nicely sealed and finished.

Finally I gave her a haircut.  Her stock hair wasn't too bad compared to some Simply Chocolate hair that I've seen but I wanted something different all the same.  So she got a very short bob and I think it suits her new look perfectly!!

Unfortunately I had to take all the photos inside with flash as the weather was too wet for garden photos, but hopefully tomorrow, if it's dry, I will take some more.  I'd like to take some of my three Blythe girls before my Blythe family expands....yes, I have another couple of girls on their way, but that's news for another day!!!

Pussy cat, pussy cat......

Although the pantomime season is well and truly behind us for now, Heather wanted to dress up as a kitten today as she feels that kittens have a lot of freedom that she doesn't have as a mere doll!!!!  Well I made her some little paws......yes, they look more like grizzly bear paws than kitten paws but you have to use a little bit of 'imagination' here .... whilst I was using a drop of 'poetic licence'!!!
I added a hairband with some 'ears', a little tinkling bell around her neck and of course her 'paws' print dress that I made last year.  Off she went into the garden to be a curious kitten.

But before I took the photos, I asked my dear hubby what he thought of her 'look', did she seem like a small child dressing up to be a little cat?  His response?

"I'm not sure what she looks like really....but why is she wearing those OVEN GLOVES?"

Honestly, no wonder I sometimes despair of the men in this household!!!

Little kitten looking pretty!

 

Little kittens sometimes climb high in the trees!

 

Little kittens sometimes walk elegantly along the top of high walls!

 

And some little kittens just like to sit in the sunshine and warm themselves!

 

Extra photo, just because I think she's beautiful!

Wonderful giveaway!

I just saw this wonderful competition on BlytheLife.com and just had to blog about it!  Well not only is it worth telling about, it also means that I have more chances to win the prize!

The prize is a set of front and back Blythe RBL faceplates customised by the very talented Cocochoo.....I would so love to win them, she is one of my favourite customisers!   Here is a link to her Flickr account where you can see some beautiful examples of her work:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/mucul/

Here is a link to her interview on BlytheLife, you have to make a comment to get the chance to enter!  It's worth reading even if you don't want to enter the competition!

http://blythelife.com/

As the saying goes "YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT!!!"

After the Easter bunny departs.....

I've been very lazy recently when it comes to my Blog so this is going to be a bit of a catch up.

Here in Spain, Semana Santa or Holy Week, starts the previous Sunday evening (Palm Sunday) with the first procession of penitents through the town.  Because Yoda, our little black Chihuahua, is so frightened by the sound of the drums, we left on Monday morning for the coast, because each of the processions, even the 'silent' ones, seem to have the drum beating throughout!  We only really intended staying for one week but what with one thing and another, we ended up staying for just over two weeks, returning home again last Tuesday!!!  And during my time down there, I didn't give a thought to my blog as I was so 'relaxed'!!!

However, I did do a bit of sewing so have a couple of new photos to share, plus whilst I was away my trade doll, a light tan French resin Narae by Bimong, arrived, and a couple of days ago I gave her a new faceup, so some photos of her too.  I'm really really happy with how she has turned out, she is exactly what I hoped for!

Whilst at the coast I went to visit Olga (Vainilladolly on Flickr) and we had a great day together, playing with and chatting about dolls and generally putting the world to rights!  Olga has promised to carve a Blythe faceplate for me soon, which makes me really happy as I've wanted a Vainilladolly custom for ages! 

So my quest since meeting up with Olga has been to sell some existing dolls and other odds and ends so that I can either buy a complete Blythe for her to carve, or perhaps just a faceplate.  Although I want a Vainilladolly custom, I don't really want to increase my Blythe numbers (I currently have six) so maybe buying the faceplate is the best option....we shall see!

I also gave my Heather Sky a haircut.  Her hair was lovely and long and thick but it got messy ever so quickly, so she now has a neat bobbed style, and even if I do say so myself, she looks incredibly cute!  She really is my favourite Blythe, she has such a sweet little face!!!

In other news, the weather has been really changable for the last couple of weeks, with Easter week being a mix of high winds, beautiful warm sunshine, and quite heavy downpours of rain.  I guess this is what we call April Showers!  Hopefully soon though it will become a bit more settled and we'll have long, warm, sunny days!

Oh and I got a new iPhone!  I'd had my other one for more than 3 years and it was beginning to show signs of it's age...aren't we all!  And of course many of the apps were now not being produced for that older model.  So I have a lovely new shiny iPhone 4S and a new provider and number too! 

Well that's about all for now....but I promise to try and keep up with blogging!!!

A new faceup for Narae:

 New polkadot dungarees for Troy:

A new haircut for Heather:

 

Visiting with Olga: (Sasha, my Unoa Sist came with me!)