Straightening Hair

Here is a short tutorial on how to straighten your dolls' hair with a flat iron. Comment and let me know how it turns out if you try this! I'd love to hear it.

NOTE: While you can get beautiful results, heat on doll hair can go very wrong very fast. Be careful when applying heat to your dolls' locks. If you're under 18, be sure to get adult permission or help if you decide to do this to your doll. :)

What I used:

• Flat iron
• Wire hairbrush
• Doll strand
• Spray bottle

First, heat your iron to the LOWEST setting.

Ready your undressed doll. Because her crimps were caused by braids, the back of her hair is already straight, so I pulled it out of the way. If you're going to work on a whole head of hair, I would still do this so you could work on separate sections easier.

Begin by brushing out the hair, making it smooth and removing any knots.

I separated each section into three sections to work on individually. Again, brush out the section. Iron carefully and don't jerk it quickly, just go down the hair at a careful, steady pace. Don't go too slow as you don't want it to get too much heat and begin to melt. I found I only needed to iron twice, maybe three times, but this may vary from doll to doll.

Half way done! Looking good! Now repeat on the other side.

And you're done! It's actually very quick and easy, you just have to be careful because of the heat. You may want to take a spray bottle and spritz down where you applied heat. I don't know if it does anything but it made me feel better to know her hair was at a cool temperature, just in case. (:

Thanks for reading! :)

Photoshoot!

Took Josefina into the woods for some more photos. She's just so easy to take photos of. I wish I had her meet accessories out though! They're packed away right now though.

I'm really enjoying her. She's SO easy to take photos of! This doll is gorgeous. I love her. Fabulous addition to any collection!

Her clothes are all so cute too, and I feel they're very well made. Still need to break up that Feast Day Finery with a colored ribbon at the waist but I was too impatient to take her out and photograph her. :) She has such a sweet, gentle face. Very different feel than I get from my other AG girls, sweet as they are in their own ways.

Anyway... photos!

I can't wait until snow fall. By then I should be able to dig out the AG clothes and put her in her Christmas outfit. It'll be gorgeous against the snowy white backdrop!

Bringing Matilda to Life

Remember that post a while ago about purchasing an American Girl and customizing her? She arrived! Well, she arrived... multiple months ago, I just haven't gotten around to posting. Sorry! Anyway, on to the photos!

Here's what she looked like right out of her shipping box... I also purchased Josefina's Christmas dress from the same person so she came wearing it, and she just ended up wearing that for a while.

I added freckles and lip paint. I had a hard time with this. I really wanted light, little freckles just over her nose - think Disney's Rapunzel - but for some reason it just wouldn't work! It just looked wrong on her... she just disagreed with my opinion I guess! So they're bold and spread out, but I like them. For the lips, I wanted the deeper color to make her appear older, as she's supposed to be 18, not 10.

Her wig is not permanent; I just couldn't decide what wig to give her, so she's wearing my childhood Felicity's wig for now. It's in horrible condition, but it's better than nothing. I think I've finally decided on a wig, so she'll be officially finished within a month hopefully! :)

Just for kicks I styled her hair with random braids. The wig being so thin and dry, it looks horrible just loose, and thought perhaps all the different layers of braids might hide that lol. SO needed to be replaced (as remember, the only reason Matilda was purchased was so my Lissie could have her wig!).

Two pretty girls. Next to Matilda with her new facepaint, Felicity looks super washed out. She really needs a repaint! Excuse the condition of her wig too, I was impatient and took this picture before gluing it down and brushing it out to lay nicely... :)

Lovely Josefina!

I finally got her! Beautiful Josefina!

She arrived in the mail yesterday. I haven't had time for a good photoshoot but I did take her out and snap some quick photos...

I really wanted a Pleasant Company Josefina. There's just something extra special The current Josefina dolls have higher raised eyebrows and don't have those PC soft lashes that I so love. I bought her from someone on one of my doll forums. She had several Josefina items for sale so I looked through her list and got a few extra items too, so in total I got:

• Josefina and her meet outfit - Camisa, skirt, undergarments, shoes, and blue hair ribbon
• Christmas outfit - Shoes
• Feast Day Finery - Camisa, skirt and shoes
• Heirloom Accessories - Shawl and fan

I love it all. Her meet outfit is very simple and cute for everyday. Her Feast Day Finery is GORGEOUS. I've always liked it but it's beautiful in person. The colors are so vibrant and happy. I'm going to pick up some ribbon at the craft store to replace the sash that wasn't included. Her heirlooms are lovely too. Her shawl is beautiful, the embroidary is perfect, all the colors are beautiful shades.

And a great bonus is everything's tagged PC! Yay! While I don't usually insist on it, I really prefer the PC versions of almost everything.

Definitely a great purchase. :D Josefina is fabulous! I've wanted her for so long, I'm so happy she's finally home. :) I have her meet accessories and Christmas dress already, but they're packed away - I can't wait until I can pull them out and photograph her with those, too. I especially want to put her little necklace on her. I adore that necklace!

Rumor Has It

Rumor has it in the doll world today! NOTE, while AG has confirmed Caroline the doll in her meet outfit with a couple small accessories, the boat and parlor are NOT confirmed.

Caroline Doll & Book - Doll in outfit HAS been confirmed

Caroline, in a different outfit with a cute little jacket, riding in a boat. Not confirmed.

Caroline in a third outfit, a lovely blue color, with a parlor set and accessories. Not confirmed.

I'm really excited for her collection! Her outfits are adorable! I especially love the blue one. Elizabeth, who has dibs on Caroline's collection, will definitely look amazing in it. I love the color palette they're using for her whole collection.

I also really like the parlor set. It's so cute! Did not expect to love pieces of furniture in her collection but it is adorable. Of course the price tag will probably be a pretty penny, so I may not actually get it, but if it's reasonable I may get it at some point in the future. Not anytime soon but they'd be great pieces to mix with Felicity's furniture (also a future purchase :P).

Win Matilda, a Girl of All Time!

Dolls Magazine is hosting a giveaway for one Matilda doll, with the novel Matilda's Secrets and activity book Matilda's Keepsakes and Secrets! Enter by October 2, 2012. Enter Here!

And in case you need some more motivation to enter...

A Girl for All Time

Matilda in her meet outfit.

A Girl for All Time is similar to the American Girl Collection. They have stories written for dolls available, that cover different eras in English history. What I find interesting, is that each of the characters can trace their ancestory back to matilda, who lives in Tudor times during the reign of Henry VIII. Of course, I find this out months after I begin a custom doll for my medieval character also named Matilda. :P Oh well, such is life. Currently available is Matilda, with pre-order sales of their second doll, Amelia - a Victorian girl. The dolls are 16" tall and have articulated elbows and knees.
US prices are $134.99 per doll, which is pricey but they appear to be lovely and well made. Clothing prices range from $19.99-$59.99, depending on the outfit. Again, pricey, but the outfits are so lovely, and have so many details.


 

Matilda dressed in Masked Ballgown (Retails $29.99)

Amelia dressed in Amelia's Party Dress (Retails $49.99)

I think Amelia is quite lovely. I prefer her facemold to Matilda's, and her eyes are SO pretty. I may keep an eye on these dolls and order one eventually, but due to price and I'm sure shipping from the UK will be high too, right now I can just adore photos online. Plus, I may like another doll more. Not available yet, but mentioned on their website in the family tree, is Sophia (a Georgian girl), Olivia (a Restoration girl), Elinor (an Elizabethan girl), and Clementine (a World War II girl). Amelia just has this sweet, gentle expression that I don't see often on dolls.

Lost in Lalaloopsyland

I've discovered another doll line - Lalaloopsy! At first I thought to myself, very cute, but not for me. Well... that was before I found the Alice in Lalaloopsyland set! It included Alice and the Mad Hatter. Super adorable. Being a huge Alice in Wonderland fan... I couldn't pass it up. It's all been downhill since. ;) So far I have kept it to the mini versions of all of them though!

I really love the fairytale ones. In addition to the Alice in Wonderland set, I also have Snowy Fairest and Scarlet Riding Hood... that is, their versions of Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. I also have Peanut, who is a little circus girl, but I renamed her Lilka because I thought Peanut was a cuter name for her little pet elephant. I like elephants... hehe.

Alice & the Red Queen

While I continued to check out this little world of Lalaloopsy, I found customs that people had done and thought to myself, hey... that would be fun! So, I decided to continue to build on my Alice in Lalaloopsyland world, and created the Red Queen. I really like her. I enjoyed repainting her so much, I decided to do more! I currently have a White Queen in the works, and plans for the Queen of Hearts as well. 

The Red Queen in Lalaloopsyland

Something that really excites me about the White Queen, is that I found the same doll for a base as I did the Red Queen, so their hair and outfits will be identical except for color! :) 

They're also fairly inexpensive, which is nice. The single packs are about $6.99 at most places, and the double packs about $12.99. I'd really like to get into customizing them and selling them on Etsy, but first we need to get settled down in our new place (we just moved a couple weeks ago and still getting used to the swing of things).

I don't have a photo right now, but they also make perfect dolls for larger dolls. My AG and DAC dolls can even hold Lalas in their hands by themselves!

Miss Caroline Abbot

Meet Miss Caroline Abbot! Caroline is American Girl's upcoming historical from the year 1812, coming out this September.

I think she's adorable! I love the long curls. Her eyes are beautiful - they're like a delicate seafoam green. I don't think she's going to be coming home with me, though - Elizabeth has official dibs on her collection. ;) Elizabeth doesn't have many outfits and I thought Caroline would have suiting clothing for her. It works out well that they have similar coloring, so all her outfits should look amazing on Elizabeth!

Her meet outfit is very cute. I think it's a lovely shade of pink, and look at those cute little pink slippers! I find it interesting that she's holding a little top, too - part of her meet accessories?

Anyway, very excited for September to roll around to check out what else AG has included in her little world.

Designer Villains

Is anyone else excited about the Disney Designer Villains Collection? I absolutely adored the Designer Princesses and was very excited to hear they were going to do villains as well.

This time around there will be six dolls, complete with a very nice display box and Certificate of Authenticity. Each doll is LE (that is, Limited Edition) of 13,000. They retail for $80 each ($20 more than the princesses sold for). The release dates and dolls are as follows:

September 10: Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)
September 17: The Evil Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
Sepetember 24: The Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland)
October 1: Ursula (The Little Mermaid)
October 8: Mother Gothel (Tangled)
October 15: Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmations)

I'm really excited for them. I think I'm going to get The Queen of Hearts. When I first heard the villains rumor I knew instantly I'd love an awesome Queen of Hearts. She took a bit to grow on me but I think I'm happy with her, and being an Alice in Wonderland fan, I've been wanting a doll from the movie for a while. I'm also glad they upped the LE number from last time - it was crazy with everyone trying to get those princess dolls.

In addition to the six dolls, there will also be other items included in the line featuring the artwork of the six villains, including cosmetics, clothing, coffee mugs, and notebooks. I find I like the artwork even more than I like the dolls! I'm hoping they'll have notecards like they did with the princesses. I'd like to frame them. The details in the art is just stunning.

 I know some people online are upset and wish they'd come out with the ten villains who go with the ten princesses from the Designer Princess line, but I'm happy with it. I love the princess movies of course but I also love the others too, and I like that they haven't boxed this collection into a princess mindset. I was very happy to see they included The Queen of Hearts and Cruella.

I hope they continue these Designer lines. I love seeing them take these classic characters and give them a new look that all flows together. How about those lovely Disney gals that get forgotten about next time around? Alice and Meg would be more than welcomed into my collection... :)

You can see more photos and info on this line on Disney Store blog: http://blog.disneystore.com/blog/2012/06/introducing-the-villains-designer-collection-at-disney-store-.html

What's everyone else think about this line? Share in the comments!