My Cat Burglars

Finally! The original Cat Burglar from Barbie Spy Squad meets her cosplayer, hahaha!

My custom Cat Burglar looks really rough. She needs a hair restyle, a new mask and shoes. I'll get on it soon.

Getting Back Into The Groove

I'm taking photos again. This is good!

Forever Red!

My growing number of Red Rangers, lol. I don't know if I want to get more. I just know that this is a cool bunch. There's Gosei Red from Goseiger, Gokai Red from Gokaiger, and two Tyranno Reds from Zyuranger!!

I recently found this Sit In Style Kira (right), and she is so lovely. She has finally met my other Kira sculpt doll, Animal Lovin Nikki. I'll keep calling Nikki as Kira, and Kira as Marina, which is the official name of Kira in Europe!

Kira and Marina

They're so cute together!!!

My Madame Alexander x McDonald's toys! The cowardly lion in the front is actually missing her original hair, so I just stringed some brown yarn together, stuck it on her head with hot glue, and combed it to make it fluffy. Her hair now is big and glorious!

My Sylvanian Family cow meets Cattleena!

I rescued another Dawn doll (left)!

Both their legs are mangled, but meh, I can deal with that.

A Frankendoll I made last night. The head is from Hookfang of How To Train Your Dragon! I found this dragon head at the thrift store and I was like, dang, this could be a doll head.

The body is the TNT body Nakoma used to own. It has a broken neck, so I figured, I'll just hack the whole neck off with a hand saw, and stick in the dragon head. It worked!

Hookfang is wearing a turtle neck, to hide the glue because the process isn't seamless anyway. This custom doll is giving me Zootopia vibes! Do you feel it?

And... I found these inflatable cup holders at SM Department Store, at the Kids Section!! I was so surprised, I had to grab two! There were more designs like different coloured donuts, pineapple, and yellow duck, but I went with these two instead.

If you remember a previous post, I also bought an Intex inflatable boat. I think I'm going float crazy, am I right? Hahaha.

Out of the plastic...

Blown up!

Lottie can sit in there, I guess, but she has her own pool floats that fit her much nicer.

Asha, trying out the donut float. The donut bite is so perfect for Asha's feet! Oh and sorry about the mess on my table. You can see Lottie in the shot, and even an Emma Bunton head and her body.

Hookfang trying out the watermelon float, for scale. Awesome? Yeah.

Color Me Creepy Add-on Pack

Ah! I found a Monster High Create-A-Monster Color Me Creepy add-on pack! It was on sale for P100!

How it was marked down. Read the bottom tag, then the middle, then the top:

The back of the box:

See, I could play with the temperature and make the outfits change colour...

... but I really don't want my doll items to get wet anyway, so nope. I'm keeping the pen and the little acrylic tub because they're cool.

The pack, still attached to the cardboard backing.

I made my customer skeleton face doll wear one of the outfits which is actually my favourite among the two outfits available, because it has net on it.

I still feel that this doll is incomplete, so I'm still going to work on her soon.

Test Makeup Part 2

I am finally able to remove factory doll makeup because I found a nail polish remover that works for me: it's Caronia nail polish remover. I tried it on a Draculaura doll I rerooted a while back and it worked but it took some elbow grease as well. But I also have a bootleg Monster High doll that I've been meaning to repaint, so I also tested it on this doll too.

This bootleg Frankie's head is yellowish compared to her body which is like bone white.

The factory paint easily came off when I used nail polish remover on the doll's face. I noticed right away that the eyebrow paint has really stained the vinyl. It just won't come off completely. Oh well.

After two to three hours, this is what I came up with: a skeleton head. I only used watercolour pencils for this.

I wish I used some acrylic paint and micro brushes, but I didn't have the time and energy for actual painting, so I settled with the pencils. I think the colours would be more vibrant and sharper with acrylic paint, so I will have to consider it next time I do a repaint.

I touched up the bottom of the right eye socket before I took the photo above. I wish I could do more details on the eyes, but I couldn't do so much with just pencils. And my sealant took some of the colour off the doll because of my application by using a makeup sponge. A spray-on sealant is so much better, so I'm on my quest to find Mr. Super Clear.

I was able to hide the eyebrow stains, I think. I applied a bit of white on them then I hid them some more by applying grey and brown.

I think my most favourite out of this project is the hollow nose. The outline of the hole looks more precise than the rest of the outlines I did.

When I get tired of this makeup, I'll just remove it and paint it in a different way. I also want to try "pretty" repaint, not just this Halloween themed makeup. I mean it's forgivable to have stray lines and dirt all over the face, but with pretty princessy kind of makeup, blushing and blending is important. So are neat lines, and attention and patience to small details. There's always room for improvement.

/Oh my goodness, I edited a small image of the one I posted above and blackened the eyes of the doll digitally, and look what happened.

I might keep the face repaint this way and continue work on the rest of the body because of this...

Planning To Sew

I'm trying to make a doll costume but I do not have the motivation to sew yet. Anyway, I just cut some fabric and taped everything down with masking tape onto a doll body to see how it would look like. Here's Rhian:

Hahaha, poor girl. I'm so sorry, my dear Curvy Barbie!!

Before this, I made a rough sketch so I can figure out the different parts of the outfit:

I really want to recreate this:

It's Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in her Furisodeshon music video. She's so cute here, and I love the song! Check it out!

I love this song because the lyrics are simple, but it makes me think about life. It's basically about someone celebrating their twentieth birthday (hatachi in English means 20 years old) and contemplating about it. Are they still a child? Or an adult? Is it happy being an adult? Is it sad? Is it something to be grateful? Stuff like that. I'm way past this age though, but I still think about adulthood like it's so foreign at times. Like, am I really ageing? Hahaha. This song is actually my favourite from Kyary, so I want a doll that is wearing her costume in the video. But I'm not a master of sewing. I just do what I can do with what knowledge I have from my grade school sewing classes, lol. 

Those red fabric pieces I cut up are not going to waste (I hope, hah!). They are measured circular cutouts with seam allowance that I can already start working on, except the ribbon on her head. That's just scrap fabric. Of course I can make a better bow than that, lol.

I'm still thinking about how I'm going to construct the top, if I want to dive into quilting, which is a daunting task but seems to be very fulfilling in the end. I also have the option to just glue down triangle cutouts onto white fabric with fabric glue, but I feel that I would be taking the easy road when I can do better. So quilting it shall be, I guess.

I'm not in a hurry to finish this. I mean, it took me a while to make Hit Girl.

This video will definitely help me out. I made this request to someone I follow on YouTube and they granted it! They made a Furisodation dress out of coloured paper!

I think it's cute, plus the doll they used is a Jianidi doll, which I have been ogling at the toy store for months already but couldn't bring myself to buy.

Good luck to myself! Hahahaha!

Jem Doll Burrito

I haven't found time to finish the dress for my Hasbro Jem doll, so I thought that if I posted my progress report here, I'd feel motivated to continue working on the dress.

Look a pink doll burrito! With pins all over it!

I thought I could make a simple dress for Jem that looks like this:

This is the Integrity Toys Jem doll, by the way.

Also...

Jem didn't come with her hands when I thrifted her, so I cut off some fake Betty Teen biking doll's hands and inserted it through her arms. The fit of the pegs I carved was not good so I wrapped masking tape around them to make the pegs thicker, et voila, her new hands are now secure. But they are forever in the biking position, haha. Hasbro Jem was designed to hold a microphone though, so maybe this might work. I added a bracelet on her left wrist, by the way. I don't know if I want to paint her new hands to match the rest of her body, or paint them a different colour to make them look like gloves. Hmm..

For the shoes, since Hasbro Jem is such a big girl, she can fit into bootleg Ken loafers. I plan to paint those purple (magenta?) with glitter to match her new outfit.

I want to add that I like Hasbro Jem's moulded collarbone. Doll makers tend to forget that humans have a clavicle because their focus tends to be the area placed much lower than the clavicle, which is kinda sad.

Birthday Reroot

It's my birthday today. Not really that eventful because I'm cash-strapped at the moment and I don't feel like celebrating when I'm worried. But my brother is taking me out to lunch, so yay, I guess.

Anyway, before I leave the house, I started working on my bootleg Snow White doll's hair. I must admit, I really don't like rerooting that much because it takes a lot of effort and patience, but I thought she really needs new hair. 

My messy table at the moment. If you could see it, there's a dog brush on the table. That's what I use now for brushing doll hair because it works like magic. Thank you for the idea, Denisa! The brush came from my sister, together with a dog nail clipper, which I plan to use when cutting wooden dowels.

I painted Snow White's head with black nail polish. Just one coat so that I could still squish the head while rerooting. Then I am using this dark brown/black hair extension I found at the department store months ago. My replacement hair isn't the greatest, but I think it is much better than the original hair my doll had.

/After putting more plugs, the nail polish started flaking off. Messy, but it didn't do any harm to my doll. I shall use black acrylic paint later.

I had to cut off the eye of a new needle again because I misplaced the one I've used before, ugh. Poor toenail nipper. I used it to cut off the eye and ruined the blade in the process, but it's an old rusting one, so that's okay. I have a crafting knife so I switch the blade with the modified needle, for my makeshift rerooting tool.

I have just inserted three hair plugs. I'll get back to this later.

Snow White's head is temporarily perched on a spindle, the same one I used when I needed a stand for my Novi Stars Ari Roma doll.  I thought that maybe gravity could somehow help with the hair situation because her new hair is not yet flat on her head.

I hope I can finish her hair soon.

A Photo Dump! [Part 8]

Finally took a photo of my dentist's posable skeleteon which I mentioned in this post. 

Look, it stands right below his bigger skeleton companion.

It comes with its own doll stand.

Quite tiny and delicate.

I put it back on its stand and posed it. It's not as posable as I thought it was, but still very cool.

The Ever After High dolls at Toys R Us Glorietta.

That's Darling Charming. She's really beautiful.

Melody Piper.

Rosabella Beauty. She's pretty but I'm not digging her outfit.

Faybelle Thorn. I don't like her lips. It's weird.

Farrah Goodfairy. At first, I was a bit thrown off by her smile, but she grew on me. She's really pretty.

Bunny Blanc, vacant and widely-spaced eyes and all.

Holly O'hair style doll.

The only Dragon Games doll I saw.

Dragon Games Apple White.

Budget dolls with sculpted tops Ashlynn Ella and Apple White. Raven Queen is missing, but I saw her at a different toy store.

New Fashionistas.  There's even that Dolled Up in Dots doll hidden in the back row but I didn't bother to take a photo of it.

So this is the brand new version of the Kelly/Chelsea doll I thrifted last time which became the base for my quick custom doll, Cattleena. This new doll is much more expensive than the lot of dolls I thrifted that time, whew.

A Ken fashion pack. I don't think it's common here.

At Tickles I spotted these soccer themed pens.

Those shoe charms are very interesting. I was thinking that if I get four of these pens, I can make additional shoes for my Moxie Girlz doll, or a Bratz doll (if I have one, which I don't). I can probably carve a hole in there for the doll's pegged feet.

But nope, these pens are so expensive. P99 per piece. NO. Definitely not. Tickles shop items are so expensive, so I pass.

New Sparkle Girlz dolls at a local department store.

They have pastel coloured hair. There were even mermaid dolls, which I think have a better shaped waistline than the regular ones.

Speaking of pastel coloured hair, I have this Frozen Anna bootleg doll that I tried customising into Anna's iced version in the movie, but I failed miserably. I never finished it and lost inspiration, so I thought of a way to salvage her.

I painted her body with glittery red nail polish. I know you shouldn't really use nail polish on dolls because of the damage it can do to the vinyl, but this is a cheap bootleg anyway and it's a fast method to get the job done.

Et voila! My custom Ladybug doll from Miraculous. I don't mind that her hair is lighter than Ladybug's and that she has no bangs. After all, she was intended to be different custom so I'm kind of saving her from being a failure, yes?

I placed too many dots on her suit but whatever. I tied red ribbons on her ponytails, by the way.

Ack! It was too dark so I lightened this photo.

Speaking of Anna, I rebodied my Mattel Anna to a Liv Sophie doll, and Mattel Rapunzel also got the same treatment. They were bobble heads at first, but to fix the problem, I placed a small piece of foam on the neck knob before I attached the head.

These outfits are temporary:

Rapunzel: clone Barbie halter top which I pulled high up her neck to make it look like a crop top, Winx Club Flora skirt

Anna: Barbie sleeveless top, and unbranded shorts

I switched their tops (after taking the photo above) so that they could look more coordinated with each other.

No shoes at the moment. I find it difficult to find shoes that fit Liv dolls. It's quite tempting to just carve their feet smaller with a craft knife so they can fit in Barbie shoes, but nope, I don't want to ruin the dolls. They can stay barefoot for now.

From a trip to a thrift store.

A small doll made by Wilco in Hong Kong. I'm having trouble identifying her.

She has generously rooted hair, a removable top with velcro on the back, posable body (but I find it hard to pose her in the sitting position) and painted pants.

When I tried to look for more information about this doll, I ended up finding photos of a line called We Teens. It seems like this line is the predecessor of the Bratz dolls? Hmm.

The head of the doll can be removed easily.

A photo of the doll's face. I can actually put this doll's head on my miWorld doll's body. I didn't take a photo of it though. :-/

A small bucket of food. The detail of this is pretty good. Oh and I took a solo top shot of the food but I wasn't able to upload it. Oops.

I was pleasantly surprised that this is actually a 3D puzzle of some sort. Nice!

I leave you with photos of bootleg Tinkerbell and The Pirate Fairy dolls.

They have clone Monster High bodies in brown and flesh. There are no normies in Monster High except for Jackson Jekyll, but he's not a girl, so I don't think any Monster High character can match this skin tone.