More Jianidi Dolls

I found these variants from local online sellers, and asked permission from them so I could share these photos on my blog!

This is the Jianidi In The Mood For Love doll. Her face is lovely, don't you think. She also has a nice dress with a frilly skirt, and shoes! 

Here is another Jianidi doll but with a different face mold and red hair! Her pink dress is three-tiered, and very bright just like her hair!

Thank you to Shan Marius and Tanya Rodas for allowing me to post their photos!

Lottie's World: Walking With Dinosaurs

I thought of trying something different for Lottie's World and that is to add some kind of fantasy to this diorama.

I bought a pack of small dinosaur toys which I thought would fit Lottie's proportions. At first, I wanted to just use them as decor for upcoming dioramas, but not anymore.

Here is Lottie walking with the dinosaurs, lol. Ah, all that white space! I wish I did this photo differently, like, I should have placed the dinosaurs diagonally to the left so that they'd be like coming towards to the camera, and to break up the parallel lines in the photo, but oh well. There's room for improvement.

Lottie's outfit is so improvised. I didn't want to sew a costume for her, so I just winged it. I remember I picked up this bowl looking green plastic from the ground when I was in the province one time. It was trash, but I thought the shape was quite interesting. That became Lottie's helmet, secured by a loom band. The fur is from a La Dee Da doll fashion pack and I stuck it on the helmet using sticky tack.

Her arm and leg bands are from the Monster High Color Me Creepy pack. Finally I was able to find use for these things because they looked so awkward on my Monster High dolls for some reason.

Look at how the dinosaurs gravitate towards her, haha.

She kinda reminds me of My Little Pony and Princess Mononoke here, hahaha.

And this is where the fantasy theme sets in, because you don't normally see toys climb up to their owner, right, let alone small dinosaurs, lol. I made one of them hang onto Lottie's shoulder. That should have been the pterodactyl's place, but its wings are so wide so it won't fit in there.

I hope I get to do more dioramas and practice some more with my mobile photography.

Lottie's World: Ball Pit

I was at Expressions when I found these packs of tiny styrofoam balls, and I was like, This can be a ball pit!

I went ahead and placed Lottie in the middle of the ball pit I made and took photos. Not so happy with how this first photo turned out because of the glare on Lottie's left eye. :-/

 I like this photo, though.

This is nice, too, because I can see the edges of the ball pit.

I had to add that quilt print on the background when I started taking photos of the ball pit with the wall.

I thought that for the sake of the story, I had to take shots of Lottie taking her first steps inside the ball pit.

And more Before photos, because why not.

One of my favourite shots because I usually shot Lottie's face at a certain angle so she'd be looking straight at the camera, but not this time.

She dove in again.

She had a blast playing in there.

Me taking a step back. As you can see, my desk is such a mess with all the stuff going on for my dolls and crafting, but I can still deal with it.

The box is just an old container of Singaporean pork jerky (bakkwa) from Bee Cheng Hiang. I actually use the box as a container for my paper crafts, as seen here, but I temporarily cleared the box for this particular diorama. The other wall is actually the cover of a Red Ribbon cake box, from the cake we had last month (and yes, the cake was delicious, lol). I used the other side of it in this Christmas photo I took of Lottie, hehe.

I think I want to get another cheap quilting magazine from Booksale, so I could get more patterns I could cut out. The quilt cutouts really come in handy as wall decorations or floor rugs. The one I bought earlier had mostly Christmas quilts on them, so I got lucky with these two that I cut out and stuck on the walls in the photo.

It would have been better if I added strips of paper around the quilt patterns to frame them and make them look like windows, but nah. I was lazy. Maybe next time.

I might slow down with the Lottie's World project, or not. I am not imposing on myself a photography schedule, anyway. Just no pressure. I'd rather take pictures on a whim at night, when I can't sleep and just have to get it done before I lose the inspiration and the momentum. But! I also have to work on my other doll projects because they're getting pushed aside. I've already accepted the fact that I'm that person that can't stand working on the same thing over and over (or if I should, then I should do it fast enough), so I have to do other things to keep myself interested.

More Once Upon A Zombie and Fairy Tale High Prototype Dolls

I went over to Toonstudiostore's eBay page and found more prototype dolls they've sold! All photos are owned by Toonstudio store:

A Zombie Snow Queen prototype doll! She reminds me a bit of Elsa from Frozen, but this is just a prototype anyway. It's not so bad.

A Zombie Tinkerbell prototype doll! She looks so different from the doll shown in toy fairs a few years ago and was not even released.

A Teenage Pinocchio prototype doll! Oh those shoes look great!

How I wish I could buy at least one of their prototype dolls.

Lottie's World: Soccer

I made another simple diorama using the artificial turf I got from Daiso. Well, I like soccer, so...

I just realised that Lottie's outfit somewhat resembles a Minion's, lol. Well, at least she's not wearing black gloves and big goggles.

So I used the soccer ball and goal from this set. The green stump on the left is actually a McDonald's Munchkin head! Very vintage! The squirrel is probably from a Pocahontas set. The Teddy bear is something my sister threw away but I managed to save. It's from Blue Magic. The orange backpack is perhaps from a Bratz Boy doll. The pink case with the checkered pattern was used earlier here, and it's called Ecole Fleur from Bandai, but I can't find more information about it online. The illustration is a magazine print of a quilt!

Lottie is not exactly leaning on the case or the red backdrop. I stuck hair pins on her back and her left foot so that I could position her much better. I really wanted her foot to go higher but this is how high it can go while supported by the hair pin. I was also supposed to stick the soccer ball on her foot with sticky tack, but the ball keeps falling down, so I just positioned it on the ground, to hide the hair pin.

I'm thinking of making more dioramas but with the limited number of doll props I have, I will have to think harder and improvise.

I'll make more clothes for Lottie, that's for sure!

Lottie's World: Picnic

I was feeling motivated last night so I cut my chat time last night with my doll collecting friend, lol, and told her I'd be sewing Lottie some pants... which turned into overalls.

My, my, I somewhat dislike sewing doll pants because I have a tough time cutting the denim in the right shape. I don't use a pattern, that's why. I just rely on measuring as I go. My third attempt was the successful one, as the first and second cuts of fabric I made were too small for Lottie's waist.

Along the process of sewing, I thought of turning the pants into overalls. The heart outline on the flap of the overalls was just a last minute addition, and I thought that it gives the outfit a nice touch.

I used my artificial grass again because I think it's so cool, then I thought of doing a picnic diorama. The blue mat is actually cleaning cloth for my glasses so it's a bit dirty, sorry. The heart shaped case of sweets, which I just realised goes so well with the stitched heart on Lottie's overalls, is an accessory from my La Dee Da doll.

The plate, fork, cake slice and drink are probably Barbie accessories, I'm not sure. The green figure mugging the camera is a micro figure of Om Nom from Cut The Rope. The pink keyboard is an eraser! So cute! It matches with this pink carrying case with the checkered design in the background.

The watch is pretty cute and so tiny; I think it is actually a Licca-chan watch. Licca's pink hair band fits Lottie's head just right. I got Lottie's yellow shirt from the toy seller at Vivo Citi, and the black shoes are from another seller.

I think I want Lottie to wear this outfit for a while. I really like how it looks, and I still have to wash her white long socks because it looks filthy now. I also forgot to mend the red skirt I made for her back then so she can't wear it yet.

I haven't done anything else to my other dolls, lol, but I will get to them later. I have two more second hand dolls coming in soon, so I'll become even busier with more things to do. Sigh. But I will try my best to make time for Lottie and doll photography because it makes the hobby more fun, and it distracts me from looking up dolls that I want to buy, hahahaha!

Food Market Mii-chan and Lottie's World

I got a Food Market Mii-chan from a seller I met personally. He said it was his daughter's but she has  already grown up and the doll has been neglected. He also said it was bought in Japan.

She wasn't wearing her original outfit, but I also bought a lot of clothes from the same seller and found her original shirt, her cap, shoes and even her pants in it. However, I've already sold her pants to a buyer before I even realised that it's part of the Food Market set. Sigh.

Anyway, I like Mii-chan because of her hair. It's so silky. I think she's supposed to have a pony tail on each side of her hair, but nah. I like her hair down like this.

Fortunately my doll's arms and legs can bend so she can do poses like this. Mii-chan.. what a wonderful addition to my Takara doll collection.

Meanwhile, I started a doll project. I call it Lottie's World. It's just a series of photos of Lottie doing or trying things. I think she inspires me the most when it comes to diorama making.

I sewed Lottie's sweater and messed up the neck line, but I can just look at it as part of the sweater's style. I have to mend Lottie's skirt because the waist band at the back has unravelled. You can't see it in the photo though because the sweater hides it.

This set up was pretty easy, just the way I like it. The background is a sticker sheet filled with planets and stars stickers. It goes so well with this globe I bought with it at a department store. The globe is actually a Maped pencil sharpener! I will never sharpen my pencils with it because I don't want it to get dirty, haha!

I made the iPad and the Goosebumps book. The rabbit is a Kaiyodo figure. The two pieces of carrots are from a small rubber figure of a hot plate meal. The table is made by Mattel, I think, and I thrifted it. The clear acrylic seat is not really a seat but a water container from the Monster High Color Me Creepy pack. It has the perfect height for Lottie and the table.

Convenient to set up, convenient to store away... this is what I want. I don't think I can handle a doll house because I know I will get bored.

I realised that it's much easier for me to make scenes for Lottie because of her size and portability, so I'm focusing my diorama efforts on her. Other dolls that could be included in the scenes I shall make are just going to be supporting characters.

This means I will buy fewer clothing for Barbies and other dolls, and find more items that are proportionate to Lottie. I'm glad that even though Lottie is small, she can actually use Barbie items, except the shoes, of course.

I'm aware that Lottie can somewhat share clothes with Monster High dolls, which I have plenty of, but I'm slowing down my Monster High doll collecting, or I'm putting a stop to it because I have so much now. Besides, the resale value of Monster High dolls, clothes and items is really high, so I don't think I can afford to buy more.

Ah! What else can I do with Lottie??! This excites me.