Altered Doll Workshop

This weekend I taught an Altered Doll Workshop at my house. We created dolls from Tim Holtz plastic fragments, domino pieces and miniature furniture.

We had a great time creating together. I love that most of my sisters joined in as well...they're so creative and fun to be with.

Here are some close up pictures of everyone's creations. My sister Diana had to leave early, so she created just two pieces. Love her crushed tissue skirt.

Below is a picture of my sister Maryl's creations. She's always the first one to finish. Her projects are adorable, I love the touch of her vintage flower she added. The doll on the left is made from a miniature furniture bed.

My good friend, Lois created the cute dolls below. She has such a good eye to know when an embellishment is just right!

I also love the dolls my good friend Ruby made below. I love the attitude of doll on the right with her leg just slightly bent - too cute!

My sister Frances made the dolls below. The doll in the middle is made from a miniature sink turned upside down - my favorite! Love the lace and wings on the domino doll as well.

And last but not least, my sister Lana created this whimsical necklace from one of Tim Holtz fragments. She started a few other dolls, but this one she finished and it's oh so cute!

One new addition from my sister, Diana. She went home and took some supplies to make the miniature furniture doll, since she didn't have time to stay and create another one. I just have to share with you what she came up with from a miniature cabinet, so creative - love it!

I have another post class altered doll to share. Ruby also took some supplies to make one of the envelop dolls at home and it came out so adorable...below is a picture of what she created.

What a fun day we had creating together. Sorry, our good friend Laura was sick and wasn't able to make it and our other good friend Nily had to attend her daughter's ballet recital - we missed you both!

Have a great week!

An Altered Paper Doll Day

This weekend my sisters and I got together for a belated bday celebration for my sisters Frances and Maryl. We went out to lunch at a fantastic Korean restaurant (Jang Su Jang) in Milpitas and then went back to Maryl's house to make altered paper dolls. My sister Diana and I brought samples and supplies for the rest of the girls to play with.

Below are a couple pictures of the sample altered paper dolls I created.

Thanks to the talented Jackie Peters (http://goodgriefgirdie.typepad.com/blog/2013/05/a-little-mothers-day-giveaway.html/) who shared with us her paper dolls that she made with these adorable dress stamps from Red Lead Paperworks (https://www.redleadpaperworks.com/servlet/StoreFront).

I love the background paper of the dresses...the designs are so 50ish. I found this book with photos of vintage fabrics.

I photocopied several of them and then stamped the dress image on top.

I also stamped the dress on white paper and cut out the collar and cuffs and glued those onto the patterned dress. The other option is to use a white pen to color the collar and cuffs.

I think the eyeglasses really add an element of fun to the paper dolls. I purchased a die cut of different eyeglasses at the recent rubber stamp show I went to in San Jose.

The vendor I bought them from is Impression Obession rubber stamps: www.iostamps.com. 

Pictured below are the paper dolls my sisters created...

As you can see, I also brought the Tim Holtz "Winged Things 1" stamps for my sisters to play with and showed them how to use the copic pens. I love how they all turned out.

The next project was embellishing thank you notes. I found these adorable thank you notes at Michael's in their dollar bins. 

I thought they would be adorable if we we put a sitting girl on the chair. I brought various sheets of sitting girls that we embellished and doodled. I think they came out adorable.

My sister Diana brought along her Julie Nutting stamps and the samples she made...so cute!

Thanks again to Jackie Peters for showing some of her projects made with these stamps. The picture below shows the Julie dolls we made together...more cute paper dolls! My sister Pat had a great idea to put some eyeglasses on these girls...too cute!

What a fun day we had - crafting with my sisters is on my top ten list! My sister Lana was late coming to the restaurant and didn't get pictured with us...sorry.

I hope you all had a Happy Memorial Day!

New Winged Fairies

I was so inspired by stamping with Tim Holtz Winged stamps last week that I decided to create a few of my own winged fairies.

The fairy below has a shrink plastic dress, and I  made some of the other wings and legs with shrink plastic as well.

The doll pictured below has the shrink plastic wings. The wings are actually petal stamps from Technique Tuesday that I bought years ago. I stamped the hat with my new "little diamond" stamp from Lost Cost Designs. The cute stripped legs are stamps from Teesha Moore that I put on shrink plastic.

The little girl below also wears a shrink plastic dress. I copied an ATC background paper onto shrink plastic, cut it into a dress shape, and then doodled on it with black and white pens.

My last little fairy has wings made from the same "little diamond" stamp from Lost Coast Designs, shrink plasitc legs from a Teesha Moore stamp, and the dress I free form cut onto vintage text and embellished with a black pen.

Hope you make some winged fairies for yourself! 

New Stamps to Play With

I still love to shop for fun stamps to create with. I recently bought this set of winged girls (Winged Things 1) from Tim Holtz and created these projects.

I colored them with my new copic markers. Below is a close-up shot of 5 tags/cards/pic that I made with one of the girls. After I colored them, I photocopied and reduced the sizes on some of them.

Below is a picture of three tags I made with the other girl.

I went crazy and stamped, colored, photocopied and cut all night. These really are fun stamps to play with - thanks Tim for making such cute stamps. I now have a nice stash to use at any given time.

This past weekend I went to a rubber stamp show in San Jose and purchased some more fun stamps.

In that pile of stamps, you might see two white pens - these are the best opaque pens ever! I've tried lots of different white pens and by far, this is the one to get. It's a Uni-ball Signo Broad UM-153 gel pen - white ink.

I made a few cards with my new stamps...I can't wait to make more.

Happy stamping!

New Altered Book & Yard Stick Project & Workshop Coming

This past couple of weeks I've been working on an altered mini board book with the theme of vintage children's books. I love the images from the 40s and 50s. Below is a picture of the cover.

It all started with this mini child's board book - measuring 3" x 3".

I then cut the book into a house shape.

I covered each page with gesso.

Below is a close up of each page.

I collaged each page using images from vintage books and scrapbook paper from: Graphic 45 ABC Primer or Carta Bella True Friends paper.

I soldered the top of each page to give it a tin-roof look. Some images show the soldering tape before I tarnished it - once tarnished the roof looks blackened.

This weekend, I also finished my vintage yard stick shadow box. I wasn't able to take a great shot of it from my hallway - but it's big 44" x 55" and it's super heavy (about 75lbs).

Here's a few pictures of how it started. My brother-in-law, Bob, built this beautiful frame.

I painted the background with chalk board paint. I drew on it to give it a used look.

Then erased all the chalk.

Next I glued on the rulers. It was my daughter's great idea to stagger the rulers and I just love how it turned out.

The picture below was my inspiration...it was posted on One Lucky Day's blog and ever since, I was on a mission to recreate one for myself. Thank you Paula for my posting this amazing piece on your blog.

And last, but not least, I'm scheduling my first workshop of the year - Let's Make Dolls! We'll make a doll necklace, a domino doll, a mini furniture doll and a paper doll.

It's going to be held on Saturday, June 8th from 10:30 - 2:30pm - $48. Lunch will be provided. Email me if you want to sign up or want more details. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!