Blogging & Life

Yeah... so it's been a little while since I posted, but I swear I haven't been a blog slacker... I've just been blogging over at my other one... a weightloss blog... and getting things ready in the new VoxDolly Zazzle Shop! It's still in it's beginning stages, but I've got some really fun stuff on the VoxDolly Zazzle Shop now that I'd like to share... most of which can be customized with your own text, monogram, fonts, text colors and background colors.

Here are just a few of the fun items now available and I have SO MUCH MORE on the way!!

My Lovely Lagoona Blue

Lagoona in progress... some shading

Customizing my first Monster High doll was so much fun that I just couldn't stop working on her throughout the weekend. I sat and carefully colored small areas with pastel and colored pencil, slowly building up the colors and shading... then putting her down for a while... staring at her... then picking her back up for more.

I spent some time online browsing images of customized MH dolls, especially Lagoona Blues, to see what details I liked the most... and made mental notes on how I wanted my Lagoona's face to look.

I eventually decided to keep her look very serene by keeping the lines and colors a bit soft, with blended shades of blues, greens and black. I'm not quite ready to tackle a re-root, so I wanted to keep the colors in the yellow/green/blue range to go with her hair.I also opted for adding back in her freckles and additional texturing along her hairline to help add to the undersea creature look.

After spray matting her body, I added some freckles and bluish blushing to her upper body. I also painted her nails black and teal, with some shading on the knuckles. Her belly button got some attention and more of the spotty texture was added to her belly. The final step to customizing her body was to add small aqua blue nipples and some shading under her breasts. It's funny, because years ago when I first got into Blythe dolls, I found painted nipples to be a bit disturbing and just didn't "get it" at all... but somehow these MH dolls seem older than Blythes (who always look very young to me, no matter how they're dressed and made up) so it just makes sense to me now.

After adding white acrylic highlights to her eyes I gave her a final coat of MSC Matte. I knew I wanted her to have some natural highlights on her upper cheeks and in the arches of her eye brows, so after glossing her eyes and lips I added just a touch of gloss to those areas as well so that the light will hit and give true highlights.

Now she's all done... just waiting for me to create some sort of clothing... perhaps something whispy and light that will still show off her belly. Overall, I'm in love with my new doll. I had so much fun customizing her that I literally cannot wait to do more!

TBEC Member of the Week!

I woke up this morning with a ton of posts from the Tampa Bay ETSY Crew - they've made me the Member of the Week! Hooray!! I'm so honored and I'm especially excited to have both of the ETSY shops featured by them on ETSY, Facebook and their official website!

THANK YOU TBEC!!

The Tampa Bay ETSY Crew gives sellers here in the Tampa Bay area a chance to interact with others from the community, share creative ideas and of course help promote each other's businesses. I'm a new member having joined within the last few months, so I haven't had a chance to attend one of their awesome craft fairs yet, but I'm looking forward to meeting other TBEC Members in person!

Please be sure to visit the TBEC Facebook page and see what it's all about - and if you're an ETSY seller from Tampa Bay I definitely recommend joining the Crew! www.facebook.com/TampaBayEtsyCrew

I Took the Monster High Plunge

Lagoona Blue (Dance Class) BEFORE

Ever since the Monster High dolls came out I've pined over them, but held back because I'm a Blyther and previous attempts at collecting other dolls (i.e. Pullips) just didn't do it for me. BUT after obsessing over amazing custom MH work over the last few weeks I finally gave into the urge and got myself a lovely little Lagoona Blue (Dance Class version)... and I love her!

As soon as I got her deboxed, I stripped away the clothing and started imagining what kind of customizing I'd like to do... that was yesterday. Before the end of the night I had already wiped her makeup away and given her two hair washes. Today I got out the MSC and started working on her with chalk pastels, colored pencils and acrylic paint.

I've decided to make her eyes just about halfway open, looking to her left... slightly sad, but very soft and whimsical. I'm also considering some individual pieces of teal glitter here and there as shiny aquatic accents, but not totally sure on that yet.

Lagoona's stock paint mostly wiped away

So far I'm really having fun with this new doll and can't wait to get my hands on more of them. I will always love Blythe, but I can only customize my girls so much - and I definitely can't afford to keep buying more. Monster High girls are so much more affordable and I really love how each character has a different face shape, different features and of course the various fantasy skintones.

My Lagoona isn't done yet - these are pics of her progress so far and of course I will be posting more as I go!

Ready for her first spray-matting with MSC!

Porcelain in Progress

So I came into a box of porcelain dolls - not even remotely my kind of dolly, but I took them apart and started customizing the heads... the final results are still up in the air... I think I might end up making some of them into wall decor and some into candle stick holders or other such odds and ends.

So here are a couple of the dolly heads in progress. The sad part is that I actually started these two years ago (or so) and then put them away on a shelf to sit and collect dust. Last night I suddenly got an urge to work on them again and play with shading.

So far I'm pretty happy with the way the orange one is turning out, but the red/pink one is bothering me - I think the eye brows are too high/innocent/thick...? I don't know. But I definitely want to keep adding layers upon layers of beads and fabric and whatever strikes my fancy to build up their headgear. I'm also thinking of maybe flocking for the orange girl... somewhere.

Yeah - as with most of my art projects, these dolls are totally at the mercy of my passing whims and fleeting fits of creative energy, LOL. So where they end up...? I have no clue at this point. Whatever final images I may have had in mind when I first started these dolls have long since left my mind. But I'm excited to see where it goes... and soon I hope to get started with some other custom dolls, but THAT'S a subject for another blog post some other day.

Commission for a Friend

I'm so excited and I wish I could post photos, but the custom doll I'm having commissioned for a friend is total surprise and she doesn't have any idea it's being done. What I CAN say is that it's a Monster High doll, so if she reads this I think she'll suspect it's for her.

I stumbled onto a wonderfully talented MH customizer who just happens to be a Blyther as well - so as soon as the doll is done and sent, I'll be sure to post pics and info as well as links to this awesome artist's ETSY and website!

Even though I'm a Blythe-only kind of dolly girl, I'm becoming more and more interested in the MH dolls - especially the amazing customs out there. They're SO much more affordable than Blythe dolls, so I'm toying with the idea of getting a used one to try customizing myself. I love their cute bodies and wonder if anyone's managed to get a Blythe head to work on an MH body? Of course the skin colors are completely different than the more natural tones of Blythe.

Anyways - the special little MH custom is just about done and after she gets here (and I have myself a quick little photoshoot) she'll be shipped overseas to her new mum. Then I'll finally be able to post pics! I can't wait!!

Ahhhh... Yes... Peace and Quiet

I'm savoring this moment... the hubby just left with the 4-year old... he took her to the park to fly a kite and here I am in total quiet, just me and cats. So nice!

I stay home with our daughter and spend all-day, everyday here since we only have one car and the hubs takes it to work. SO you'd think the last thing I'd wanna do is sit here as usual, but the fact that it's completely void of KID NOISE makes it feel like pure heaven right now ;)

Hmm... so writing the blog is actually a little bit of a procrastination... because even though I'd really love to nap or lay on the couch and read I think I need to use this precious alone time wisely and get some exercise done. I can workout here in front of the tv and Wii pretty much any day with my daughter here, but she tends to take alot of the fun out of it. Either she's fussing because I put in Zumba and she wants Gold's Gym Dance Workout OR she waits until I'm really into the workout and gross and sweaty to inform me that she's hungry or needs help in the bathroom or any number of annoying things.

Anyhoo - I guess the moment has been savored and now it's time to get up and move my booty in relative peace for once :)