Smile Pretty Woman

For this project, I made a Julia Roberts doll. I chose to use this face mold. She's a dancing princess Delia doll. But my hubby wanted her body (he has a thing for jointed dolls). So we swapped it with another doll... Don't worry... there were no dolls hurt during the process!!! ;9

















First step, I erased the face. well its pretty hard to remove the paint especially the eyes and lips. As you can see, there still remaining paint marks... Don't worry I got it all out after my first repaint attempt... ;) never say never....


















Julia Roberts has a very defined nose and a fuller lips and its hard to find a doll that has all these features. So I have to add the lips and nose...



















While still thinking on how to add the nose. I dyed her hair to make it into a redhead using acrylic paint (I have no time to re-root...heheehhehe). Btw, there are a lot of tutorials over the net on how to do it successfully. But mind you, some doll hairs respond to it differently some of it are difficult to dye while others are easily dyed... Good for me Julia's hair is one of them... ^_^













OMG!!! I thought it would take me forever to match her skin tone to her nose attachment... But after a few times of color matching... it proved to be worth it...


















Yhey!!! I'm done repainting!!! I took a snapshot of her side profile to see If I achieved Julia's nose... I am happy with the result...






But my hubby helped me to take her glamour shot. here goes nothing...










Here she is... Well I haven't decided from which Julia Roberts movie I will style her to be... but so far, since I am a fan of the 50s era, perhaps her role in "Mona Lisa Smile" ... Ugh... but I also liked her in Pretty Woman... Can you help me decide? Thanks and I hope you enjoyed my blog...Till next time!!! ;9

My Beyoncé Doll

I really find Beyoncé very fascinating. She's a true diva... and in a really good way of course. So I decided to make a Beyoncé doll of my own.


I purchased this doll from ebay. she has this coffee brown hair and a really cool swimsuit.

Now, how can I make her to look like a diva... hmm... after a few moments of mind numbing brainstorming (...hmmm.. well it also involves looking her photos over the net... ;9) I have to do something with her hair. So I decided to give her some highlights... I only have golden blonde in stock so i had to dye it first before proceeding.

Talk about lip surgery... i have to close her mouth go give that divalicious allure... ;9 well I pouted it a bit... hehehehehe... You can see the contrast putty so I can show you which part of the lips are added.

Doing her make up was also hard since she was the first AA doll that I ever repainted...

I even repositioned her limbs to give her the 'umf' factor.








...Whew that was hard but I'm glad with the results. To complete the whole look.. I added some shimmery earrings and crochet a silver dress with a beaded bottom hem fringes... I've put some matching silver strappy mules and.....Drum roll please.........






















Here she is!!! My very own... THE one and only... THE fabulous!!! Beyoncé!!!


I added the diamonds background inspired by her ad for Armani...

























Here's another photo... this one is inspired by her concert poster here in our country... Too bad I forgot to take some photos of her whole outfit... I erased the joints to make her somewhat "realistic"... hehehehe... Hope you liked it... till my next blog... Oh by the way. Just a hint for my next project. Let's just say she's a PRETTY WOMAN... ;9

My First "Vintage" Barbie: A Doll Customizing History

Does she look familiar? hehehe... actually, she's the doll that's featured in my video located at beginning of my blog page. Well i find it fascinating since my customizing history is similar to what had happened when Barbie started (well the look to say the least). As you can see on the photo, this doll was Inspired by the earlier facial features of a Vintage Barbie. Since I was still on school then, I can't afford to buy myself a vintage Barbie doll let alone even buy the anniversary reproduction doll. I have been reading a lot of articles about doll customizing but I was too afraid that I might ruin my dolls.

But one day, while I was spending my afternoon watching cable television, I ran to this anniversary documentary about Barbie and saw all the vintage Barbie that I never thought would be possible to exist. I was so frustrated so I went to my room to imagine what would it feel to have a vintage Barbie doll of my own... Then it hit me... I've been making clothes for my dolls for the longest time... Why can't I make a vintage Barbie doll of my own? I'm sure that I wouldn't print all those web tutorial for no reason, right?! So I decided to begin my adventure into the world of doll customizing.

So I grab the first doll I saw. Originally this doll has a superstar mold so I had to deal with the problem on how to hide those pearlies of hers. I had no materials to cut and glue her mouth shut so i have to find another way to do so... after a few moments of brainstorming, finally had an idea! I had been making this "Magic Putty" everytime I make accessories for my doll (procedure will be explained in future blogs). I tried it onto my doll... and by-golly-banana-gee... who would have thought it worked!!! ;9 ...If you try to look at the picture on my right you can see that I attached the eyelids and the lower lip (sorry for the fuzzy pic... I took the photo from my camera phone). If you can notice my doll has a 'grin' an evidence of her original face mold. Then I grabbed a photo of a vintage Barbie and copied it... then VOILA!!! I had my Improvised Vintage Barbie. I even style her hair to look "vinatagey" ^_^ ... hehehe and you thought that was the end... I was so happy with the result that I decided to make her an outfit.


My doll's body was pretty messed up from the wear and tear of playing so I switched it with a new body. I used a belly button body of a doll with a freak accident on the head (my mom buys me dolls from patio sales that i can play with and not ruin my other dolls). I chose the belly button body since a lot of play line dolls use this body type so that I can use the outfit with my other dolls... for my first outfit, I recreated the "Sheath Sensation" from the 900 series fashion.





I made the dress using a red cotton fabric. I attached some beads to be used as buttons (cannot be seen in the picture). I also made gloves to complete the look. ;)









For the hat, I crocheted a white hat and treated it with a mild coat of acrylic varnish. This would make the hat more stiff and straw like at the same time water resistant.














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I also made some shoes for my dolls (Note: instructions in making shoes will be featured in future blogs). I attached white satin ribbons in the strap to make the shoes more interesting











After putting all the doll and outfit together....
TADA!!!
....Eversince this first customized doll was made, I got hooked and started to customize the rest of my dolls. Like Barbie, my preference in customizing dolls changed. Aside from making improvised custom vintage Barbie dolls, I also customize dolls that look like celebrities ( I'm still trying... ;9).

Always Remember, there are certain things in life that doesn't work out to our liking. But don't feel bad. With a will and a little creativity we can always turn things around to our advantage. And we might be happy with the results... If you don't like what you see or want something for yourself... do something... just simply CUSTOMIZE your life !!! ^_^ Till my next blog!!!