Self Study Doll Making classes
Friday, February 5, 2016
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Watercolor Painting
I have been playing
with watercolors over the past few days.
I love to use watercolors to create skin tone and facial coloration on
the cloth dolls I create so I wanted to share what is on my worktable now.
If you are
interested in learning how to use watercolors to create skin tone and facial
coloration I will be teaching this process in a few of my upcoming
classes. Just click on the tab above to
go to my workshops and events page to find out more.
Quite a few years
ago I was fascinated with wedding cake toppers and created a few. My fascination with wedding
cake toppers has returned and I have been working on a few of them again. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
Here are a few
pictures of wedding cake toppers I have created in the past. I custom made the toppers with dresses that matched the dresses the brides wore. They were lots of fun to create!
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Sometimes You Just can’t Make One
Once
I design a doll I usually only make one unless I need to make an additional one
for photos for one of my online classes.
But the Flower Faeries I have designed have been so much fun to make
that I recently finished another one. I
know it’s time to move on to my next project but just wanted to share the photo
of the four of the ones I made.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Wishing You a Happy New Year!
Wishing you a very Happy New Year!
May
2016 bring you good health, love, happiness, and lots of fun in all of your
creative pursuits.
warm hugs,
Marla
warm hugs,
Marla
Monday, December 14, 2015
What to do when you no longer can read the news?
I
don’t want to keep my head down in the sand so I do try to keep informed by
reading the news. But sometimes, when
there is so much negativity in the news, so many things out of the typical individuals’
control, I just have to focus on something else, something that is pleasant,
peaceful, engaging. Something that will
bring a smile to someone’s face including my own. So what do you do when you can no longer read
the news? You create more Flower
Faeries, that’s what you do!
I have been happily working away on my third
Flower Faerie the past few days. Even
though I have used the same pattern and techniques to create each one, they all
are a little different, as if each one has their own little personality. If you want to join me in on the fun I will
be teaching a class online on AforArtistic in February on how to create your
own little Flower Faeries. So put a gift
certificate for A for Artistic on your wish list this holiday season. If you would like to purchase a gift certificate you can click on the link below to A for Artistic
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Happy Thanksgiving!
I
just wanted to wish everyone that is celebrating Thanksgiving today a very
happy one. Wishing you a day filled with
good company, good food, laughter, and loveJ
Warm
hugs,
Marla
<3 o:p="">3>
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Trunk Doll Challenge Revisited
I
never did finish the trunk doll challenge for the online doll club I belong to on
time but I am still working on it and have developed an interest in altering
boxes as a result (one can never have too many hobbies or too many shoes). I am on my third box for the trunk doll
challenge which might be why I haven’t finished it on time. I wrote a post about the first box I made
which quite frankly was a disaster. My
husband made me the second box but by then I had lost interest in covering a
doll trunk with fabric. My Artistic ADD
clicked in and I had to chase all other things shiny down the rabbit hole
again. This time what caught my
attention was antique watercolor boxes.
So of course I had to go and buy several cigar boxes to alter into faux
antique watercolor boxes and while I was on the lookout for cigar boxes I found
a few wooden wine boxes. While chasing
the shiny watercolor boxes down the rabbit hole I became enthralled with
antique French Mignonettes and their traveling trunks. So the chasing something shiny brought me
back to the beginning and now I had a more interesting idea for the doll trunk
challenge even though there was no longer time to make the deadline.
But
first I needed to create the faux antique watercolor box.
Here
are pictures of the unfinished cigar box I used and yet to be altered wine
box. The wine box in the picture is a
bit larger than the one I wound up using for the doll travel trunk but alas, I
didn’t take a picture of the wine box I wound up using for the travel trunk
before altering it. It looked pretty
similar to the larger one in the picture, just smaller.
I altered a label on the computer for the watercolor box with a free graphic unlettered
label from the graphic’s fairy http://thegraphicsfairy.com/category/printables/ (awesome site if you are a mixed media
artist). I changed the color to sepia
and then hand colored it with watercolors as a watercolorist might do with
their watercolor box label. I then “antiqued”
it with a sepia stamp pad.
While
I was having fun making a watercolor box label I decided to make a label for
the doll traveling trunk. I used the
same methods for creating an antique label for the trunk but just made it
larger.
Since
I really don’t like playing with stinky stains I used Golden acrylic paints (my
absolutely favorite acrylic paints) to achieve the antiquing effect on the
boxes. I also wanted to make separate areas
in the watercolor box as the antique ones have and separate areas in the doll
travel trunk as many of the antique ones also have so I had my husband cut some
pieces of pine wood to fit the boxes and create sections. These are some pictures of the watercolor
box I “antiqued.” I haven’t varnished it
yet and plan to alter the tin and fill it with an on the go watercolor pallet. I’ll post more pictures when it is complete.
Here
are some pictures of the “antiqued” wine box doll traveling trunk. Not sure yet what I am going to do with the
holes in front yet but will keep you posted.
The
moral of the story, Sometimes it’s okay
to follow your Artistic ADD down the rabbit hole. You never know where it will lead you, and
that can be half of the fun!
Thank you for
visiting my blog and wishing you a very creative day.
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