my healing doll and guardian angels

A couple weeks ago I had surgery. My "8 Girls" made me this beautiful healing doll. I had it with me in the hospital and now she is in the living room. It is a constant reminder of how truly fortunate and grateful I am to have these women in my life. I love them more than they will ever know.
Girls 1 & 2 decorated the front and 3,4 and 5,6 decorated the back. It has beautiful artwork and meaningful, comforting messages written on it as well.
Thank you to my "guardian angels" for this and all your love and help.
**** In addition - I want to thank everyone else for your kind words, prayers, thoughts, cards, emails and phone calls. I am so very fortunate to have you all in my life. You all mean so much to me.

funky little dolls

OK- back in January, I posted photos of little dolls Mickey made from the Cloth Paper Scissors book. We all decorated our doll and exchanged parts - they were now all mixed up and we went home with a doll that had something from each of the 8 girls. It was really fun. Well, these funky little dolls are a blast to make - I made one for an exchange, but did it in the prim style (from the Prims book by Stampintgon- awesome book) I loved her and decided to keep her for myself. She has an antique hankie for a skirt, antique lace on her arms, and red mohair on her head. I have a photo of the original one I did in January - with the button eyes, so you can see HOW DIFFERENTLY you can go with these. Too fun. She hangs in my cube at work. Then I have a photo of a doll we made at Guilded Lillies in Columbus. It is a couple years old, but one of my favorite dolls to date. It is a little wooden artist mannequin with fabric, a paper clay molded face and some fibers, all just glues on with fabric tack. Too simple and so very fun to make. This one has lived on my desk at work, to remind me why I have to work - so I can afford to create all this fun stuff......Oh and one more journal page continued from the last post.

Journal pages

Well- 8 Girls got together last week and we exchanged out journals for the last time - back to their rightful owners.. Kathy had me and still had to complete a page - so I will get that this weekend - The art she did up to that point was amazing, so I can't wait to see it. So - I have photos of pages I did in other people's books. I have forgotten to take pictures here - so I took them at Mickey's. There is a glare on them, but you get the gist. They really are fun to do - I may start a smaller one for myself too. I have not finished the one I made last year, so I should probably work on that one first!

Christmas in July!

Today was the 2nd annual No Rules Christmas in July! It was a nice day - we all went home with a nice handmade doll from a friend. Good food too - Mary had Theresa and made her a Deana Hogan doll in a purple skirt with kitties on it- Theresa loves cats..... Theresa had Pam and made her the little heart doll. It is her own pattern - she is so creative. Pam loves Mary Englebreight - so all her fabric was used on the outfit. The heart is a felt stuffed heart she holds. Too cute. Pam had me and made a Cindi Moyer doll - the brown one with the bird cage. I like all bird stuff these days and the doll is cool - Cindi's dolls are funky and I like them. I had Mary and she is a fan of all Pink - so I made the Christine Sheively doll in pinks. I love this little one. I also included a photo of a doll Theresa made and brought for show and tell. She loves purple and green - it is a Barbara Willis doll - the Violet pattern. So much detail that you have to see in person to appreciate. Lots of ribbon and bead work. So - today was a nice day and I got a really cool doll! Thanks to the No Rules gang for a great Christmas in July. I have individual photos of the dolls posted below.

Christmas in July! - continued

I have individual photos of the dolls here - I made the Pink one - I LOVE it - it is a Christine Sheively doll. I had Mary and she is a pink fanatic... SO that is the color she had to be! I really have to make one for myself. I was so pleased with the face and this doll stands on her own without armature or a doll stand - pretty cool. The brown one was made by Pam for me.... the Purple skirt doll was made by Mary for Theresa and the little heart doll was made by Theresa for Pam. Next year is not a secret- Mary and Pam will exchange and Theresa and I will exchange. Looking forward to next year too!

Happy 4th of July - continued....

Long post from the 4th of July - Part 2!!!!!

Last weekend Time for Dolls in Akron hosted Colleen Babcock for a class. We learned Finders Keepers. It is a sweet little Victorian influenced imp that steals things from around the house... Mine is going to be as if she is taking things from "my happy place" (art room). I have a photo of her here waiting for hair and clothes. She is a wire armature doll that stands alone AND she has a tail! Too funny! The fabrics I am using are also posted, so you get an idea of how colorful she will be. She will be a redhead to match her freckles. You need to check out Colleen's blog - it is titled "The Magic Bean" She is probably the best doll teacher I have ever had. We had ALOT to learn and do in a 2 day class, but I was relaxed and loved every minute of the time we had with her. If you EVER have a chance to take a class from her - DO IT. She is wonderful.

Happy 4th of July!

This is a long one......
Long time again since my last post. Hard to believe we have had our 2 summer American holidays already! It will be fall in no time.... I have been busy - taken doll classes and met with my many clubs and friends since my last post.
Tonight I finished my doll for No Rules. This will be our 2nd annual Christmas in July, and we exchange a doll. We pick the names at the beginning of the year and we keep it a secret until that day we give our doll to that person. I LOVE my doll - I cannot post it until after we exchange, but I have to say - it is really cool..... So hopefully next weekend I will post the doll I gave up and the doll I received... I can't wait to see who has me and what I end up with! We are also going to do a funky little doll swap like I did with 8 girls. Mine is done and ready to go - actually I made one and fell in love with her - so I made another one to swap. The one I kept is at work - a photo I need to take! I can't post the one I made to swap, until we all do that, too. So many surprises!

I went to the Doll Gala in May and took 2 doll classes. It was in Punderson State Park in Ohio - what a wonderful place this was. So pretty and MUCH better accommodations compared to where this was held in the past. I had a WONDERFUL time with Theresa, Kathy and Michele - we all roomed together and took some classes together too. I was fortunate enough to take a class from Christine Sheively - AMAZING artist - just wonderful. I also was lucky enough to take a class from Leslie Molen. Her dolls are sweet - She very much admires Asian influence and it is in most of her dolls. She is a very good teacher as well. I have the dolls from these classes posted - the Kitty was Leslie's class. I still have to make a black cat, then they will match my girls, Cloe and Olivia. I also have the Christine Sheively doll - she will be a woman from India - The cool thing is she is standing on her own - NO ARMATURE! Really cool way of putting a doll together. She has lots of interesting ideas and techniques. I bought a kit at the gala from a great wool vendor - it is this green bird - supposed to be a scissor fob, but too cute to take it out of the house and chance losing it! BUT I have to say - the most exciting thing about that whole weekend is that I won a Christine Sheively doll in the raffle! I could not believe it! It is sweet- it has the bird mask on it. This is a small doll - so much detail. I just can't describe how amazing it is to see her work in person.


I have completed journal pages for 8 girls and forgot to photograph them - so I will have them posted in a couple weeks. We meet in a week.

I guess that wraps it up! Lots more to do..... Hope you enjoy what is left of the holiday weekend.

HOUSES part 1 of 3

8 Girls met on Friday and we exchanged our house parts and sewed them together. They turned out so wonderful. The thing I like the best about our art is that even though we all have our own style, our projects ALWAYS look great when they are all mixed up and put together. We had a great time. I have photos of the houses BEFORE they were split up, so you can see what was created by (1) person at a time. The 1st 2 photos are 2 of the houses NOT split up yet. I did not put mine up, since it is already in the blog at a prior date. When putting this post together - I realized I did not have a photo of Mickey's house before the split. I feel terrible about that. Mickey's pieces are dimensional - they are painted and have a shimmer/sparkle effect on them. The 2 pieces I got of her house were the moon piece on my roof and the butterfly/caterpillar peak piece. You will see it when you scroll down.
The rest of the photos are (3) of the houses AFTER we split them up. The house I have is in part 3 of 3 below. They really are amazing - hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

HOUSES part 2 of 3

These are all the sides of my house sewn together.

HOUSES - part 3 of 3

Here are the pieces of the house that chose me (because even though we blindly picked them out of the bag - they really chose us) and the inside of mine all put together- they all open up at the roof - reminds me of an old recipe box. Here are all the houses put together - we took a front and back photo of them. They all turned out so cool - I just love them.

What I've been up to part 1....

Well......................I finished my FIRST original doll tonight! I don't know what to call it - "dude with horns" will have to do for now. It took a long time but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. It is just what I had in my head - so pretty cool that it is "real" now. It is just muslin- painted over and over and over... I hate all the repetition -but it turned out nice. The detail is with an art marker. He is floppy which is cool - when you pick it up his arms and legs flop. I love a doll that has movement.
THEN - I finished my very own Hitty. I just think these little dolls are too cool. There is a great story behind them - check out the website: http://www.hitty.org and http://www.hitty.org/research/realhitty.html They are usually carved out of wood, some with cloth. They cost a fortune, even on ebay - but they sure are sweet. A friend of mine has a real one and it is lovely. This was a free pattern at the website above. I just have to make the clothes. I had to put pants on her, but she has socks and shoes painted on her as well. She too is made out of muslin and painted. I sure am happy with how she turned out too. Wow! 2 dolls just for ME for a change! I LOVE IT! Hope you enjoy....
Oh yeah - check out this site: http://clothclaydolls.ning.com It is wonderful and has tutorials, and tons of members with so much talent. I started the Gritty Jane doll, but still have to sculpt her face. Really a treat for the eyes and the imagination. I have so many projects going - I have Art ADD! hahaha..

What I've been up to.....part 2

I have a few journal pages that I had done for the 8 girls. Also have the fabric house pieces completed. We are meeting in a couple weeks to exchange pieces and then put the house together. It will be so amazing when this happens. We will each put in a roof piece, then all pull one out of the bag - so we may not even get out pieces. There are 7 pieces, 2 roof, to sides, 2 peaks and 1 "basement". I will post the exchanged house when that happens. The journal pages were fun - not for my personal book but for 2 of the members of 8 girls. These sure are fun to do. Hail to Teesha Moore! hahaha...