Exciting IDEX Update!

Well, up until now, I was going to be sharing two booths with Doll Dreams, my wonderful sponsors for IDEX 2010, but, this morning Both IDEX and Doll Dreams called telling me that I will have my very own booth NEXT to Doll Dreams!

It was a complete dream come true just to have a place at IDEX to sell my babies but to have my own independent booth??? This is a dream that really is incredible to me!

My booth will be booth #104 right on the "main drag" of the show floor :)

So I am on cloud 99 today~was going to show off my newest finished reborn but I can't even concentrate enough to get his pictures ready!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

Spit Bubble Tutorial updated with pictures

Spit bubbles are the hottest thing on the market right now~giggle giggle~and not quite so easy to make!

My favorite way to make them is to shake up a FRESH bottle of Alene's Paper Glaze (found at Michael's or online), untwist and remove the cap and let it rest elevated. Bubbles will form inside the cap. (for the sake of photography, I shook the bottle, poured some in a dish and used my syringe to create more bubbles)



I dampen a small, flat paintbrush and insert it under a bubble that I choose for the specific place in the dolls mouth. I gently scoop up the bubble and gently slide the paint brush to the selected area of placement. Using a toothpick, I help the bubble off every so gently. The most I put on at a time are two bigger bubbles or a brush full of teeny bubbles. Rinse the paint brush often in hot water and damp dry on a lint free cloth. Keep applying bubbles until you are happy with the results. Let the head rest in an undisturbed place free of movement and wind. Make sure the head is angled so that the bubbles won't slide where you don't want them. Let this dry for the remainder of the day or night. Replace any bubbles that popped (does not happen often to me at all) or add more bubbles if needed when drying is complete.



The second way to do bubbles is with an insulin syringe. Using a small, damp brush, apply some Alene's Paper Glaze into the selected area of the mouth of the doll. VERY slowly and gently, inject air into the glaze forming bubbles. When you have achieved the amount of bubbles you desire, allow them to dry as listed above. Keep the syringe cleaned off in hot water and a lint free cloth.




I have just begun using the syringe method and I need more practice and skill. If anyone has any great ideas to add to this method~or any others, please post a comment and help us all out. :)

I am offering a free 31 gauge syringe with the purchase of mohair from my ArtFire store~link is at the bottom of the blog.

Have a great Wednesday!

Debbie

Terrific Tuesday

Good Day everyone!

I am tempted to show quick pictures of the new baby "Jason" who finally has his hair and rooted eye lashes~but...I will just keep you in suspense until I finish his glossing and assembly. He is IDEX baby #7.

And I am SOOOOOO excited about what I am working on now but I can't tell you anything about this one at all as it is for the IDEX/Tiny Treasures Reborn Contest and they request that the doll not be advertised before the contest. I can tell you this though....this one is turning out awesome! :)

I have just 21 days until I have to ship these babies to Orlando, 28 days until I arrive in Orlando and just 30 days until I teach my all day painting class! I may not be able to get to IDEX baby #9. We will see.

Eye Brow Tutorial

Start by mixing the paint colors that will match the color of hair you will be rooting onto your doll. I like to use 2-3 colors and almost always use the fleshy-pink color on the right as my last color....but it just so happened that for this doll, that will be rooted with blonde hair, that I ended up not using the fleshy-pink. (If you have seen any of my painted hair on dolls, you will clearly see this color used as the last color.) I am using the LDC paints over Genesis Matte Varnish on this doll.


Your dolls brow should start just below the brow bone and go up to about half way onto the bone~usually. One of the most common mistakes in reborning is placing the brow too high.

As with most of the dolls that I reborn now, I have created textured brows using Genesis Matte Varnish, a paint brush and a toothpick. Of course the Genesis Matte Varnish is baked on. Side view of the textured brows:

As you can see, the brows are applied nasally towards the ear in a sideways fashion.
Closer view of the textured brow:

It helps to hold the brow closest to the hand that you paint with and also upside down so that you are painting from the bottom of the brow to the top, drawing your brush towards you. (I am left handed)

Place a small amount of paint onto your brush. I like to use a #3 liner brush. Stroke the brush again from the nasal side outwards towards the ear and up slightly.

Continue your strokes until you have reached the outer end of the brow.

Use a toothpick to remove any excess paint and repeat with paint until you are satisfied with the results.

As mentioned, this baby will be blonde so her new color is hard to see (plus I had HORRIBLE lighting when I took these pics~on my own trying to do the work and snap the camera at the same time! LOL)

The textured brow really helps to create a real looking brow on the dolls. It also is a great template to use when painting. The overall look is just fantastic!

Happy brow making!

It's good to be back~lot's of things happening!

Welcome back to the blog! (I say that to me too!) The break was great but oh how I missed it and TNGUN happenings carried on.

First on the Agenda is that I had time to play with my own dolls over Christmas. I enjoy doing that when none of our family can come home and we aren't able to go anywhere.

I changed outfits on many of them and wrote a little picture story! (you see, I have been using my archived stories as I simply have not had time to write any new ones in 2009. Most of you have not seen the archived ones anyway so it has worked well).

I will post that picture story on Friday~New Years Day! Wow...where DID 2009 go?

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During my last day at work last week, I prepared for a "painted eyelash" tutorial. I will post that tomorrow.

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I was able to root on IDEX baby #7 (Jason) last night and might be able to finish him up tonight. I THOUGHT I could finish him the other day but then realized I was not happy with his bang line and crown so I spent hours just working on those.

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And the most exciting thing is that Marita Winters second kit prototype is due to her by the end of the next week! That means that I will have him in my hands the following week~Yipppeeee!

Here is the link that announces the "birth" of Wee Yawns and how to pre order the kit.

~See Wee Yawns and Order here~

I will be taking new pictures of Marita's Sweet Stuff and re listing her. Maybe she will be my first offering of 2010 :)

I did not get the studio lights for Christmas (My DH gave me a pair of wonderful and much wanted cowgirl boots instead) so I will need to wait for good lighting and might have to re-take her pics over several days.

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Alright. Those are the updates for the nursery for today. God bless you all today!

(((((((hugs))))))))
Debbie

Christmas is almost here!

Can you believe that??? Wow how time flies! I will be taking a blog break for a few days to enjoy the holiday with my wonderful husband. NOT that I don't enjoy blogging but there won't be anything to report from the nursery.

Today I should finish the paint on IDEX baby #8 and I will work on the hair of IDEX baby #7 tonight. There is only a max of 28 days before I have to ship these babies to Orlando for IDEX! And that is counting the Christmas and New Years holiday! That builds just a wee bit of anxiety in me~eeek!

Every year, I love to dress up our animals and snap some shots. In 2007, our horses gave us the ultimate show of personality and I just have not been able to top that! Toby, our then 24 year old and Scout, then 2 yrs old played Santa and his elf. These pictures capture their personalities to a T! Scout is young and full of beans and Toby is older and really, REALLY laid back. This was a hilarious time for us~I hope you enjoy it too!

I ditto what Toby says.....MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Kirsten is ready for IDEX

Please meet Kirsten. She is 18 1/2" long with bent legs. She is a chunky little thing weighing in at 4# 10 oz.

Sheila Michaels sculpted Kirsten for Doll Dreams/The Little Dreams Collection. I have kept her original sculpt name.

Kirsten is baby #6 ready for IDEX. I am rooting baby #7 and painting baby #8. I hope to create baby #9 and one baby for the contest who won't be up for adoption as I will keep that one.

On a very sad note, my little Sweet Stuff did not get one bid on eBay. I must improve my pictures!

Dolly Hugs~
Debbie

Nursery Tidbits

Are you ready for Christmas? I am~pretty much. I would love to change a few more of my dolls but that may not happen.

I am excited to announce that IDEX baby #6 is ready to be put together! I will give you a hint. Her name is Kirsten and she has dark hair. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some pictures up of her.

Today is my day to volunteer at the Art Gallery where Rilee is spending her holiday season. I am excited to do this "duty".

Have a wonderful day!

Friday Funnies turned Friday Cuties

It's so close to Christmas now that I will hold off on picture stories until after Christmas. Instead, today I will post pictures of my wonderful Laura Tuzio Ross solid silicone dolls all dressed up for Christmas.

Giovanni is dressed in a "Baby Grand" velour sleeper with a matching bib. This set has a hat too but I forgot to put it on him...besides, he has amazing hair so why cover it? The outfit was sent to me by a "Secret Santa Sister" on my guild. It's just adorable!




Carrie Lynn is dressed in a Baby Grand cotton body suit with matching corduroy lolly pop dress. I bought this dress on clearance after Christmas last year and have been so excited all year to put it on her. I believe I bought it in Orlando after IDEX.

Awe.....I just love my babies!

Just one week until Christmas!

aBay and paypal fees rant!

You know back in June I had decided to sell more on Art Fire and less on eBay as eBay's fees were just getting higher and higher. I pay $12 a month at Art Fire and can list as much as I want and I have NO Final Value Fee's to pay plus, Art Fire allows me to collect my payments via money orders or PayPal. But, eBay gets more exposure than Art Fire and I felt it was time for some exposure.

So, I had listed my Shadow Box Baby on eBay and she sold, which I am delighted to have her going to a new home as she really is a neat and creative little piece of decor.

Her selling price was $165. The buyer paid for the shipping but somehow the eBay shipping calculator got messed up and it was short $4.23 for the shipping so I covered that.

The Final Value Fee from eBay was 8 3/4%!!!! That is almost as much as my Lord requests me to give as tithe! Good Grief! And of course there is a listing fee~oh and by the way, when eBay does a "free insertion listing" they bump up the Final Value Fee quite a lot compared to when they don't have a promotion going on. Pretty tricky eh??

And then Paypal takes a little chunk...about 4% of the amount the buyer sent me. And eBay ONLY allows PayPal as a method of payment now. They used to allow us to accept money orders but not any more. PayPal and eBay are closely entwined you see.

So all in all, for the $165 sale, I get to keep $137.87. Before taxes. I do pay my income taxes on my business sales as it is the right thing to do.

OH an wait...now just how much did it cost to create the Shadow Box Baby?? Well, let's see. The vinyl kit was $39.90

The Shadow box was $19.99 plus Idaho Tax of 6% since I could not find one in my No Tax state...oh and that meant traveling 240 miles round trip.

The two little bows were $1.00

The two ornaments were $4.00 on sale :)

The Santa hat was $1.00

The drums were $1.00

The hair bow and magnets about 50 cents.

So the grand total for expenses, not including shipping items was $72.40, not adding in the gas it took to drive to find a shadow box. So my net "profit" if you would call it that was $65.47 before taxes. I spent oh...about 14 hours or so creating the doll too...that puts my income at $4.67 per hour...before taxes and that gas it took to drive! LOL

I am not complaining about the sale at all. I am thrilled that she/he found a home. I am just shedding some light on the truth behind selling artwork on eBay and the expenses it really takes to create them.

I guess you can call it my eBay and PayPal Fee's tutorial!

Have a good day!

Debbie

Sweet Stuff on eBay

Whew...a real labor of love! Please cheer her on!

~Sweet Stuff Auction~

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Other nursery notes:
I did start on Yentel yesterday however, I did not get all of the matte varnish on her just yet. I will finish that this morning and start painting her this afternoon.

I have been rooting FOREVER on a baby that is some kind of ethnic....Mexican or Asian or ???? I intended her to be Asian but she is not looking that Asian! I hope to have her rooting finished by the first of the week.

Next in line for rooting is Jason. I just adore him! He is for IDEX


Have a happy Wednesday!
Debbie

Sweet Stuff pictures!

I am just delighted with her.
She will go up for adoption on eBay tonight.
Please meet Sweet Stuff~a prototype sculpted by Marita Winters.
16 inches, 2 pounds, 15 ounces

A real baby birth is always a miracle. It's funny how these births seem to be as well. We start out with blank pieces of vinyl and wonder how they could ever look real. And then, through the tedious, one-step-at-a-time process, life begins to emerge. Wow. I am always amazed and wonder at the miracle that the doll is finished and that...well...it looks so real! :)

I will be setting up Sweet Stuff's adoption action this morning. Later today, I will prep with Genesis Matte Varnish my next IDEX baby~Yentel by Danielle Zweers and Doll Dreams. She's a big baby and I am excited about her.

Have a good day! It's snowing here...I am DELIGHTED!! Yippeeee!

Sweet Stuff is almost done!

Little Sweet Stuff is ready to put together! I am so excited!!

And put her together I will~Today!

Now, pray for some good lighting for pictures.....at the moment, it appears we might be in for a snow storm.

A bit of snow!

I am just delighted that yesterday, we got just a bit of snow on the ground. I love snow in the winter!

There's not much to report here today. I spent the last two days in Christmas preparation activities. Today I hope to finish rooting hair on Sweet Stuff :)

Have a wonderful day!

Matthew hung up his spurs!

Mommy says...."Hmmmm.....what is this? Matthew has hung up his spurs??? He never takes off his spurs"

"And his hat too??? How strange....."

Tamara is showing off her belly....should I be concerned??

Especially since Matthew has given her his scarf????

I wonder what he is telling her and I wonder if he will go back to his gentle cowboy self???


~later~



"Maffew....do you wike my bewwy?"

"Wewl, yes Tamara, I wike your bewwy berry much...it's berry cute"

"But I wike what is in yer heart better."

"You are my best girl and I wiwl hab more wespect for you if you cobber up yer bewwy...so here, wet's cobber up yer pretty bewwy"~

"Don't worry sweet Tamara....you wiwl aways be my towgirl. Nebber forget the wub I have for you. Why don't you go get some of yer cute towgirl clothes on...

t looks like the gentleness in the man has saved the day.....


"Maffew....I wub you." "I wub you too Tamara....."

"Here Tamara, you stay here wif my favorite horsie, Peanut...I hab someting berry important to do"

Matthew will never give up his first love.....

As he rides off into the sunset~

~The end~