Little peek at Simple Treasures AA baby girl!

Isn't she cute??

I've not named the little one yet and I need a bigger body but I just adore her!

I have her hair all picked out and colored. Rooting will start in the evenings next week.

Things went well with Riley yesterday and I'm anxious to get back to her today.

I took a few pictures of Noah John this morning. I don't know, I just can't capture the tone and beauty of this precious boy. He is fair skinned but has gorgeous depth. And putting them on this blog washes them out even more. ~sigh~

Have a good Wednesday!
XXOO

Let the birthing begin! Down East Doll Show

I have two reborns on my painting table that I have begun for the Down East Doll Show!

One is a "Simple Treasures" ethnic/bi-racial/AA baby and she is painted :) I have to matte varnish her limbs today but oh is she ever cute!

The other one is Riley Schenk. She is going to be bi-racial as well but you know, I am using Genesis paints for these two as I love using Genesis for ethnic babies, and the same mixture of paint would not coat Riley properly. It went on the Simple Treasures baby (a Berenguer) just fine. Just goes to show that different vinyls need different treatments.

So basically, I have nothing done on Riley yet except for textured eye brows.

Maybe I will have time to share a picture of the little Simple Treasures baby tomorrow morning.

Have a great Tuesday!
XXOO

Sweet Pickles (and I) are thankful

"Thank you God for giving my creating artist (Bonnie Chyle) and her sisters such great parents! They must have been great to make such three (and more??) delightful people who care enough to share their talents, love and words with all of us. We have been blessed by them! So God, please bless Nancy, Nellie and the rest of their family. And please give Bonnie and hug and a kiss from me, my siblings and my Mommy. Amen."

(Thanks for taking time to drop by the blog Nancy and Nellie. Your words have touched my heart...and obviously Sweet Pickles heart too! XXOO)

~sigh~ Jenny Gannon again. Scammer Update

Today I would much rather share how touched I am that two of Bonnie Chyle's sweet sisters have visited the blog and commented on the post I shared about Bonnie's passing but...

Jenny Gannon (AKA Jenny Singleton) is at it again and you know how passionate I am about keeping the dolly world a clean and safe place for all of us.

Type Jenny Gannon in the search bar of my blog to bring up previous posts about Jenny.

Jenny has been quite quiet for a while (read that three times fast! LOL) but she's has been active on Facebook over the weekend changing her ID's. It's pretty easy to detect that it is her. Her grammar is horrible and her spelling atrocious.

The names that Jenny created over the weekend are these:

Jenny Tyler ~see HERE on Facebook~
Gem Lewis

Both of those ID's have been turned in and removed from Facebook but I don't think it will be long before she shows up with another ID name and she could used those names in other avenues such as websites and on doll forums.
(Edited on February 17, 2016 as I found the Jenny Tyler ID back on Facebook plus these two:)

Jenny Singleton

Jenny Gannon 

Jenny just recently opened up this ID on Ebay, darkcreepysouls.

She had a shop on Etsy but it has been shut down.

She simply does not learn or quit.


Please if any of you know of any other ID's that you have detected Jenny Gannon under, feel free to comment~I will keep your contributions private and will not post anything about you here.

Keeping the dolly world pure,
Debbie

Sharing my collection Friday~Crib Cap babies!

Poor neglected little girls!

Crib Cap babies (dolls that are small enough to fit in a real baby's crib cap) used to be quite popular. These are mine:

Baby Emily by Linda Webb and Ashton Drake. I reborned this one for me:

Here she is next to an Original Emily by Linda Webb. (These are the small versions of the bigger Emily~the original is 10 inches, my reborn is 11 inches)

This is Beata, named and reborned by me. She was once a Paradise Galleries doll named "Lizzy" scupted by Kymberli Durden.

Here is Beata with her original doll:

And this is precious Giana. She was reborned from an 11" Berenguer LaBaby.
Tina Moothart of Heaven's Garden of Angels reborner her.

Her original is in the picture on the far left next to her.
This is a group shot of them all with originals and well, Little Miss Mindy had to jump in there too! They all had gotten new outfits when I took this picture~even Mindy, the tiny OOAK.

Hope you enjoyed my Crib Cap Babies...and Mindy!
XXOO

The week is ending with excitement!

Thursdays are my "Fridays" as my husband and I take Friday and Saturday's off.
Clear as mud??
LOL

This is the first time in over three years that I have not had either a custom order or a prototype waiting for me to get started on. This is such a strange and freeing feeling! Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE doing prototypes and pleasing my customers (especially with portrait babies) but I have so many kits I've been waiting to reborn. And I have a big show coming up just shortly in June.

Oh my...who to do first? I prepped 5 more kits yesterday and have a total of 14 ready for paint! Uh, plus many more not prepped! But I've picked out my favorites to start with.

Now I can't reborn that many between now and June~and I do have one prototype that is due mid April or so (Matthew by Jorja Pigott!!) so I just have to start out with who I desire to reborn the most. Oh my...AA babies, Asian babies, Caucasian babies....I just can't decide!

I will not be pre-selling any of my show babies unless I become very desperate but that should not happen because...

As of this morning, the hard drive with my reborning video is being sent to the DVD production company! My editor got stumped in some of the processes of authoring such a large project that he and I have decided just to send it to the bigger pro's and let them do the authoring (putting the chapter buttons and subtitles onto the project) and deciding how many and which type of DVD's to use.

Poor guy. He would get to a place where he had it all done but then he would find something to fix and have to start all over again. Every time a change is made it changes the size of the file and the length of the finished DVD so at this point, we are back to not knowing how many DVD's will be in this set. It's really technical and difficult to work with such large files.

I suspect that the production company won't waste any time getting this project completed since they have the equipment and software to work on large projects, so I am very excited about that! Won't be too much longer now. I need to just do some final editing on the material for the booklet that will go inside the DVD case~everything else has been submitted, even the cover art.

So yes, I am excited! Excited to start on show babies and let these babies decide who they are. Excited that I am nearly caught up on mohair orders and have several textures and colors of hair available to the artists and VERY excited about the forward movement on the Reborning DVD Course!

Happy Thursday to you and Friday to me! (hehehehe)

Portrait baby Laura is on her way home!

Wow, I cannot believe that I forgot to blog this morning! Especially about this precious little one!

It was a weird and wild morning!

I will fill you in on the other exciting news tomorrow but tonight, let's just focus on Baby Laura!

Here is the sweet little REAL baby Laura:

And here is her portrait baby.

I really did not get great identical poses of the doll compared to the baby~that makes me sad but yesterday during the photo shoot, I had a terrible headache and neck ache. Stress, both exciting good stress and not so great stress, gets to me in those areas and I guess my body said ENOUGH STRESS!

I'm feeling better today but Baby Laura is on her way to Texas.

I am very happy with her and she really was interactive and playful with me while I took her pictures. Oh how I love my work!

I'll be back in the morning with all kinds of things to tell you!

XXOO

Reborn dolls, mohair and color guides for sale!

This morning I woke up and found a big invoice in my inbox for my class room fees for the upcoming Down East Doll Show and Conference. Rats. Rats only because it came at a bad time so I thought I better promote what I have available to both collectors and artists.

I will be happy to accept 3 payments on the reborns~1/3 down at time of sale, 1/3 down 30 days after that and the final third with shipping in another 30 days. NO refunds on payments that cannot be completed.

First available is Missy created from Tatiana Schick.

I have a full page on my website for Missy ~HERE~
If you would like to buy her on payments, please contact me through the contact button and disregard the paypal cart button at the bottom of her page.


Then we have precious Noah John, created from the Noah Schick sculpt.

Again, I have a full page for Noah ~HERE~
Noah pictures do not do this beautiful baby justice. I just have not had time to retake his pictures. I will attempt to do that on Sunday.

And preemie Nicky Jack. He is prototype #1 of Nicky Jack by Nikki Britt.

Nicky Jacks pictures are quite terrible too! Must have had my camera settings all wrong during their photo shoots. Ugh.
You can see Nicky Jack's page ~HERE~

I've got a lot of mohair listed ~HERE~ in many different colors with more to come on Thursday! (Thursdays listing will include Kid and curly AA yearling hair!!)

Many of you know that I love teaching my painting skills to others. I have created several
~COLOR GUIDES~ to use with the LDC paints to teach my multidimensional layering technique and exceptional skin tones.

The guide I sell the most is the NEWBORN guide. I use this guide when teaching live classes and also used it in my upcoming REBORNING DVD set.

And of course there is still time to sign up for my 2 day Multidimensional skin tone class at the Down East Doll Show and Conference! Spaces are limited and I expect student signups to fill up the space.

~SIGN UP HERE~

I will be doing door prize drawings featuring some of my angora mohair and the Reborning DVD set! My classes are always fun!

Please feel free to submit any questions regarding any of these items.

Happy Tuesday!!

It's TNGUN's anniversary!

Happy 7th anniversary
They Never Grow Up Nursery!!

Wow time sure does fly! It was 7 years ago this month that

They Never Grow Up Nursery

Came into being.


I began painting my first two kits; two sweet 16" Berenguer LaBaby twins. I was not reborning them as twins, they were just retailed as twins.

Oh those were the days. I learned SO much. The first thing I learned was DO NOT attempt to paint two kits when you are first learning. I had to strip them both three times! LOL

I finally set one aside and worked on just Abby, a blonde little girl. She was finished and ready for auction by the 24th of March 2005.

Oh my...my camera was horrible. The color in the room where I took pictures was horrible! It is amazing to me that she ever found a mommy due to the inaccurate pictures!

But she did find a loving mommy in Canada...for a price tag of $87.50.
What a doll. I still think of her.

Fun memories and times. I wonder what the next 7 years will bring?

XXOO

I didn't do it! More work needed on Baby Laura!

Sometimes when you stand back and look at your work, you realize that you need to bring the hair line down further, as I do with Baby Laura.

This is what I will do today (plus work on mohair).

Maybe Monday I can share pics!

Have a great Sunday.

Saying goodbye to a great artist, Bonnie Chyle

Normally my Bonnie Chyle babies are very happy....

But recently we learned that their creating artist passed away in January and today...

they and we mourn.

Rest in peace Bonnie Chyle.
The love you shared with us will live on.

I did it! Baby Laura is rooted!

I've been horrible about taking progress pictures of portrait baby Laura's hair due to time.

I'm pleased to say that she's rooted though!!

And I have her lashes in.

And I have no pictures to prove it! LOL

I promise to share as soon as I can.

Today is another trip...EARLY morning trip I might add...to the city and doctor again. My husband had xrays on Tuesday and we have been notified that he has a stress fracture in his ankle. No wonder he has been in so much pain. Poor guy.

XXOO

Finishing the tasks....

It has seemed so hard to get things finished, especially little custom portrait order Baby Laura, at least when you look at it from the outside.

THAT is where I need to step back and look inwardly. Since I have arrived home from IDEX on the evening of January 31st , I have:

Awe, never mind! That is just TOO much stuff to take the time to write down! LOL

I will say though that I finally was able to go and meet my new grandson. It's a long and painful story why I did not meet him sooner but in the end when I saw that little face and he smiled at me~the pain melted away.

So today, after rooting many days and evenings on little Miss Laura, I will be finishing her hair. If I can also finish her final details (lashes etc) I will be extra thrilled but for today, finishing her hair is most important.

Once baby Laura is all finished and sent home, the work will begin on the June show babies. I was hoping to start them by now but it simply has not happened.

Hope your Valentines Day was great...mine was!

XXOO

Happy Valentines Day!

Giovanni and Carrie Lynn help to send love and kisses to all my wonderful friends!!

XXXOOO

Have a great day~I am off to the city to spend the day with my Love.

Little delay in the authoring of the DVD set

Oh I am just chomping at the bit to get this reborning DVD set produced but there is a little delay before it can be sent to the producers.

Authoring is the process of making the DVD chapter accessible. This is the stage where active "buttons" are placed so that consumers may click a button to be taken to a chapter they wish to view. The DVD is also set up in this stage to be playable on all machines.

A new computer was purchased at "Expressions", the company that manages and sells Dianna Effner's beautiful dolls and molds, and who is also editing and authoring the DVD for me. The new computer is not compatible with the old authoring program so a new program was purchased and...it is a whole new ball game! The editor at Expressions is having to learn this new program as he authors the DVDs hence delaying the DVDs.

I don't have a deadline for this project...at least not an immediate one. I would like to have these sets on my show table at the Down East Doll Show in June.

Fingers crossed!

Sharing my collection Friday~Joylynne plays in the water park!

"LOOK at dis coowl waterpark right at ouwr hotewl in Orwando! Dis should be fun!"

"Ohhhhh...da water is a bit cowld!"

"Mommy wiwl halp me....but brrrrr!"

"Awwwww....nice warm Flowida sunshine sure does a gerwl good!"

"Tank you for pwaying wif me Aunties!"

Love,
Joylynne
XXOO

Doll Artistry Magazine, Life-Like Dolls and Discover Dolls

There is a great new magazine on the market that I am very excited about!

~Doll Artistry Magazine~

The magazine is owned by my friend Emma Cousins in the UK and the first issue was WONDERFUL!

I will be a regular picture story contributor to the magazine and have sent in my first story for their next magazine due out soon.  (Updated May 1, 2012...the magazine is currently running behind schedule :() I have several stories rolling around in my head at the moment and can't wait to share them.

I wish Emma the best of luck in her new venture! Doll magazines are hard to come by~at least ones in the life-like style of the dolls that we are involved in.

There have been three other magazines out on the market over the years;
Life-Like Dolls Magazine,
Hello Dolly Magazine and
Discover Dolls Magazine.

I've contributed to two of these magazines but unfortunately, none of them could hold it together.

Life-Like Dolls is still showing an active website and is still accepting paid advertising however, they are NOT in business. Many people, myself included paid for a 2 year subscription and only ever got one issue of the magazine. The owners of the magazine are not responding to contacts through their site or through personal emails. How sad and terribly wrong.

Hello Dolly Magazine ran out of money to operate with.   I believe they kept current on their issues and subscriptions, they just had to close down.

Discover Dolls just never could get the magazine shipped to the USA in a reasonable fashion and also got very much behind in the issues.
Discover Dolls has changed ownership and has changed the magazine name to
Discovering Dolls and Crafts.

 My personal recommendation with any of the doll magazines is to purchase them issue by issue. 

IDEX show was small

IDEX 2012 was a much smaller show than in previous years.

It's been getting smaller each and every year since 2009.

Many people this year, both exhibitors and collectors alike, told me that they won't be attending in 2013.

That makes me sad. I can't imagine life without IDEX but even I have been considering not attending in 2013. Even writing those words is painful to me! IDEX is a part of my life now and meeting all my friends there is a huge draw for me.

IDEX coordinators are aware of the show's decreased size over the years and they tell us that they have big plans to re-organize, make exhibiting more affordable to vendors and make the show bigger and more exciting.

I can't wait to see what they do!

Let's talk about Billy; Liquitex Ultra Matte Gel

Remember Billy? He is the test baby that I painted with the Liquitex Ultra Matte Gel (LUMG) and LDC paints.

Due to a bit more shine than I liked, I finished him off with a layer of pure LUMG which I thought helped a bit and gave him a bit of texture.

I took him to Orlando/IDEX with me and he was a real hit~loved by all. He was packed around, changed and re-changed and held by many people. This was a good test on the durability of his paint and the finish.

Remember, he was not first coated with Genesis Matte Varnish (GMV) as I usually do with my reborns.

I saw a few spots on his hands that had rub spots where the paint was lessened. I thought maybe it was the paint and LUMG itself but upon arriving home and deciding to remove that final layer of LUMG (I thought it felt a bit sticky), I concur that the missing paint is due to flaws in the vinyl and not the paint. (One reason that I love using the GMV to prep my dolls is that is resolves any kind of problem in the vinyl before I paint.)

I fully gave Billy a bath in hot, Dawn dish soap water, even scrubbing his vinyl with a toothbrush to remove that layer of LUMG. NONE of his color came off and the rub spots are almost not noticeable. I am very pleased with the overall results.

As this experiment has come full circle with me going back and forth on how I felt about the outcome of this gel + LDC paints, I can now confidently say that yes, I will use this again.

On Simple Treasures babies I will use just the LUMG and the LDC paints. On Master Artist Series, I will use the combination over a layer of GMV.

Speaking of Master Artist Series babies...have I ever shared how greatly I dislike working on Bountiful Baby vinyl???

Remember Stella? (reborn Kitten sculpt from BB?)


Well Stella left my nursery full of color and life but by the time I got to see her again in Orlando with her mommy, she had grown pale. This mommy does not like the feel of GMV so I did not use it on her. You see, the GMV just solves SO many problems with vinyls and some vinyls just suck up paint...and sometimes they suck it up later, after the doll has left the artist hands. In my opinion, Bountiful Baby vinyl is some of the worst to work on.

Interesting is that her brows and nails did not change at all.

I brought Stella home with me from IDEX for a repaint.

Well, since I liked the semi-opaque quality of the LUMG, I thought it might stay better on her uncoated vinyl than just the LDC paints with the LDC retarder.

One thing that I like about the LUMG is that the paints are richer in color and carry very well so I have repainted Stella with the LUMG + LDC mixture. I really like the results!

Stella will be going back home this week and we will hope for the best. At least her mommy knows where I live! :)

This and That

Have you ever been excited about expecting a bill? A rather large bill?

I AM!!!

This bill will be a quote for the production of my reborning DVD and I expect it in today!

The DVD, as mentioned before is a 4 disc set that walks one through ALL the steps of reborning from washing the kit to assembling the painted and rooted doll.

The DVD's will each have chapters making it easy to find where you left off or study a specific topic.

It will have a printed supply list and printed color guide~the same guide of colors that I used to paint the doll in the video.

I'm ecstatic!

In other news...

Things are getting pretty exciting for the June

~DOWN EAST DOLL SHOW and Conference~

Artists, there are just a few tables in the corridor left and all the booths are sold out. This show is going to be HUGE!
There are still several classes that have spots open to attend~mine included!
I always have door prizes in my classes but for this class, I will add to the door prize pot my reborning DVD. This is a very valuable prize!

Collectors~if you want to see artist baby dolls all in one place, this is THE place to go!
This show will be better than IDEX as there won't be retail dolls there, it will be better than your local shows as there won't be used and antique dolls there~these will be all artist baby dolls made from the hands of the artists that you love!
It's guaranteed to be dolly heaven!
Be sure to look over the site above very well and bring a friend or two with you! There will be enough dolls for everyone!

Last year I was invited to show and teach at Sauder Village in Ohio. I was unable to attend due to our youngest child's wedding but I've been invited again this year and plan on attending that show and conference in August. I understand that this is a very nice show.

UK visit???

I've been personally invited four times now to visit the UK~one of my dolly dream places~so I am making tentative plans to attend the Peterborough show in the UK in October! If finances provide, I'll be there! I've been offered housing with friends so the main expense is getting myself and my dolls there. I'd like to teach a weighting class there as well.

That should keep me busy in 2012!

IDEX 2012 pictures!

You know, it's funny. My love is for the baby dolls but many of my pictures are of the BJD dolls! Oh if I had a larger house, I would collect and play with BJD's and doll houses as well. Maybe the bulk of my photo's are so that I can live vicariously through them! I put them all at the bottom of the post.

It was hard for me to focus on the vendor tables. I would begin to look and someone I know would come by and off I went with them! I guess IDEX is becoming more and more of a social event for me. I love it. Don't get me wrong, I love the dolls and always find one or two to bring home but being and meeting with my doll friends is a real high for me.

Alright, onto the pics!
First, I will announce the winners of the 2012 Tiny Treasures awards!

The 2012 Reborn of the Year award went to Tracey Webster from S. Africa for her beautiful Andi sculpt.

Here is Tracey handing over this precious baby to his new Mommy, my Doll Fan friend, Brenda:
What a lucky mommy you are Brenda! This baby IS beautiful!!

Tracey also won Best Paint Application for Andi as well. Good job Tracey!!

The rooting award went to Laurie Sanchez. I don't know how many of these rooting awards Laurie has but she has several! Congratulations Laurie!! (sorry, no pics)

The Presentation award went to Marie DeCosta for her Bonnie Murray display. It was adorable!
Congratulations Maria!

Best Primate went to my friend Diana Mosquera. Diana is on the right in this picture and my friend Sharon Azzinaro is on the left. Sharon sculpted these wonderful primates:
The People's Choice award went to Sharon Hoffman from S. Africa. I don't have a picture of her gorgeous baby either. So sorry ladies! Am I fired??

Random shot at the Tiny Treasures awards breakfast:
Terri, Emma and Stacey:


Billy went with me to the show floor the first day of IDEX. He was appropriately dressed in a sea themed Gymboree outfit as we were right across the street from SeaWorld.

Here we go, onto the floor!

Beverly Stoehr and her first reborn kit, Megan.

My friend Gia Heath of BabyCre8tions reborned the prototype:

Babies and Bubbles OOAK dolls:

I almost missed this Babies and Bubbles OOAK...he was put on the table the last day of the show~wow, he was SO real looking and HUGE!
Dianna Effner doll:
Dianna Effner's reborn prototype of Huggy Bear:
Here is a group of talented artists for you:
and some of their dolls
Lydia Gatlin dolls:
I thought they were so full of character and so cute!

Kellie Beckett whom I adopted my set of twins from. I just love her work!

The head in the picture above became this adorable little man before the weekend was through!

I really loved this Kellie baby and wanted to bring him home as well:

Me, Kellie and my new twins:

Jack Johnston sculpts~just precious!!
Jack Johnston with my reborn, Billy:
Onto other tables:
Hildegard Guenzel dolls:

As the show was closing on Sunday, I walked by Hidlegard's booth. Wow...this is how she transports them safely~they are disassembled! Who knew?
Heidi Plusczok dolls:

Lorna Miller Sands and babies:

My sweet Doll Fan friend, Shelby Lynn and her darling babies:

To the BJD's!
This is my friend, Danielle with Berdine Creedy:

Danielle with her new Bo Bergman doll:

These might be all mixed up but all of these dolls are either Val's Rag Patch or Marbled Halls dolls and outfits:

I know these to be Val outfits:


I never got the name of this artist but the display was wonderful:

Visiting "babies":
Sandra White's little silicone chimp:
My reborning and Doll Fan friend, Julie's amazing sweetheart! This baby was gorgeous!!!

Another reborn and Doll Fan friend, Alice and her baby all tucked into this darling outfit!
My reborn and Doll Fan friend, Nancy and her beautiful Bianca all ready for the cruise they were leaving for right after IDEX:

Shots of people from IDEX:
My Doll Fan friend, Cherry with the cute balloon turtle on her shoulder:

The stir at the Starbucks in the hotel when we would bring babies in:
So tiny!

Doll Fan baby shower!The whole group:

Karen, Tracy, Tamara and Shelby Lynn:

Emma Cousins~our traveling reporter/editor/producer from the UK:

Lisa and my baby Billy:

Nancy's Bianca and the most precious bunny booties that my friend, Sally made for the raffle prize. Oh how I loved these booties!

My sweet Joylynne with my friend Cuquita's new Huti silicone. What a precious pair!

My friend Sally's precious babies in matching Gymboree outfits:
I don't remember the baby's name but the toddler is Stella.

The REAL babies of IDEX!

This is Ivan, pronounced E-Von. He is the baby of our friend Elisabetta who showed in the Tiny Treasures Pavilion. This picture was taken at the Doll Fan baby shower which started at 9 pm...he was feeling the day by now! He was perfect during the show and all the traveling and is a precious, delightful child.

IDEX had a special visitor, Vienna! She is Andrea Arcello's sweet baby girl. Andrea was unable to attend so she sent Vienna with her assistant and sister. It was nice meeting you Vienna!

Alas, my final shot for the IDEX post. I just could not resist this picture! On Saturday afternoon, it was time for a break. My friend Sally had texted me that she was out by the pool. As I headed out, this is the view I had! I had to ask...

Sally, are you peeing in the pool??? ROFL!