Playing With Dolls

Wow, it's been awhile!

The weather here has turned cool and rainy

and brought me back indoors

away from my yard and fairy gardens.

So I started playing with

paper...

and sizzix dies...

 

 and digital images...

 

 and bits and baubles...

 

For my swap partner in

The Enchanted Imaginarium.

Oh You Beautiful Doll! & A New Matchbox Swap!

My love affair with dolls goes way back.

I have fond memories of playing with my Barbie and Midge dolls

for hours on end.

 

Several years ago one of my favorite creative pastimes was

making paper dolls, most were sold on ebay.

 MerKitten

Man in the Moon ATC Doll

Catrina

 &

 Santa Cat

were just a few.

 

I also collect dolls of all kinds.

 Miniatures are always appealing,

 and musical dolls are an extension of my

music box addiction.

 Handmade artist dolls are particularly special as I am well aware

of the hours of love and skill put into creating

a one of kind keepsake.

 

I recently participated in my first mixed media doll swap.

We swapped dolls made from

vintage salt and pepper shakers and antique doll heads.

 These are my dolls

 and this is the beauty I received from my partner

 Amy.

 

I'm currently participating in a cork doll swap.

 This charming girl was created by our talented swap hostess

Melanie.

 

And there's nothing like an altered skelly doll

for Halloween!

This guy was swapped out last year.
 

I can't believe it took me this long to translate my

love of dolls

into a matchbox swap!!!

I hope you'll join me in celebrating

dolls of all kinds.

Sign-ups are open now

HERE.



Send In The Clowns, The Paper Doll Parade Marches On

13 of these guys, for a circus themed collaborative in my Altered Art Fat Books group! We each contribute 13 INTERACTIVE 6x6 pages.

This is my background
with a little bling on the right hand border

This is the back of my pageskind of a fun, quirky image

I made the the clown dolls by scanning a page from an old (1978) Dover publication, "Antique French Jumping Jacks: 11 Easy to Assemble Toys That Move". (The book is in mint condition, picked it up an estate sale for $1.) After cutting all the pieces, I assembled with brads and used mini red pom poms to accentuate.
Each is mounted to the page (slightly off center to accomodate for the binding coils on the left) with pop-up foam adhesive squares.
The legs and arms are articulated so the clown can REALLY clown around. I can't wait to see what the other 12 come up with!

Ms. Snow Flake

Still feeling kind of wintry (hard not to with temps in the teens and a foot of snow) so I thought the snowflake themed ATC-paperdoll swap in my Fantastic Flat Paper Dolls yahoo group was a perfect pick.I used Paper Whimsy images to construct Ms. Flake's head, skirt and feet.
Her trunk is made of layered snowflake and paper flower embellishments topped with a pearl center. I gave her mini snowflake garland arms and dresden angel wings. She wears a sheer snowflake ribbon and jeweled snowflake embellishment in her hair. She's articulated, using brads, so she can fold onto the standard size atc on which she's mounted. A few touches of glimmer and sparkle-and this girl is ready to travel.
Our swap partners will be assigned tomorrow so I don't know where she's going, but I can't wait to see who I get in return. I'll be sure to share when she arrives.