Dolls For Natural Disasters and For Children in Hospitals (Part Two)

                                                      You can read the first part here 

Hello everyone, this is my 100th post!!

 I thought I would bring this project up again since I have some updates. The basic premise of this, is that I am getting dolls from Ebay and a thrift store and fixing them up, in order to send them to people in hospitals or elsewhere. 

So, I have a lot of dolls that I am fixing and making for people. While doing so I got the idea that the people receiving the dolls could write stories about the dolls and their adventures (and possibly take photos of the dolls, if they are able). I would post them on my blog and say it was by whoever submitted it. (It would be a bit like From a Friend Friday.) I'm not sure how they will submit the stories yet, but I am thinking through a way similar to Google Forms. (I can't use Google Forms itself because the pictures end up being out of order.) Also, if anyone knows of something like Google Forms to send basically blog posts through that would be really helpful. 

I am also working on finding a place to send the dolls to. The place I am thinking of sending the dolls to may not end up accepting them. Even so, I was able to give a doll to a little girl in 2020, but not through any organization. 

The other updates I have to share are related to the dolls themselves. I fixed up a Belle doll and tried to make her a dress inspired by the one in the movie: 

And I also have a Jasmine doll that I fixed up and made clothes for: 

And there are other dolls as well, but I thought these two were the best to share, for now. I have others that I still need to clean the hair of, make clothes for, or even repaint. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Who is your favorite Disney character? And have you fixed up dolls from a thrift store or Ebay before? 

-Quinley

Little Red Hiding Hood (A Photo Shoot)

 Hello everyone,

I thought today would be a perfect day for a photo shoot. So, I decided to do one with Cerise Hood: 

I really like this photo, especially her bracelet. 

I really like the way the camera focuses on her here. 

I think this is my favorite photo from the photo shoot. 

I really like this photo, because of her pose. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which photo is your favorite? And what is your favorite fairy tale? 

-Quinley 

Custom Doll: Elm

Hello everyone,
                             
I had been wanting to make custom dolls of some of my characters for a long time.  Previously, I had made a doll of Gletta Short a character from Eyes in the Night before this (I plan to post her customization in the future), so I felt I should make a doll of one of my other characters...

 I decided it was time to make Elm my dryad character, who appears often on my creative arts blog. She is a dryad with a magical singing voice, and her singing can cause magical things to happen. 

I started with this doll. I hadn't decided who I was going to turn her into at first. 

I was thinking perhaps Hazel from Heroes of Olympus, but then I decided she would be the perfect Elm. 

I removed her factory paint using nail polish remover 

(and rinsed her off under the sink afterwards). 

Then I began painting the area where her eyes had been white for the pupils 

and cutting her hair, as it was too short and not the right color. 

Then using a reference image I usually use when drawing her, I added more details to her face. 

I also  gave her yarn hair that matched her 

hair color, given that Elm's hair is black and the doll's hair had been brown. 

I then began by painting her right eye. 

I then finished the right eye. (But I don't have a photo of painting the pupil). 

I then made her chiton, I tried to make it look somewhat Greek like. 

Before                                                                                                                                                After

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Have you ever made a doll of your original character? 

-Quinley 

The Mystery Blogger Award

 I was nominated by McKayla at Tales of a Triple Threat. Thank you so much, McKayla. 😀

Though the tag was originally meant for my creative arts blog, I felt that it fit my doll blog better. (The reason is, one of the questions related to stop motion animation, which is something I usually do with my dolls).

Also, if you got a random post in your feed that was deleted soon after, that was because I was claiming my blog on Bloglovin . I am so sorry for the inconvenience. BlogLovin' made it so I had to make a post on this blog with the code in order to claim it, and not simply paste the code anywhere else like a page. So, sorry about that. 

Anyway, on to the award: 

                                                                  The logo: 

The rules: 

1) Display the award logo on your blog.

2) Mention Okoto Enigma, the creator of the award.

3) Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.

4) Answer 5 questions from the blogger who nominated you.

5) Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.

6) Share the link to your best post.

7) Nominate 10 – 20 bloggers and notify them that they are nominated.

8) Ask your nominees 5 questions of your choice, including 1 weird or funny question.

9) Continue the chain!!

Three (doll related) facts about me:

1. My first AG doll was Sarah (who is a Just Like You #39). 

2. I started doing doll customizations in 2016, though before that I had made Greek Goddess dolls (which I didn't customize but made the chitons and togas for). 

3. I really wish movie companies could make more dolls of their characters, given that a lot of the movies I tend to like only make action figures of their characters. 

My Best post(s): 

I don't have one specific post that I'd say I like more than others,

so here are some posts I had a lot of fun making: 

Red Coats on the Horizon (part 1): It Started With a Song

The White Lady (a lyrical photoshoot)

Custom Doll Project: Mermaid

1. [For fun] Have you ever stalked a fictional character?

"Stalked," meaning watched lot of episodes of a show's a season to get the episode they are in? 

Or staring at photos of them? I admit to doing both of these with a lot of fictional characters...

But how does one stalk a fictional character exactly? Do you stalk a fictional character by reading books about them? Or watching their movies or TV shows? If so, are we stalking characters all the time? 

I have so many questions about this!

2. Dream job?

I really want to open my own doll company one day and make dolls of my characters and characters from literature. And my doll company may have a mixture of 18 inch and Barbie doll sized dolls, though I'm not entirely sure how exactly they will look. 

3. Favorite dessert?

Cake and ice cream. 

4. Stop-motion or iMovie?

I do stop motion animations (of my dolls), and then I use iMovie to put the sequences together.       

So both? 

5. Do you like antiheroes?

Yes! I also really like morally gray characters. 

I nominate: 

Grace Tomas

Luciana the Astronaut

Hailey

Madison

AGbookWormz

BethE

BlueBerry with T-Rex Arms 

Treesa 

Xanadu

Lilly 

My questions: 

1. Who is your favorite American Girl doll, and why? 

2. Do you like any other 18 inch dolls that aren't made by AG? 

3. What retired dolls do you think AG should bring back, and why? 

4. If you were to create an AG doll (or any other type of doll), what would your doll's story be? And what would your doll be like? 

5. If you could own any of the clothes that your dolls have in your size, which one would you like to have, and why? 

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What's your favorite desert? And have you ever made stop motions with your dolls? 

-Quinley 

The Reluctant Hero (A Lyrical Photo Shoot)

 Hello everyone, 

I thought it would be fun to do another lyrical photo shoot, but with one of my Lord of the Rings dolls, Legolas. Though I doubt his name will be Legolas given, that I already have a doll with that name. So if you have any name suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. 

Anyway onto the photoshoot: 

Many adventures were sought, 

But all they did was bring wrought, 

Who would want to join such an expedition? 

It doesn't even seem like a favorable mission, 

monsters are about,

And with a sword, out of fear, you will act out, 

So why instead can't I live a country life? 

Instead of running at a monster with a knife? 

Why can't I be a gardener instead of an archer? 

                                       What if I wanted the life of a garden instead of a battlefield? 

A shovel I'd rather yield, 

Then a sword, 

The pen is mightier than the sword but they don't even give me a word, 

                                           

So instead of fighting a war, 

I'll do the thing that is considered a chore, 

nurture the nature, 

Which with hope I'd capture, 

I'll be a hero to the birds, 

They'll listen to my honeyed words, 

I'll be a hero to the plants, 

And I'll give nature a chance, 

I'll be a hero but not in battle. 

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What people in our world do you think are heroes, but not in the way one would be stereotypically considered  a hero? 

-Quinley 

P.S. If you're subscribed by email to my blog, the email subscription service I am using is going away. 

So you can follow by email with the new email subscription service on the sidebar: 

Pixie Hollow Rewrites (Part Three)

Click here to read part one and part two. 

Hello everyone,  

I thought I'd do another post about FairyABC, given that I haven't done one in a while:  

You can also watch it here

People on the FairyABC forums have been doing cosplays for a while, so around that time I thought I would join in the fun. I ended up doing cosplays of characters from Star Trek and The Hobbit. 

You can also watch it here

                                       I also ended up doing a drawing of my water fairy, Amethyst

                        and talking about the new updates to version 2 of the Pixie Hollow rewrite. 

In other updates FairyABC got version 1 of their rewrite to work again for new players, so I decided to check it out, and I made a new fairy for that version: 

Newt the animal talent fairy. 😉

I'm still figuring that version of the game, so I'm not going to talk about how many fairies you can create in that version. (That is one thing I am still figuring it out.) But the game itself runs on servers, meaning people have to open a server on their own. So, if you want to join the game when a server isn't open, just press "open server" and join the game in a different tab. 

One thing that is different about the versions is that you can't really preview anything that your fairy is wearing, so you have to click "get" in order to see it. Also the dye shop in general is different. Instead of getting the clothes from your fairy's wardrobe, you dye the clothes that your fairy is currently wearing.  

Also, in terms of things to do in the rewrite there are more places to visit than in 2.0. 

The ones listed in this picture were not part of the original game, but they are really amazing

and have a lot to explore within them. One (The Realm) is even high Fantasy themed.  

Also one thing that they have taken out of 2.0 that was in 1.0 is  animations of leaves and snow falling in the different season areas. So in 1.0 your fairy can be standing in the middle of it, and it's so cool looking. Though it is hard to capture in a screen shot, I will show it when I make a video on my YouTube channel about 1.0. 

There are also so many more things I have yet to explore in version 1.0 that I haven't yet. In the video I will cover more of that. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which version of Fairy ABC's rewrite do you prefer: v. 1 or v. 2? And why? 

-Quinley 

Tips and Tricks For Doll Photography

 Taking photos of your dolls (or of anything really) is not about talent, it's about how you do it. My first photos that I ever took of my dolls looked like this: 

The lighting was off, and it was incredibly flaky. However, over time and through experimenting I figured out how to make my photos look good (though I am always still learning).  

Here are some tips and tricks that I use for taking photos of my dolls: 

                                                      1. Good Lighting 

You need a partially cloudy day, a day that's not too dark (otherwise the pictures will be grainy if you enlarge them) and a day that's not too light (otherwise there will be unwanted shadows in your pictures). 

Also don't use a flash. Your photos will look better without the unnatural light.

                                               2. Find a place to put your camera/phone. 

 I admit my hand is a bit shaky when taking my own photos. Sometimes they don't turn out because of that. To solve this problem, hold your shaky hand with your other hand, or rest your hand on your knee. This will be useful in making sure your photos turn out well. Or if neither of those help, get a tripod for your camera or phone. 

                                                               3. Hiding your hand 

This is something that has shown up in my own photos, but it's something you can easily hide. If you need to, adjust the frame of the shot to exclude your hand. If your hand does show up in a photo, it is something you can easily crop. You can do this on a Mac by going to Photos (or another place where you upload your photos) with the crop tool. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What kinds of photo shoots do you like to do with your dolls? :D 

-Quinley