Calorie-free Chocolate Bunnies and Giveaway reminder.

 For the GIVEAWAY, go HERE

More adventures with fabric 

and a remarkably well-behaved inkjet printer

This time, I used the very popular Chocolat Lombart graphic

from the even more popular Graphics Fairy.

(Thank you, Karen!)

I printed the image onto white cotton lawn

using the freezer paper method.

(Is lawn called batiste in the USA? I never know) 

and sewed it into a pair of chic chocolate rabbits.

 Of course, it would have been more seasonal 

if I'd thought of this around Easter.

Anyway...

They need little tails and possibly real glass bead eyes

and maybe a ribbon or a button.

but for the moment, I'm just enjoying them 

as they are.

My free (and very easy) pattern
for these bunnies is available here.
I enlarged it a little for these bunnies,
so the image fitted nicely.

 

There will be one in the Bag o'Bunnies

that I'm offering in my Giveaway

along with vintage lace,

and some of this and that. 

A little doll. Chinese flowering tea.

Beads. Trinkets. Buttons.

Nutmeg. Cloves. Rosemary.

All kinds of interesting little things.

Go HERE to sign up.

Giveaway will be drawn at 

Midnight in Arkansas

(does that sound like a Redneck perfume?)

on  Friday, June 1st.

The Giveaway Hunt. A Quest!

Well, I thought as I'm having a giveaway, 

I'd go on the lookout for some others and add them here. 

Then, you can sit down with your morning coffee,

 afternoon tea, lunchtime smoothie 

or bucket of moonshine

and enter one after another.

 You're bound to win something!

In an unashamed act of self promotion,
 first is mine which you'll find  

right here.

 

Next is 

Blue Twig Studio

who is giving away all kinds of crafty goodness for

their first blogoversary.

Go here to the Mouse House,
for a HUGE giveaway event.
All kinds of goodies, lots for babies.

Here's another, from Sarah at

Anne Boleyn: From Queen to History.

 

I'll add more as I find them.

The return of Dollmakers on Thursday

and an update from Sarah Beare and her 1/12 scale figure, Twelvemo.

Sarah's prototype figures are on their way to her,

 from China.  I'm so excited about this enterprise.

Read here for the latest from her blog.

I've also made some progress on the Munzerlite Lamp.

Miss Munzerlite poses for the admiration

of  Aliénore's Birthday party.

Now she has a petticoat 

(and arms instead of wires.)

 

 Miss Munzerlite  would originally have had.

 a 1850's Victorian ballgown 

topped with a poke bonnet.

Now, obviously, a Victorian lady wouldn't wear 

a ballgown with a poke bonnet, but this is

Victoriana seen from the perspective of  a 

1930s boudoir doll.

I vant to be alone...

  Hence Miss Munzerlite's 'Greta Garbo'

pout and sultry eyes. See?

There's still a week and a day to sign up

for my first ever GIVEAWAY ! ! !

There will be flowering Chinese teabags, 

vintage lace, a bag o' bunnies,

all kinds of little goodies.

Just put a word in the comments section here.

Aliénore's Birthday Party and Giveaway.

 Aliénore's Birthday party 

and the 

Mysterious Parcels

A play in three acts

performed by 

the Doll Company.

Act one; The Party Table

Here we are, to celebrate,

we have to hurry, don't want to wait.

It's time for cake, don't be late!

Here we sit, for a birthday tea

there's enough for Aliénore, you and me

Look at the clock, it's  half past three!

Act 2: The Exotic Packages

Oh my goodness what do I see?

Little round packages  One. Two. Three

Oh, whatever can they be?

Now they're in the fancy tea pot.

And pour on water, nice and hot.

Oh! Of course! Tea's what we've got!

But stranger tea you never saw.
The Dollies all watched it with quiet awe
For a moment it looked like a bundle of straw.

And then, like a plant in a sweet rain-shower

the tea opened up, just like a flower.

Pretty enough for a lady's bower.

  Act 3 The Finale

And the dolls all agreed, the tea was charming

even though, at first, it had looked alarming.

The tea was ready; time to be pouring!

 Flowering tea, so pretty and sweet

in the shape of a basket, isn't it neat?

That's enough gawking, it's time to eat!

Join up with Aliénore's birthday celebrations 

at  Papillon Bleu UK

To celebrate such an auspicious occasion, 

I'm giving away 

a sweet little flowering teabag

(which really does make real tea!)

and a box full of other surprise goodies.
Vintage lace. Wee bunnies
A tiny doll. Little interesting things.

Consider it my Blogoversary treat.

Be a follower and comment here
for one chance to win!

Mention this giveaway on your blog

and let me know,

and you'll get another entry
Two ways to win!
This giveaway runs until Friday, 1st of June.

Bonne chance!

The Pillow

Update:-

I've changed the title of this post
 as I'm getting a huge amount of spam.

Now, I usually don't have any spam,
so I'm wondering if it's the title
that's attracting the little buggers.

I'll keep you informed.

If you're not spam,
thank you for visiting my blog.


This isn't going to be a tutorial for printing with your inkjet printer using freezer paper. 

There are a lot of very good, very clear and very thorough ones about 

and adding another would just clutter up the internet.

The method is fairly simple. 

Cut a piece of freezer paper to the size of your printer paper.

Cut a washed, dry, ironed piece of white cotton 

slightly larger than the freezer paper.

Iron the shiny side of freezer paper to the cloth and trim the cloth to the size of the paper.

Put into the printer, making sure the cloth side will be the printed-on side

Hit "PRINT".

Peel off freezer paper.

Iron image to set.

See, no tutorial here!

*whistles innocently*

My only comment would be to make sure

 the image you're using is nice and big 

with lovely crisp resolution.

This is Bouguereau's Madonna of the Roses

printed out onto a piece of  white lawn

and then sewn onto golden yellow cotton

and trimmed with lace and broderie anglaise.

(eyelet, to my USA cousins)

And here is a cushion 

for my lovely Mother in law

for Mothers' Day.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day.

Me, I ate a whole cheesecake
that my lovely, wonderful, bride-to-be
sister-in-law made for me..

And I'm not ashamed.

The Munzerlite Lamp Restoration: Progress report

There's some lovely Munzerlite dolls out there, 

and the fashion now is to display them as they are, 

in all their faded glory.

But I was commissioned to dress the lady up
as close as she had been.
I'm happy to touch up her paint, but I don't want to

damage or compromise the original.

With that in mind, here is the doll as she was given to me.

and the back.

I had a rare miracle, when I painted her.

I'm a little smug 

(all right, very smug)

about my ability to match a colour by mixing paint

but this time I didn't have to mix anything.

I had an ivory coloured acrylic 

and it was a perfect match

right out of the bottle!

I've used the paint to pad out chips and flaws.

 and refine some of the features. 

I was lucky that the detail painted on her face

was pretty much unscathed and just needed touching up.

After some research on-line, 

I discovered that some of the best preserved 

Munzerlite ladies had rosy cheeks and sultry eyes, so

I used powdered artist pastels to give her some rouge and eye shadow.

I sprayed on some sealant, 

dabbed on the powdered pastel just like make-up

and sprayed over everything to seal it.

She did have a rather shiny finish when I got her,

so I'm assuming that a glossy skin is the right way to go.

Now I have the silk and the wool felt for her hat 

and we may be looking at getting her finished!

I'm going to miss her when she's gone.

Happy Blogoversary

To ME!

I'll be announcing my 

first ever giveaway 

to celebrate my blogoversary

as soon as I get the pictures up

In the meantime, I'd like to say 'thank you' to everyone 

who I've come to know through this little blog.

You're all such nice, witty, talented, CREATIVE people 

and it's been a real privilege

to know you and see your work.

You've made a big difference to my goals in doll making.

You've given me inspiration 

and encouragement and support.

Thank you.

No, she's still not finished. But I bought the fabric. You know how that goes...

It's also a new chapter in the Steampunk Linky Party

over at Steam Tea Travels.

Go have a look-see, 

pick up some special ephemera

and link up your 

Steampunk creations,

favourite tea time recipes

for cake and scones

 and Victoriana.

Sarah Beare and Twelvemo

Sarah Beare is a Dollmaker in Norwich 

(England)

and she makes a tiny little articulated doll 

called Twelvemo

It was the pose of this doll that first 

caught my attention on Etsy.

She seemed to be telling a story with her eloquent

stance, all the more remarkable for 

a doll not quite six inches tall.

Twelvemo with graphite finish

Sarah's scuplts are cast in resin and the doll

 is pieced together and fitted by hand. 

The doll above looks to have the patina 

of ancient ivory carvings.

This finish brings out the detail of her face 

with its enigmatic expression,

allowing us to interpret the doll's emotions.

I find the joints more attractive 

and less intrusive than strung BJD

and I'm really impressed by the doll's flexibility.

Sarah's blog  narrates her experiences 

in turning this one-off, handmade art doll

into a doll that allows some mass-production. 

It's an interesting journey and I'm completely behind

 her mission of making the doll more affordable.

For purely selfish reasons. 

I want one.

Prototype on left, original on right

 Sarah is new to blogging, 

so if people could go over there and say 'hello'

I'm sure that would be much appreciated.

There's an Etsy shop, too. 

Sarah makes more than dolls. 

She also creates these versatile and 

compelling figures in silver, 

for pendants or earrings or just tactile play.

Also, if you're in the Norwich area, 

I think today is the last day of her exhibition.

(That's to you, Kate Dogherty! 

You and your FORTY TWO

 twelfth scale dolls houses...)