Brenda's Momiji

Here is Brenda's momiji made of polymer clay and painted. Has a nice Frieda Kalaho look about it don't you think?

Dolores' Momiji Doll

Here is Dolores' momiji swap. The body is a beautiful patchwork which has a pocket for the secret message.

Gail's Momiji Doll

Gail's doll is a paper mache pocket for the body that's covered in wrapped fabric, beads, and fiber embellishments. The feet are painted gourd seeds. The embossed and painted polymer clay head is mounted on a piece of painted cardboard that slides into the pocket body. So you pull the head to remove it and see the message.

Momiji Challenge in Progress

The momiji swap is now is progress. The requirements for this swap is that the doll have a secret compartment for a message. Here is Yvonne's doll she made for Jeanne. She is made from polymer clay and has some Japanese butterfly/leaf cut out paper decopaged onto her. She has a hair ornament too, made from a toothpick and a bead. Her head lifts off and inside her body is thesecret message. She is 3 1/4 inches tall. Great job Yvonne!

3D Halloween Swap in Progress

The Halloween swap is in progress and I have a feeling that there are going to be some great dolls. Here is the doll Gail made, she's so speedy in mailing it was the first to arrive to it's recipient. Isn't it fabulous?

3D Metal/Wire Challenge

And the winner is......

Key to My Brain by Mary Anne ! Congratulations MA.



WHAT???? Good thing I was sitting down when I read this or I would have fallen over! I didn't think 'Key' was really what the challenge was about and thought the rest were so much more creative. Wow.

I have no speech prepared, but here goes....
I would like to thank my husband, my children, my friends, my hairdresser, the mailman, the check-out girl at the mall, the....(ok, ok, I hear the damn music already)....media, the computer makers of the world, my grade six teacher....(ok, ok, I'm leaving)....OH, and the members of the academy of DDD's.....

MA (waving madly as she's dragged off the stage)

And the Runner's up....

Second place goes to Maggie by Yvonne.


And we had a tie for third place.

Copper by Barb

Ride Em Cowboy by Gail

HALLOWEEN GIVEAWAY

Gail made this witch for the Halloween swap, but it turned out bigger than the requirements for the swap (it's 5" tall). So she's offering it in a giveaway on her blog, Dollistic!!. Look for the September 15 post.

Tutorial - Face Cabachon

Stonebrashcreative has a great tutorial for shaping your own face cabachon. Check it out!

Basic Bead Stitches for Beaded Art Dolls

Rather than recreate tutorials that others have already done really well, I have searched for and listed them here for your convenience.


PEYOTE STITCH

First of all if you are going to use a face cabachon, you need to make sure it isn't going to fall off.
The peyote stitch is useful for attaching the face to the doll. It's also a nice filler stitch.

The shoes and mouth filler are Bocche stitch. The shirt is backstitch and the rest is peyote.

DOUBLE NEEDLE PEYOTE STITCH

RIGHT ANGLE WEAVE - RAW

I think this is very elegant as a filler stitch. To me RAW looks femine and peyote more masculine but are similar. You can also do so many fun things by varying the number and size of the beads.

The body is right angle weave using different sized beads.

The blue beads are RAW with Swarovski crystals in the center. The green around it on the leg is also RAW.

BOUCLE, BOCCHE, MOSS STITCH

Quick filler stitch, adds texture.

The skeleton face is done in Bocche stitch.

BACKSTITCH
Useful for basic bead embroidery stitches.



FRINGE
Can use for embellishments, or even better, hair!


LADDER
I use it to make tassels and little cobs of corn.


PICOT
Nice finishing stitch for edgings.

Hair Tutorial

Here is a quick and easy way to make cool hair. Choose a piece of fabric with cool color variations such as a batik. I used a fat quarter. Tear the fabric vertically trying to get 1/8 " strips. Fold the strips in half and sew to head. It works up really fast. (Although, I hestitate to try this with my own thinning hair!)

DOLL SWAP ANNOUNCEMENT

We're hosting a doll swap over in the 3D yahoo! group. We'll be swapping wee dolls, 4" maximum. (Don't you just love tiny treasures?) The last day to sign up for the swap is July 1 and swap dolls must be mailed by July 31. Dolls can be either two or three dimensional as long as the longest dimension is maximum 4 inches.

Come join the group and join in the fun!

CHALLENGE ANNOUNCEMENT - METAL/WIRE DOLL

We're hosting a challenge in the 3D yahoo! group. Come join the group and join in the fun! Pictures of your metal and/or wire doll must be submitted by August 31, 2009.

T Cut Accordian Journal

Take a piece of heavy paper that is 18 inches X 10.5 inches. Fold it in half one way and then the other. Continue folding until you have 8 squares as shown above.

You are now going to cut a T as shown above in the area with the black marker. As you can see this will create two flaps.















Fold the flaps back as shown above. These will be the front and back cover for the journal.
















Fold the top half behind. Now you are ready to fold your journal.

1. 
   

Fold into an accordion and you are done :) If you want you can add signatures to it as well.