Inspiration and Mail Goodness

Last night I was clicking through the links on Cindy's Blog and came across Terri's Blog.  I'm not much into shabby chic or dainty kind of things so I ALMOST clicked off of her blog at first glance but then I saw she had some free tutorials so I decided to stay a bit and see what she had put together.  The first set of videos I watched were her Fairy School Videos and man oh man.... I can't wait to make one myself now!  Hers is just so stinking cute and I can't stop thinking about how I could make my own. 

The second video I watched was her Elegant Shoe Tutorial.  So many ideas started to swim in my head!  I have a few people in mind for these little pretties so they're on my to-do list now as well.

If you have a minute, stop by Terri's Blog and check out her tutorials.  You won't be sorry!

I have been dying to share some things with you but have been so busy with work and life that I haven't had the chance to take some pictures.  So, I decided I'll share anyway and just use the pictures that Pattee and Michele took instead.  I hope they don't mind.

First up is Pattee's little dolls that arrived here the other day. 

Apple and Dalila were the door prize that Pattee offered up in the OWOH blog event this year and I was lucky enough to win them (you regular readers knew this already).  I thought the picture of them was so stinking cute and well, the whole black and white striped leggings thing stole my heart as many of you well know.  When I opened the package, they were even cuter than in their picture!  I absolutely adore them both and am so happy to have them come live in my studio!  You should definitely get on over to Pattee's Blog if you haven't visited her before.  She's a great doll artist and an all around really nice person.  You can find her at her BLOG, her ETSY STORE and her NING Site.  Thank you SOOOOO much Pattee!

The next thing I have to share with you is the doll I recently bought from Michele Lynch of Michele Lynch Art.  When I first saw this doll I knew I had to have her!  I was cruising my blog reader and saw Michele's post on her BLOG about this doll and didn't even finish reading the post before I clicked on her link for her Etsy Store and snatched her up!

I love everything about her!  She's about 12 inches tall and can hang on the wall which is exactly what I did with her after studying every square inch of her for about an hour... lol.  I don't know if it's that she resembles Wednesday Addams or that she's black and white with stripes or what it is but I absolutely love her and had to have her.  I also want to mention that Michele has awesome customer service skills too!  She wrapped up the doll very carefully and even used coordinating paper and ribbons.  She was all over the communication and she shipped out lightening fast!

I think it's important that dollmakers and artists in general support one another.  This world is plenty big enough for all of us and if we'd stop looking at everyone as competition and start looking at them fellow creative beings, this art world would be a much friendlier place.  So, to practice what I preach so to speak, I thought it was important to say a little something something about two fellow creative beings that have made my day a little brighter.  Thank you ladies!

Now, I'm off to get my hands dirty in some clay!  Take care of yourself and those around you.... OUT!

Moriah

On My Worktable This Evening...

A 1:12 scale Doll's doll trunk

With working drawer

The doll was not made by me, she's an Ethel Hicks cutie that I got at the miniature show this past year.  I haven't made the doll for the trunk yet so I used this one for the WIP pic.  This little trunk is 2 inches tall by just a little over an inch wide.

I figured out all of the measurements for the wood parts and got all of them glued together.  Now I have to decide how I want to decorate it, inside and out.  Colors, papers, stain or paint, handles, closures, hinges, etc etc...

The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous so it's hard to make myself sit down and work but I have recent;y been inspired to make a little somethin' somethin' for myself so I'll be working on that soon as well as finishing up 2 dolls and this little trunk.  So, stay tuned... hopefully I can get it all done.

Oh, and I also want to talk about a doll I recently bought and give the dollmaker a little shout out here but I think I'll do up a seperate post for that, probably tomorrow.

So what have you been inspried to create lately?

Moriah

How I Crackle My Clay Dolls A Free Tutorial

I finally got around to finishing up the Crackle Tutorial Video! YAYY! I am embedding the videos below, however for my HIVE friends and ipad users here are the YouTube links as well...

Part One:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uibGcng8qUE

Part Two:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POf_B9BuUeI

PART ONE:



PART TWO:




I hope you enjoyed the videos and that you found them useful.  I would love to see what you crackle too!

Hugs,
Moriah

Free Crackle Tutorial Coming Soon...

Hello!

When I posted the doll I had made for the Quaint Ole Doll Swap in various places around the blogosphere I received a handful of comments from folks stating that they never have any luck using crackle medium.  So, I decided I'd do up a little video tutorial so you could see what I use and how I do it.  I'm still in production as I got sidetracked this weekend with festivals and such.

I hope to have the recording done sometime Monday and the video posted sometime Tuesday or Wednesday.  Here is where the process was when I stopped recording.... 

Her head is sculpted in paperclay over a styrofoam core.  She was painted in acrylics and then I applied the crackle medium.  She has completely dried and is now waiting for me to start the next step which is adding the antiquing medium to really bring out those cracks and give her paint job that old stained with age look.  So.... keep checking back.  For now, I've got a date with my waterbed!

Hugs,
Moriah

My Gosh! I feel so so lucky today!

I have just been informed that I have won yet another goodie from Janne of http://www.spindelmaker.com/one-world-one-heart-winner/

I am seriously doing the happy dance!!  Awesome dolls from an awesome person and this fabulous tree bark book too??!!  WOW!  I am so overwhelmed with gratitude!  Thank you so much Janne!  It's beautiful and I can't wait to see it in person!

(Pictures borrowed from Janne's OWOH Blog Post)

I won!! Thank you Pattee!!!

I just got word that I have won these two fabulous dolls that the wonderfully Pattee of http://www.odd-dolls.blogspot.com/ offered as a door prize during OWOH!  I'm so happy to have won and I can't wait until they arrive!  Thanks so much Pattee!!!

2011 OWOH WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Hello everyone!!!

Whew! Another crazy year of visiting a ton of blogs and meeting so many new people. My head is spinning from it all.

I was going to wait until Thursday evening to do this but I figured since I was still up, why make people wait longer than they have to, right? :) So, by process of Random Number Generator, I give you the 5 (FIVE!) winners of.......

The first winner of my online Folk Art Doll Workshop is.......

priti.lisa of http://pritistudio.blogspot.com/


The second winner of my online Folk Art Doll Workshop is.......

magpie of http://magpiesbeads.blogspot.com/


The third winner of my online Folk Art Doll Workshop is.......

AZviaTx of http://redopalart.blogspot.com/



The fourth winner of my online Folk Art Doll Workshop is...

Beeshebags of http://beeshebags.blogspot.com/


The fifth and final winner of my online Folk Art Doll Workshop is.......

Jo of http://mypaperplayhouse.blogspot.com/

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE!

I will be sending out emails to all of the winners with more information about accessing the workshop shortly.  So, WINNERS... please chack your junkmail folders for my email.  :)

(Everyone has been contacted and all five winners have responded and are in the workshop!  Whoo hoo!)


For all of you that took the time to stop by my little blog and say hello, thank you so much! It was a pleasure "meeting" you all!

For those of you that had your heart set on a spot in the workshop but didn't win... You can go to the Workshops tab at the top of my blog and purchase the online class there or you can visit my etsy store on the side bar and purchase a DVD there.


Again, thank you so much for visiting and I hope you'll return again and again!

Hugs,
Moriah
MLB Studios


OWOH Closes at 11:59PM EST!

Hello my pretties!

Just a quick note to let you know that at 11:59 pm EST I will be closing down the comments on the OWOH BLOG POST.  Once the comments are closed, no more entries will be accepted for the Folk Art Doll Workshop Giveaway so you better hurry if you still want in!

I will use a random number generator to select the winners and I will notify and announce the winners sometime tomorrow, Feb. 17th.

Good luck to you all!

Moriah

2011 Art Dolls Only Traveling Doll Project Begins....

I decided to sign up to participate in this year's Art Dolls Only Traveling Doll Project.  I wanted to participate last year but at sign up time, I believed we were moving across the country during the project so I backed out only to stay put in Florida.  Sigh....  That's okay though because I'm participating this year.

So what is the traveling doll project you ask?  Well, teams of 3 or 6 ADO members are assigned and each of us makes a doll base.  We then send that doll on to 2 or 5 other team members who who add embellishments to our dolls.  At the end of the project, a finished doll will be returned to us. 

For more information about this project or the doll artists participating this year, please head over to the blog to read more.  You can also follow the blog and follow along with the process of everyone's dolls!

http://adotravelingdollproject.blogspot.com/

We also send a journal along with our doll and each member who receives your doll reads what everyone else has written in it before them and then adds to it while they have our doll.

Here's my doll base (Victoria) and her journal:

She is all boxed up and ready to head out tomorrow to OK to visit Shauna.  I can't wait to see how she transforms over the next 6 months!

Stay tuned.....

Quaint Ole' Doll Swap Results

I have been waiting to blog about this until my partner received the doll I made for her.  Well,  today she emailed me and let me know it arrived so I don't have to wait any more!  YAY!

Okay, okay, okay....

So, as you all know, I participated in Cindy's Quaint Ole' Doll Swap over at her blog thimbleprimsstudio.blogspot.com.  I was paired up with Madalynne of pineappleprimitives.blogspot.com just before Christmas.

About 3 or 4 weeks ago I received the doll that Madalynne had made for me and I was nowhere near finished with the doll I was working on for her.  EEK!  The due date was February 9th so I still had plenty of time but I felt bad because I had already received mine and Madalynne was going to have to wait for hers.  :(

Before I go on, I want to show you the awesome doll Madalynne made for me...

She's a cloth doll and she has posable everything!  Even the individual fingers are posable!  She's about 17 inches tall.

I love love love the blouse!  My costuming skills need a lot of work but I think Madalynne has it down!

I squealed when I saw this little owl!  It is fabric, needlesculpted and painted.  I LOVE IT!  I guess Madalynne poked around a bit and saw that I collect owls so she made one to go along with the doll.  That's so sweet of her and I love it to pieces!

I love her skinny little legs and red stockings! 

How awesome are these boots?  Completely made of cloth and embellished with little knots and strings.  Fabulous!

Thank you so mauch Madalynne!  I love my doll and I had such a great time with this swap!


So, like I was saying, Madalynne had to wait a bit to receive her doll from me.  I was really dreading the cotuming part as it is my weakest skill at the moment and I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist with my dolls so the costuming part really causes me stress.  It's getting better the more I learn but UGH......

Anyway, I managed to get Madalynne's doll finished and out right at the last minute!  I was actually quite pleased with her and want to make more dolls in this style.  Here's what I came up with for Madalynne:

I had such a blast with this swap!  Thanks again Madalynne and thanks also needs to go to Cindy for hosting such a great swap!

Cutting It Close.... as usual.

I signed up for Cindy's Quaint Ole Doll Swap and was partnered with the very talented Madalynne of Pineapple Primitive.  I've been working on this doll a little here and a little there for the last few weeks but now I'm down to the deadline here in two days... YIPES!  I'm doing the costuming and wigging so it doesn't have far to go and I have all the confidence in the world that she'll be at the post office and on her way on time.  I've already received my doll from Madalynne and I'm dying to post about it but I want to wait until she has received the doll I made for her.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a small sneak peek of the doll I'm making for Madalynne...

You know....... primitive dolls aren't my THANG but man I do love me some crackle medium!  Maybe I need to make a few Old Fashioned dolls occassionally to get my crackle fix.  :)

More to come...

Hugs,
Moriah