Madam Marah - The Oracle of District 17

My second finished custom doll. She was originally a Monster High Spectra Vondergeist from Ghouls' Night Out edition. Sadly, she had the dreaded glue leakage problem which not only ruined her hair but also caused yellow staining around her face.

I removed her hair and face and started over with a blank slate.

Madam Marah used to be an ordinary young woman with an ordinary life. She used to be Mary Smith, the PA to GeneTech's dashing young director and she was very good at her job. She was always mindful of her appearance and always dressed smart. She prided herself on her looks. 

Cold as Ice - Snow Queen

It's been a bit longer than expected but she's finally finished. The crown had caused me a little delay. If you follow my IG, you'll  have seen my first attempt (a quasi-ice crown made from hot glue and silver glitter). It turned out okay but I wasn't feeling it so I had to wait to buy supplies for the second crown idea made from wire and glass beads. Finally though, she is complete and I'm quite pleased with how she turned out given she is my first full custom doll. (Except for shoes as I tried and failed so I ended up using some MH shoes I had instead).

Music Theme:  The Snow Queen's Palace

Legend say that the Snow Queen was born in the heart of Winter on the day she breathed her last breath, buried beneath the unforgiving snow and forgotten. Abandoned by her lover, she cursed his name as she lay dying feeling her warm heart grow cold with every moment. Her desire for revenge was so great that her spirit resisted the call of the afterlife instead drifting into a darkness that offered her salvation in exchange for the souls of those whose lives she would end. So great was her pain and suffering that she accepted without hesitation. And so the darkness  gave her the spark that would bring her body back to life. Yet her body would be forever changed, pale and seeped of any human warmth. Her kiss could freeze from within and her touch could kill and shatter. Cursed to never know love again or be loved, she wandered alone in the deep of winter.

Stories have told of her beauty that enthralls any who look upon it and that her voice can entrap those who hear it. They warn of the weeping woman for it is how she lures the unwary. Beware, the stories say, for once she has you in her sight, you will not escape the wrath of the Snow Queen.

It's looking like progress

I decided to work on the Snow Queen's face today. I really wasn't sure what I was going to do so I was mostly just inspired by the face shape and her hair and outfit. I knew I wanted her to have a very 'cold' look to her. Here is the preliminary sketch with watercolour pencils and pastels for subtle blushing. I will be going over a lot of this with acrylic later.

 I actually don't mind how it's turning out. I will be adding some gems to the face after everything is done to give it more sparkle and "ice".

I'm also working to give this girl some braids. It's slow going but I only have a small section left now. I've been working on this off and on for most of the day taking a break only to do the Snow Queen's face for a bit.

I'm quite happy with how she is looking.

Changing Faces

Recently, I've been really focusing on practicing face ups on the EAH and MH girls. I'll tackle resin soon but for now, it's vinyl.

I was hoping to show the progress I had made on my Shiva but I decided I didn't much like the outfit or the painting I did on her leg so I decided to go back to square one. Hopefully I will have some progress to show next week. I went and purchased a better brush that can make much thinner lines so I think that will help particularly with the tattoo work on her legs.

I actually do have a few projects on the go right now but more on that later.

These are my first attempts at pure acrylic face ups for the girls. I had a lot of fun doing these. I made a ton of mistakes but I also learned a lot.  In these first attempts, I didn't bother with any guideline or preliminary sketches. I just put paint on the brush and went for it.

My very first full acrylic face. This was an Apple White sculpt. Her hair was too gooey and glue infested to keep sadly. I wanted to take this photo for posterity. I was going to keep it as I love the colours however, I ended up wiping it. (More on that later.)

Miss Flora Blossom

This lovely girl arrived today from one of my favourite custom Monster High Artist, Colour To The Bone. She is a sort of collaboration doll. I did the re-root but the artist did the rest. She is named by the Artist.

Conceptualising a Dark Goddess

Finally a post about something other than a new doll. It feels like it's been a while!

I've been getting really inspired of late to turn my Monster High dolls into the fantasy characters I've always wanted given how hard it is for me to achieve this through the resin dolls. Plus clothing for these dolls is a lot easier to make than the larger resin scale. I already have a few designs in mind.

I'm going to be starting up a book where I put fabric off cuts and fashion designs for my characters and any inspirations I find around the net.

The first of these concepts is my Dark Goddess, Neviah. She is a bringer of death and destruction. She is also known as, "The Dark Lady", "The Shadow" and "Deathbringer".

I've done some light blushing already (doesn't show up on the photo) around her cheeks and chin and nose but I have to deepen that a little tomorrow. I still have to paint her lips and because I actually like her default eye shape, I am keeping it however I am going to go in and paint her eyes black and go in with a darker pastel around the eyes. I also need to darken her eyebrows a bit more with acrylic paint.

I found some neat little black dots which I have already attached to her head. She was actually photographed naked but with some photoshop brushes and manipulation magic, I made a quick "dress" for her. This is not her outfit concept although the sheer fabric look is.

Zoe and The Cat

Today's post mostly features Zoe with some small guest spots by two new faces I haven't posted about yet... I got the two new additions two and a half weeks ago.

Almost New Face

I was checking out MyFroggyStuff's Youtube channel like I do every week and saw there was a spanking new tutorial that I wanted to try out. I've already been doing some default enhancements on the Barbie faces already but this was a neat and interesting method to do it.

One of my spare Purple top heads was the victim. I followed the tutorial step by step. Except I also repainted her eyebrows to match her hair.

I thought she turned out not bad. I'm still not really confident with "drawing" with acrylic paint (at this scale) but I think that's something I'll become more comfortable with the more I do it (I hope!). I have a few more heads I want to practice on with this method tomorrow.

Crash and Burn

Hope everyone is having a great weekend (for those who are still on it). Mine is winding down but it's been a pretty productive one. I forgot to take a photo of the updated doll room so I will do that in my next post but it's finally done and I'm calling it the art room. If I can get my hands on more of the scrapbook paper I used for the walls, I may be able to add an extension to the room to include some craft room stuff.

I finished my second yarn re-root for the weekend. This time on my Geek Shriek Ghoulia. I attempted to make her a wig using a wig cap and some blue black wefts I got but it did not turn out well at all, hence the yarn.

I've made some slight changes but she's loosely based (on appearance and job) on one of my Sims 2 characters from my short story, Solaris 5.

Photo Sunday

I've been really enjoying all the free time I've been having lately to do doll things. I know it won't last so I'm savouring the opportunity whilst it's here. This of course means more activity on the blog.

Today I got a few things done. I removed a few face screenings on the vinyl dolls (I actually find removing face screenings quite therapeutic for some reason), I got started on a new room box for my Cu-poche, Nendoroids and Picconeemo dolls, I got started on wig caps for one of my Barbie girls and a Monster High girl in preparation for the hair wefts I ordered today ... and I took some photos. All in all, a rather productive day.

On to the photos ...

First up is a room box I finished using a tutorial from MyFroggyStuff. I love how it turned out. It's not very wide but is great for shots like these. Here's Layla enjoying a relaxing afternoon. She's been newly transplanted to a Made to Move body. She was originally on the curvy fashionista body but I wanted more articulation for her. She goes so well with this room box, I might turn it into her bedroom once I make my pallets for a bed.

Of Apples and Widows

When I bought Apple White months ago, the plan was to wipe her face, remove her hair and repaint her ... however, I took her out to work on her today and realised that I really loved her face screening and the hair combination was just too gorgeous to replace.

So I gave her a little make over. She got a more elegant hairstyle complete with a funky butterfly pin and new threads. I think she's totally rocking this look. I'm keeping her default name as Apple because she kind of reminds me of candy apple because of her colour scheme.

FFX Shiva Project - WIP Update

I've previously mentioned on the blog that I was going to turn a Monster High Ghoulia into Shiva from Final Fantasy X. It's been a while since I started this project but I finally have some updates. I re-rooted her hair with soft yarn (kind of feels a little like mohair) and styled her hair like Shiva after her face up was removed.


Front view of the hair.

Of Monsters and Meets

A few things being crammed into today's post as I had a backlog of photos.

First, my repainted MH girls by Ticuk arrived today and they are gorgeous. I already knew that from the preview photos I saw when they were finished but wow, in person, they are even more incredible.

The repaints were of Freaky Fusion Ghoulia Yelps and Frights, Camera, Action Operetta.

Coffee and Photos

I received my December order from HS yesterday and also did some random photos. I had a meet with my friend today so I hope to get those photos up in the next day or two, meanwhile here are some random photos.

I'm not quite sure what Eve is taking a photo of ... but it seems like it might be something candid as she looks awfully sneaky here.

Christmas Dolls and A Hunt Begins...

An overdue photo batch from Christmas of the dollies that made it to the Wayward Inn, mostly unscathed. I've already posted about the Misaki doll so I won't cover her today.

I'll start with the new Koron girl that I got from my friend who I have named Rina.

She's either a bear or co-ordinate Koron. She has the brown eyes and hair, very different from my blue eyed, blonde hair Koron. I love her to bits. I really think Koron and Chiika may be my favourite face molds from the Pureneemo line.

Nendoroid: Takatsuki Ichika & Photo Day

The new nendoroid that arrived last week, Takatsuski Ichika from Waiting in the Summer. She was first released back in 2012. I was drawn by that vibrant red hair and her cute expressions.

MH: Scarnival Draculaura

It's been a busy week with the hubby injured (dislocated shoulder) but Christmas waits for no one. Leaving him at home with a cup of coffee and his computer (he can at least still use one arm!) I made my way out to brave the shops to check on some Christmas present ideas. I was at K-Mart and wasn't going to check the MH dolls but decided to at the last minute.

Why, oh why, are all the dolls on my wishlist hidden right at the back? Anyway, after moving all the Boo York dolls aside, I found the Scarnival Draculaura who has been on my wishlist since I started getting into collecting these dolls. I honestly didn't think I would ever get her as I have never seen her in any of our stores here so was pretty excited to find her today.

This gives me hope that maybe I might be able to stumble on Scaritage Operetta one day ...

Moving on to the pretty stuff ...

I kind of went a bit snap happy with her but well, I was excited and she's so gorgeous.

MH: Elissabat

Back when Elissabat first appeared on shelves as part of the Frights, Camera, Action edition, for some reason, I didn't end up getting her. I did get the Operetta from that edition though.

Fast forward almost a year later and I decided that I rather liked that particular doll but unfortunately, she was nowhere to be found. She had this cool goth vibe that appealed to me but it wasn't until I actually watched the movie, Frights, Camera, Action that I decided it'd be nice to collect her.

Last weekend, I went to Toys 'r' Us to hunt for a present for my sister's two year old son and thought I'd take a quick look at the MH dolls. I couldn't see her anywhere there and was just walking away when I thought, I better check at the back. And to my surprise found the only Elissabat from that edition I had seen available in my town (by that point I had already checked all the stores that sell these dolls). I got lucky, again.

This is one of my favourite box designs for MH dolls. I often sometimes consider leaving the dolls in their boxes because well, just look at her in there. I was very tempted but I ended up taking her out of the box. I have a need to play.

MH: Creepateria Draculaura

This particular girl was unplanned. I had no intention of getting her so wasn't looking for her but as with my Creepateria Cleo de Nile, I stumbled on her. She was the only one of this line there. (Is it coincidence how the Creeptaeria line just keeps creeping up on me?)

Seeing her in person, I loved her way more than the few promo photos I had seen of her. In those, her yellow eyeshadow seemed really overdone but in person, it's actually quite nice and her whole face screening is very subtle.

Let's start as always with the box. It actually has more of a cardboard look and feel than the other dolls but she is a part of the basic line (which usually retails for $19.99 AUD).

She does not come with a stand or brush just what you see in the box. The yellow stand I am using for her actually came with my Freaky Fusion Ghoulia Yelps but I think it works better for Creepateria Draculaura's colour scheme.

The Hodgepodge Post

There's been a few things I've wanted to post about but didn't really want to make a separate post for each of them so I decided to plonk them all down in a hodgepodge post.

I'm still not really one hundred percent on board with Isabelle's wig. She has got to be one of the hardest dolls for me to find a decent wig for. Although I like the colour of both of the Luts wigs I ordered for her, the pink wig is a little thin at the front so you can see the white wig cap beneath in photos and the blue/purple wig is gorgeous but it sits on her head a bit weird.

So I'm still not sure what kind of wig she'll have in the end.

This is the latest photo I have of her in a medieval dress (which also happens to be my favourite.) I can't help but think she might be a Princess here, maybe a past life? Could work plus it means this wig is only associated with her past life incarnation. That's one way for her to wear a wide selection of wigs right?