TWEAKING SHOES

I'm finally getting my "groove back" with the art & stuff... amazing how long it takes me to get with it after a move! But my art studio/office room is all together and I've started some customizing. Of course my Living Room is still in total disarray... but since I spend so little time in there its no big deal. It can wait a month or 5... lol!

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So... like a lot of you I ended up buying several "Starter" CAM packs for the extra torsos and upper limbs. Now I have duplicates/triplicates of the shoes! I also have some duplicate shoes from other dolls I bought to make OCs. So I decided I would try my hand at customizing the extra shoes...


First up... Draculaura's Shoes from "Day at the Maul" and "Killer Style". The Killer Style pair did not have the silver wedge so those are the ones I customized. I also removed the ankle strap to vary them a bit more from the original.

BEFORE:	AFTER:

Next... shoes from the "Vampire / Sea Monster" CAM set. I have 3 of these!! So this is the first pair to be altered. I cut off the "ruffle" ankle straps and used an X-acto to whittle down the heels until they looked half way decent. (Kids, don't try this at home without a parent!! I don't want you cutting yourselves!!)

BEFORE:	AFTER:

So what to do with all these cut off ruffles? Well.. they actually fit quite nicely around the doll's neck... brand new accessory!!


I have a few more duplicate shoes I plan on modifying... so stay tuned! :)

OFF WITH THIER HEADS!!

Freshly decapitated dolls heads!

Pulling heads off of dolls is rather therapeutic... though I'm sure the professional head shrinkers would say I have "issues" that need to be addressed. This is cheaper... LOL!

It takes a while to get all the hair out... I sat through Footloose (the original. I can't believe they are re-making it. Hollywood should be shot!) and a Scooby-Doo cartoon movie and 2 Buffy episodes. Re-rooting doll hair is not a quick process....

So once all the hair was removed I found the factory rooting made some pretty big holes in the doll heads. Draculaura was the worst...

 I remembered reading about melting holes in vinyl with a hot glue gun (minus the glue) so I gave it a shot. It only melts the surface together, it doesn't melt all the way through... but I think it will help a bit when I start putting hair back in. I'll keep you posted!

If you try this.. be super careful!! You don't want to burn bigger holes in your dolls head. Especially after spending hours getting that darn hair out!

After removing all the hair and fixing the holes its time to prep the head for rerooting. I mixed up paint getting as close to the hair color that I'm using for their rerooting. You don't have to do this, but I like to... so you won't see the vinyl color through the hair.

Next step is hours upon hours of punching hair strands into the heads. This could take weeks... so stay tuned! :D

Klatti B. - Part Two

I went a little punchy crazy with the rerooting tool (which is awesome by the way) so Klatti's hair is crazy thick now! Looks like a little teal hair helmet. But hey she is an Alien so thats ok... LOL! I did manage to thin it out a bit by the time her face was done... now to make her some proper Mod Alien Girl clothing!

Klatti B. - Part One

Meet the first of my Character Designs to be turned into a doll...

So Klatti is my very first completed reroot. I'm not going to lie to you... rerooting is TEDIOUS. If you plan to try this yourself make sure you aren't in a hurry. I forgot how many nights I sat in the sofa watching TV and punching hair into Klatti's head... but it was a lot!

First Restyling - Char Katze

She started out as a "Dawn of the Dance" Clawdeen Doll, another victim of helmet hair. Something just had to be done! The one thing about the Clawdeen doll that has bugged me from the beginning is she is supposed to be a Werewolf... but her clothing and accessories seem more "cat-like". So I made this one into a Cat Girl.

She has been repainted and this was my first attempt at a "Boil Perm". I used pipe cleaners as curlers. Think it turned out pretty cute!

First Repaint... Dracleo

Yes that name is sooo lame... but this is my first go at repainting a Monster High doll. Over 10 years ago I used to customize Gene Dolls but its been a long time! Monster High is considerably smaller than Gene was... but I think the heads might be fairly close to the same size. MH Dolls have big ole' heads!

So this gal started out as a "Dawn of the Dance" Cleo. She had SERIOUS helmet hair... no I'm not joking. I think they used about 40 oz. of hair gel on her at the factory and it was hard as a rock. So she got a shampoo and a new face. I also cut the hair... it still needs to be a bit shorter. I want a 20's Flapper look to her.

The painting is ok, a little wobbly but I just need to get used to drawing/painting without a computer... *shudder*. Its also a little thick... I don't know how people paint on dolls & vinyl toys and get it to look so smooth!! But I got some paint "retardant" which is supposed to slow the drying time of acrylics so it doesn't get to heavy. We'll see if that helps on my next try.