Advent Dollhouse Day 4

On the fourth, Vanilla the Piglet decks the halls and hangs some mistletoe for a festive touch! The ladder was my own creation, made from coffee stirrers.

Advent Dollhouse Day 3

Today, Twyla the Panda writes a little wish list for Santa. Just a few things she is hoping for, nothing much!

Advent Dollhouse Day 2

Today, Venus the Cat hurries to wrap gifts in time, getting into a tangle...more tomorrow!

Advent Dollhouse Day 1

Happy first of advent, and start of the Christmas season! 

On the first day of the season, Topaz the Turtle skates on an icy lake in the middle of a wintery wood. The backdrop is cut from magazine pages, the trees from crafting paper and the snow toy stuffing. More doors to be opened tomorrow!

Dollhouse Avent Calendar Project

There are some very creative Advent Calendar’s out there. One I’ve seen was a Christmas Carol theme, consisting of tiny booklets that told the Charles Dickens’s classic and doubled as tree ornaments. Another was a Lego one, where each day you got a new piece that made up as festive play set. 

For years I’ve been wanting to create my own Advent Calendar. One that has that fun 3D depth to it, holding a little surprise behind each door, not just a picture or a chocolate. 

This year, that idea will come into being! I’m planning to make a kind of ‘Dollhouse’ advent calendar. 24 boxes, each with a tiny festive scene featuring a Littlest Pet Shop animal inside. They’re so cute, and the perfect size for a project like this!

I’ve done some sketches for different scenarios for each day-some more festive (wrapping presents) than others (shopping?). Though it means my LPS collection will have to grow to fill all 24 days.

I’ll post a tutorial shortly on making a basic box. Since they’ll be made in bulk, the simpler the idea, the better. 

Trick or Treat Street Display

This display came out beautifully! Took me a whole month to put together, the set and individual costumes, but totally worth it. 

For those visiting, Trick or Treat Street is adjacent to All Hallow’s Avenue.

What’s best is the fact is the lighting-some battery run candles create the illusion of the windows of the house glowing from inside! The green lights add a cool eeriness to the outside.

The houses themselves were a challenge. They need a lot of support from behind to stay upright, plus to create the illusion of depth lighting was added. Cutting holes where the windows and door panels would be and gluing down these stain glass printable windows around the rim allow the lights to come through. The front steps made it realistic, and for the house with the open door where Blair offers treats, I posted a page from a Design magazine on the inside to suggest the house’s interior.

What street would be complete at Halloween without some tricksters toilet-papering a tree? Hermione and Nikki sure agree!

The outfits were fun to put together, and though maybe not specific to my original designs, it really felt truly like putting together homemade costumes for Halloween, including have to shuffle through past outfits to find certain pieces that would work!

Overall, my most ambitious and fabulous Halloween display yet-Happy Halloween, everyone!

Halloween Collection 2014 Revealed: Trick or Treat Street

Now officially kicks off the Halloween season, and as usual I’m totally stoked! Especially as I’m already working on my annual doll display. After the reaction I got from last year’s Salem Witches presentation I knew I have to apt up my game. And with the roll I’ve been on making doll dioramas, the possibility of building a whole set is doable.

This year’s concept is Trick or Treat Street. I love it how, without fail every year, as the huddle of children flock to the streets for their annual candy hunt, without fail there are always those certain costumes that come up. Think about it; every year I mentally check off the Princess, the Witch, the Superhero from Whatever Blockbuster Was Big That Summer, even Darth Vader. And the highlight of embarrassment, the toddler as a pumpkin. So I thought of creating a still shot of that mental picture, that nostalgic joy of children’s biggest thrill about All Hallow’s Eve; FREE CANDY. I’m envisioning the girls roaming through the suburban neighborhood on a dark foggy night, candy bags in tow as they go house to house. I’m trying to keep the costumes simple, like they’re homemade.

I did a series of watercolors, so I’d have some visual concept in mind of what I wanted. And the cast’s natural color palette actually really fell nicely into each role. Here are the watercolors paintings of my Halloween collection 2014;

Megan as the Vampire Girl

Klara as a Witch

Willow as a Pumpkin

Mina as a Princess

Glimmer as a Demon

Nikki as a Skeleton

Blair as Ghost Girl

Euphemia as a Cat

Hermione as a Mummy

Hope as a Fairy