QUOTE

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-things I had no words for." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe


Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year!


Wishing all my blogging friends a Very Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Give away at Soggibottom


There is a cute give away at Soggibottom do visit and check it out.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Christmas Wishes


Hello friends just popping in to wish you all a very happy Christmas. Hope you all have a peaceful one too. 
I have still not been able write up the pattern instruction for my elf.  I do promise you I will do it but unfortunately it is not going to be in time for this Christmas. I am so sorry about that. I have had so many problems with my computer that it has been impossible to get the pictures collated and edited to write the instructions. It is now ok but I may not be able to do anything for a bit as I am going to be away from my computer for a while.
In the meantime time I will try and keep in touch through my iPad and phone. Keep safe and have a peaceful festive season.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Santa's Helper







Doll for Christmas. Every year I make one with a Christmas theme. So this year it is Santa's helper. His name is Poncho :) you can guess why:)  He is very busy at the moment sorting out gift lists for Santa.

I had a few issues with drafting his head. I did promise to make the pattern available for you to download. Please bear with me for a few days while I get the instructions sorted out.

Friday, November 22, 2013

New DIP

I have neglected my blog and my blog friends far too long. Even after best of intentions to post regularly I seem to fall behind. I am hoping I will get back to blogging regularly from now on. I think my blogoversary has also come and gone and I did nothing to celebrate.
Well if all goes well with this doll I will give this pattern free as a gift for Christmas. So keep checking and thank you for being here. I will catch up on my visits. In the meantime keep creating your lovely art

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Paper paper everywhere

It is always so chaotic here when I am trying to design a doll. Bits of paper here there everywhere making my heard whirl. Finally done the drawing next step is sewing, hope it will all come together smoothly. I usually don't have patience to sew things several times and I hate that part of doll making lol!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Goth Doll

This is a goth doll I made for a challenge. Actually I cheated a bit. I had an unfinished doll which was for a purple challenge that took place a few years ago. I never completed it because I didn't like the way she was turning out. So I thought perhaps I could convert her to a goth. She looks much better now. At least I have finished an unfinished doll. Ummm... Makes me think now that perhaps I should go and look at my many unfinished projects again. Who knows they may change into something else.
What do you think?


Thursday, September 12, 2013

My first Baby Doll!

Last month Judi Ward taught us designing the doll class in our doll club. I decided to join in the fun and decided to make a baby doll. I have always been reluctant to make a baby doll because I thought that it was not easy to paint a baby face. So this was my first ever baby doll that I have designed and made. It is a simple design but I found painting a baby face especially the eyes open was not easy. After a few tries I decided to play safe and painted a sleeping face. I will have to practice a baby face more if I want to make them more often.

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

weird feet!

I don't know if I should laugh or cry! these don't look like feet they look like claws:)!
 

Sunday, September 01, 2013

From 2 years ago

Two years ago I took an on line class with Marlaine Verhelst. I finished the head and hands but got stuck on the feet. I did try but they kept going wrong so I put them aside to come back to them later. However the later became a few months, a year and then 2 years! Lol! Today I finally picked up enough courage and enthusiasm to get back to the feet. So here is the beginnings of two feet. Hopefully I will be able to finish them tomorrow.
I have decided that I am going to complete this doll no matter how odd the feet look lol!

Thursday, August 08, 2013

I am excited

I am so excited. Judi Ward is coming to our doll club to teach. I did her on line doll designing class years ago which kick started me in my doll making journey.It was such a detailed and well presented class that some like me who had no experience in sewing or dollmaking was able to understand and make dolls from then on. I fully recommend it to any beginner to take this class. For me even though I have come a long way I am sure I still a lot to learn and am looking forward to learning hands on from her.
This was the first ever doll that I designed all those years ago after taking her class. No she is not bawled it is just the lighting and my amateur photography lol!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Another Fledgling!


Today I captured this little baby woodpecker on camera. He was being taught by his mother how to drink water. Couldn't get a picture of his mother, she is wily but he was so funny he kept falling into the water or out of the water trying to get a drink from the trough lol!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Fledgling


The other day I saw a Blue Tit family fledge. Here is a picture of one of the fledgling that I managed to take. There were four of them and my neighbour and I had to keep watch over them so that the Magpies didn't get them for a little while until they flew away. It was fascinating to watch how their parents were frantically feeding them even while we were standing close by just to get the babies to fly.

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Itsy Bitsy

Remember the doll give away in my 'Pay It Forward' well I have made the pattern for the doll available free for all. Please visit Dollmakers Journey to download it.

Here is another version of the pattern



Saturday, June 01, 2013

Name tag

Last week in our doll club we were making a name tag for ourselves. Since our doll club members have increased it was decided that we all should have a name tag so that we could know each member by their name tags. Here is my name tag. As my yahoo id is Citrnolla I thought I would make something that would be citrus fruit related. Notice the spelling is not quite correct. Well it happened when I was creating my yahoo account it was a wrong typo mistake and I had gone too far to change the name with correct spelling so I let it be as is. So my email became Citrnolla.
 
 


Monday, May 20, 2013

Bit rusty


After a long time I did some water colour sketches. I used water colour pencils for these sketches of some buildings in Sardinia. Bit rusty though. I should really practice more.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Drum rooolllll Mini Challenge

The winner of the challenge is Barbara Johnson!  The second prize goes to Beverly Collins.
Ladies thank you so much for joining in the fun you all did a great job. Just by finishing the challenge itself makes you all a winner so one of the judges Sherry Goshan has very kindly given you all her online Gretchen pattern in appreciation of you all finishing the challeng. How cool is that!. I shall be posting that of to you all.
Barbara and Beverly can you please send me your snail mail address please so that I can send you my prize too.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Travelling


No it is not I who is travelling but my doll this time to the US. I just call him caterpillar 2 lol! He is going to Cifi instead of me this time and hopefully will be well received there. He has only one pair of hands as opposed to 2 pairs like the first one. I had to stop with one because I was having one of those days while making him when nothing seemed to be going right. So after struggling for hours I decided just a pair will have to do. Anyway he can still puff his hooka with just a pair of hands.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Mini Challenge pics

Wow I got some lovely pictures of what some of you have been doing in my Mini Challenge. These ladies have done a wonderful job so please get those pictures off to me soon. You still have plenty of time to do a head. Remember you only have to make a head but by all means make a doll if you want to just as one of the doll makers has one. The Challenge end date has been extended to the 12th of May.
 
 
 
Sue Gibson
 

 
Carolyn
 
 

Carolyn
 
 
Barbara Johnson
 
 
Judi Ward 


 
Beverly Collins

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Re:Mini Challenge

So how is everyone doing with the Mini Challenge ? I have been asked if I can extend the finish date of the challenge so I have extended it to the 12 th  of May. So do join in you still have plenty of time to do so. You need to complete only the head.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Here is what I did with the Mini Challenge image

 
 
So how is everyone doing with the Mini Challenge image? If you have not joined you still have lots of time to join in and do it. I have already got a lovely entry. It is only a head you have to make and the bonus is it will all be still your very own pattern so come on ladies step up.  In the meantime here is what I did.
 
I hope spring is here for everyone. I live in hope as this fellow who hopes to get a glimpse of our neighbour's fish lol!
 

Friday, March 29, 2013

This is how I drew the head

Ok so let me tell you how I drew the head from my Mini Challenge image.
It is the front of the head we need to keep for the challenge because the back portion doesn't exist at the moment. So first I drew a line like so to seperate the front portion of the head


 Then I traced just the front portion onto a plain sheet of paper
 Then I added the back of the head by hand drawing it to the the front of the head and thus making a whole head like so..
 I then divided the head into half...
 and cut the outlined head like so...
 Then I cut the drawing of the head into half.
 I then lay front piece onto a blank piece of paper and shaped the side of the head as shown
 and then traced it onto the blank paper. It should look like this.
 Then I took the back piece of the head and traced the back onto the blank paper, notice I did not trace the side of the head yet.
 I then took the front piece and overlaid it onto the drawing of the back piece like so and then drew the side of the front piece onto the back piece drawing.
 The image should look like this.

After cutting out the pieces here is the head pattern




Overlay them and walla you have a complete head.

At this point you can decide if you want to shape the back of the head a bit more or not. I think I might shape the back a bit more.
Let me know how you all are getting on with it. I am off to sew the head now.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Mini Challenge



I believe that there is nothing that you cannot get inspiration from. Look at this picture. It was just a piece of string that was lying on the floor and as soon as I looked at it I thought to my self I see a face in that string. Do you see it too?  If you do then you are free to down load it and make a doll head out of the image. How is that for a freebie :) I think I am going to try it just to see what comes out of it. Go on you all can give it a go too. The worst comes to worst it will end up in your bone yard or you may surprise yourself by making the most wonderful doll out of it. you are free to enlarge it as much as you like. The only thing I ask is don't try and change the shape of the front of the head as the challenge is about the face as it is. You will need to draw the back of the head but that is ok.
Actually I got an idea. I will make it into a challenge. There will be prizes for the best 3 doll heads. I will not judge it but will ask some wonderful doll makers to choose their choice of head.  Are you all game for it? Do let me know by leaving a comment.
Please send a photo of your finished heads to me. I will then put them up for judging.

PS - You have till the 4 th of May so plenty of time to get it done

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Doll I made earlier in the year


Because of all the things going on in my life I couldn't post the picture of this doll which I had made earlier this year. She was a CIFI challenge doll. The theme for this year was under the sea. Her name is Aurelia and she is a jelly fish who rises ethereally from the depths of the sea floating silently by wherever the tide takes her. Her skirt lights up with fibre optic lights. Unfortunately the lights don't show up well in the picture except as bluish tint. I found it hard to depict the ethereal and floaty look of a jelly fish so she just looks like a ballerina lol!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Table Mess

What a mess! I should clear it all but need to just do a bit more. Drawing patterns are so tedious I prefer to make them and embellish them.


Sunday, January 20, 2013

Snowing again

 
It started snowing this morning again today and I couldn't resist taking some pictures this one I quickly took from my car. I know I know I shouldn't do things like that but there were no other vehicles on the road and I was crawling
 

This was in our neighbourhood
 
And this lamp I thought looked really pretty glowing through falling snow

The snow is slowly stopping now but you know what will happen, in the night it will freeze and make the roads treacherous tomorrow. Watch out everyone in Scotland and in the north of the country this snow is coming your way now.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

He is done at last!

"The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice....."




Well I do hope he looks languid and sleepy enough. I made only 2 sets of hands and was dammed if I was going to make anymore tiny hands lol!  I made him for a challenge but couldn't finish it in time because of my husband's health issues.
I guess now I have to make an Alice to go with it. She will have to be pretty small hmmm....

Hope you all have kept well. I will try and catch up with you all slowly. I have missed visiting your blogs but I shall get there eventually. Thanks you  all for supporting me through the past year and hope you will hang around here even though my posts are a bit sporadic at the moment.