my little mochi

Yowayowa Camera Woman

 
From Yowayowa Camera Woman - a blog of levitating self portraits.

Happy Easter everyone!

holiday oldies but goodies

Hi there! I've been super busy and don't have anything new to post but here's some crafts, recipes and tutorials from the past that may come in handy in the next couple of weeks. Happy Holidays!

  

cranberry bliss bars

 

snow globe necklaces

 

reindeer gift card holders

 

origami snowman gift bags

 

pinecone hedgies

 

snowman cookies

shortstuff

Strawberry Shortcake dolls were released long after I had put away my Barbies and Blythe doll and moved on to Rick Springfield and Duran Duran, so I wasn't very familiar with them. But then last year I came across Jillybug's fantastic Blythe photostream which led to her "Cake Set" - simply adorable vintage customized Strawberry Shortcake dolls. 

Further investigation led me to discover that many of the Cakes photographed by Jillybug were customized by the very talented Polly Jane. Her knit and crochet clothes for these little dolls are amazing. I was instantly smitten and needed to get my hands on some vintage Shortcakes asap.

I went on ebay and bought well, um... 40 Shortcakes. Yup, 40. What was I thinking? I really don't know. But I bought them in a huge lot with no clothes or accessories for cheap, and many of them weren't in the greatest shape. Since the price was good I figured it would be a great way to learn how to customize dolls without worrying that I was ruining some valuable vintage dolls.

In addition to making incredible clothes for the cakes, Polly also gave many of them new hairdos using Tibetan Lambskin which just turns up the cuteness factor.

So these are all my custom cakes with crochet outfits no where near as nice as Polly's, but it still so much fun to make. The Strawberry Shortcake in the pink dress above even has her own new lambskin hairdo which was a little trickly figuring out how to make and apply, but I'm really pleased with the result. And even those these dolls are at least 25 years old they still smell so good! 

pompom bear

 

No time to post but don't want to break my once a week posting momentum,
so here's a pompom and pipe cleaner bear I'm thinking
about making as Christmas ornaments.

Have a great week!

strawberry bear

Strawberry bear didn't care,
if he ever ate a plum or pear.

All he wanted, was for eat,
lots of strawberries that was super sweet.

 

another wee doll

Home at last...

time to relax.

 

Yes! Finally a craft post. I made this doll months ago, but wasn't happy with how large her nose came out and couldn't come up with the motivation to finish her. After awhile, she started to grow on me and now I feel like her nose is kind of endearing. So I gave her a teeny floral dress and a wool coat and boots to match. And now you barely notice the nose, right?

Smart Girls at the Party - Season 2!

Find more videos like this on Smart Girls at the Party

it's spring! make a mini bunny book

Buddy taught me how to make these mini books years ago after he made one in his writing class in school. It's brilliantly simple and creates a six page book (plus cover and  back) with a single sheet of paper and no glue or binding. I made this bunny version for Buddy and thought I'd share a tutorial and PDF file so you can make one too.

But first, here's what the inside pages look like:

 

PDF file and instructions after the jump.

happy valentines day!

Happy early Valentine's Day! Here's a valentine coloring page I made last night while playing with Microsoft Word. It was pretty easy to draw using the ready made shapes until I got to the arms and legs and then I had to get creative, can you spot the three hidden hearts? (I changed my mind and re-did the limbs). Anyway, if you're looking for something to keep the kids busy this week you can print out the PDF version here.

sarubobette

Wow, two posts in less than a week, surely a miracle given my incredibly lax posting last year! So in the spirit of getting back to regular posting, here's my version of a sarubobo I made a while back but was too lazy to post. Sarubobo literally translated from Japanese is "baby monkey" so it's a fitting follow up post to my little monkey from last week.

If you're not familiar with sarubobo, good 'ole wikipedia says they're:

"A Japanese amulet, particularly associated with the town of Takayama
in Gifu prefecture. Sarubobos are red human-shaped dolls,
with no facial features..."

There's a bit more about how sarubobo are made by grandmothers for daughters and granddaughters as a charm for a good marriage and good children.

I used this wonderful tutorial generously provided by mairuru (who BTW sells the traditional version in her etsy shop) but I just couldn't bear to leave her faceless which led to adding the bonnet, and then the bib and hands, so she ended up more like one of my ami babies than a sarubobo. I think I used the pattern measurements in mairuru's post and my sarubobette ended up exactly 2-inches high. Go over to mairuru's site and give it a try, so easy and so fun!

PS. the wee bear's a polymer clay bear I made way back as well, don't they look good together?