rosiewalks

[rosiewalks]

My personal headcanon for the Off White dolls is that they all painted their skin for the collection to create a cohesive look, but when off duty they have skin tones that align more with their monster typing.

So while I didn't recreate the dolls as they were intended I do like using them as a jumping off point for my own customs, imagining how they look with a more casual vibe.

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#DollsOnDisplay: Tag game by The Doll Coven

Tag by The Doll Coven on youtube. Gonna use screenshots from my Memoa acount, because I got a new laptop and haven't transferred over all my files. (You can see all my memoa collections here.) Most of the dolls mentioned in this post can be seen elsewhere on my blog; click the doll's name in the tags below for more.

1. A doll that gets more attention than others: Lala and Frankie by far dominate the attention. I just love restyling both of them, and playing around with their props and accessories. Plus, Lala is my chronic illness buddy.

More after the cut

2. A doll that goes unnoticed: None of my American Girls get played with very much, especially Felicity since she can no longer stand and I'm afraid to send her out for restringing.

3. A doll that took time to warm up to but now you love them: November! My Bratz Jade / Barbie m2m hybrid. It took getting Jade onto a non-bratz body for me to like her, but I was scared for a long time to rebody.

4. A doll you’re thinking about rehoming: Cora, the headswap LOL tween. I love how unique she is, and the head swap gimmick, and the tween dolls in general but I just never do anything with her. I don't photograph her and I rarely restyle her.

5. A doll that you associate with a special/fond memory: Oh gosh, so many! Umm... Let's go with Loretta! She came in a lot of OMGs that I drove about an hour to pick up. The memory is special to me because it was during a time when I had a lot of anxiety around driving, and going to get Loretta (and friends) helped me overcome some of that anxiety.

6. A doll with a flaw (e.g., it got damaged somehow, or there’s a particular design feature/characteristic you deem a “flaw”): The lack of neck tilt on Cave Clubs and Mermaze. The dolls are so fun otherwise, but it really bugs me that they can only rotate, not tilt, their heads.

Left: Unmodified, no tilt. Right: Modified by me to have neck tilt.

7. A secondhand doll: I have so many secondhand dolls! It's the main way I like to grow my collection. Here are a few of my favorites: - Addy (kids consignment sale) - Thalia (marketplace lot) - Drusilla and Bubbles (Dru from a Buy Nothing neighbor, Bubbles from the kid sale) - Sweet Screams Frankie (Once Upon a Child)

8. A doll with a favorite companion or accessory: I love G1 Lagoona's pet piranha and Thing that comes with Wednesday. Of course, neither of those are in these pictures...

9. A doll wearing a favorite color: Nyx. I'm very basic; my favorite color is black.

10. A doll you’ve changed up/customized: I have lots of customs! Here are a few of my favorites: - G3 Lagoona: The fish-hook lip piercing is everything to me. - Genevieve: A small change, but I like her so much more with hazel eyes. - Kala: I painted her tentacles, and I like her much better with a toned-down color scheme. - G3 Frankie: I stitched directly into their face.

This was so enjoyable to answer! Thanks to the Doll Coven for this fun tag.

[rosiewalks]

Custom: Fairy Draculaura

My SIL is starting a cozy youtube, and to celebrate I asked if I could make her a doll with her channel's colors! Here's the palette I was working off:

I had an extra Draculaura from a recent depop purchase*, and she makes a great base for a fairy, with those pointed ears and pink skin. (*I desperately needed Fearbook's clothes and accessories, but I do not want a third Lala.) Since I have no skills in drawing or painting, I seldom do any kind of mock-up -- I just go scrounging around in the stash and see what fits the vibe/colors/etc.

My original idea was to make fairy!Drac leggings and a tshirt, because a) that's cozy, thus fitting my SIL's channel and b) I know I can make those things. Plus, no shoes. (Shoes are the bane of my existence, when it comes to customizing.) But stash-scrounging yielded a tiered kids skirt from the thrift in exactly the right colors. So I pivoted and made a dress.

(The skirt was originally Trolls merchandise and I just...what.) (Sorry no, we actually have to have a brief detour to show you the official Trolls Merchandise Skirt.)

photo from a poshmark listing

Right, back to fairy!Drac and her dress:

I basically just shrunk the design of the actual skirt: cut apart the tulle stripes into strips (they were already attached to a cotton backing), and then sewed them all closer together. The bodice is the elastic waistband of the skirt, with a strip of the yellow tulle tied over it. Does the dress look a little bit like a loofah? yes. But hopefully a cute loofah.

I scrounged those shoes in the above picture out of my giveaway/sale box and the shape is cute with the dress but they're not the right color. Trusty paint pens to the rescue!

Also did her toenails, as you see.

Further scrounging gave a pair of paper fairy wings (butterfly die-cuts from the dollar store), a charm for her hair, and an extra pair of Lagoona earrings. And here she is!

The wings are just taped onto her back, easy to take on and off. I repainted the earrings, added nail color, removed her beauty mark heart, added gold freckles, and did her hair.

As I sit here and write this post, I'm realizing puffy tulle sleeves might be a good addition...

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Mod: stitches and staples for G3 Frankie

I have painting fear but apparently not "decapitate the doll and sew directly into their face" fear. Behold:

Those are real stitches with real thread that I added to Frankie's head. The vinyl is soft so yes, you can sew right into it. I used pliers to help pull the needle through.

Made staples out of wire (probably could have used actual staples, but I just...didn't think of it) and stabbed those into their head too. I used a paint pen to add the patch of green "skin".

Just in time to hold the sign for my first Memoa-versary! I think these little mods really help their look. Hope to 3D print some neck bolts at some point, as well as add an actual eyebrow ring. If I ever feel confident enough, I'll give them some sort of shaggy scene haircut.

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Face up by me

Quinn - Unoa Lusis

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Me: "Why did i make a wetlands centric doll when i live in a desert+farmland patchwork? How am i ever going to get pictures that fit the vibe?"

The humble irrigation ditch:

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New Doll: G3 Signature Jinafire Long

I bought her secondhand, so she doesn't have quiiiite all her accessories. But she has most of them! I think I'm just missing one jade bracelet and her drink.

She's my first doll with a tail! I love her face and golden claws & scales. I'm hoping to repaint her a bit, to make the gold more gold.

Did a small restyle, because purple and red are not my favorite color combination. I'm still figuring out how I want her styled long-term, but for now I'm happy with this.

Look at her beautiful face.

I saw someone on reddit had given her purple lips, and I might do that.

I restyled her hair a little bit, and posed her in front of my giant peony canvas.

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Just my collection of insect girls from Monster High. I do feel a bit silly that I still don't have a Wydowna when I have all of these girls together. But I love when my MH collection has all of these subsets of categories that I can do big group shots like this lol.

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manifesting the end of summer with an experimental flower fairy.

i wanted to make a lantern fruit, but didn't really want to try and design something so delicate and try to 3d print it. i might do it in the future, but for this one, i just used metal wire, stickers and tissue paper.

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[rosiewalks]

July Hobby Recap

Favorite Photos

⭐Overall: Cleo coming out of the frame

I get a lot of use out of this empty gold frame

⭐Restyle: Bubbles in a "not their usual style" style. My favorite not so much because it's my preferred look, but because my kid helped me pick out the pieces and we had fun together.

⭐Cover Model: Ghoulia as The Butchering Art

⭐Scene: Dru being dramatic

Numbers and Stats

Number of dolls photographed: ...6? Did I really take that few photos this month? *counts* Huh, I guess so.

Dolls acquired: 0. I have Fearbook Drac on order from Mercari, but she's taking her sweet time to get here.

Hobby things acquired: 4 -- One of the Drac-coded pieces from Michael's halloween collection; two chrome paint pens; FF Sunny's dress and shoes

Dolls sold: 0. I have GOT to get off my butt and list things on ebay.

Memoa Uploads: 6ish

Looking back

Painted Cleo's snake and leg bandage

Worked on Bubbles & Dru's story

Looking forward

Going to buy my Smart Doll!

Finish the gorram afro and cyberpunk restyles

List things for sale

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Cover Models: July Reads

Total read: 5

Not pictured: Paladin's Strength 5/5 The God and the Gwisin 4.5/5 The Big Finish DNF Paladin's Hope 4/5

Ignorance: How it Drives Science by Stuart Firestein. 4/5 stars.

An interesting little non-fiction book. I loved learning about the author's background -- he didn't go to college until he was 30, and had spent his prior adult life working tech in the theater! He writes that Orgo wasn't too hard, because it was all memorization. And he'd spent 15 years of his life memorizing entire scripts.

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris. 5/5 stars.

Yes, that's Frankie's arm.

I haven't kept up well with the Morbidly Curious book club, because my library hasn't had the books for the last few months (and I've already read Stiff). BUT the library had July's pick, and I've been curious about this one since it was released! Butchering Art was well written and pretty fast paced, and taught me a lot about a man I'd never heard of, despite being a voracious non-fiction reader and death book aficionado. These old-time surgeons were built different and it was fascinating to learn about their world. Blessings upon Dr. Lister for figuring out antiseptics!

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An interlude with Bubbles and Dru

Bubbles is a mermaid who due to Tragic Reasons has legs instead of a tail. Drusilla is a socially anxious vampire. Info on the dolls and clothes after the cut.

"Tadaaaa! What do you think of my outfit?" Bubbles struck a pose. Her legs wobbled slightly, but through force of will she kept from toppling down the stairs. "Very...colorful, fish. It hurts my eyes," said Dru from her spot on the floor. Her eyes twinkled as she teased her girlfriend.

"Get UP, leech! I look great today and I want to go to the park with the lake." Bubbles tugged on her arm. "You can sleep when you're dead."

Dru gave her a look from under the arm she'd flung dramatically over her face. "I'm already dead."

Bubbles snorted and tugged again, but the vampire showed no signs of moving. "Please? I want to go to the lake. And I can use the wheelchair but I'd rather go together..." She trailed off. She did want to show off her outfit; like most mermaids, she was (at least a little) vain. But she also wanted Dru to come outside with her. It was good for the vampire, and helped with the blood sickness.

It took a bit of cajoling, since Dru hated being around people and direct sunlight burned her within minutes. But in the end, Drusilla got up to carry her erstwhile mermaid around town. Because what princess Bubbles wants, princess Bubbles gets.

Bubbles is a hybrid: Mermaze Mermaidz Kishiko head and hands on a m2m Barbie body. A little about her making here. She's wearing a barbie top and skirt, OMG boots/earrings/necklace, and ily glasses.

Drusilla was a gift, and you can read more about that here. She's wearing a SH boys top, leggings I made, and boots from Alice's Collections.

You can read a bit more of their story here.

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OC: Diana 'Dani' Rosewood

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Sunny restyle

Isn't she beautiful?

This is series 1 Sunny on a winter break body (for neck articulation). She's wearing fantastic fashion's dress and boots, twinpack earrings and barrettes, a Barbie cloud shirt, and Skylar's cloud socks.

She was my first RH doll! I sent my friend, who lived several towns away, after the Marketplace listing. I was curious about Rainbow High, but wasn't sure if I wanted one and didn't want to pay full price for an experiment. This was 2021 or so, and I was able to get her NIB for about $12.

One of my dolly friends several states away found the umbrella dress and boots at her thrift, and kindly sent them to me. I've been waiting a couple years for this dress to pop up for a reasonable price on the secondhand market, so it was really special that my friend it for a couple bucks and was willing to part with it.

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Cleo restyle

I painted her leg bandages and snake, and added a necklace as a hairpiece. Just a couple small changes, but I think it really elevates her look.

Background option 1. Calendar by Alyssa Thorne.

Background option 2. Old book of myths from around the world.

Background option 3. Gold frame from the thrift.

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