Gamble Acres: Supernatural in 1:6 Scale

  I have three thrifted dolls with the "Nicki" face sculpt.  Here are Taneisha and Denise, above. Since I already had two characters with the same face, I chose my third Nicki to be the Woman in White, a ghost out to get revenge on the living.  I didn't want her to have the open-lip smile, however, so my first step was to follow a  tutorial by Broken Dolly TV on YouTube.  After cutting out the doll's teeth with a box cutter/craft knife and super-gluing her lips together, I cut off the majority of her hair to prepare for re-rooting. Here she is with her hair and face-up removed, above.  I wanted to paint the entire doll white, but for starters, I painted her scalp so I could start re-rooting.  The white residue at the corners of her mouth is super glue from closing her lips. It turns out I am a messy super-gluer.  The pink is her factory lip color that I didn't get totally cleaned up.  (I have gotten better at removing face paint since making...

  Mermaids as monsters?  How could this possibly be?  Sam and Dean would tell you that modern mermaids have had a very successful re-branding as cute and harmless princesses of the sea.  But they do have a darker past which the intrepid monster hunter can find if they dig deep enough into the lore.  Mermaids were originally known as sirens:  outwardly lovely, but their beautiful and haunting songs lured sailors to their deaths.  Long before Disney's Ariel, the House of Mouse featured mermaids true to this lore with the mermaids of Neverland.  Here they are trying to drown Wendy Darling: Comically inept, but hey, it was a kid's movie after all. Another huge movie franchise, the Harry Potter series, had some truly monstrous mermaids called selkies. (The original selkies of lore were Scottish shapeshifting seal-people.) In the end, though, my dolls will have to wait for another time to be turned into true monsters.  For Dollstagram's massive, mo...

  One thing I've had to learn since I started making doll stories is to document what I've done.  For example, to make doll clothes, I usually just wrap cloth around the doll and cut it to fit.  After making multiple plaid shirts for Sam and Dean, I finally realized it would be quicker and easier to create a pattern and save it for future use.   Which brings us to a new subset of posts:  the Monstrous Journey.  I know I'll be making more monsters in general, and probably bat-winged monsters in particular, so it will probably be helpful for me to document the process for future use.  So this first monster post will contain patterns and DIY tips that may not be of any interest to anyone but me.  Feel free to scroll on by and just enjoy the completed Gargoyles if you prefer! I have a love/hate relationship with the Disney prince and princess dolls.  I love the variety they add to the Barbie world, and I love their articulation.  But I ...