Friendship Dolls as Flower Fairies

I was so busy preparing for Christmas that I missed the Halloween.

Obviously, Sue, Iris, Alice & Jo were not very happy about it! We have been talking for ages that we want to dress them up in Fairies costumes!

So, they have been upset until I finally find the time to change their costumes...And, I promised them that they get to be the Fairies until after New Year! :D

In case you are wondering who is Sue, Iris, Alice & Jo, please read here...

This is the Original Dolls Collection...they are in Japanese Costume:

Sue

Iris

Alice

Jo

This is their latest costumes:

It is based on the Garden Fairy theme...the details are in their dresses...

I dressed them up based on their favorite colors as well...:)

Sue - most difficult to do. There are many parts to attach. 2-tone skirt, yellow belt, yellow ribbon, blue hair embellishments, tiny yellow & blue flowers on both the buns.

Iris - i experimented a gown-like 2-tone skirt. Not bad! I like the 2 flowrs on the waist...

Alice - her dress is flare, Marilyn Monroe type; with a blue belt & blue ribbon. The hair has many flowers...

Jo - semi flare skirt with petals. She has many tiny flowers on her waist & bun.

Each of them is unique in a way...i was also experimenting with their wings, so you can see some are bigger than the others & some are rounded while others are pointy...lol

Sue' wings are long & pointy on both top & bottom part. Iris' more rounded.

Jo's wings are oblong where else Alices' are rounder & fuller.

Personally, i love Alice's wigs the best...:D

Hm...seriously, without the wings, they look more like the Princesses, don't you think so?

These cuties are available for sales. They make perfect Christmas gifts too! :D grab yours before they are gone...

Friendship Kokeshi Dolls - story continues...

After completing the Big eyes Friendship Kokeshi Dolls range, I made 1 set of small eyes Kokeshi Dolls, using the prototype I made when I experimented the dolls.

2 reasons: my mom said small eyes resemble the real Japanese (she said Japanese don't have big eyes) & the other is because it is for my girl's playset. I don't want her to bite the eyes off the doll's head! LOL

Comparing to the original big eyes dolls, this range is also cute in its way. They look shy...but of course, it doesn't resemble the characteristic of the 4 friends. The only one that is close enough is Alice...the rest definitely is not shy...LOL 

My impression of Japanese girls is that they are shy & kawaii, especially when they are in their traditional costumes.

So, what do you think? Do you prefer the big eyes range or small eyes range? :D 

Big Eyes range:

Small Eyes range:

To make it easier for comparison, here's the individual dolls line up:

Sue

Alice

Jo

Iris

Green is the color of Balance

I have a friend who loves the color of Green. She has no idea why she loves the color though...

2 weeks back, we decided to meet up. So I made her something Green...these are my latest projects, so I just make additional for her since I don't have much time to come up with a new design (been busy fulfilling orders...LOL)

This dear friend of mine happens to be a Workaholic too, so I prepared a card for her with the following message:

Dear XXX,

Have you wondered why you love Green color so much?

The secret language of Green is Balance.

Since you devote most of your time to work & most of the time complaining that you don't have time for other things, could it be the reason why you love Green? As maybe it is trying to tell you to find some balance in your life?

I hope you like this Green bear. Her name is Balance. 

I added a Lucky Star for you. Hope it brings you luck. Plus, since a star has 5 points, it represents work, health, family, friend & self. 

With this, I hope you will be able to slow down & find some balance in all 5 areas of your life...

The doll is Jo. I dressed her in your favourite color! Much like you, Jo is hardworking, ambitious, passionate about her environment & loves power. She is one of the dolls in my latest craftwork Friendship Kokeshi Doll.

Hope you love the gift...

When I passed the gift to her & she reads the card, she laughed out loud...

But, I'm glad she loves the gift...:D

Experimenting with Kokeshi Dolls

I have always wanted to make a Kokeshi doll...but don't dare to try it as I have no confident that it will work out the way I wanted...

oh, by the way...kokeshi means Japanese Doll & it originated from Northern Japan & it is made from wood...

So, 1 fine day last week, I started to experiment it. After about 3 hours of trial & error, this is what I get...

Then, I do another version...

Put it side by side...it looks like this:

Gotten some feedback from a lot of friends...the doll in pink looks a lil' eerie to me...LOL

So, I corrected my stitches on the following day to this & added the big eyes as my hubby said it will make it more kawaii...so I did! You know, all guys have this fantasy about super big eyes japanese girls...LOL

This corrected version looks a lot better than the old ones yea...

Just for your comparison between the 1st & corrected version:

Now that I have gotten the right stitches, I made another 2 designs of the dolls...

Next I am going to do 1 set with big eyes...LOL