After a bit of a hiatus, I have started repainting dolls again for offer in my Etsy shop! This one has been done for a bit, but life is finally allowing me to post her. For some reason, I really love working on freckled dolls, and they also seem to be pretty quick sellers for me which tells me that others like them as well!
I have another work in progress (WIP) that Ishould be finishing up soon and hope to get her photo’d this weekend for posting.
Thanks and enjoy!
I have been beating myself up lately for NOT being as ‘productive’ as I would like to be. My running had stagnated and though my Etsy shop has been building and I am utterly thankful for all that have purchased my dolls AND left me wonderful reviews, I have not replenished stock as quickly as I should. It’s not for lack of inventory – I think I have upwards of 30 dolls sitting in my extra room that are ready and waiting not only for their make-overs, but their close ups! 🙂 The difficulty, I believe, is in the transition.
Its summertime in Florida and if any of you know Florida, you know summer s literally the mid point of the temperature oven! Its not the actual temperature either, as the southwest has temps that far exceed our own, but it’s the nasty, sticky and oppressive humidity that does it. You walk outside and before you get to the car door in the parking lot you are drenched in sweat and ready for a nice cool glass of whatever your choice of hydration happens to be!
That being said, it’s absolutely no excuse for not painting. In fact, the warmer temps are ideal for my sealant of choice – though I learned a valuable lesson this weekend. Dont start a new doll if you’re not 100% certain you have enough sealant to finish it. It’s not that it will do anything to the doll – its the fact that having a half finished doll sitting there looking back at me is rather sad.
I was at least able to get on doll finished though she still awaits being redressed and photographed for listing. I have also determined that she is, by far, my favorite of the Monster High doll molds in that she’s not only gorgeous, but one of the easiest molds to work with!
Honey Swamp is, by far, I think the best mold to work with as she already had defined eyelids, her nose is perfect and her lips can be worked with in so many ways! I had debated straightening her hair, in spite of the various controversies that surround doing just that – read here, here and here. But I have decided to keep it just as it fabulously is. Regardless, she should be up in the shop within the next two weeks for everyone to enjoy!
For now, though I try not to let the heat get to me and effect the drive I had. Have. Life’s too short and I have far too much I want to do!
So I know I’ve been a little remiss in posting as of late but that’s due, in part, to having a race to run and getting things up and going shop wise still. I’m always on the look out for new dolls to procure at decent prices (so I can keep the prices for my repaints relatively affordable!) and besides, I started a new position in my job which has me going non-stop almost all of the day so by the time I get home I’m exhausted! I’ve also been in a very introspective place which I think I will write about and share soon.
However, that didnt stop me from getting not one, but TWO new dolls up into my shop this past weekend. I generally try to get the new listings posted the same day that I get them in the shop, but it just hasn’t worked out that way this go around so hopefully it will with the next one. I also have a new WIP that I’m working on and a doll I had previously repainted that I’ve been debating rerooting – but trying to decide on hair! (Thankfully Dollyhair.com has a 10% sale going right now so I might just have to take advantage of that for her once I decide on colors!)
So, up for offer recently are:
Operetta Repaint
Now this one, this one I’m REALLY excited for and took great pride working on. Granted, I love all the dolls I work on, but sometimes you do something and you step back when you’re finished and you’re just EXCITED about the work you’ve created. This Skelita, now she I can sit back and say YES! This is why I do this.
Skelita Calaveras Monster High Repaint 
As always, my dolls are repainted using high-quality Faber-Castell and Prismacolor watercolor pencils and soft chalk pastels. They are sealed using Mr. Super Clean UV Matte Sealant and Liquitex Gloss Varnish for their shiny parts. In both instances here, their hair was washed, conditioned and then boil-permed, styled and sprayed into place. All purchase information is located on my etsy shop.
You can also always follow my expoloits with dolls on the following social media platforms where in I offer regular promotional discounts to followers!
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/chrysaliscreati
Twitter: twitter.com/ChrysalisCreate
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chrysaliscreate
Instagram: instagram.com/chrysaliscreation/
I got these turned around so quickly that I wasnt even able to get my WIP pics up! I also had another bottle that I had completed a while ago that I decided to get up online to see if there were any bites on it. I’m rather quite pleased with these two and in fact honestly considered keeping the Draculaura for my own collection! I do hope that you enjoy them.
As always, they were both stripped of their original factory paint and repainted using Faber-Castell Watercolor Pencils and Pastels, Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils and sealed using Mr. Super Clean UV Matte Sealant and Liquitex Gloss Varnish. I also painted both their hands and feet with nail polish AND added a little touch of realness with lashes!
I got her finished in the same weekend! The other day I posted my new WIP and was quite pleased that I was able to get her completed AND posted for sale in my Etsy shop all in the same timeframe. Usually I start a doll one weekend and finish her the next but this Warrior Goddess came together quite easily. Hair is very loosely based off of Lagertha from the Vikings Series.
Katheryn Winnick as Lagertha in Vikings
But today I can post that she has indeed been placed into my Etsy shop for sale and here she is!
My work for this weekend is on one of my favorite Monster High dolls – Scarah Screams. Shes the daughter of the Banshee and Irish which puts her high up there in my books but beyond the character that Mattel created, her mold is beautiful and she’s just a gorgeous, simple doll.
I have enough of the in inventory now that I decided it was time to break one out and work on her. I initially was inpsired to do something either Celtic or oddly, Egyptian based but was having an issues deciding on colors. The Celtic inpsired that a bit more I think and I went with a bright bloe woad looking color and a bright yellow. Then she turned a little tribal on me with the blushing so I went that direction instead.
Overall, she’s probably one of the prettiest dolls I’ve repainted so far and I’m horribly proud of her. I may have a hard time parting with this one when I list her for sale! Her hairs been washed and conditioned and she’s drying now so I’ll style it tomorrow and see what I come up with there.
So I try each week to start a new doll. Sometimes I have to finish a doll instead of start one, as was the case last week when I finished up two I had begun. Since my rerooting adventure is now completed and I have a better idea of what in the world I’m doing there (and likely wont reroot for a while unless the absolute need to change a characters hair overcomes me again!) I started a new doll this week.
Usually, I’ll faceup the doll one weekend and then finish hair and photoshoot the next. I was trying this weekend to get this particular doll finished, but I like to leave the hair to dry completed before I photoshoot and her hair was still wet so opted to let her sit for a day (and likely longer) until she’s completely dry – so no finished photos until this weekend.
But what struck me about this particular doll is that I hadn’t started out to do such a sweet and innocent face. There are times when working with the dolls I’ve noticed where their feel just comes through regardless of what I had originally set out to do. With this Frankie, I wanted to do something a little more dark/gothic and somehow this darling little face came out instead. I’m rather happy she did.
This weekend I received my first order from DollyHair and was excited to get started. I ordered hair in Blueberry Muffin, DragonFly and Poison Ivy to go along with the recently repainted Ghoulia Yelps doll from the previous weekend.
Ghoulia Yelps Repaint
I also didnt order a rerooting tool cause I felt like I would be able to make one with the supplies I have on hand. I mean, I have a bunch of sewing needles, x-acto knives and wire cutters; I’ve watched plenty of YouTube videos on how to do it so how hard can it really be?
Lemme tell you, the ONE thing none of them videos told me was to ballast the needle. Even in an x-acto knife clamp I had issues with the needle being too long. Either make sure you have the right length needle or make sure you have a dowel rod to plunge the needle into for support! Took me two broken needles and a lot of cursing, but I finally got something that would allow me to get hair back on poor Ghoulia’s head!
I still need to form some polymer clay around the shaft of the needled to give it not only a slightly improved appearance, but also a little additional stability so as to not bend it. Thankfully, the thrown together tool has given me something I could use (and ideas for potential accessories to sell going forward!)
I’ll have pics up of her in a bit and I still need to part thatch her head, but I’ve been quite pleased with the results so far and can’t wait to finish her up this weekend to get her posted for sale.
Chrysalis Creation 