Through Rose Colored Glasses

.

I had said that I wasn't going to share my paper dolls here but when that is about all I do to share I figure I might as well share it... You can read it or not depending on your interest.  I actually do doodle on each one its just not my standard kind of doodles.  Right now I am LOVING "playing paper dolls" but I don't tend to stay very long with any one thing so who knows how long this will last.

Like, for example, last week I discovered "SkillShare", a website with TONS and TONS of art type classes and I have spent the better part of three days watching videos!  I LOVE LEARNING and I may just have to start working on some of the things I'm learning!

Anyway, I am showing you today's doll in this post, if you want to see the first 11 dolls you can see them HERE:

Now, about today's doll:

I wanted to hurry and get today's doll done so that I could test out an idea I woke up with this morning ....  Glasses.  I saw a doll on Pinterest with glasses and I WANTED them!   No clue where she got them sooooo...

I have been on a major quest in search of glasses for my girls.  Yes, first I tried the obvious, just drawing them but I'm not so great at symmetry anymore.... Heck, a straight line went out the door years ago....you'll notice there are no straight lines in any of my doodles.   I digress... guess what, there is no such thing "out there" that you can buy... No dies, no stickers, no brads.... Until now :-).  As always I had a "well der" moment... "You can make them yourself!"  So I did:

This is what they look like after I cut them out.... white then I hand color as desired.

I cut them out of white vinyl so that I can color them with any color, lense and frame.  The idea is to color each piece then layer the frame onto the lense (if you use one) then place it onto the doll before adding bangs.

If you would like some glasses that you can color yourself I will sell you 15 assorted pairs (including 15 frames/lenses) for $2.00 (FREE shipping).  These are ALL WHITE vinyl (I used alcohol pens and permanent ink pens to color mine) and are about .8" (fit the popular DIE CUT dolls ... not the stamped dolls)...click the "Buy Now" button below:

 

I used the doll and dress from this set:

   

I got the pad of paper from Hobby Lobby this weekend for only $4 ... it was the 6x6 version, not this oblong one.  I used the sheet of white polka dots on pink then put a black dot on every other fold of the dress to make it appear that I used two different papers.

 And the Hair (I drew the bangs in myself) from this set: 

   

The leggings and shoes are just colored directly onto the original white stamped/cut doll, no extra cutting...I do that when I'm in a hurry. What I usually do is place the clothes down onto the girl, without gluing it down, to see what needs to be colored flesh color and whatever (like the leggings). This time I had done a really bad job of cutting the foot so there was a big black line running through her foot...problem fixed by coloring the whole foot black and calling it boots. I then thought she needed some lacy socks so I just used a white pen and doodled those in.

All of the coloring was done with the Spectrum Noir pens.

Pinspiration For My Prima Dolls

Playing with the actual stamps for my Prima Dolls didn't last long...there is just so many poofy dresses and puffy sleeves I can stand since I an neither a poofy or puffy kinda girl.  

Yesterday and today I pulled from Pinterest for ideas...

No, I know they aren't exact but it was the ideas I was going after, not exactness.

The secret to making clothes without a pattern or die:

Of course it shifted as I took the picture...they don't make it easy to take a one handed picture on an iPad!

I think I am going to challenge myself to a doll a day, but I will probably share them over on my other blog (link in the top menu) since I am a wee bit off topic here.

Prima Paper Doll Play!

My new favorite thing! .... THIS week :-).  Would you believe that I just recently discovered Prima dolls by Julie Nutting ?!  Truth.  But, I'm actually glad I waited until the dies for some came out because I don't really have the patience to do much fussy cutting.

So, last week I bought all three die sets currently available and this weekend I played paper dolls!  WHAT FUN!

Stamps and Dies Used:
Here are the stamps that go with each set:

And, thankfully, there is a die for each piece.

   

I love having all three sets because you can mix and match some of the pieces, not all, but some....like the hair and some of the clothes.

I got tired of switching the stamps around on my acrylic blocks so I found two long blocks + one smaller block and put all the stamps on them so that now all I need to do is ink up all the stamps I want to use at once. 

I have decided that I want to make lots of dolls for a project idea I have for later on in the year so I started mass producing elements:

But back to the dolls I made this weekend... on the 1st, 2nd and 5th I used patterned paper but on the rest I just doodled on and colored with my Spectrum Noir markers... my alternative to crazy expensive Copic Markers.  I'm afraid my iPad photo didn't do the markers justice though,  the colors are not showing through like the originals.  OK, and to be honest I didn't do such a great job of coloring the hair either.

I LOVE! LOVE! playing with these sets!  The only thing that I was a bit disappointed with was the fact that she uses the same two bangs in each set.  I did a little bit of extra cutting on the 2nd girl myself.  Honestly though, the ability to modify them yourself is what makes it fun.  I will definitely buy any new sets she comes up with. FUN! FUN! FUN!

Markers Used:
I am showing all the different sets of Spectrum Noir available...you would have to buy all sets to have all the colors...which, of course, I just had to have



They are very much like Copics except for the number of available colors and the price of course.  Thankfully I never got on the Copic bandwagon because I couldn't justify the expense in my own mind... paying between $1-$2 per marker makes more sense to me.

Papers Used:
I used plain white cardstock (random no name) and two different paper pads. I'm sorry but I can't find the cover to the flowers one so I don't know the name but the paper for dolls 1 and 5 came from:

OH! and the white/black polka dot stocking were made with washi tape... I accidentally drew on her leg so I need to cover the mistake up so I just covered some cardstock with the tape then cut the legs out again with the die....easy fix, happy solution.

SketchNoting Cheat Sheet

I love everything about SketchNoting!  I only wish I had thought of it when I needed to learn for test in school!

Yesterday I went through SketchNoting pins on Pinterest and made myself a cheat sheet to use when I take notes from the Bible or listen to sermons.... But I have to say, I have tried it and it isn't easy!! ... I don't think that fast!  I totally admire people that do it for a living.   ....Talent envy....

Here it is stuck to the back of my 2014 calendar journal.

I'm Just Not Patient Enough To Be Perfect Anymore!

My whole life I have been a bit of a perfectionist.....well....I am obviously over that!  I am now sixty years old and my attitude has changed to "oh, the heck with it, good enough! Who really cares anyway?! This is so not that important!!

There are a few people "out there" that have a handwriting that I just LOVE....so I want to teach myself to use that same handwriting...well that takes practice!  Yesterday I decided to practice.... Three strikes...and I decided "the heck with it, good enough!!! It is practice after all, no one is paying you for this, get over it!"  ....  Ha! The freedom of being old!

Gotta say though, when I look at it all I see is what is wrong with it.  But, it obviously doesn't bother me enough to do it again.

I have to say though, I did something last year that gets pinned all the time and I cringe every time I see that it gets pinned.  I think, "can't they see how 'not perfect' it is?!" Ugh!

Oh well....  Jesus is coming back soon, more important things to concern myself with!

My Doodles Found Throughout My 2014 Calendar

More little doodles found throughout my 2014 calendar.

This week I decided to start including all the new dies I get...the following is a sampling of what I got this week.  It is a Simon Says Stamps die set called "We're Expecting".  It actually was made to go with a stamp set but. I have discovered that I would MUCH prefer to draw my own lines.  The two faces are actually eggs,but I saw faces.

Sorry it is so sloppy, I was just trying to hurry and get something done ....I got a bunch more dies.(on other pages of the calendar) so I wasn't try too hard to be neat.

Frame Waiting For Something

No Rhyme Or Reason...

This page in my journal, like most, has just been a catch all page of doodles with no rhyme or reason.  It has been "in progress" for several months now.  There are a couple dies that I cut out and colored when the mood struck and the rest just kinda happened.  I don't love white space so I try to fill it with whatever happens...and when there is no more white space I call it done...  This is today's "done":

I finished it while I was watching "at" a TWO HOUR video of all the different birds, fish, and such that have died by the thousands since 2008....  WOW!!  It is shocking to see what has been happening!  http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uFJbDn1J1O4.  More End Time prophecy being fulfilled....  Of course my excitement for the rapture has been renewed because of the blood moon the other night.  If you haven't seen some of the teaching on the Four Blood Moons be sure and check that out on YouTube as well.   

LOOK UP, YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH!!!

I Am So Impatient!

I doodled this page into my calendar journal last week without the words.

This morning I found some words that I liked ok,
"No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow
you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying."  Unknown

That's true enough I guess but I don't like to compare myself with anyone else, ever, so I had to change it up a bit.

I started Weight Watchers 10 weeks ago and naturally I want it to go much much faster than it is so I need the constant reminder that at least I am past the first 30 pounds... I had to get past those to get to the next 30.... but I want it faster!

OH! almost forgot, the actual page still has no words on it.  This is a font I worked on this week, I just just used CorelDraw to lay the words on the picture of the doodle and saved it that way.  I'm not done with creating the font, I still have some uppercase letters, numbers and punctuation to finish... but I was ready to see what it was going to look like! .....  again with the no patience thing:-( 

Proverbs 3: 5-6

This past Friday I shared the drawings of James that I did last year, both here and on Facebook.  One of my dear friends saw it on Facebook and asked me to do Proverbs 3:5-6.... she was curious what I would come up with.... Well, here ya go Sweet Margaret!

I just love doing this because it makes me meditate on the word and pray over the words.  Funny thing happened this time.  The first part, trust the Lord with all thine heart....I'm pretty sure that it means to trust him with all of your heart, but I saw it a little differently this time... Trust him to take care of ALL of your heart, that's a little different.... So, even though I think it probably means the other, I showed it this way because we are to do that too... Trust Him to take care of our hearts... broken, sad, loves, every part.  I thought about letting her hand Him the pieces of a broken heart but I forgot and drew it this way.

On the last part I thought about adding a street sign on the side of the road that said "Righteousness Path" or "The Right Path", but it would have had to have been too big in order to read it...so, just know that's the path he is on... next to the still waters and green pastures. :-)

Anyway, I hope you "get" my little interpretation of each of the parts.

Have a great rest of it...