Relay for Life...Give Away

This year my fundraising efforts for American Cancer Society, Relay for Life have been going pretty slow.  Poorly, I might add.  I am down to my last few days...about 2 weeks.  So, hopefully I can encourage you to donate to my page by sweetening the pot.  Here's what I'm offering:

1. For everyone who contributes at least $20 you get the chance of winning one of my handcrafted dolls.  I'll pay the postage and will post the winner here.  You get to select the doll of your choice.  (I may even give away both of these dolls.  The dolls are pictured below.  They're not professional pics but I think they are a fair representation.
2. For everyone who contributes at least $10 you get a chance to win a package of handcrafted cards.  10 cards with envelopes and I'll pay the postage.  Original photographs and artwork...samples below.

So, all you have to do is go to my Relay for Life page and make a contribution to the American Cancer Society.  On or about June 12th, I will post a picture from the Relay as well as the winners.  I'll send out your "rewards" the following week.  

I hope this encourages you to help me out.  I'd like to reach my goal of $750.  Thanks, folks.

Doll #1...Moon Child

Doll #2...Mermaid  (I'll post better pics of doll #2 My Mermaid in a couple of days when I get a chance to take some pics of her.)

Cards will include the following images:

In order to make a donation just go to my page at American Cancer Society.  Just click on the link below and it will take you there.

My Relay for Life Page

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It's actually been over 8 months since I've posted here. It was my intention to post a tutorial during the holidays, but I got to caught up in having a December year-end kind of experience-- and enjoying it-- I didn't get around to it. December became a truly a magical time for me, even though I hate the cold weather; lost both my mother and my brother in the month of December; and have this December lost two people who were dear to me. Yet, December has still proven to be a magical month. It was warm, mystical, thought provoking and joyful. No, not because of any of the things that cause me sleepless nights. But, in spite of them!

I've done some new dolls and will be doing a group show locally. The first one I completed was a moon goddess. And then of course, she had to have a partner--a sun goddess.

Here's the moon. I haven't photographed the sun yet.





This moon goddess is about as mixed media as you can get. All the way down to her chicken wire adorned moon. She really was a lot of fun and went pretty fast. Chicken wire has proved to be a good foundation. You'll see it again after I photograph the sun goddess.

Hope all is well in your world!

Breast Cancer, Service Dogs and Spring

What do these 3 things have in common? They occupy a significant amount of my space in my cranial storage bank. So much so that there is limited amount of space for anything else. As a matter of fact, when I am consumed with anyone of them, I have to put the other 2 on a back burner. I can think about one of them and other less consuming things: walking, swimming, driving, what we're going to have for dinner. But when I'm full tilt into any of one of these areas, nothing else that requires thinking, can penetrate.

This is Amanee. She's named after Amanee Scott who does quite a bit of walking for a cure. I wrote about Amanee and you can find her here. You can also help her by contributing to her walk this year. She's a pretty remarkable young lady and this is her cause. She has accumulated quite a few miles over the past few years doing the 3 day walk. This does not include the mileage she racks up doing fundraisers throughout the year


I found the fabric for these dolls online at eQuilter. They have a full line of breast cancer awareness fabrics; and they also contribute 2% of your purchases to the charity of your choice. Take a look. These are the ones that I bought.

I got this one in pink not blue . I'm not sure if they still have it. I do like the blue and may go back for it.

I admired the work of Gilda Radner from the old days of SNL. Rose Ann Roseannadanna is a classic. Her exit appeared so sudden to me. Though I imagine it really wasn't. Was I preoccupied with other things? I remember being terribly sad and waiting for someone/s to do something. Something BIG. I'm not sure what I was expecting. Every time I see Gene Wilder in one of those old comedies I wonder how he is doing. How he deals with that loss. Even though it is many years later. It also seems like I have more conversations with folks who are spending a great deal of time at our local Gilda's House for one reason or another(their own illness or that of a loved one). Maybe Gilda's House is the big thing I thought I was waiting for. It is probably what she would have wanted and how she would want to be remembered. It may even be what gives her love ones a sense of peace.

This is Gilda's House:

...a symbol of her transformation:

and this is Gilda:

I used the same fabrics on Gilda's House. Her face and hands are sculpted from polymer clay. Her body is fiber. The skirt is a combination of paper mache and fiber dipped in paverpol over wire. The house I picked up at AC Moore (an unfinished birdhouse). Paint, beads, ribbons and a little llama's wool for hair were the balance of the ingredients that went together for this doll. I'm pretty happy with how both of these 2 dolls came out. I do think that I will change the ribbon used to tie the wrists on her blouse. We'll see...

TIMES UP FOLKS

ONE WORLD, ONE HEART BLOG EVENT

WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME

I missed this last year, but was determined to get in on time this year. it's the "One World One Heart" great blog event. It's the third year that Lisa "Oceandreamer" Swifka has hosted this event. For more information about it head on over to this site: One World One Heart. You'll find out about this wonderful event and it will also point you to the 400 plus bloggers who are participating.

As a part of this event each of the bloggers participating is offering a gift to at least one person selected from those who leave a comment on their blogs. As for me, I am offering one gift for every 100 comments left on this site. There are others who are awarding multiples also. I will use a random number generator to select the individuals.

It's a great way to meet new folks and see the great blogs out there.

So, what am I giving away? DOLLS!! What else? These are some that I am working on now. I will pot the give away dolls later on this week. The drawing will be on February 12th. at midnight (Eastern), so I'm cutting off entries at midnight February 11th

So, leave a comment, and make sure you leave contact info. You can enter even if you don't have a blog. Just leave an email address. Now get over there to Lisa's site so you can visit some other sites!

I really am glad that you chose to visit my blog. I hope that you will come back again soon!

New Dolls!!

Well, I've taken a challenge and will actually be selling some of my dolls for the holidays. I've been working pretty hard and am just a wee bit nervous. Please have a look see and let me know what you think. I'll try to post some more as I complete them. I'd really appreciate your thoughts:

This is... Elfin




He's a goodies snatcher. You have to constantly check his hands for snacks. He has really been fun to work on. He's a one of a kind sculpted guy (head hands and feet). I just love his toes. His body is soft wrapped with a wire armature so he can be positioned.




He's done except for some finishing stuff. He's been begging for a hat. I need to work on it!









Would you like to Swing on a Star?

Another OOAK sculpted face , soft cloth body, hands and feet, and a wire armature. I just finished working on the star that she will be swinging from.




One Cold and Snowy Winter Night, Dianna...


This is actually a night light which I made from a lantern that I found. My wonderful husband took care of the hardware construction. It was challenging, but he got the job done. The light is an led which is in her body. There is a scene constructed in the bottom and I cut blue glass for the windows.

This is how the bottom looks with the light on and the door closed.

This is how it looks with the door open.

There is large glitter. Rox stuff on the back windows. A Tree made of air dry clay and lots more snow.

I think you can see where the night light is in this shot. It's actually embedded in her body at the top of her in her skirt.

It's time to dance at the Bloglandia Ball

The MOON is really putting on a show tonight
So that we can dance at the Bloglandia Ball...

And if we can't dance...
At least we can we sleep.

After waiting all this time for the Ball, here I sit at home with a migraine. Just my luck. And I even cleaned the house, rented a limo and practiced dancing. My dress was ready and I had found just the right shoes. Maybe I'll have enough energy to at least go over and peek through the window. The moon, the moon, the moon has come to soothe me. I'll sleep well tonight. Thank you.

New Dolls and A Mermaid almost done

Well, this girl is basically finished. She does need some sort of large shell or even an iceberg from which she can emerge. There are some things about her that I'm not quite settled about yet. Can't put my fingers on it. But when I do I'll feel a lot better about her. The blues have been quite difficult to work... together. I also never was able to find the hair that I wanted.. needed so we settled. One thing that I LOVE is how she sparkles.

Speaking of Sparkles, this little cutie sure does. Believe it or not the fabric came first. Found it in a new shop when I was looking for something else. (Isn't that always the way.) I'm still trying to remember what I was looking for. This was so lushes, I had to have a little bit. So we've been working together--to work it out. She is one that requires sunny days.

I got to try out some new tools. I used a textile tool to burn around the embroidery in the fabric to use for her clothing. I started off with scissors but they weren't as effective. I like tools anyway. This one has an xacto knife you can attach to the end. It gets awfully hot though. Guess how I know that? I'll post a picture so you can see it tomorrow.













And this is Fatima. Her story is still unfolding, but I know that it is about her feet. The miles that they have walked and how they have support her. So I'm paying a lot of attention to them. I had thought about making her a pretty pair of sandals. We shall see. Anyway it's real late now. I need to think about, thinking about sleep. It's been a challenging day.

It Really is Nice to be Nice

"This award will be awarded to those that are just nice people, good blog friends; and to those that inspire good feelings and are an inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support, or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world!" I just was nominated for this award from by friend and fellow blogger Venus at Handmade by Venus. Venus is a very talented artist. She creates the most fantastic dolls. What I LOVE about Venus's dolls is that they are not only unique and beautiful, but her craftsmanship is perfection. What I LLOVE about Venus is her big heart. When you visit her blog make sure you read Here comes the Bride and She started as a Fairy. Anyway, Venus nominated me and I get to nominate 5 other bloggers. Thank You, Venus for thinking of me.



I have run across a many very kind and generous people here in the blogging world. People who share their time and talents to support and connect our very large communities. This makes nominating fun and easy The hard part is limiting it to 5 people. But here goes:

Sprite at "Sprite"

Belinda Spiwak at "Crazy Art Girl's Musings"

Marva Plummer-Brun at "Purple Thoughts-Purple Paint"

Sherre Hulbert at "Sherre's Art Zone"

Judi Wellnitz at "Art Dolls:A Journey in Fiber"

Slightly New Look

I have changed a few things around here. Most importantly for me is that I removed the dates. It makes me feel less guilty about not posting more frequently. I've joined 3(count them), THREE new yahoo groups. I'm really enjoying them, and as soon as I get more organized, I'll be more present in them. I've been working on a mermaid. It all began with Jean Bernard's Mermaid Tail class. If you take the opportunity to follow this link you'll get to see some of Jean's fantastic work. You'll have to scroll down to see the fish tail but you'll also get a chance to look at Jean's incredible art. Well back to the mermaid. I was taking this class with Jean and decided that before I made the tail, I should make a body. HA!! As I was creating the body, this particular mermaid decided that she wanted quite a different tail. She's not your classic mermaid, but rather an ice maid. A creature of the cold Arctic waters I really had to think about materials to use so that you could see the impact that the cold water has on her body. Using modeling past and various glitters really helped. She's not quite finished, but I thought I would share my progress with you. I'm really growing quite fond of her.


One day I'll get a light box. But for now my back yard work table will do. My sweetheart built it for me. It's really great, but that's another story.










I really like the effect of the modeling paste corset, as well as the depth that it gives her skin. By the way the body is polymer over a wire armature.
























And this is her tail. Fabric, angelina fiber, fine glitter and a heat gun! It was like using the heat gun like a paint brush. Oh there is a wire armature underneath all that.