BEFORE and AFTER: DOLLY FOOTWEAR

HERE are some of my BEFORE-AND-AFTER shoes, boots, etc. that I have created for my GIRLS:




Standard chunky Mary-Janes and a bit of GLITTER ...




. . . RUBY SLIPPERS !!!!

Standard athletic / tennis shoes:
TRANSFORMED into OXFORD / SADDLE SHOES!

BLACK PLATFORM MARY-JANES:
I cut off the straps, and added a loop in the back by the heel area;
threaded a satin ribbon through, for a little LACE-UP STYLE PARTY SHOE

Platform Mary-Janes:
PAINTED them all white;  then painted the bottom portion GLOSS BLACK.
The silver buckles are metal o-rings from costume jewelry,
painted silver, coated in craft glue, and dipped in silver glitter dust;
then glued on after all paint on shoes dried.

Generic brand fashion doll boots.
I painted them with opalescent paint. 
Added a white satin ribbon that I crocheted lace
(very thin crochet thread)
Added a pre-made matching white satin bow,
and 3 opalescent rhinestones on the back.

BARBIE BOOT:
Simply added a row of CRAFT FUR to the top edge
(back of boots were slit with x-acto knife slightly,
and fur goes from slit to slit, not an enclosed circle)

Stock BARBIE ankle boot BLACK:
PAINTED ORANGE
Covered in BRIGHT FUSCHIA GLITTER
(The hard part was making the little RUFFLE out of BRIGHT ORANGE ORGANZA RIBBON,
then gluing THAT onto the boot,
then covering it all with a flat piece of orange organza, tied with a bow in the back .. !

THESE mary-janes were made for the X-LARGE, FLAT-FOOTED Barbie mold
(I originally thought they would be perfect for my LBE dolls ... they are WAY too huge for BLYTHE )
So, I transformed them into
EMERALD SLIPPERS !!!

I made PINK BALLET SLIPPERS
adorned with PINK ROSES and CELERY AND ROSE satin ties
out of these stock purple ballet flats ...

COOL RAIN BOOTS
(just a simple PAINT job !  )

Made these TRADITIONAL BLACK-AND-WHITE

OXFORD / SADDLE SHOES

from athletic shoes;  craft foam soles ...

PAINTED the soles a brick-rust color like the originals ...

For these FUN red-and-white saddle shoes,

I used an old BLACK LEATHER BELT for the soles

cut with an exacto knife and glued onto the bottoms ...

PINK and WHITE Version

ALL I did for these was to GLUE ON flat-back PINK PEARLS

For the TURQUOISE version ...

I ADDED A LITTLE GLITTER for pizzaz !

as usual .... THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS !!!!!





Notes on Customization of Blythe Dolls: MAKE-UP

MAKE-UP                

After sand matting faces, you may want to put color back into your doll's face.  There are a few tutorials on-line to help you do this.  

All faces sanded ... now to spray with MATTE clear, prior to make-up application

close-up of face-up BEFORE

Airbrush method:  I DO NOT OWN AN AIRBRUSH painter.  I do not have any intention of becoming a professional customizer, or investing in the (costly?) equipment.  I just wanted to make a NICE FACE on each of my girls.  NOTHING too fancy …. Just a nice and NATURAL looking.  But here is what I have found:

LBE and BLYBE TYPE CLONES with HARD PLASTIC FACES: 

          EVEN though you have sand-matted their faces …. The pucci collective is correct:  IT IS HARD TO GET PASTELS (chalk) TO SHOW ANY REAL COLOR !!!  I tried and tried and TRIED …. Until I CRIED !  I was thinking, DARN I came this far, HOW COME THE COLOR WON’T STAY !!!!!?????? #%^^$@$^^$##@*&!!!  I had CHALK DUST EVERYWHERE …. But NONE OF IT was sticking to the doll !!!!  ARGH !!!  I ended up just putting my FINGER into the chalk and dust I had on paper, GROUNDING it in … then GROUNDING it into the FACE! 

I know …. I NEVER saw or read ANYONE giving THAT ADVICE …. But at this point, I did not care, I just did what ever worked!  

[ I bought two chalk sets:  One at Michael's and one at JoAnn's.  Very reasonable prices.   Just be sure they are NOT oil pastels. ]

Planning what hues for each girl, to be sure they all look DIFFERENT

 RE:  Face-ups using paint

            I did SEE a nice YOU-TUBE video on “how to suck less at face-ups”.  [ I should go find that again to give her the credit she deserves ... ] The artist was VERY good, and she was making sort of a dolfie~pullip type doll … from scratch (blank face).  Her advice was to get GOOD artist quality paints (advice I should have had at the beginning, before I started all my eye chip mania … );  and a good ‘medium’ … not water. 

TIP to save $$$:  Use disposable plastic when painting.  Normally not much paint is used/ needed, so little plastic pieces are perfect for this ... then you can just throw them away!

 

She also used MR. SUPER CLEAR, and for the life of me, I know it is reportedly the BEST, and you just have to have it, etc…… but I was NOT going to go back on ebay and spend one more DIME, and who knows?  Maybe it would not WORK on the CLONES!  So, forget it. 

I just went to Michaels Craft store and got some “KRYLON Super Clear” in matte for preserving pastel (and other) type works.  I just thought:  I WILL TRY IT on my ‘murder victim’ and see if it works.  I tried it … it was “so so” …. But STILL not as good as THE REAL BLYTHE DOLL WAS/ IS….. without spraying anything.  I also concede that the benefits of using MSC vs. another brand may ONLY be noticable "in the long run" ... but for me ...and for now ... it worked perfectly fine.  I have seen no changes, no yellowing, etc. for the past 9 months ...

Back to the video  ...   ANOTHER thing I liked about her video was:  she HAD WORDS ON THE SCREEN !  This is VERY RARE on You-Tube, but helped me tremendously …. Because I was viewing them on a computer without speakers, and I “got” everything she was teaching.  So, THANK YOU.

MAKE-UP PROGRESS ...

           

I normally don't the “stock” green and / or blue eye shadow that I have seen on factory-issue Blythe dolls … so I knew I would not only be REMOVING any existing eyeshadow, but NOT trying to duplicate it either.  I DID however, see some very interesting ideas on flickr, which I tried to … well, not exactly COPY, but emulate.  OF COURSE, when I got out my pastel chalk, and it didn’t stick….. The EYESHADOW that I did try, that eventually stuck …. looks like CRAP. 

Just a little experimenting with acrylic water-based paint to see if I could make LIPS ...

This was my attempt to put "frosted" lines on a solid color lip ... sort of an "apple" effect ....

 

            The CHEEKS look ‘so-so’ … From a distance.  Close-up … not so much.  I am thinking that it HAS TO BE the HARD PLASTIC again.   Because when I tried to put even just a TINY bit of pastel on the REAL BLYTHE ….. IT STUCK IMMEDIATELY!  So, there you have it.

Here is another tip:  When painting on faces:  Just stick to acrylic paint.  I did attempt to ADD a bit of my own lip gloss to the paint, and it sure did LOOK GOOD ... but then a flickr friend told me:  DON'T DO IT !  THE OIL IN THE LIP GLOSS WILL ERODE THE PLASTIC ... and he was right!  So, Thank You Sailorb :)

There just has to be some "secrets" that I have not found, or that I just don't "get".  I know that a layer of MSC (Mr. Super Clear) prior to make-up is supposed to give the chalk "legs" to stick to ... so I can't fully complain, as I did not use that. 

At this point, all I really wanted to do, was to GET TO MY DESIGNS already!   And so ...



* Disclaimer on ALL of my NOTES:  I am not a true customizer.  I have only done the few girls that I own, 7 Little Big Eyes, 2 Blybe, and one real Blythe.  The caliber and skill and professionalism that is so evident by the lovely flickr pictures ... well there is no comparison to my extreme amateur attempts.  HOWEVER, ALL I really wanted to do was to change them from the hideousness that I saw, into just a teeny bit more beautiful, for my own pleasure and sense of accomplishment.  I do not now, or ever, plan to offer my own skills at customization ... the reason for these blog entries is to help the few out there who would like to do just a few little steps, without spending ANOTHER huge amount on their already expensive girls.

Notes on Customization of Blythe Dolls: EYES: EYE LIDS

This section is on EYELIDS:

Little Big Eyes Dolls:  As far as I can see, it is not possible for these dolls to have "sleep eyes" ... i.e., a time where they can appear to have their eyes closed.  With these dolls, their eyes are always OPEN.  Even when the eye changing button is pushed, there is very little eyelid visible.

Blythe Dolls:  I have seen some very, very talented artists paint some awesome designs on these dolls eyelids.  I did read that to successfully do this, you must either have an airbrush set-up, or sand down enough of the eyelid to make up for the layer of paint for the design.

I did not attempt this process.  I did try to paint my Blybe's eyelids black ... and I thinned out the paint as much as possible, but I just did not like the visible brushstrokes.  Perhaps at a later time I could attempt this step, but I believe the experts:  You need to do all the steps correctly, or the paint / art / design will "rub" against the eye mech when pull ring is used.

This is my Blybe (Blythe Clone) doll ... I painted her eyelids black ... knowing that this may happen:  I do not have an airbrush system ... so I used thin paint ... but the brushstrokes are still visible ... and NOT DESIRABLE ;)

* Disclaimer on ALL of my NOTES:  I am not a true customizer.  I have only done the few girls that I own, 7 Little Big Eyes, 2 Blybe, and one real Blythe.  The caliber and skill and profesionalism that is so evident by the lovely flickr pictures ... well there is no comparison to my extreme amateur attempts.  HOWEVER, ALL I really wanted to do was to change them from the hideousness that I saw, into just a teeny bit more beautiful, for my own pleasure and sense of accomplishment.  I do not now, or ever, plan to offer my own skills at customization ... the reason for these blog entries is to help the few out there who would like to do just a few little steps, without spending ANOTHER huge amount on their already expensive girls.