Celebrating half a lifetime of doll collecting (next week)

 
The doll that started it all was the 2004 California Girl Barbie. At that time I couldn't even dream I would have more than the one doll, let alone a collection of over a hundred, so I spent weeks choosing the best option. I was turning 17 and my parents let me have a real Barbie for my birthday. I had plenty of dolls when I was a kid, but I never liked Barbie. My sister and I played with hefty child dolls that we either held birthday parties for, or took to the "doctor". I didn't understand the appeal of the grown-up skinny doll with tiny accessories that got lost. Even when I grew up a little and became interested in fashion, I didn't like her grinning face with electric blue eyes. At that time Barbie had one rival, it was Sindy during her normally-sized head phase. Even though I never as much as held either of these dolls, I was team Sindy all the way and an ardent Barbie hater. But time passed, I changed, and most importantly, Barbie changed... so in a couple of years I found myself longingly eyeing the doll shelves.

How to improve a neck joint

Hi everyone! The past year has pushed the limits of my ability to use the unusable and make do with cheap things. In this quick post I will show you how I add up and down movement to a neck joint that only provides rotation.

Quarantine Tess (flea market rescue)

Hey guys! It may look like I've abandoned blogging, but actually I've been busier than when I posted every month. Today I have a picture-heavy project that took a year to complete, with long breaks and an apartment change a few months into it. I'm pretty much settled in right now and I hope to appear more alive online, not just posting but also reading and supporting my fellow bloggers. I am not making any promises for the future or excuses for my absence, instead let me show you today a doll that I'm very proud of!

Monster High repair trick

Hey everyone! I was excited to show you a couple of dolls I bought used from a fellow collector. However one of them, this Clawdeen, was in no shape to be displayed. She had a common MH problem - missing both hands and a forearm. In this post I'll show you my cheap solution for it.

Zodiac MMGirls Part 1: Earth signs and overview

One beautiful day last November I was browsing the Fortune Days website to see what else they had come up with after my beloved MMGirls. I was very excited to see the entire first page of the MMGirl section was changed - all the dolls there had brown eyes and a zodiac theme! Now, the zodiac series is sold in every doll store but at that time I couldn't find anything about them except the one promo picture for each doll. The suspense was killing me, I knew I'd like them even without seeing the details so I emailed the manufacturer. They said the dolls were already available at their warehouse. About 40 messages later, my order of a full set was on its way.

Miniature daisies/chrysanthemums tutorial

Hello everyone! Out of several different projects and posts I was working on at the same time, this is the one I managed to finish first. Quite surprisingly, because I had some doll reviews I wanted to get out before anyone else and also another miniature dollhouse set I completed. I guess while I was making the rose bouquet for the dollhouse I got so frustrated I had to make something else my way... I had a bunch of cool supplies waiting in their envelopes, and this is how this project was born.

So, let's take a look at the process behind and all the necessary supplies, shall we?

Holiday wreaths for dolls

I came across a simple way of making cute 1:6th wreaths a couple of years ago, sent a few to friends, and this time I had the obsessive idea of making a bunch of them to photograph together. Do you want to see how to make them too? I don't start decorating until the 24th, so this is actually me giving you a headstart :D These take very little time, don't worry!

Winter in a bubble, or miniature hell

You guys know I'm no stranger to extreme miniature crafts. I came across this dollhouse kit a while ago and I thought it was too cute to pass! I just assembled it recently and thought I'd share the experience. I wasn't into dollhouses... but this is no boring 1:12th scale, it's a tiny winter scene in a snow globe, with furniture and everything. How perfect is that?

Full set Kinder Surprise Barbie 2016

Hey everyone! I have yet another new thing to show you. Remember how a while ago I found a tiny Barbie in a Kinder Surprise egg and repainted it? Since then I became obsessed with finding more, preferably the whole series! I had so much fun with that custom and I love miniatures in general. There are tons of reviews about these, many in the unboxing video format that is a lot more exciting, but since mine will all be getting makeovers, I feel a "before" presentation is in order.

MMGirl dolls Rose and Mandy by Fortune Days (Debisheng Ltd)

Hi everyone! A few weeks ago, I was checking some doll stores on Aliexpress and something caught my attention in the "Recommended" section - beautiful articulated dolls with intricate outfits that to me looked a lot like J-dolls. Unless this is your first time on my page (in which case, hi!), you'll know J-dolls are my absolute favourite dolls and anything remotely similar to them is welcome in my collection. I was going to get a couple more Xinyi dolls - they make boys now too! - but these new dolls got me intrigued and I found no reviews about them at the time. Plus, they came with full outfits, while Xinyi are nude. Curiosity won and I picked two of the dressed dolls, which I'll review today.

Craft Along with GIY: Doll tattoos (3 ways)

Hello! I finally completed a really simple project that has been in my queue for a while. My schedule got more relaxed this month and when Bane from Goth It Yourself posted the theme for September, "Things with Wings", I knew it was the perfect opportunity. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Bane holds monthly craft challenges centered around a theme of her choice. The theme is open for wide interpretation and you can join even if your project isn't remotely goth. For more details, check out her blog and past challenges!

For my project, I decided to tattoo "Things with Wings" on my Xinyi doll. And I wouldn't be me if I didn't make it into a tutorial with several different methods :) Without further ado, let's go!

Tiniest Barbie review and makeover

Hello again! Today we'll talk about the smallest "Barbie" in my collection. I was never into unarticulated figures with plastic hair which I saw on other blogs, however this one came into my possession unexpectedly and I found her small size irresistible. I also thought customizing her could be a fun little project that, if successful, would make her even more charming, and boost my confidence. I had got amazing new glasses a couple of months ago that fix most of my past frustrations with painting and this was a great opportunity to test my new super-vision :)

Nesting dolls

This started out as a Facebook album. By the time I finished the last description, I had enough text that it looked like a little blog post, I even had those questions at the end, so I figured... why not? I have many things in my to-do list and I'm in the middle of a language course but I'll take this chance to write a short post about my nesting dolls.

Another Youtube review

Hello!
Thank you for the kind welcome on my first video! I loved hearing from familiar faces on Youtube and all your comments were super sweet and encouraging!

Today I managed to edit another of my purchase-mail opening videos I filmed a while ago. I have some jewellery supplies in there, if you're into this, you can have a look:

Youtube and life updates!

Hi everyone! Just dropping by to share a link to a video I made. I want to do video reviews of things I buy, most of which are craft supplies. This is the first of the series and it's super awkward, but I can tell you (because I filmed several more already) it will get better in time!

Do you think it's a good idea? What kind of supplies and items would you like to see reviewed?

The five minute mini teddy bear

Hi! Long time no see! I had some very interesting projects which I mentioned on my Facebook, but very little I could actually write about. I tried to make doll "straw" hats, and it turned into this huge obsession with a bunch of styles and experiments I want to try before condensing everything into one or two blog posts. Anyway, during my millinery frenzy, I went to the store to get some trims for one of these hats I was making for a trade, and my eyes fell on some beige pipecleaners. Well, outside the store lighting they were actually band-aid coloured, but I pictured them into bears rather than fuzzy nude stick men. I remembered Jason White's teddy bear tutorial and thought one of those would make a nice addition to the items I was preparing to trade.

The Chinese fashion doll Xinyi

Hi there! I have some new furniture and lighting and I hope to do this more often now! Last week I took advantage of a wonderful rainy day to bond with one of my newest dolls - a Chinese fashion doll I bought online who arrived on my very birthday in December. I waited for so long to introduce her because I couldn't get her a decent outfit (more on that later). But she got into some construction dust and I had to wash her hair and dress. I also had to dust my latest order of doll shoes that I hadn't tried on her before and found the one pair that fit. Then, as I was arranging the wet dress into nice folds, I came across this piece of ribbon and literally tied the whole look together. My doll was finally presentable enough for the blog, so I got the camera and some doll companions and went to shoot today's review...

Happy New Year and goals for 2016

Hi there! Trying to make one last appearance before the New Year :) 2015 was difficult for me, not only because of the new cat but also mentally... it was very challenging. Many of the things I wanted to do remained undone and many times I felt as if I was moving through water while everyone else was at full speed. That being said, I had many happy moments and accomplishments and I gathered lots of exciting new dolls too. I hope the next year will be better and here is a list of things I want to do and write about.

Tagged for the Liebster Award

Original Liebster graphic here

Hi! I gathered a huge queue of things to write about but first I wan to change the lame first post that appears on my page. I was tagged for the Liebster Award by A Dorky Doll Collector and D7ana from Phillycollector. Thank you both! By the way, I have no idea what is up with Blogger, it changed all the domain names to .md (my country) and reset all my zoom settings so each time I opened a familiar blog I had to zoom in like the first time (you guys use the tiniest fonts)! So I hope all the blog links work.

Anyway, people are lining up to see my answers, let's start!

Check out my new Facebook page!

Hi! From this day on you'll no longer wonder if I'm alive or not. I'm on Facebook almost every day, so I made a page there to dump minor updates and discuss posts in the making with you (^^)~
Here it is:

The Multicrafteral Lab Facebook page