Happy? November!

And it's November.

Where did the year go?

I'm still alive (barely) though it's been a crap couple of months. I miss this blog though, and all of the blogs I read, and the people who write them, and I really want and need to get back into writing. Since it's November and my creativity seems to have suffered a horrible death, instead of doing Nanowrimo, I thought I might try to bring this thing back to life.

And I really have a lot of doll news.

First, my life.
Long story short, stuff happened. My car broke down, my cat died, other stuff that sucks and some stuff that didn't. My poor baby Rocky got very sick very fast and there was nothing that could be done. It was like, three days. He was 18 and a half and I was really not ready to let him go. I will miss him forever. And I could seriously go on about him forever, but I won't, it's depressing.

In order not be depressed forever I adopted a new kitten: Doctor Peter Venkman (because my other cat is Gozer the Destructor). He's a little ball of fluffy insanity and I'm so happy to have him. He made Gozer look like the most laid-back kitten in the world however - he's got to be watched and played with and loved pretty much all the time and I'm a little afraid to doll around him lol. My other cats never bothered the dolls, and so far he's pretty much the same...but he's really unpredictable. And he attacks everything.

This is Petey.

He's a little older now, and slightly bigger, but still this cute. Today is his third week with me.

Dolls.
Wow. I need to update the hell out of my profile. I have sold a lot, put more up for sale, had a few acquisitions and am waiting on two heads. My DC comic group is slowly taking over, they're more fun for me right now than my own characters, and seem to be eating up several of my other dolls at this point.

My Unoa B-El, formerly Clover is now the Riddler full time.
Isis, my Dollmore Judith who's body was sacrificed to Harley Quinn is going to be Catwoman if I can ever find another Judith body for her (Harley gets the current one. It's hers now)
The Unoa Chibi - Mini Kimi - is probably going to turn into a boy and be Robin.
My Hound just lost his body....long story.

I actually did something I've sworn a million times I wouldn't do and bought another Iplehouse doll. I got tired of looking for an Owen head and I also became paranoid that none of the hybrids I had planned would work...so I just ordered the full doll. He's been here for weeks now and I was very pleasantly surprised by him. He's not a perfect poser by any means. He's got the horrible hidden double-joints I hated on the EID body, and the same crappy ankles, but on the smaller scale it's so much easier to deal with! He stood right out of the box, sits nicely and slouches, so I'm pretty happy with him.

He's going to make a great Batman! :D

I actually managed to get that OE Dollzone Carter head for Joker, so now he's got two heads. 

His normal self

 

 and the "Battle-Damaged" version. Batman, why you so mean?

   

 this was... A lot of fun. And it led to all sorts of bad. I kept thinking that all this ouch would look so much better on an SD sized head. This is not the first time an SD sized Joker has occurred to me. Way back in the day when I saw IOS Jaguar I thought he'd be a great Joker. We discussed it in the comic thread of DOA - Ringdoll Norman Dark Side was also mentioned as a good head. This was the first time I thought about it seriously though.....and I found a Jaguar head on DOA. I clung to denial and didn't buy it, but I found Ringdoll Dark Norman on eBay.....and things just tumbled downhill. I went on and bought Jaguar (he's on the way), and bid on Norman, and actually won (I never win eBay auctions) SO I essentially have two SD Joker heads. Norman has been here a few days and is on the Hound body (he's NS and my Hound is WS lol) and I'm hoping Jaguar arrives this week. 

I was planning on figuring out which I liked best and using that one. And to be fair, having different versions is rarely actually my idea. My mom suggested it this time....she liked both heads. So do I. Norman is phenomenal, and Jaguar is a head I've always wanted. I need a bunch of 70 cm bodies anyway. I just bought Ringdoll K's head too. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him, I just really love the mold. And there's more but he's a whole entry himself. 

So that's a rundown of what I've been doing.  I may go into more detail about some of it in later entries. Norman is an amazing mold, I can't wait to get him together, and when all the rest of my stuff on order gets here my DC group needs a group pic. Thanks to the efforts of my roommate, they look amazing. 

I really hope everyone out there has had a better couple months than I have! I'm over this year lol. I am ready for 2016 already. Incidentally I should get an additional week of vacation as I will have my (omfg) 15 year anniversary at work. OMFG.

Happy November! If anyone is doing a real Nano, I'd love to know and live vicariously through you!!

Paper BJDs?

I have been massively busy since Thursday.

First, Thursday, Ghost finally showed up!!

 

Ghost is the Dollzone Carter my best friend ordered in February for my Birthday in April. Lol. Happy Birthday to meeeee! Late! But still awesome!

I love him. He's adorable and weird, which is how I like my dolls. He's keeping the grey hair, and will wear mostly black, white, grey and natural colors (cause he's a ghost). I want to order him a couple more wigs - and then for now that's it. I have 4 dolls that I need to faceup at the same time, him, the two Boo's and my DZ Star. None of that will happen until after Dollism.

 

 Speaking of Star, I bought the 5Star Tong Tong from DDE. It came Monday and now my little "dragon" has a body again! Only this time he's a demon. The horns that came with Tong Tong are perfect for him. I'm going to glue them to his head. I'm not kidding.
He looks fantastic right now. All the clothes that are too big for Chibs are going to him.

I worked on Alex III like a fiend all weekend, but he's not close to finished and the weather has been HORRIBLE. Hot and so humid you can't breath. I'm not taking the chance....he can wait. Not for long, but at least until this weekend. I have to finish him, he can't go out in the public half-done!!

I also cleaned my room. This doesn't sound impressive, but if you'd seen it, you'd know....I can walk in there now. I'm doing another wardrobe purge, along with some hats, shoes and other crap I don't need. Then a rearrange of everything so hopefully everything will actually have a place for a change.

Now for the fun part.

I woke up Friday morning to this. I'm not really sure why, but I became obsessed. I must have looked at all those examples for hours, no joke. I decided I wanted to enter, if only to make one, not really to win (though I'd take the prizes lol)...I was thinking of how I'd do Alex when I remembered I couldn't mess with him - III is apart, I is modeling, and the others aren't in a state to even look at atm.

Then it hit me. Skullface!!! I dragged him to work and took a million pictures of him Friday. Of the shots, these are the ones that turned out.

 

and

  

Which I thought were decent photos, but don't help when trying to make paper dolls :\

Because I was busy with a million other things over the weekend I didn't touch it again until yesterday (I was also busy Monday) when I took a million more photos.

Then it got hard. I went through all my pictures and pulled out the best ones of each part. For real, most all his parts are from separate pictures. I cut out the parts, sized and resized, and placed them all together in Photoshop. Some parts, like his head and bottom torso, are made of several photos.

This is the shot I used of his head

 

Part of his hair, and the hat are cropped out. I took both of them from another photo and merged. I also had to do that with his pants a lot. He's pieced together like a patchwork doll lol more than a paper one.

This is what I ended up with

  

 Each part is in it's own PS layer. This file is massive. You can tell he's made up of all different photos because each part is a different color XDDDD *fail*

Then I had to take him apart for the "layout"

Not too bad. But again, massive. I had this one merged to two layers, which was a good thing, because I couldn't print this on a regular printer. My intention was to split it onto two 11x17 sheets, but it was too big for that, and laid out wrong. SO I had to make yet another layout, or, 3 layouts, all 11x17 so I could place and print.

tada!!

 

 I think it worked!!

Here he is, all assembled, and giantly huge! PaperSkullface!

 

normalish, 

and not...so...

  

 lol

I almost wish I had done crazier poses to show how jointy he is. I used 19 brad-things to fasten him, and he's so tall the hat goes nearly to my hip when I hold him up. He's like, twice the size of the real Skullface. He's taped to the wall (you can see the tape on his foot. I'm pissed. I wish I'd seen it before I took the pictures). I put packing tape on him on the backside so I could stick masking tape to him and not damage him. I printed 4 out total, one on regular paper by accident, then three on card-stock. This one is just the card-stock version. The other two I laminated! When I get home tonight I'll start cutting and assembling. I didn't want to laminate the one I entered because I thought he'd be too shiny to photograph.

It's kind of dumb how much fun this thing is. I want to make more. I want to make even better ones! I have a list of things I'd have done better:

Make the black outline better, more consistent and on everything.
Make sure I know how all the joints will work, not just the last half (I got better as I went)
Add dots where the brads will go.
Cleaner pieces.
Better hair. And jointed.
Removable and jointed hat.
Better photos to start with.

It was always my intention to joint the hair, but my photos didn't match up in color or resolution, so I gave up. I think he's fine without. If he was even bigger I could joint the fingers and toes!! *dies*

I am really happy with how he turned out, regardless of what I'd do better. I'd love to make some of my drawings that I could sell at craftshows and stuff. That would be really awesome (guessing it wouldn't be quite legal to sell the ones of the dolls? Since I didn't make the dolls..?).

Anyway, I will call my first paper doll a wild success, whether I win anything or not, I'm thrilled.
Which is one of the reasons I used Skullface, since he was "born" for a DOA contest last year...and even though I didn't win he's been so awesome I'm thrilled. I never would have done that if not for the contest, and I love him! He still needs his one hand finished >.< but I think he looks good <3

Last one

 

Hee hee

Well now that that's done, I may have some time to sued and glue tonight, and maybe I'll get some pics of Star on his new body tomorrow. Or more of Ghost. He pretty cutes right now. I've got faceups and tatts to be doing...and can't do any of it due to weather....so might as well work on non-weather dependent things.

Have a great week!!

The Stars are aligned.

Cheesetastic title is cheesy.

SO I picked up a few things on Etsy I'm excited about. An outfit that will probably be for Macchi (I sort of bought it without thinking of who I own who would actually wear it XD), and a shirt hopefully for Chibs (it's a slim mini shirt....yeah.), and two hats that were sort of impulse buys. I've been wanting to shop for clothes lately, but I really can't find what I want anywhere....so it's been hard. I want to give people money!! No one wants it!!

I was thinking of my "wish list" the other day. Doll Chateau....it's like death. Every other doll they release is something I think I want...but the latest -- Matthew and Isabella(?) got me thinking. I first thought it would be cool to get a Matthew head (I'm in love with his face) to either replace my Colin (Mini-Alex) or to be an extra head...but I'm really attached to Colin. I might get Matthew's head anyway...but I won't sell the Colin head. He's got to stay Alex.

I then thought about putting the whole doll on layaway next year, and he could be mini-Azrael.

Somehow that got me thinking about my poor Moon, who, along with her vine arms, has been in a box since last year when I gave Boo her body.

And I got an idea.

Yeah. Never good.

I have a definite plan now.

Part of the reason I never bought her a new body was because DC keeps coming out with newer, better ones. The other reason, they keep getting more and more expensive. And really I have no need for that Moon. She's gorgeous, but not a character, or even a personality, and I have a hard time spending the $$ on a doll I'm not emotionally involved in.

Well, as of yesterday when I was wandering around campus listing to my iPod, she's got a place in my collection. As does Star, the other head I sold the body out from under. I will wiping and completely redoing my Moon in a different color palate and getting her the new body with the bone wings (yay!). Star is going to be her "master" of sorts, and will be getting a 5star 1\6 child body...hopefully as soon as next week. I wasn't going to buy anything else for a while but this poor head has been hanging around for a few years now, and I have the $$. I've pulled him out already and I'm working on his look which I can hopefully iron out soon. I never knew what to do with him before...now I do and I'm so excited.

In other news, Carter is...not here yet. Omg seriously. The shipping part is taking forever! He may be here tomorrow, he was out of customs early this morning....

And, some of the new Boo!

 He's so cute!! He's killing me!

 

I can't even express how happy I am with him. Still with the default and everything. I want to wait for Carter to get here and do his face, Carter (who will be named Ghost) and Star (who may be Damien) all at once with Little Boo. they're all kind of...creepy, so they'll work at the same time.

LOL for whatever reason I just looked up the over-a-year-ago graveyarded sales thread on DOA of Chibi Alex. From his previous owner...when he was a girl XDDD 

Fun times. 

Chibs! He blond now.

 

 Hope everyone is having a good night (or day, if that's when you are now <3)