Daisy Chain Award Nomination!

I have been nominated for the Daisy Chain Award! I was nominated by Shelby-Grace of Oh My Dollies blog.  She started the award nominations and it goes like this, you answer some questions about American Girl doll blogs and then you nominate 5 other doll blogs. You can use the questions that I'm answering or make up some of your own. So on with the questions.

1. What inspired you to create your own doll blog?
Well I wanted to start a doll blog because I love American Girl dolls and I wanted my readers to know what I am working on. I sew outfits for American Girl dolls.

2. Do you like customized dolls?
Are you talking about the My American Girl dolls where you get to choose your own hair color etc.? Yes, I guess I do.

3. Do you prefer My AGs or Girl of the Year? I really like the Girl of the Year and the historical dolls. I like that they have a story behind the dolls. And anything that gets kids to read is always a plus to me.

4. If you could choose anywhere in the world to have a dolly photo-op, where would you choose?  I think that New York city would be interesting. A photo-op at the Empire State building or even the Twin Towers Memorial would be great. We are hoping to go there in a couple of years.

5. Do you design your own doll clothes? I don't design my doll clothes but I sew clothes for the dolls. I love picking out material and getting new ideas about what would look good on the dolls.

6. What is your favorite doll brand? I'd have to say right now it is American Girl Doll company. I think that they are really well made dolls. But other 18 inch doll companies are very good too. I think that the My Life dolls from Madam Alexander are very pretty dolls. Their faces are so pretty.

7. Do you prefer photo stories or crafts on other doll blogs? I really like the crafts. I get a lot of good ideas from the crafts.

8. What is your favorite American Girl doll and why? I would have to say that Caroline Abbott. I like her because I have always loved South Carolina. My aunt and uncle lived there and we used to visit them when I was a kid. He had a love for history and he would take us site seeing at the historical areas there. I recently discovered that I had an ancestor that came to the US from England. He was traveling to the United States because his father did not approve of his marriage. As they were coming over here, his wife fell overboard and drowned. Then that was how he came to live in South Carolina.

Ok now it's your turn! I'm nominating:

All My Dolls, Oh My!
American Girl Fan
Molly and Me
Pretty Lilly an American Girl
Gigi's Doll and Craft Creations

We're Back!

We were gone on vacation a couple of weeks ago but now we're back and ready to sell! Our family took a vacation to Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. We had such a great time but it was exhausting! I am so glad to be back. I've been missing out on some well needed sewing time. I got a few new outfits made and I also made some things that I was out of stock on. One of the new things that I made was a sleeping bag and pillow set. I just love this pattern! The pattern is from Pattern Patti.

I also made some shoes to go with some of my outfits. I made the shoes using the Love U Bunches Plain Janes pattern.

I also wanted to let everyone know that my shop will be participating in the Etsy community event Christmas in July. It goes from July 10 - July 20. It only happens once a year so be sure to visit my shop and take advantage of the great deals. I have a couple of coupon codes for you to use in my shop. Use the code CIJ2014 to get free shipping with orders that are $30.00 and above. And CIJ20142 you will receive 20% off your entire purchase. Also, I have a SALE section in my shop and those items are discounted 25% off. So tell your friends about this great once a year opportunity to save! And be sure to sign up for our newsletter where you will get the latest information about what I'm making and special sales.

Doll Playsets

My dolls have been having a lot of fun this week at Camp Doll Diaries. This week's theme is Take a Bow. It's all about the fine arts. I set up a dance studio based on the tutorial by Karen of Karen Mom of three craft's blog. The tutorial is on the Doll Diaries website. My dance studio wall is one of the play sets that I have made for my daughter's dolls. They are inexpensive to make and they store away easily under the bed or in a closet. Here is the tutorial for them:

A large box

First you need to get a large box from a place like Walmart. You may be able to get this free if you ask them. But if you can't it was only about $3.00 for this one.

Cut off the ends

Next, cut off the end flaps of the box. Next you will want to cut the box in half down the long sides. This will give you two panels that you can make doll rooms out of.

One of the panels that has been cut

Now that you have your box cut, you can take one of the panels and start adding scrapbook paper for the wallpaper. You could if you wanted to use contact paper or wrapping paper but I like using the scrapbook paper because there are so many different designs. I use three 12 x 12 sheets of scrapbook paper. In order to make it fit on my panel, I cut one of the sheets in half and glue each one on each side and the other two between them. 

Placing the scrapbook paper 

Now to glue it down with a glue stick

After I have the scrapbook paper where I want it, I will now glue it down. I use a glue stick. It takes more than one glue stick but it's less messy. Now I will pick out another pattern of scrapbook paper that coordinates with the top ones. I do this the same way as I did the top. After the bottom pieces are glued on, I will use a solid color of scrapbook paper to make the chair rail to the room. It makes it look pretty and hides the line between the two papers. I cut the solid piece an inch wide and the length of the panel. Glue this piece on the line where the two papers meet.

The solid piece is glued in between the two pieces

Next, to make the room more like a real room, I added a window using an outdoor scene cut from an old magazine. The magazine Southern Living has a lot of pretty scenes. Then I took another solid piece of scrapbook paper and I cut it in 1/4 in. wide strips and glued them onto the magazine scene to look like a window.

Finished play set 

Super Sculpey Giveaway

Doll Diaries has got a great giveaway that is going on right now. All you have to do to enter is go to their website and look around and then post your comments about what you would like to make for your dolls on the Doll Diaries website. Doll Diaries has a lot of cute ideas about what you can make with Sculpey. I would like to make the fish, bugs, and cookies. You can also get bonus entries if you share with your friends. You can post about it on your blog, on your Facebook page, Pinterest, or follow Doll Diaries on Twitter or Instagram. Just be sure to read the rules on Doll Diaries website.

Camp Doll Diaries Day 1

My daughter Emily and I are doing Camp Doll Diaries. Camp Doll Diaries is a camp that you can play along with your American Girl dolls or other 18" dolls. They have ideas for crafts and lots of doll play ideas. We got our camp set up and decorated our cabin from one of the ideas that they had on Doll Diaries. Doll Diaries is a great website that has all kinds of crafts, giveaways, and tips about all kinds of dolls. It's one of my favorite sites.

Saige and Madyson enjoy a little down time in their cabin to play a game of Crazy Eights.

Madyson is wearing her name tag that she made on the first day of camp.

The backdrop to the cabin was made by me. I have a tutorial that I will show later on. The sleeping bag was also made by me from a pattern by Pattern Patti. I think that it turned out really cute. I love the color combos that I picked out for it. I found the material at Walmart in their sewing section. Emily named her camp Katty Korner. I also loved how she filled out some of the registration forms. She said that Isabelle was allergic to spinach! And that Saige's favorite book was the Phantom Tollbooth. I think that you are never too old to play with dolls and it gave us some great bonding time! Emily can't wait to find out what today's craft is.

Clothing Label Tutorial Part II

Ok, here is the second installment of how to make your own labels for your handmade clothes. Now that your material is dried, you will need to iron it onto a piece of freezer paper. You can find freezer paper in the grocery store on the aisle that the paper plates is on. Cut out your freezer paper to fit in your printer.

Then iron your freezer paper onto your fabric making sure that you iron on the paper side. The shiny side should be on top of the fabric.

Once your fabric is ironed on, you can begin to print onto it. I use Avery Design Pro to design my labels. They have lots of different templates to choose from and it's free. But you could use any imaging software that you prefer.

After you have your labels designed like you want them, you can begin to print them on your color ink jet printer. I always print out one page on plain paper before I print on my fabric.

Here I have drawn an arrow on my test page to make sure which side the copy will print on. I want it to print on my fabric not the freezer paper. In my printer, the freezer paper is facing up. Now I can print my labels out. Hurray! Success!

Now cut the labels out using my clear ruler, cutting mat, and rotary cutter.

After they are cut out, you will need to rinse them in Bubble Jet Rinse. Remove the freezer paper from the back of the labels and rinse them in cold water for about 5 minutes. After they are rinsed out, squeeze the excess water out and let them dry on a towel.

When they are dry, you can bag them up in a resealable plastic bag so that they will be ready for you to put them in your clothes. I use two strips of  1/2 inch wide Steam A Seam to bond them to my handmade doll clothes. It's just what works for me. You could also hand sew them in if you would like. I hope that this tutorial has inspired you to be creative with making labels for your handmade clothing items. 

Clothing Label Tutorial Part I

When I started making and selling clothes for American Girl dolls (or other 18" dolls), I knew that I wanted to put my own label with my company logo on it in my doll clothes. But I didn't know exactly how to do it and I didn't have a lot of money to get someone else to do it. So after searching on the Internet I finally found a way that I could make my own company labels that looked good and saved me money. So if you would like to learn how I do it, here is a tutorial for you. This tutorial is done in two parts. The first one is done tonight and I'll do the second one tomorrow.

I wanted a way to be able to print on fabric. You can buy fabric that you can print on but it's kind of expensive and this way will save you money.
First of all, you will need a product called Bubble Jet Set. I found it online for about $10. It is made from formaldehyde so you will need to be careful and wear gloves to protect your skin. The other is called Bubble Jet Rinse. This sets the ink on your fabric after you have printed it out.

You will want to choose a fabric to print your labels on. I chose muslin. It just works for me. But you might want to use cotton jersey because it will not fray like the muslin will. I use Fray Check on my labels after they are dried. I cut my fabric out the size of an 8 x 11" piece of copy paper to fit in my ink jet printer. I like to use color but you could use black and white if you want to.

After I cut my fabric with a rotary cutter, I thoroughly saturate my fabric with the Bubble Jet Set. I let it soak in the solution for about 5 minutes. Remember to use your rubber gloves!

After five minutes is up, I squeeze out the fabric and pour the excess back into the bottle to use again the next time. I will now flatten the fabric out and let it dry. This usually takes overnight so this is all until tomorrow. Come back tomorrow to see how I print the labels out!