Madison life size paper dolls....

This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending our Great niece, Madison's First Birthday party.  It was awesome of course!  I so miss shopping for those little girl outfits and it was so much fun picking a few out.  Generally, you would get a cute little bag and some nice tissue paper.  But not when you are awake at three in the morning for no reason at all and thinking.  And thinking...and into your head pops, "ooh, wouldn't it be cute if the outfits are already on Madison?"  Next comes, "well, how big can I print out her head after I have scanned it?"  "Hmm, paper is 11.5 by 8.5, surely this will work!"  First you need a picture.  Whitney and Dennis handed that to me with the handy-dandy invitation with not one but 12 pictures of her on it.  (Very cute by the way!)  Then you will need some arms and legs with hands and feet attached.  I tried scanning some various appendages in my collection.  For some reason though, they just were not working.  I almost gave up.  Until, while cleaning up my craft room I opened up a drawer and "Voila" a pair of baby doll arms and legs.  Hey you never know when you will need this stuff.  AND...it's not creepy!  Just sayin!

As you can see I already scanned her head, the doll arms and legs and enlarged them.  (later though I realized the hands should have been a bit bigger!)  This is what happens when you start the project THE NIGHT BEFORE YOU LEAVE!

Next use your Modge Podge to adhere all the parts to those Xmas boxes you bought at the Dollar Store this year.  (Guess we will be needing more of them next Xmas!)  For the trunk of her body, I put the clothing down on the cardboard and basically traced the shape of the two different tops.  Then I cut out all of the pieces.  With the trunk shapes I cut them out as if they had short sleeves and short little legs thinking that the baby arms and legs I copied would be long enough to connect.  NOPE...no such luck.  Hey, I am "winging it" here!  SO, I had to add a linking piece of cardboard to connect the arms and legs to the trunk piece.  This doesn't need to be pretty because the clothing will cover it anyway.  Although, if I were to do it again, I would have attempted to make the base look more like a paper doll too.  Anyways, I just used a good old fashioned stapler to connect the trunk to the linking pieces, to the arms and the legs. I had to make sure that the staples were completely flat and not sticking up so they wouldn't ruin the clothing.  Then I basically dressed the doll.  I left the head for last because I really wasn't sure how I was going to connect that.  In the neckline area, when I was making the body trunk piece I didn't cut out the scoop part of the neckline because I figured that is where I would attach her head.  I brought out the old glue gun and carefully attached her head making sure not to get the glue on the clothing.  That would not have been good!  And here she is....

Twin Madison's in their cute little outfits!  Yeah, I know I could have sized the baby arms a bit bigger.  But now, how do I wrap them up?  I dunno, a box seemed kind of creepy.  (As if this isn't already...I hear you people!)  I was thinking of a paper doll like book but I didn't have big enough cardboard, or a huge envelope sort of thing.  Before I started my project THE NIGHT BEFORE I had to leave to go out of town for the party, I was at the Dollar store looking for possibilities.  I purchased two cute bags that were sort of metallic like and much stronger than the others thinking I could create the envelope.  Nah, I was running out of time and still had to pack as it was an overnight trip so the bags had to do in their own right.  I felt kind of bad folding Madison up, but I tried to do it in such a way that when she was pulled out of the bag by her head (ouch!) that her arms and legs would just unfold into a natural position.  Well that sort of worked!

Madison and her twins at her party.  I cracked up because I hadn't realized I made her head so darn big!  I was a bit nervous not knowing what my nephew and niece would think...cause it is kind of strange.  But the awesome thing was, everyone clapped and that made me feel so much better even as Whitney's eyes were like "WTH"?!

Will the real Madison please stand up!

I know the outfits look big too right?  They are 18-14 months which mommy said to get.  I had a lot of fun making them and watching my crazy 3 o'clock in the morning vision come to life.  Most of all it was so nice to be able to be at Madison's First Birthday party!

Yummy Cake!

Beautiful little Birthday girl!








The End!  Darn, now looking at that cake I would like to eat some!  BTW, Madison ate about 3/4 of that little cake! 

The Transformation....

This was my old craft room.

 

 

Sorry the picture is such a mess.  I just can't seem to find a "pretty" pic of it when I didn't have a huge mess in there.  My craft room is now in my son's old bedroom upstairs.  It has three windows and lots of sunlight streaming in.  I do love it but...I am quickly running out of storage for all that "stuff" you just have to keep for those "future" projects.  I also feel a little guilty stealing his room, since he is at college less than an hour away.  My daughter however, is living in Japan for the last two years and her room remains...the "shrine" with all of the things left exactly as they were when she left.  I guess one reason is she couldn't exactly take it all with her!  I will do a "post" on my new craft room soon.

But now my old craft room has become my husband's office.  Finally a room just for him.  He doesn't have a "man cave" yet as our basement is unfinished.  At least now he has a room, where he can work at home, "chillax" on his laptop and put together puzzles that won't be lingering on the dining room table.  Although, to be fair...how often do we use that!  First order of business to change out my favorite teal colored walls for a nice soft creamy color.  Painting the rooms are never my favorite project.  I do however like the huge impact and instant gratification that a can or two or paint and a few hours will get you!

Here is an overall shot of the new office:

We were going for a Steampunk sort of feel in this room.  We have had several antiques for many years and this room is a perfect home for them along with the newer "antiques" we purchased and the "faux" ones as well.  For instance, the oil lamp in the left corner of the desk is from the late 1800's.  I have an actual dated picture with it sitting in a wall sconce.  Hard to believe that the glass has been around this long.  It is beautifully etched.  The M.V.P. "soccer man" trophy in the center is my hubby's pride and joy from college.  The coffee table is a "Rooms to Go" table that we purchased about 11 years ago.  It was originally a dark stain.  A few years ago I painted it the creamy color as my decor in my family room changed.  Then it was sent to the basement until it was revived once again for his room.  My hubby told me out of the blue one day that he liked the "Union Jack" flag.  An overhead projector, a huge pack of transparencies his office could no longer use and I was in business.  Of course, when I readied all my supplies and turned on the projector...the bulb blew out!  I can't tell you  how many weeks it was before hubby finally ordered the new bulb (he is in the lighting business) and then they lost the order (of course) before I finally got to get this project even started.  Luckily, it went much smoother than I anticipated.  Initially, I was going to leave it pristine and crisp...nah, I needed to "age" it.  Now he has a place to put together those puzzles and to put his feet up.  Out of view is a "Pottery Barn like" loveseat from JCPenney with a creamy colored slipcover.

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