Wherever I look nowadays I see Hello Kitty popping up and I start to like her

So here some links for the Hello Kitty lovers out there : a nice paper doll, a paper craft,  some canvas patterns,  an amigurumi pattern (by the way I love the blog it is published on) and a knitting pattern. Look at this beautiful collection on flickr and get inspired! For sure I wished I had a bit of more time and patience to improve my crocheting skills and give a try at creating such beautiful things

Surfing around I found a nice blog called “Position:absolute”. It doesn’t seem to be updated very often but all the posts deal with topics I’m interested in like photography, IT stuff, even a bit of art. I landed there because of this absoultely great post about designer paper toys, lots of nice toys for free, papertoys of course Amongst all of them I love the paper ghettoblaster, I wonder about the scale though.

To this list I would add the cute paper dolls from The Toymaker and the animals paper toys from Fantastic Toys.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and if you have any nice link to share with me and my readers, please do so! We collectors spend so much money on our toys that it is nice to get some freebies now and then

If you are still hunting for ideas for you Xmas dioramas have a look at this great tutorial for miniature crackers, I still remembered how I loved them the first Xmas I spent in UK ( we don’t use them in Italy), your dollies will love them as well!

Here instead are the instructions and printies to make a miniature advent calendar (ok, here we are a bit running out of time).

Or what about this adorable munchkin santa pattern from Linda Walsh site? Or the lovely couple Santa and Mrs Claus, from melodiesplus site. By the way you can find here tons of delightful dolls patterns, check out for example the nursery rhyme ones.

If instead you prefer paper dolls, check the Sally paperdolls available on lair2000 site, all the downloads look great. But if you fancy something more “conventional” here are some Betsy McCall Christmas paper dolls. If you love Betsy McCalls dolls like me go to the main page of Terry Pettit wonderful site, you can have a look and save all of them, included Little Kiddles pd.

So, I hope I gave you some ideas and if you have some nice links to share with me please do so, I would love to see them.

And remember, tomorrow is wednesday, weekend is getting closer

I found  recently some nice paper-models that could be cute props for small and medium sized dolls, perhaps you are interested in them as well. Here you can get a set made of food boxes and an old fashion TV. I really like the TV!

If instead you like vintage entertainment systems have a look at these great NES play-consoles, just go to the site and scroll down toward the end of the page. These ones are in 1/8 scale, they could work out also for Skipper

But the one I really love is the small garden-shed, as soon as I saw  it I remembered having seen last saturday in a shop here some dolls, Shelly-sized. They are dressed in delightful Hello Kitty  outfits and are packed together with garden tools. How nice would they look together? The garden shed comes anyway with the templates for the tools

Happy crafting!

Since I saw the trailer for the movie I cannot wait to watch it in February. It looks great. As I think you understood by now I love stop motion movies and the story seems enchanting. The password to enter the site is “buttoneyes”, but you will need more of them, read the great post from Toycutter blog to find them out. Waiting for it I will most probably buy the book.

The first thought that came to my mind when I saw the trailer was actually how to get hold of some dolls, ok…I admit I’m a bit single minded I would have loved for the moment some paperdolls or even better a papermodel but I couldn’t find any of them. If anybody knows where I can find a papermodel please let me know! I found though the italian trailer for the book

thanks to JacketFlap site, thank you

I saw Forbidden Planet will sell some figures starting in february but to be honest they look more like static figures rather than dolls. I found though these interesting serie of articles on Mary  Robinette Kowal journal on how she created three OOAK dolls commissioned by Subterranean Press. I just browse quickly through 2 of them but I plan to read them well and carefully after I’ve done the boring bit of the day (AKA ironing)

Here I found pictures of the Neca’s puppets and then again a great article about the set of the movie from Animation World Network site.

I still want some papermodels though

If you enjoyed the small peek at the designer dolls for Unicef, have a look at the beautiful Matrioskas dressed once more by famous designers to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Vogue Russia, here is the full gallery. They are a bit “slimmer” than the traditional Matrioskas and absolutely beautiful pieces  of modern design. My Favourite one are the Armani (surprise surprise) and Versace dolls and yours?

Unfortunately they have an estimated price (they will be auctioned for charity) of 5000 dollars and at the moment I have no time to rummage through my bags for the small change So…I found instead for myself  this nice paper-craft project from the Canon site, you can actually build 5 paper matrioskas and, like the real ones, they fit one inside each other!

Have a nice weekend!

I cannot believe I didn’t find this site till now. It is just amazing, the owner has put on line paper-craft models and games that used to be published in the old Donald Duck ad Mickey Mouse comics.

There are also lots of cute dioramas that would work nicely with small dolls (most probably Shelly size), my favourite ones are the TV studio, Duckburg and the Duckburg Christmas market, but I’m quite tempted also by the games and I think on Sunday my PC will be busy with downloads

I realized today I still didn’t show the little cute dolls I bought last week in Cologne. I never bought before Shelly/Kelly Mattel dolls unless planning to resell. I actually thought I didn’t like them but I’ve definitely fallen in love with these 2 sets as soon as I saw them and I’m afraid they will not be the last ones

The first set is Shelly and Tommy as Batman and Catwoman:

I love the costumes and the girl luscious black hair.

This is the second set, a nice couple of pilgrims for the american Thanksgiving holiday :

Again I love the costumes and it would be so nice to have them in a small diorama, I bet there’s plenty of stuff in 1/12 scale out there fitting the two cuties.

And  if you stayed with me till now here a couple of nice links. If you want to make your own pilgrims looks at these nice paper-crafts found via Paperkraft.net but originally published on the Macula site, an impressive site with an awesome paper-craft section. If instead you like to crochet, here is a nice teddy bear you can make and on the same page you find the patterns for the fitting pilgrim outfits, a male and female version of it.

That’s all for tonight, have a nice week

I really like traditional japanese dolls but for the moment I keep myself happy by buying, by time to time, a fashion doll dressed in a kimono or a kimono for a doll I already have. Said so I still love to look on the net at beautiful collections of traditional japanese dolls and related crafts.

If my sewing and crafts skills were up to the task I would try to make this beautiful Kimono cloth doll, the pattern is from the nunodolls site and the finished doll looks great, but as I said, not enough skills here

I also find very nice this kimono pattern for superdolfie dolls from the trimline site, the fabric are so charming and they fit the dolls beautifully, but again not my piece of cake.

What actually looks like something I could give a try at are “simple” Kimono paper dolls. I had a look at many tutorials but this is the one I like more, it is really clear! In the other ones I checked there was always at least a step I didn’t understand. This I think I can handle…well sort of. For the clothes of the doll I plan to print these stunning oriental patterns from the ming-ling site, have a look, it is really an interesting page and the owner generously shares with all his readers many patterns, not just oriental ones.

Who knows…perhaps in many years I will be good at it

Last but not least a paper-craft! As you all know I love paper-craft and today I finally bought the right tools for this crafts (scissors, cutters, rulers etc etc). Have a look and download this delightful Hina Matsuri paper diorama. Did you ever see something so cute?

That’s all for now. Hopefully in the future I will share with you all my kimono paper dolls and tons of other nice links I found. Have a nice evening, or a  nice morning, wherever you are