Any ideas?

We have tons of these sweet gum pods all over the yard. I just know they would be great for crafts. But the only crafty thing I can think of is to include them in pouppori of some sort. I'm want to make Christmas ornaments. Any great ideas? I'd love to hear them.


Doll #1 is so vain, she has to be in every picture!

Matroyshka update

I am now 80% finished with the large doll which from now on will be doll #1. For now the ball and chain is pinned in place. Boy was it a bugger getting the needle through the sweet gum pod! Tried it on a test piece and it went through like butter, but not on the real thing. GRR... Still have to do the hair, may attempt it tomorrow.

Doll #4 just about has the body finished. It's peyote with size 11 charlottes. Gives a really nice sparkle to the doll.

Update on the Weird Sisters

I've finished beading the bottom of the doll. I used size 8 beads and did a peyote stitch. I'm still working on the embellishments but hope to finish her this week.

BJP - April Doll

Introducing Sassy, she's a bit of a tomboy and likes hanging out with her pet frog. She's actually a swap and in return I got this fantastic head. She's very dreamy, isn't she? I have special plans for her but they will have to wait a bit.

странны сестры - The Weird Sisters

Here are my dolls for the Yahoo Beaded Art Dolls group matroyshka challenge. Introducing the Weird Sisters. I've made six of them so I'm not sure that I'll be able to finish them all by May, but I'm going to try. I'm quite excited about them because they are going to be so fun to create! : )

Got them all sewn together this weekend and started beading the big one today. I did the face before sewing the doll together. It's done in size 13 and 15 beads.

I'm hoping to be able to so the smaller faces in beads as well but we'll see when I try.

I really like those fabric markers for drawing the designs. No bleeding and they are really easy to see.

And some extras...

I had some fabric that had matroyshka dolls on it so I cut out a couple and made into doll forms. If I finish those for the challenge then I'll play with these two. Love the pre-built patterns.

One of the things I'm working on...

This is one of my Matroyshka dolls for the BAD challenge.

One thing I did differently for this doll is I used fabric markets to draw the design on the fabric. It works really well and doesn't bleed or rub off.

I also beaded the face before sewing the doll together because of future plans I have for this doll.

I am so pleased with how the face turned out!

A few touch ups...

Introducing my rendition of the infamous Rat King from the Nutcracker Suite.

Had some problems with the tail. I used a pipe cleaner but didn't think to fold the end over on itself so the wire sticks out at the end of the tail. Think I'm going to have to undo the last bit, fix it and re-bead it. Also I need to add some wire whiskers. Still trying to figure out how I want to do that. Glue them? Some how work the wire from one side to the other? Any suggestions?

The Keeper is finished

I REALLY loved working on this doll, I think she is so fantastic and everyone who has worked on her has done a great job making sure it all goes together.

The keeper's torso is made out of a purse so she has hidden trinkets inside.

I made the wings. The hardest part was finding the perfect fabric. It had to be really sheer and all the colors I thought were going to be "it" weren't. She also needed very simple wings for all her sparkly bits (her head piece is made of parrot feathers) she really is a simple girl. : )