Ooak Audrey Two - Monster High Pet, Doll's House Miniature.

Ever since I first saw the Little Shop of Horrors 1986 Musical, it's been a firm favourite of mine. I love the 1960 Roger Corman film, but there's just something about the musical version that puts it right up there on my list of all time favourite films.

I love the way the movie makes you forget that you're watching a film and fools you into thinking you're watching it on the stage, the sets are awesome.

 Ellen Greene belts out her numbers like no one else could, the costumes on the three schoolgirl 1960's style pop group are gorgeous, but most of all Audrey two is both adorable and monstrous and I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn, one of those toys that never was, but I so wish had of been made!

For years I've been wanting to make myself one but never quite finding the inspiration or suitable materials to do so...                                                                      

Until Mattel launched their Venus McFlytrap Doll, who came with an adorable little pet called Chewlian and everything about the little guy screamed "Audrey Two" to me.

After I bought a Venus McFlytrap for my collection, I was on the lookout for another Chewlian to turn into an Audrey Two, when I finally got my hands on one, it was full steam ahead.

My Audrey Two

I had to carve off his "fin" , make him some more tendrils and repaint him.

My Audrey Two

I added some "mud" to his pot, and painted the cracks to make it look more beaten up.

My Audrey Two

It was actually pretty easy to do, and took only a couple of minutes to get him looking just right, and so I got the idea that I may soon make one or two more to sell at some time in the future.

My original plan was to make him for Endora's house (which sadly I run out of steam on half way through) but it seems that Pendle has over ideas, she loves the little guy,...

So it looks like I'll end up making yet another so Endora doesn't get jealous, after all, she'll be needing lots of freakish plants and herbs for her Witch's Shop!

╰✿ I've got a Bellyache! ✿╮

I started this post, uploading all the images on 15th May 2015, but for some crazy reason I never got around to writing my intro', talking about the images and generally just showing off... I know I got into playing with the Makies once their photo-shoot was over, so I guess that's why I ended up so sidetracked that I never got back to this post... until now that is! 

Bellyache arrived at the same time as both Rainy Daze and Juniper (the limited edition, made for you, Spring Event Makie) to be honest, I was in total Makie Heaven that day, so it's no wonder I ended up playing when I should have been blogging!

So much time has now passed so without further ado, I better get on with it...

Bellyache came in an outfit which included red trainers, but it wasn't until I removed her from her box that I realised that she didn't come wearing them, instead she is bare foot and the trainers were included in a separate package. 

 

This is because they are the kind of shoes that are made to be attached directly to the doll's ankles like a Bratz doll and not over the top of her feet like most other shoes.

Also included is a booklet showing new items available for purchase and a couple of stickers.  I have to admit, I really love the way these dolls are packaged.

The cardboard tube is so sturdy and keeps the doll from being damaged in transit. The inner sleeve - which the doll is secured to is also sturdy and very easy to remove from the outer packaging, you just have to pull it gently upwards. 

 The doll is secured to this inner card by ribbons, as this is such a gentle way of securing her there are no dents in her clothing or marks across the doll's body, and again it is very easy to remove, you just have to pull one end of the ribbon and the whole thing opens and can be pulled out of every hole at the same time as it is opened.

Once I had her unsecured and removed her hairnet it was time to examine her in more detail. As you can see from the photograph she is a bit confused and looks very concerned about this aspect of her "Welcome to your new home"!

Oh man, I've upset her so much, I think she might burst into tears at any moment. On the plus side, I'm really pleased that the eyes I'd chosen weren't just a plain dull grey and actually have a lot of depth to them, really stand out against her skin tone and her wig is so soft, good quality and easy to style.

After being thoroughly freaked out it was time for Bellyache to meet her new "3D Sisters", thankfully the initial meeting went very well... It turns out Juniper's quite a chatterbox.

Once the initial meet and greet was out the way it was time for the three fairy folks to line up for a comparison photograph. I love how even though I designed each of them with similar features they are all unique.

On the subject of her skin tone, I was very impressed with the coverage of the dye. From my own experiments with dying Makie "skin" I know this isn't such an easy job and can often leave patchy marks which are either darker or lighter than other areas if you don't suss out the knack. 

Bellyache's however, is pretty uniform with the only areas where there is a tonal different being the knee, elbow and ankle joints, although it isn't very noticeable.

After begging me to take her hair off, Bellyache wanted to try one of the froggy hats that both Rainy Daze and Pendle have been wearing... I wonder how cool she'd think they are if she found out they are actually crocheted egg warmers?

♥♥ Meet Bellyache Makie! ♥♥

About a week ago I received an email from MakieLabs announcing their Spring Sale, which was supposed to continue until the end of April.

The email informed me that at the moment MakieLabs are having a 25% off sale with Free Shipping to U.K & United States on Makie Dolls!

So it seemed to me that the time was right to order my fourth (third - designed by me) and final Makie...

Bellyache was designed on 5th February 2014 but not made real as there was something a bit off about her so I did some tweaking in the Makie Maker changing her hair and eye colours and deciding on her outfit, and here she is; my redhead, pink skinned girl to be...

I purchased her and a Certificate of Creation at the same time and now all I had to do was wait for her to be "Made Real".

While waiting I received another email saying "The Sale has been extended until Midnight on the 4th May"- so there's still time if you're thinking of a purchase. 

In keeping with my other Makie Creations Bellyache is also a pointy eared Fairy Folk. I originally designed her with green eyes and long black hair but when I got-a-tweaking I realised red hair and grey eyes suited her so much better also it gives me a chance to try out "freckles" while I'm giving her a face up.

In case you're wondering the reason I've decided that Bellyache will be my last Makie is because the Makie Maker doesn't have that much choice wise in terms of outfits, wigs or eye colours and as I've created twenty six Makies since 2013 I feel like I've pretty much gone as far as I can with the options available.

There have also been a lot of changes with regards to ability to mix and match individual items of clothing and footwear to make your own unique styles for your dolls sadly though this option went out with the "Alpha Makies" as did some of the extra skin tone options that used to be available .

The clothing options now are very sparse and are matched with a pair of shoes so if you don't like a particular item then you either have to lump it in order to have the items you do like or get rid of it and find a completely different item for your doll.

The wig choices are also not so great, I prefer the long ones which out of thirty eight wigs gives a choice of sixteen.

As I'm also not keen on wigs with fringes, this gives me a total of ten to choose from!

Ten doesn't seem such a bad amount but when you rule out the black, blonde and brown wigs that I find kind of boring and also available to buy in many places online, it leaves six to choose from. 

The choice between them obviously has to take into account the doll's skin tone - of which there are now only four - white, pink, dark and light brown.

Since Pendle is white skinned, Rainy Daze is dark cocoa and Juniper is light cocoa bean, having Bellyache made real n the pink skin tone means I will now have one in each of the colour variations.

In terms of eye colours their have ever only  been a choice of  six to choose from.

 As Pendle was going to be my one and only Makie Doll and is Fairy Folk I chose black eyes for her.

I chose brown for Rainy Daze and Juniper came with a black pair too, of course these are simple enough to change and I do have plenty of spares here but I really would have appreciated some more "funky" colours to choose from as opposed to colours that are available cheaply and very easily found elsewhere online.

I guess grey eyes are also easy enough to find but not as easy as the other colours minus the black of course but since I now have two pairs of them I felt it was a choice between the others and none of the other colours really worked for me.

Like Rainy Daze she will most likely end up with a pair of new glass ones instead.

I guess that's about all I have to say until she arrives and I can do a Makie Maker vs Made Real comparison post.

Take care,

I have a confession ...

My recent post about Pendle got me not only obsessing over Makies again but also flitting backwards and forwards between my photographs, Makies account where I have 26 Makies that I designed and the Makie Shop...

I guess it was inevitable that I would end up parting with some money if I didn't hurry up and finish my post, well I wasn't quick enough and I did end up spending and oh my gawd, my Makie family is about to expand!

This is how it happened ... I noticed there were two Limited Edition Makie Dolls for sale, quite a bit cheaper than the "Designed by You" ones I have saved, one of them really caught my eye - she's called June (short for Juniper, apparently) - well for now anyway...

She comes in Cocoa Bean skin tone and looks like this:

Now I can't say I'm too impressed with her puckered looking mouth, but I loved that hair of hers and hue of her skin, and that in turn got me thinking...

I went back to My Account and started comparing her with a Makie I designed last year who I called "Rainy Daze" she looks like this, I only have a computerized image of her as she hasn't been made real yet:  

Now I have to admit, I really do love this little girl, she has eleven ears like Pendle and a similar grumpy expression, for some reason I like to make mostly "Grumble Guts" Makies, which may possibly be another reason why a certain idea popped into my head while I was comparing both these girls

 And that idea was; how different an experience is it between designing and receiving a "Designed by You" Makie and receiving an off the shelf designed by someone else Makie so I decided to experiment

How's that for justification?! Lol

I'll be posting my feelings on this once both girls arrive and I have a chance to compare, photograph & play with them both!

Keep Ya Posted...

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*•*¨*•｡✿ The long awaited Pendle Makie arrives!! ✿｡•*¨*•｡

Or rather she doesn't ...

She's been here for months and sadly I got so caught up in playing with her, making little outfits and buying her cute stuff that I totally forgot that I'd started this post in readiness for arrival then over the months it got buried in my draft folder, only to be found today while I was going through the sixty-seven posts I have there waiting to be finished and posted.

 I have resolved to do this even if it's just two drafts a week  and I just can't believe my beautiful Makie girl hasn't been given her online brag time, so here goes, but first look at this:

I found this on MakieLabs an hour or so ago and omg - She was "Made Real" on 31st Jan. 2014 - I received her around a week later - so for over a year I've owned and loved this girl and still haven't given her her own post - I'm so ashamed *hangs head*

Since she's been made real her display picture on the site has changed, prior to that she looked like this:

                                             It's one hell of a difference ain't it?!

I didn't order a face up for her, so I was quite surprised to discover when she arrived that she had been given a light one, I kept it as it was subtle but sadly it hadn't been sealed and my "I love you Pendle Play Time" was obviously too much for it, so I was forced to give her my own face up instead.

I made a point of saving the animations as I was creating her so I could do a comparison post just to see how close to the animations the finished doll is so I already had them uploaded to this post, waiting for "Made Real" photo's and words, which is great 'cos it saves me from going looking for them but kind of annoys me too as it means I stupidly could have had this post up online over a year ago *sigh*

Here she is with her original face up taken on the day she arrived at her new home, as you can see being Fairy Folk and never having used a seat that wasn't made of twigs and moss or toadstool caps before, she has no idea about having decorum when she sits down.

 I'm pleased to report she has gotten a lot better, but I fear she'll never quite get the hang of it!

I made that little dress she's wearing around a year before Makies were released, I made it for Blythe from a pattern I found a small jpg of in Google.

 I guessed the measurements and went for it (never again!) - it didn't fit her but I loved the fabric and was determined to find someone it fitted so I kept it and waited...

When Pendle moved in I thought "what the hoo, give it a try" so I did and it fitted like a glove - Yay!

The wig she's wearing is not the one she came in I bought it a while waiting for her to arrive  - although she mostly doesn't wear either, I'm not sure why but I think she much prefers the feeling of the wind on her bare head...

Here she is with the replacement face up I gave her,  I'm pretty pleased with how "alive" I've made her look especially when compared to the picture below, which shows her as she was when first designed and waiting to be "Made Real".

"Made Real" is definitely the right term to use, while it may have started out as a quirky way of saying the doll has now been made tangible there is something about these dolls - more than you get with mass produced dolls, these dolls really do have a "personality" and more than the imaginative play of yesteryear... There is a "realness" to them that's hard to explain to anyone who doesn't have one of their own.

I took photographs of her in each of the positions in which you can rotate your creation to see how you like your doll as you're making her, as I wanted to do comparison shots once she arrived  - I did too but unfortunately I have no idea what I've done with the blooming things!

 I did however have the Makilab ones saved in this post, so I dunno I guess I'll just have to take some more but of course they won't have her original "face up" 

 I'm quite struck by how different these to images are, but at the same time I'm very impressed by how close to my designed doll Pendle is, it's actually quite astounding to think that a few tweaks with a fun little online gadget can produce a doll that is exactly to my taste and not only that - a doll no one else has or ever will!

 The more I look at these images side by side the more impressed I am. Pendle really is an exact replica of my design not just having a resemblance too, like many Ooak dolls are but an actual, tangible representation of my design.

It's really an amazing experience to hold a doll that was designed not only for you but by you!

 To be honest I was a little worried about how she would come out and especially in the case of her ears the holes in the "Makiebot" images look really big and very high up her earlobes but I shouldn't have been concerned as on the finished doll they are exactly as I want them!

 I have to say for an artist, doll collector & customiser like myself, Makies have to be the perfect doll!

Not only has it always been my dream to design my own doll although to be honest I haven't a clue how to start hence my almost subconsciously becoming a customiser, but they also provides so much creative input that you actually feel like you really have made the doll yourself!

 I'm really pleased with the distance between her head and her ears, it's exactly the distance I wanted...

I really need to tidy up my "play pen" as I can't find which safe place I put her original wig in, so sadly I had to use the spare I bought for the following comparison pic's - the ones I took on the day she arrived were in her original wig but unfortunately my computer is as in need of a tidy as my play pen - ho hum!

 Pendle hates having to stay still for my photos so sadly they've come out pretty fuzzy but even so, it's still easy to make the comparisons between them and the "Makie Maker" images.

I didn't realise until after I'd uploaded that her eye's on the wonk, oh well I've fixed it now just a little too late for the photo shoot.

I would ask Pendle if she'd let me take some more but she's a bit busy right now...

Pendle is very sturdy and is able to hold onto her mischievous, wriggling imp of a son (who she caught scratching up the wall behind her and laughing maniacally) with one hand, unsupported.

I think from the look on her face she's beginning to regret Motherhood - Still I'm sure he'll calm down once his had his nap!

When Pendle is not having to deal with a naughty "Mudwamp" up to no good, she likes nothing better than entertaining everyone with her best impressions of Groucho Marx while I rue the day I ever let her watch Duck Soup!!