A Canadian Pullip Blog

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Introducing Jax (Taeyang Natsume)

My first boy arrived yesterday! I got Taeyang Natsume, mostly for his stock outfit and cello, although I am quite smitten by his look, especially the 2 freckles under his left eye.

Taeyang Natsume in his box

I've never seen so much extra stuff crammed into a box! He comes with a cello and bow, a chair, an extra jacket, and a necklace in addition to the regular fare- his stand and collector card.

This boy comes with a lot of stuff!

His eyes have a slightly sad look, which is perfect for the character I have in mind for him.

Sad eyes

So his hair was pretty crazy... very curly, as you will see in the video below. I could't care to take any photos of his hair in its full craziness. Although the crazy part is in the back, this is the only photo I have of him pre-boil perm:

They make a beautiful couple!

In the video below you'll see just how strange his hair looked before I boil-permed it:

Here he is with his hair freshly straightened:

I'm not sure he'll ever lighten up...

I love his hair straight!

He's got the irritated look mastered

Beautiful clothes + cello + chair = squee!

My moody musician

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Magic Cooking Video (Re-Ment type set)

Here is what the kids call their "Magic cooking video"

There are some repeats because both kids sometimes wanted to make the same food. Created with Orcara Cooking with the Master set.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Orcara Cooking with the Master (all 8 sets)

Since I started following the Hollycopter blog and YT channel, I've been intrigued (you mean obsessed, don't you?) with Re-ment and other miniatures. I mostly gravitate towards the Re-ment brand because they seem to have the best attention to details, but the Orcara Cooking with the Master set also caught my eye and I found one for a great price on eBay. My kids are wanting to do a what they call a "magic food video" so be on the lookout for that soon. In the meantime, I'll share each set in photos here.

Set 1 is my very favourite set and really, what made me take notice of the collection in the first place. That Pyrex, or should I say "Poyrex" measuring cup and those brown eggs are to die for. The measuring cup looks even better when you take the milk out but I wanted to show the whole set here:

Set 1: Bread (Part 1)

The rest of the break baking items come in the second set. I love the flour and sugar canisters (they open and come out of the rack) and the bread in the pan (it comes out of the pan) and the bowl of butter (the butter also comes out).

Set 2: Bread (Part 2)

The pasta set is ok. I love the blue pot but I wish it came with spaghetti spread out so it could go in the pot to be cooked too. The dry pasta just looks weird in the pot. If you flip over the spaghetti meal it is just cooked noodles and it can go inside the colander. I guess the video that is coming will show what I mean better than I can describe it here.

Set 3: Spaghetti

I could live without the rice set, mostly because I don't cook rice like that and my dolls kitchen will be more modern. It's cute though and I could see me using the oil jar as a beaker in a science lab. I might be able to use the barrel without the rice as an outdoor prop of some kind. It would look cute with kittens in it. (Oh no. Now I need kittens.)

Set 4: Rice

I've never had egg tarts before but this set is another of my favourites. I love that the toaster oven opens and the rack comes out. The baking pan is really adorable and the tarts look appetizing. The oven mit is not all that nice though. It would't be too hard to replace it with a real home made tiny pot-holder. Then this set would be perfect!

Set 5: Egg Tarts (oven open)

The toaster oven looks really cute closed too.

Set 5: Egg Tarts (oven closed)

I love coffee but I've seen better coffee sets out there. Basically I only like this set because it's coffee. The coffee beans look too much like chocolate to me, and the coffee grinder is again, too old fashioned for my kitchen. I love the coffee percolator and coffee cup (the coffee comes out of the cup, and the lid comes off the percolator) simply because they are nice and neutral. I have lots of Rilakkuma coffee stuff coming (thanks to the Hollycopter for getting me hooked on that set) so I appreciate having a neutral coffee set. I guess the basket (with the chocolatey coffee removed) is pretty versatile... and would also look cute with a kitten in it. Or bread rolls, or anything.

Set 6: Coffee

I like the salad set, but I suspect that if I ever get a Re-ment brand salad set, this one will pale in comparison. The salad dressing bottle will not stand on its own (I had to lean it against the salad bowl for this pic) and although the picture on the box shows a white bowl, this bowl is clear, and I would have preferred the while bowl. The knife is cute and the cutting board is cute, and looks like one I have in my own kitchen. It's nice to have some colourful fresh food on a counter or table, so this set makes my favourites list as well. For now.

Set 7: Salad

Ok, now for the Soy milk set. This one is kind of out in left field, if you ask me. I mean, all the other sets feature food that are common to make in your own home kitchen, but I don't know anyone who makes their own soy milk at home. I'm sure it's a cultural thing, but I can't imagine ever using the grey thing, and since the soy beans don't come out of the wooden box, I won't use that either. I do like the glass jug and glass cup of milk, though. I will likely use the milk jug with the bread baking sets, since those sets don't have a milk jug (and that's the only step missing from the bread making sets). The milk for the pitcher doesn't sit all the way down in the pitcher either. I didn't want to force it down because it looks like it might not come out again if I do.

Set 8: Soy Milk

So this was my introduction to the world of food miniatures! Out of the 8 sets there's only 2 I'm not too keen on, and both offer individual pieces I think I could use anyhow. As I mentioned, I have some real Re-ment coming (and I have a few non-food Re-ment pieces already in my doll accessories), so it will be interesting to see how it compares to the Orcara brand, which I hear is a lower quality. These minis will make great props for doll photography, but they are fun in and of themselves. I will definitely be letting my kids use them with their Monster High photo shoots and videos, and they are really looking forward to making a video that shows the food being made (and I'm looking forward to it too!).

What shall I bake today?

Making books for Pullip dolls

Now that I have a bookshelf for my dolls, they need some books, so I set off on the internet looking for book cover printables. I happened upon the Resin Muse blog which had printable book covers in 2 different sizes... perfect!

(just a note that I don't even know what "recast BJDs" are, so by linking to her site, I am not endorsing whatever she is talking about, nor am I condemning it- I just like her book cover images, which I am using for my own personal use)

Here's an instagram of Suzette and Ally discussing which book of the Hunger Games series was the best:

And here is my tutorial on how I put together these books:

Making a Pullip Couch and Coffee table from scraps

Last week I hit my Jetmax scrap bin again, this time to make a Pullip couch for a scene in an upcoming music video. If you missed my post on building a bed and bookshelf from Jetmax scraps, check it out here.

Here's how my latest project turned out (tutorial video below):

Luna and Suzette appreciate finally having a place to sit down!

Suzette: "Whatever you do, Luna, don't move! There's a Giant CAT behind you!"

And here's a video of how I made it (the supplies including measurements are given in the video):

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Building Pullip furniture from left over Jetmax cube pieces

I've got a bunch of these Jetmax cubes from Michaels in my craft room (now sold under the Recollections brand):

These are some of the Jetmax cubes from which the pieces came

Some of my Jetmax cubes

They come in a lot of different varieties with combinations of shelves, and drawers, and I don't always use them as they are intended so I end up with a lot of spare parts. I rarely use the dividers like the ones in the drawers below, for example:

I modified these dividers, only using some of them so I could have rectangular spaces

Here are just some of the spare Jetmax parts I had sitting in my back room as of this morning:

I knew I was holding onto these for a reason!

I decided to use the 6 pieces that make up a drawer divider insert like this to make a doll bookshelf:

A modern doll bookshelf

Ikea makes a really nice doll version of the Expedit, which is a popular bookshelf among scrapbookers (the full size Expedit, that is!) so I would love to have that shelf. But alas, Ikea has not deemed the East Coast of Canada worthy of their flat box Swedish goodness, so I cannot have one of those. But this one comes pretty darn close!

Then I took these 4 parts (and 2 more of the smaller pieces) and bought 4 small wooden drawer nobs (not shown here) to make a doll bed:

Check out the video:

Here's how they look in my photo studio area:

I'm so happy to get to use this fabric I've been hoarding since the summer!

Using my Silhouette Cameo I cut some boxes out of patterned paper and card stock and my daughter and I folded, glued them, and punched a notch out of the tops of them. We decorated the shelves with a combination of my own doll props and her American Girl stuff.

The bed is so comfy, Suri won't wake up... even when Nikki arrives!

I grabbed some of the extra tiles we had from our kitchen (which were lying in a stack in our utility room) and bought a stick of moulding when I picked up the nobs for the legs of the bed. Although the scene is missing a wall hanging above the bed (I'll work on that this weekend) I think it turned out ok for 1 morning of work and $14 out of pocket (the nobs for the bed legs were $2 but the moulding was a whopping $12!!!)

Suri finally wakes up and hangs out with her friends (including my DD's knock-off Blythe)

Although it looks like a doll room, this is actually a photo set! It can be taken apart and replaced with other items, or fabric can be hung in the place of the set to provide a backdrop for doll photos.