My First Art Doll!

I don't sew, I am sure I could manage a feltie if I had to but even stuffies are beyond me, but I wanted to join this one doll swap so much I decided I would find a way to make a doll and broaden my crafty scope a bit from just paper crafts. So, I was directed to this "no-sew" doll on this blog, I believe called "Go Make Something!" I tried it and now I love it, I admit it is still a bit more work for me as I don't have all the tricks down yet, but with practice I may get pretty good at making these cute dolls!

The swap I am in "Unwrapping the Farao" on swap-bot, was for more of a corpse or mummified doll. I began by making the face darker (I used Walnut Ink in the walnut color, two coats and I achieved the look I wanted). I wanted it to be more of a doll of a girl who was buried in all her finery, so the material was rich and a gorgeous shade of a muted "Alice" blue with iridescent taupe shimmering throughout (you can't tell that from the pic, I am so sorry I just wasn't able to take better ones for some reason). The bit of lace I antiqued with Walnut ink in eucalyptus color and added as a type of bonnet. I embellished with seed beads and bronzed color beads and charms, all with a vintage or antique look. For the last part we had to wrap the doll up and include at least three older type of charms, or items within the wrappings. I took four sections of cheese cloth and stained them all with the Walnut Inks in the various four colors, walnut, eucalyptus, java and terra cotta, they turned out beautifully! So I carefully wrapped each around the doll and tucked in the trinkets shown here (the one button that looks white due to the flash is really a soft vintage pink). I hope my partner loves her as much as I did! I had to name her Elizabetta because I was so proud of her as my first ever doll creation! I can't wait to make more, happy swapping everyone!

Also, I have included a picture of the Walnut Inks I used, they are my favorite new crafting tool for paper, fabrics, clay you name it they are wonderful especially for vintage crafters!