Thursday, April 26, 2012

Maple's Literary Effort Continues!

Sup peoples! Have you been reading Maple's story over at her writing blog?


Read it today! 

And if you haven't read the other parts - be sure to read them! 

It is a fun story with lots of excitement to come!


And be sure to vote in Maple's Writing Contest!


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Nichelle Starts "Packing"

Back on Friday the 13th of April we introduced Nichelle and Needa:  


And now it's already April 25th! Where does the time go?

Now we return to their story...

Needa is wearing a top set from Royal Doll Boutique and a skirt from Liberty Jane. Nichelle is wearing a ballet outfit from Doll Tag Clothing. ;-)


Needa and Nichelle are going on a trip soon.

"Have you finished packing yet?" Needa said to Nichelle.


"No, I'm not done yet. I haven't even started. I am trying to decide what to bring," Nichelle replied.

 
"What are you wearing?" Needa asked.

 "My ballet outfit. I think I should bring it on the trip."


"You don't even do ballet," Needa said.


"I know, but Penny bought it for me because I said I wanted to take up ballet," Nichelle explained.


"Well, why do you need it on the trip?" Needa asked.

"Maybe I'll have time to start learning?"


"While we're on vacation?! You are nutty. Pack only the essentials," Needa said.


"Essentials?"


"Yeah, like underwear, shorts, shirts, shoes. Not ballet outfits..." Needa said.

"Well this has shoes, a skirt, and a shirt," Nichelle pointed out.



"Those are slippers. And that isn't a skirt and shirt you can wear in public," Needa countered.

"Oh," Nichelle sighed.


"Go back into your room and find REAL stuff to bring," Needa said.




What will Nichelle pick out next to bring on the trip???

Stay tuned for Part 3 to find out!


Monday, April 23, 2012

Writing Contest Voting Starts Now!

Sup!

We have 14 entries for the Maple's First Writing Contest. There are 8 entries under the first link and 5 entries under the second link - just to make it slightly easier to read them.



Please check that your entry is there!

If you sent in an entry and you don't see it on the two pages, let us know via comment and send it to us again at nora.demington@gmail.com.


You have two weeks to vote. The last day to vote is May 8th, 2012. The first prize winner and two honorable mentions will be declared later that week.

Send in your votes to nora.demington@gmail.com or comment with them below.

If you have an entry in the contest, feel free to advertise it to your friends and family. :-)

Entrants should have all received this button to use on their own blog/Facebook/Youtube/website, etc.



If you have any questions - 
feel free to ask in the comments or via email.

Thank you for entering and reading the entries everyone!

Every vote counts and helps Penny decide who will win the $20 AG gift card! :-)


Friday, April 20, 2012

Writing Contest Entries Due on Sunday!

Yep, a month has almost passed by and entries for Maple's First Writing Contest are due. Woot!

We already have several entries, which you can read here: http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/p/contact-us.html

If you are interested in the contest go here to learn more: http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2012/03/maples-first-writing-contest-begins.html

The First Prize Winner will receive a $20 AG gift card!

All entries are due on or before April 22nd. Voting will begin after we upload all entries. :-)

Enter today! 

Show off your writing talent! 

Share your story with the "world"/our blog readers! ;-)

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Maple's Loft Bed with Steampunky Bedding

Part Three of this week's Mini Series. 

Tuesday we showed you the bedding - custom steampunk bedding from Quietude Quilts. Wednesday we showed you the bed (as it is so far, more detailing to be added). And today we show you both parts together.

First, the chair pad on the chair. 

We haven't finished painting the chair yet. We are currently experimenting with a combination of copper paint on the top scrollwork with crimson on the seat and bottom half of the chair. The 100% crimson chair kind of blends in a bit too much with the rest of the set, as you can see below. So we'll see how the new experiment goes. But that doesn't stop us from showing off these chair pad pics now. :-)



We have a lot of bedding pieces, so there are a lot of different ways you can configure them.

Mattress in place


Mattress and the bed sheet


Mattress, sheet, and quilt


With all 5 pillows. This arrangement allows the dolls to sit on the bed like a couch/day bed.




Then here are more arrangements of the pillows and the two quilts. Remember - the quilts are conveniently reversible. :-)








While we are completely in love with all of our ideas for detailing the loft bed set - like the cork boards, copper piping, and clockwork system (which we still have to complete) - the "soft furnishings" of the bedding set are really what will complete the look of the set once it is finished.

Thank you Quietude Quilts!

Any questions?

Feel free to ask!

Stay tuned for more updates on the Lab in the future.
Up next, maybe another post on Needa and Nichelle....
Or perhaps an Interview....
Or maybe some Shout-Outs....
Or the April Trends to Sew....

All these and more coming soon!

Reminder: Maple is currently running a Writing Contest. First Prize wins a $20 AG gift card!

Enter on or before April 22, 2012. That is this coming Sunday. :-)

Go here to learn more about the contest: http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2012/03/maples-first-writing-contest-begins.html

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

McKenna's Bed Painted for Maple's Lab

We weren't really sure how to title this puppy so people could understand what they were getting into, haha.

Basically we are in the process of painting McKenna's Loft Bed set a (purposefully-mottled) crimson color to be the main focus of Maple's "Criminal Investigatory Laboratory." We are using an Indian Red Oxide heavy body Acrylic paint.

At first we kept the three pieces separate so it would be easier to work on them.

Bed top


Left side



Right side - As you can see we took cork board and glued it over the purple cushion board that was above the table and we also glued it onto the blank backside of that wall.

We cut off the green elastics from the cushion board before we glued the cork board onto it. For this part we used a spray adhesive, so the glue wouldn't get overly wet that it might damage the cork board.



We asked Miche Designs where they had gotten the cork board for the bottom of their doll espadrilles - and they had found it in a craft supply store.

So we went to Michael's and found some as well. It is very thin and mostly perfect for what we needed - cork board that we could easily cut to shape. But because it is thin it breaks easily. So you have to be careful when working with it (and buy more rolls than you actually need to play it safe).


Then we bought "utility grade soft copper" - 1/4" O.D. x 2' - from Home Depot. We cut it to the lengths we needed (with a metal cutter thingy - yes, that is the technical term) and then glued the copper pipes around the edges of the cork boards to make them look "finished."

Hint for hobbyists: We used bags of dried beans and dry rice to weigh down the copper pieces into place as the glue dried.

Before and After shots


Here you can see all three pieces together and some shots of the copper pipe edging on the front side. (We forgot to take pics of the backside - but we will do that eventually as the project progresses.)








Once we were taking flash photos of the bed we could see little bits of purple here and there that are not visible in normal room lighting. So we'll have to go over these areas with more crimson paint.


The top scrollwork of the bed will eventually be decorated with a series of gears and sprockets to create a clockwork system. And there will be a clock face at both ends of the bed, connected to the system. (No, the clocks won't work - well, they'll work in Maple's imagination, haha.)


Right now, we have only just started this clockwork process - so our pics reveal a semi-pathetic stage of this aspect of the project. Haha. They also reveal more little bits of purple we must paint over. ;-)

And we still have to work more on painting the inside of the cabinet and the undersides of the shelves. Not easy to get a paintbrush into all of these cracks and crevices. Heehee.


Any questions about the project?

Feel free to ask!

Stay tuned to see pics of the Quietude Quilts bedding set we revealed yesterday on zee bed!


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Quietude Quilts Custom Steampunk Bedding

Hola peeps!

Sorry for the lack of posts - busy weekend and Monday. We've been taking a lot of pics for the blog lately. We just haven't posted them yet. :-/

Today we reveal the Quietude Quilts Custom Steampunk Bedding that we ordered for Maple's Laboratory. We sent QQ all of the measurements of the items we wanted and they delivered! 

Thank You Quietude Quilts!!!

All of the fabrics are from Spoonflower. They offer custom print-on-demand fabrics. We used designs that were already available from their site. We found these particular fabrics by searching for steampunk, Victorian, gears, time, etc. When ordering you can control what kind of fabric the design is printed on, depending on your type of project. For this project we ordered the equivalent of the Kona cotton that they offer now.

The entire set is sized to go with McKenna's Loft Bed set. We are using the original purple mattress that came with the set with a mattress cover over it.

Mattress cover, slips on and off easily


Corner of mattress cover


Pillows, large and small





The pillows are specifically designed to make 
the loft bed into a sitting area/day bed


Special round pillow



Pillows with bed sheet


Bed sheet close-up


Chair pad


First quilt


Second quilt


Fabric comparisons




Everything is very well-made and detailed.
The set is exactly what we wanted - even though the custom order was very specific and involved lots of crazy fabrics. :-)

Next up we'll post about the painting progress on the loft bed itself, and then we'll show you the bedding on the bed.

So stay tuned for those upcoming posts!

p.s. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us!


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