What To Do On A Sick Day

Greetings!

Well, as the title suggests...I was home on a sick day last Tuesday. However this time it's for my son who has croup. And the cherry on top, I've got the bug too. After I just got over a month-long illness that had me more tired than I've ever been in my entire life, only to get something two weeks later. UGH, if I get through this pregnancy in one piece it will be a blessing. 

Well, since I was home with the babes, it's a perfect time to craft! (during nap times of course!)

I saw a YouTube video on how to make Barbie bustforms out of an actual doll. 

**NOTE** If there is a child who is reading this or looking over your shoulder, please be forewarned, this does show the mutilating of a Barbie doll so proceed with caution. 

This is the perfect craft to do with those dolls you have where the hands, arms, feet, or legs have been chewed by an animal. I do have a lot of these which is why when I go to the thrift store I'm very picky about which dolls I pick up. But I opened a box the other day to find some little Kelly dolls and I saw her.

Belle.

This was a doll I got in a lot from the thrift store. Her hands were badly mutilated so she would definitely be a good candidate for this craft. She has a beautiful face (not the cartoon-y ones you see now) and I do have a Belle dress in my stash so I could transplant her head someday....once I figure out how to get the matted hair under control. 

She has vinyl click-knee legs and arm joints that were VERY loose so her body was in bad shape. Okay, off to surgery!

First I started with slitting the vinyl on the leg so I could see how I was going to disconnect these at the knee.

Luckily the knee joints (on this doll) are flimsy and they were easy to take a knife through them. This picture shows how badly destroyed her hands were.

Knee joints exposed but all in all a semi-clean cut.

Next I popped off her head. I am terrible at head transplants but decided to practice without softening the head with steam or hot water. Her neck did not break but the mechanism stayed IN the head. Oh well. 

Now the arms. These arms were a beast to try to take off. I'm guessing because they were loose and flimsy. One arm I bent up and it popped off. The other one just got mutilated by the pliers I was using and didn't pop off at all.

I had a lot of trouble trying to cut away the excess plastic so I could see how I was going to remove it or break it off. It took a lot of extra work but finally I broke off the joint (and it flew across the room so wear safety glasses!)

I did chew up the arm cavity a bit so I had to file it down smooth before I continued.

Okay, now, onto the craft! Use a wooden dowel or skewer and hot glue this between her legs. I used a stick for cake or cookie pops as it was all I had. Make sure her hip joints are straight before hot gluing!

Next, fill in the arm cavity with hot glue. This is a large cavity so it might take a few rounds to get it perfectly filled and flush with the rest of her body.

Once your glue dries, you can start with this next part. For this you can use black duct tape or even that printed tape with a fun print. All I had available was electrical tape. Squeeze the legs together tight and start wrapping overlapping the tape as little or as much as you like. (**Please read the end of the post note about using electrical tape.**)

You will want to go up all the way to her waist and cover her underwear. I almost didn't have enough tape. If I had more her waistband would have been straight but I ran out!

Next, let's put a fun "head" on this mannequin. Take a small styrofoam craft ball and make a small hole in the bottom. Then hot glue it on her neck.

Now comes the fun part....glitter! A few tricks about this part. I used a smooth styrofoam ball. A better option would be the textured balls (they are identical in price just FYI.) If you use too much glue on these smooth balls, it runs (out from UNDER the glitter) and creates a mess. So if you use the smooth balls, the best way would be to use a small amount of glue and glitter and then fill in the holes after it dries. 

Starting the process.

Almost done!

How does it look?

Now after all that, it's time to make the stand for it. Trace circles on a piece of cardboard and cut 2. 

Stack and glue. 

Then you can decorate the top with whatever you want. You can use scrapbook paper to cover the top or I chose to use some glitter. 

Two pieces of cardboard are just about right for a 1/4" ribbon as a border. Hot glue in place.

Then you can touch up the edges with more glitter and glue.

After the "head" dries, its time to paint the body. Now this can be done one of two ways. The original video shows using nail polish. This is a great time to use that old nail polish that has thickened over time and is not good to use for nails. They probably used this because it's glossy. The other option would be to use acrylic paint (matte with a varnish, gloss paint, or matte with a coat of gloss mod podge.) My Mod Podge is buried in a box somewhere or else I would have used this option.

Mine is half finished. My nail polish had such a strong smell that it gave both my husband and I a headache. Need to finish when I can go outside. 

ELECTRICAL TAPE NOTE: So here is the thing about electrical tape. After sitting FLAT for a couple of days, the electrical tape slid down the vinyl. Strange. Here are my solutions to combat this. 

1. Use this on a doll with plastic legs, not vinyl.
2. You could scuff the legs with a file so it does not slide.
3. Use another tape.

I have not tried any of these options so I don't know how they would work. Since our black gorilla tape has gone AWOL, I'm going to see if I can redo the legs using a little bit of hot glue and then pressing the tape down. 

The last step (sorry no photos) is to poke a hole in the base and hot glue the stick into it. I think the weight is too much and will tip the base of it over. I'll have to rig something up to keep the base weighted so the doll doesn't tip over. 

Not to toot my own horn but I do happen to be a master at jury rigging. My dad had a shop FULL of goodies and when we needed something done or hung or painted, etc., we had a lot of seemingly useless items at our disposal. We made it work without spending money to buy the "proper" equipment for the job. :)

So there you have it. It's fun to try a craft and figure out exactly how it works for you! You could do this with a full doll, a doll who has no head, you can just cut off the hands instead of using one with no arms. It's all up to you!

Anyone else have any other tips and tricks or done something like this? Let me know in the comments!

My next post will go up tomorrow and will feature two cute little friends. Little and Friends? It's not to be missed! :)

Until then!