(Muppet) Christmas (Carol) in June: Emma's Gift

  First, before  I forget, I know a  lot of us have found some great dolls at Tuesday Morning. Well Tuesday Morning is closing a load of locations all across the country. Some items are already discounted up to 30% off, and there are extra discounts on already clearanced items. The full list of locations that are closing across the country can be found HERE.
  This is sad. They carried a lot of nice things, interesting items that weren't available anywhere else around here, and hugely discounted, formerly expensive dolls. We're losing one in Columbus, where I go to Tuesday Morning, but not one of the locations I ever go to.
  Now, on to today's subject, which is, the gift I made for Emma for her birthday. I have to explain first that I had had this thing designed in my mind for about 2 and a half  years! I think I developed the idea when Hallmark came out with their Muppet Christmas Carol ornament in 2017.

The Hallmark ornament. Kermit's head is too big.

 At the time I said, they should have made him over a rolling cylinder, with floppy legs, so he could walk like he does in the movie. In the movie, "The Muppet Christmas Carol", Kermit, as Bob Cratchit,(with Robin as Tiny Tim on his shoulder), walks down the street singing. The street is obviously round, or drum shaped, and turned beneath his feet, with a green screen background behind him, to give the illusion that he's moving down the street. You can watch that clip from the movie HERE. I had the idea that I could make an ornament like that, using a thread spool for the street,(covered with fake snowy cobblestones.),and a polymer clay Kermit and Robin. If I made his legs joined and put staggered bumps on the spool that would hit his feet alternatingly, making it look like he was walking. I kept meaning to make the ornament. But then I wouldn't start in time  to get it made for Christmas, then not in time to get it made for her birthday. Because of not being able to go out shopping at all these last few months I didn't have much for Emma's birthday, so this was the perfect time to make a gift. Her birthday was a good time to do it too, so she'd have the ornament in time to use it at Christmas. So I started, probably much later than I should have. I had some problems, including not being able to find my clay! I ended up being able to use a set of Sculpey I gave Fuzz, since Fuzz gave it to me because he wasn't going to use it,(In spite of being a very talented artist and sculptor.),but there was no white clay! I remembered I had a whole box of clays my sister gave me,(Another talented artist, who says she can't sculpt.),but there was no white in there either! I finally remembered there was a zip lock bag of extra clay Fuzz also gave me, and luckily there was some white in it. Then, of course, I couldn't find my blade to cut the clay either, or my clear plexiglass bar to roll the clay out with. I'm sure both of those are in the box with my clay! So I resorted to other tools and a porcelain rolling pin we never use any more because one of the handle ends got lost and now the wooden pin won't stay in the middle, so there are NO handles. So here are the tools I ended up using. Keep in mind that these are the sorts of things I use anyway most of the time, because I stink as a artist.

Paint, glitter, paint brushes, wire cutters and wire bending thingies, needles for poking clay with, and a big headed pin for smoothing certain parts, two types of wire, plus a recycled wire from a Chinese take out container. I'll show you where that was used in a minute.

Tweezers, and I actually cut the clay with those little scissors. By the way,that's my mom's pin cushion. It was always in her sewing box and I use it all the time.

One of the tools I used the most, I forgot to put in the picture!

Yes, that is what you think it is: one of those plastic hanger things from a package of some sort. I used it to cut the clay because I couldn't find my blade, which I had even pulled out to use the day before I started on the ornament.
  I was able to get a lot of different colours by mixing some of my sister's more unusual clay colours with Fuzz's more basic colours set. Here are all the colours I used, except the dark red I used straight from the pack for the inside of the mouths.
 

Various shades of brown and green.

And then there was this:
 

The egg carton was to make the fake cobblestones on the spool. I've been wanting to try making stone with egg carton for ages, but this was my first try.  I used the Fabric-Tac to glue the pieces of egg carton to the spool. Afterward I painted it with a mix of green and black acrylic paint to get and old, dirty, mossy stone look, but then I covered it with white glitter anyway. I couldn't find my other white glitter either! So this glitter has too much of a green shine to it, so the snow looks too green. I told Emma I would touch the spool up with some better, whiter snow looking glitter before Christmas.

  I used a box that something from Bath and Body Works came in to put the ornament in.

It ties shut with a ribbon.

  So how did the ornament turn out? For reference, before I show you the ornament I made, here's a still from the movie:
 

 And here's what the ornament looks like.

I took out the flocked plastic inside the box, and lined it with polyfil, which I covered with vintage satin.

And there's where the wire from the take out box came in!

  It turned out pretty good. Kermit ended up being about 4 or 5 inches tall. 

Little Robin is slightly over an inch, and with about a half an inch of leg length, I think.

At least Kermit's face turned out fairly good.

It's harder than you think to make a Muppet and have it actually look like the Muppet it's supposed to. They aren't as detailed as people, but they still have a particular look. I had to do adjustments as I worked, making Kermit's mouth slant downward enough and getting his eyes forward enough on his head. And those eyeballs had to be tilted just right.

Those checked pants are terrible!

Robin could have been better though.
 

Kermit's hat turned while baking, from the weight of it, and it tore Kermit's thumb off! The thumb was still attached to the hat, so I had to paint it black to disguise it!

I goofed on Robin's butt. It ended up being too big, so I cut a hunk off, thinking I would be able to cover the chop because his bottom would be sitting on Kermit's shoulder. Of course, then he didn't fit on Kermit's shoulder properly, so his bottom shows!

I also didn't think about the fact that I'd have to make checked pants!

That wasn't so easy. I got all over confident after making Kermit's checked vest, which peeks out between his coat and the top of his his pants.

The pants were a lot harder! I see I also should really have used that Sculpey stuff that smooths the surface and gets rid of the fingerprints, etc. It sort of melt s the surface of the clay though, and I was afraid it would take over and I'd lose detail. All I needed was to get all finished, and then make the whole thing so slimy it couldn't even be held on to.
  Kermit's coat changes lengths in the movie! In the scene where he's walking down the street, that this ornament represents, his coat is short, and nowhere behind his legs. I think that was so you could see his leg movements better. In the other scenes, and in the publicity still I showed you, above, his coat is long. I compromised by making his coat long, but flying up behind him

Oops. Looks like Robin has a hole in the seat of his pants!

 

  As you can see, there are still fibers stuck to them from the polyfil I laid them on to bake. I also had to stuff it between his legs and under the tails of his coat, so they didn't bake to each other.

His coat tails actually stick out farther than I intended.
 

Sorry about these blurry pictures. My auto focus is still not working and I had to hold it and focus, while also holding the camera. I don't have three hands, but that's what it requires. For some of these I got Ivy to hold it. or it was laid down.

And did the walking action work? Well...no. It did not.

I think I should have jointed Kermit's legs only at the knees...or maybe only at the hips. In any case, I even tried the alternating bumps in the sidewalk, and it still didn't make him 'walk'.

 

  And I got so excited when I finally finished the ornament, very late on the night before Emma's birthday, that I forgot to put on a loop or hook to hang it by! I ended up having to hang everything from Robin's arm!
 

I hope it doesn't break off! I also forgot to put tails on Robin's coat! Oh well. Little boys did wear those short coats back then.

   

  So that's it. It didn't work, after having it all planned out in my head for nearly three years.

 

Doesn't look too bad though.

Handmade 1/6 Scale Dolls

  My last post was about more things the kids and I made for the dolls. I then promised that the next post would be about actual dolls I made for the kids' dolls. So here they are. Keep in mind that I at least like to think I could do better these days!

You've seen the macaque monkey before. I found him crammed in a doll suitcase with the Raggedy Ann doll. I made a few mini Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. You may have seen my post on the set I actually sold HERE.

These dolls were the result of practicing by making another couple of miniature Raggedys first. I have the first Andy I made,which is in Tammy World's toybox. But the first Raggedy Ann I made went to Ivy's doll Blue.

The dress was made out of some fabric ribbon,which was used because the print was good for Raggedy Ann's dress. The ribbon is way too stiff though. Her dress just looks like a squashed tube,which it basically is. I also hand painted her stockings,and they don't look very good. The later Raggedys were made using striped fabric for their stockings. This Ann's apron is terrible too. At least her hair was sewn in! Overall I improved as I went on making the Raggedy dolls. I painted their faces,and I do think I prefer the face on Ivy's to the face on the one I sold. She looks kind of grouchy.

She's a little bigger than Ivy's. If I made more now I'd change the hair on the sides.

  Next is my attempt at making a miniature Sock Monkey doll.
 

I painted his little face.

The big flaw here is that I used full sized socks. The weave is way too thick, and it unraveled too much. The thickness made it hard to roll up tiny little arms and legs out of it. I did manage to give him little ears,but they're hard to see.

This last one is pretty bad. But then, the doll it was made to look like is pretty crazy looking anyway. You may have seen my post on Ivy's favourite larger doll,her Goldberger Baby doll, 'Baby'. 

This mini doll is my attempt at making a mini version of Baby for Blue.

She's made of polymer clay. I think I should have jointed her arms and legs with thread instead of wire. Wire lasts much better though.

She even has Baby's 'hitch hiking' toes!

She has the same crazy grin as the real Baby.

  The last miniature doll here is my favourite. I thought he came out really well.

This little guy is a miniature version of Fuzzy's favourite stuffed toy,'Elephant'. 

The real Elephant is about 16 inches tall. The little guy,made for Fuzzy the Doll, who is a Tommy doll, is about 2 inches tall.

The only thing is, he doesn't have Elephant's chubby cheeks.

  I was really at a loss as to what to make little Elephant out of,to copy the nubbly bluish gray fur big Elephant is made of. I finally discovered the perfect thing: the inside of one of those non skid socks they give you at the hospital!

It's more like terry cloth really,but used in something this tiny,it works.

  Once the fabric was decided on, I had to figure out what shape to cut out so that it would sew into the elephant shape. I'm pretty sure he was cut out all in one piece. He's another one of those things I made where I look at it now and think,"How did I do that?" Sewing really isn't my thing,so accomplishing some of these things was just luck I guess.

  For little Elephant's mouth I think I used a tiny piece of pink scrap fabric. I can't remember if I did that or painted it,and my eyes can't tell these days.

His ear middles and foot pads are just ovals of blue fabric,glued in. I think I may have done the edges with Fray Check to keep it from unraveling.

His little black eyes are beads.

Big Elephant's real eyes are brown with black pupils,but I wasn't going to go that far with the realism!

  Then I had to think of something for his vest. I tried to find a fabric with tiny blue stripes,but finding a perfect match, especially in that tiny scale, was impossible. In the end I used fine white fabric to make a vest and tie,and mixed up the appropriate colour of blue paint from acrylic paints,and painted them myself.

This was a LONG time ago,and the real Elephant's vest and tie were brighter then. It was a good match at the time!

After that I couldn't find the appropriate colour beads for his vest buttons either. I ended up using the paint I mixed up for the stripes and tie to also paint some beads. I then sewed them on the front of the vest. Well,they've been lost over the years. My bead sewing is about as dependable as my button sewing I guess. (The buttons I sew on always end up dropping off again,although,the glass beads I sewed on for eyes on Ivy's home made Toto,for her Dorothy costume,have stayed on pretty well. Maybe I resewed them at some point.)
   Elephant was, like Ivy's Baby and Emma's favourite stuffed toy,her rabbit Charlie,one of those toys  I spotted and knew they just had to have. Charlie was a last minute spot on a run for something for Easter the day before. We already had a bunny for Emma,but I never liked it. When I saw Charlie I knew he was special. At 28 Emma still keeps him on her bed. I can't remember the occasion for which Ivy was gifted with Baby. I do remember that I 'visited' Baby several times at Kaybee toys,insisting that we needed to get her for Ivy because she looked like her. (In fact, when I bought Baby she and Ivy had the exact same colour eyes,and when I put my long hair down over Baby's forehead and put a bonnet on her she was Ivy's double. Ivy even only had two bottom teeth at the time.) Ken kept resisting,but I finally overrode him and bought Baby. Ivy was immediately in love and still keeps Baby on her bed. Elephant was something I saw on a quick run into Walmart one night while we were moving. We had been so busy moving that Emma hadn't gotten a Halloween costume yet. I had made all her others, but this time she wanted to be The Pink Ranger from Power Rangers,and she had seen a real costume she wanted. We had come to town to drop things off at our new house,which is a half hour away from where we were living then. It was late and we had to head back to the old place,but it was so close to Halloween that we made a stop at Walmart to get Emma's costume. I ran in,and while I was there I saw Elephant on a shelf. I only wavered for a second,and then grabbed him for Fuzzy. He got him that Christmas, which was his first.
  I know there are way more things I made for the dolls. When I do a redo of Emma's room I'll show you some of her things.