The Magic Bean

Freebie Friday - Tips that Will Curl Your Hair

A little while ago someone e-mailed me and asked if I knew how to curl doll's hair. I guess, the lovely person who wrote thought that it all my wisdom (hey, no laughing from the cheap seats) I would surely know how this can be accomplished.  And I do, but mostly because I am really good at making the most of other people's wisdom.  Here's some tutorials on how to curl your doll's hair.  Or of course, you can cheat and do what I do - buy hair that is already curly.

If you are not into cheating then try these:

Rivkah Rosenfeld shows how to use knitting needles to curl hair here.

Cynthia Howe, Queen of Miniatures, shows how to create a regency style wig with curls aplenty here.

Here is another tutorial meant for doll house scale dolls but equally relevant for curling any doll hair.

Here is a tutorial that includes some general tips on styling doll hair as well as curling hair.

Now, this next tutorial is a bit off topic, I'll admit, it's about styling a doll's fringe (that's bangs for those on the other side of the Atlantic), but heck it's my blog and I'll do what I wanna.  Click here to check it out.

I only wish I'd discovered doll making that time that I cut my own fringe just before picture day.  I could have used the practice.  And my mother wouldn't have had a coronary. 

The Deadline is Looming!

Just a reminder that you have until June 11th to get my free Cloth Doll Pencil Toppers pattern when you sign up early for my Soul Whisperer class on Doll Street.  Click here if you want more info or to sign up. 

Can you resist these little faces?

I think we are going to have a lot of fun with this class.  If you've got any questions feel free to e-mail me.

Freebie Friday - Getting the Best from your Blog

I've been writing my blog for about a year now.  You meet the best kind of people and it really helps to keep you focussed on your work, while at the same time connected to a community of people who do what you do.  Being the great big nerd that I am, before I started to blog I went to the library and got a book on how to write a blog.  It taught me lots about how to make the best of blogs.  So if you read blogs but don't write one this Freebie Friday is all about how to get started.  If you already have a blog, but want to improve it, use more tools or increase traffic to your blog, check out these links to help.

Here's a great tutorial from a craft blogger to get you started, including links to great tools like Google Analytics.  She is admittedly a bit Blogger biased.  (Blogger is a blog powering platform, by the way).  As I use Typepad, I am a bit more in favour of Typepad.  But I feel it is best to compare the different options and pick what's best for you.  If you need help with the pros and cons, check out this comparison chart to decide what's best for you.

If you decide Blogger is indeed right for you check out this video for how to get started:

If you prefer Typepad, here is a video tutorial:

Or maybe Word Press is your preferred poison:

So what if you already have a blog and now want to attract more people to visit it?  Check out these suggsetions on how to maximise traffic to your blog from SeoMoz.

If you already have a blog, are you using widgets?  Widgets (besides havinga cool name) can really help spice up your blog as well as drive more traffic to it.  Check out this video for more info:

Robin Good has some great videos on You Tube, this one features 4 really great widgets that you can make use of:

I could really go on forever, there are so many resources to help you get the most from your blog, but hopefully this has got you inspired to write and share whatever it is you're doing

Freebie Friday - Stamp Magic

If you are anything like me you'll have rubber stamps coming out the wazoo, but don't use them all that much.  So this freebie Friday is a round up of great ideas for using rubber stamps to create fantastic fabrics.  I've even got few links for how to create your own rubber stamps.

If you have never stamped on fabric before here are some tutorials to help with the basics:  Patti medaris Culea gives her tips here and Lenna Andrews gives her ideas here.  Mimi Kirchener also has a great tutorial from her experimentations here.

If like Mimi you want to create your own stamps here is a tutorial on how to carve your own from Alma Stoller.

Here is another stamp carving tutorial using an eraser as the base of the stamp.

If you want to get a bit fancier, you cn use a masking technique to overlap rubber stamp images, click here to see the tutorial.

I love this idea of using rubber stamps to emboss velvet.  It is such a simple technique but really effective:

So get out some stamps and have at the fabric stash!

Freebie Friday - Business Cards

I often say to myself that I really must make up some business cards so that I don't have to scribble my blog address on whatever scrap of paper happens to be handy.  Maybe you have the same problem.  So here's Freebie Friday to the rescue - it's all about free business card templates and free business card holder patterns.

Businesscardland allows you to customise the colours as well as your details, see their template creator here.

Templates4Cards allows you to edit their templates here.

Jukeboxprint has some cool designs here.

Marketing Hub offers some cool templates too, here.

Once you've got your free business cards, you'll need to store them in a very cute business card holder.  Check out this free pattern for a Business Card Keeper from Amy Butler. 

If you do exhibitions or have a studio where you might want to display your business cards, thisgreat doll pattern by Jevne Eilts is also a card holder. 

Go on, you'll have to start practising saying 'Have my card'.

Belated Freebie Friday - The Eyes Have It

I've committed a sin!  I got to late Saturday evening and thought, "It's Saturday and I forgot to do a Freebie Friday, ahhhhhh!".  I've let you all down. Mea culpa, mea culpa.  But I do have a good excuse, it was my 8th anniversary of my first date with my hubby.  Last year we totally forgot, and ended up remembering in the queue at Tesco's.  It wasn't very romantic, so this year we decided to go out for dinner.  As we walked down some marble steps in the rain, approaching the restaurant, Himself lost his footing and almost lost it, but I grabbed hold of him and he regained his balance after sliding down a couple of steps.  A bloke sitting at the bottom of the staircase looked at me and said, "Lady, I don't know what's so special about you, but you've sure swept him off his feet."  I'm not quite sure what I did to deserve my fabulous Hubby, but I sure am lucky.

So here is a round up of tutorials on how to make your own eyes for cloth dolls or even for polymer clay dolls.  Glass eyes can be expensive so these are some great alternatives:

Here is one method using polymer clay or air-dry clay from Marika's dolls.

Noni Cely has a great tutorial on making polymer clay eyes here.

Here's another polymer clay version of making eyes for dolls.

Rivkah Rosenfeld shares some eye-making tips with some good ideas on painting here.

And for a change of pace and look, try this tutorial on making cloth eye balls, including a peak at how they are set in the head.

Better late than never, right?

The Soul Whisperer Doll Class is Available For Sign Up

Many of you have written asking when you can sign up for the Soul Whisperer online class.  Well, the time has arrived!  Just click here to pop over to Doll Street for more information and to sign up: http://www.dollstreetdreamers.com/classes/colleen_whisperer.htm  The class starts on July 15th.

If you sign up before June 15th, then you'll also receive the pattern and lesson for these cloth doll pencil toppers too.  Bonus.

I can't wait!

Mum, Do you Remember?

Dear Mum,

Do you remember that time we got caught in the rain during a long walk?  We were both wearing sandals and we had problems staying on our feet.  We sang all the songs we could think of with rain in the title - loudly.  Milli Vanilli couldn't have sung Blame it on the Rain better.  In fact, they didn't.

Do you remember when you danced the tango with that guy in HMV? 

Do you remember when I was a nun in the Sound of Music and the altos couldn't figure out their part and I was so frustrated?  You sneaked us all out into a staircase and taught us the part.  The director thought he'd really worked miracles with us.  Little did he know.

Do you remember when you got invited to a Halloween party with my friends in high school?  And you and Dad dressed up as Tim and Al from Home Improvement?  I must say, a tool belt and tie really works on you.

Do you remember when you made me that cowgirl skirt for cowboy day at school and you took the fringe off a tablecloth to trim the bottom?  That grade eight kid said to me 'Your skirt looks like a tablecloth!'.  He meant it as an insult, but I told him 'That's because it is a tablecloth!' and swooshed on by.  I loved that skirt. 

Do you remember when you tried on that figure hugging slip in that lingerie store and when you tried to pull it over your head you got completely stuck?  I came in to try and extricate you but we got giggling madly and couldn't stop.  We never could show our faces in that store again.

Do you remember when you did my make-up to look like a zombie for my first high school Halloween dance?  It was so good that I really looked dead.  No one danced with me.  Note to self: it you want boys to like you, don't get Mum to make you look gross.  She's good at it. 

Do you remember when I was sick how you would turn on the radio to classical music and sit up with me all night and rub my back round and round in circles?  And you'd give me ginger ale out of that plastic cup that looked like an ice cream cone with a straw in it.  I still listen to classical music when I don't feel well because it makes me feel like you are with me.

Do you remember?  Thank you for everything you do for me Mum.  Every word of support, every giggle.  Everyday I think of you.  I am so lucky I have you.

Freebie Friday - Flowers and Fungi

Ah, alliteration is so satisfying.  Not only are these tutorials great for embellishing dolls or creating little settings for tiny fairies, but you could use them as brooches (the flowers anyway, fungi brooches would just be weird).

Here is a great little tutorial for needle-felting a flower.

I adore these dahlias made out of ric-rac.  Usually, I see ric-rac and shudder to think of the dance skirts my mum used to make me with rac-rac edging.  I don't know why I shudder, I just do.  I have ric-rac issues.

Here is a super cute dandelion tutorial.  Hey, don't knock dandelion's, one woman's weed is another woman's flower.  Don't you love it when kids pick you a 'flower' and it's a dandelion.

Whip out your hook and whip up this chrysanthemum crochet pattern.

Here is a great tutorial on how to make prim sunflowers.  Grungier than Kurt Cobain and twice as cute.

And on to fungi...doesn't this little mushroom beg to have some teeny fairy seated on it?

And this mushroom doubles up as a free pincushion pattern - sweet.

I feel that this Freebie Friday was florally fabulous.  And free.  This Freebie Friday was sponsored by the letter F. 

My Mum's Going to Have to Get a Bigger Coffee Table

I set myself a goal to get published this year and I'm at it again.

This time Water Lily is featured in Art Doll Quarterly.  Oooh, shiny paper.  It even smells good.

I've tried to think of a clever segue to tell you about what I found in my loaf tin in the pots and pans cupboard in my kitchen but my brain hurts too much to be clever right now, so I'll just hit you with it.  I saw a recipe for a yummy looking marmalade and Muscovado sugar cake and fished out my loaf tin to see if it was the right size.  Inside I found a single stray sock of my husband's.  What was a stray sock doing in the loaf tin?  I strongly suspect that a pixie spirited away that sock and has been using it as a duvet while sleeping in the loaf tin.  Definitely pixie mischief!