In addition to making a whole cake, I've also been making individual slices for the dolls to enjoy.
Elin can't wait to try some.....

Looks like the Black Forest cake was a huge success!

Next dollie birthday is in the middle of February.   At this rate 
I'll have a whole bakery-worth of cakes by the end of the year!

It was a year ago today that Lisa joined my doll family, so we are celebrating her 'birthday'. She wanted to sew herself a special dress, which she finished earlier this week. Being an elegant young lady, she asked for a Black forest cake for her birthday - without candles - so that's what I made....

Several of her friends came to help her celebrate....

"Mmmmm....the cake looks yummy!  Time to have some..."

The cake is another delectible concoction of styrofoam, with 'chocolate' drywall compound icing, 'chocolate' Sculpey medallions and roses, Sculpey cherry pie filling, and 'mocha' drywall compound 'whipped cream'.   Yummmm....!!  At least it's not fattening!

By the way, my son said I needed to be active on Facebook. I had signed in there under 
'MB Lilac' about a year ago, and have done nothing with it. However, I'm told I SHOULD post there.  All righty then.  I changed Facebook to my name - Martha Boers. It will mostly be for doll-related stuff, much like this Blog.  I think I may also transfer my 'Photo-a-Day' posting to Facebook. I've had so little to post on my Martha Boers photo website that the daily photos - which aren't very 'daily' anymore - are mostly just of my dolls.  I figure there isn't much point to posting in three separate places, so I'll give Facebook a try.  Of course, that also means even more ways to get distracted from sewing....

The beautiful pink and white angel ensemble has been all packed up, and is ready to go off to it's new home. With it being a very special project, I had really wanted to take some special photos, 
so spent much of Tuesday working on them, setting up my dining room table, digging through my old art samples for a tissue-paper 'stained glass window', preparing candles, making everything perfect. Here's Hope in the finished angel ensemble....

This angel ensemble was very special. My customer requested it as a way to honour the memory of her best friend who died of breast cancer. She asked for a white dress, with pink accents symbolic of the disease that took her friend.

Now it just so happens, that two of my most recent dolls, which I acquired last year - Leona and Efreet - were purchased from this same customer.  In fact Efreet actually belonged to her friend who had died, and she was selling him on behalf of her friend's widower. Well, right from the beginning, I felt this project was inspired by some unseen hand, and I kept imagining my Efreet in the embrace of this angel. 

So after photographing Hope in the dress, I put it on my Leona. She looked gorgeous in it, but I had to find another, smaller, hair wreath, so borrowed one from one of my fairies..... 

So then it was time to try take photos of the scenes I'd imagined while I was working on the dress. It took much of the day. Setting up a pose, carefully lighting the candles, taking a few photos, then carefully blowing out the candles again before changing the poses. I was terrified that I'd have an accident with the candles and the dress would catch fire, or I'd get wax on it. But no, throughout all the separate sessions, everything went perfectly, and I had my own symbolic tribute..... 

Time to try on the new dress and see how it looks.....

Well, I've finally opened new pages for Favourite Photos 2015, and the Gallery 2015. There's not a lot there yet, as I still have to photograph a lot of the newest outfits, but at least it's a start. I've made albums for 'Byuri's Birthday', and started an 'Iplekids Everyday' album for the BIDs and KIDs. I still need to create an album for 'Lisa's New Dress'. I've finished my Angel photos, but have yet to process and post them. 

When I have a chance, I'd like to go hunt for all my 'behind-the-scenes photography tips' photos that show my set-ups, and put them all into a tutorial to show how I pull off 'forced perspective'. Right now there's just the occasional behind-the-scenes photos scattered throughout my Blog, but I think it might be very helpful to have them all together in one place.

Today I need to make some slices of cake for Lisa's upcoming birthday. But today I also need to get another B12 shot, and if the side-effects are anything like the last time, I'll be out of commission for several days. Which means I need to try get done today whatever I can. So I better get to it.....

Bonnie, more than anyone else, has been watching Lisa work on her dress.....

"It's so beautiful! Are you sure you can't make me one too?"

After a couple of weeks of intense sewing, Lisa has finished her special birthday dress.....

"So, what do you think?"

It's a very cold January day, and the kids are playing with blocks inside where it's nice and warm...

The tiny wooden houses are from when I was little.....

Lisa is almost finished her dress, but it needed something around the neckline, so she's been 
busy embroidering with gold thread and some of the sequins from the dress fabric....

Bonnie and Elin are very curious, and keep coming to see what Lisa is doing....

The other girls will come and check in from time to time as well....

I was asked how I made the wings for my angel ensemble, so thought I'd share a few pictures, and try explain the process. Like everything with this outfit, nothing ever went as I expected, and the wings were no exception. I originally drafted a pattern for an angle wing. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it. Then I came across some lace appliqués, that in my opinion, resembled feathers

There were actually two different versions of the 'feathered' appliqués, and I was originally going to use the second shorter ones for the top half of the wing. But then, when I was going through my lace stash again, I came across the folder full of the pink floral appliqués, and it was like they were just 'calling out to be used'. So I did. 

The only way to show the lace to maximum advantage was to layer it between some very sheer white fabric. The sheer was too slippery to just cut out, or to pre-draw the wing shape onto, so I pinned two layers of the sheer onto the paper pattern, placed the lace appliqués on top, pinned them down, and stitched around the outside edge of both the paper pattern and the lace appliqués, leaving an opening at the shoulder so I could turn the wings right side out.  After stitching, cutting out the wings, clipping the edges, and turning them right-side-out, I pressed them, then top-stitched a narrow pocket along the top edge for the wire, and top-stitched the wing to accent the embroidered appliqués inside.

I bent wire to fit into the pockets on the edge of the wings, inserted them, hot-glued the ends in place. The wire was visible through the sheer fabric, so I covered the edge with glitter to hide it. While I was at it, I also added a bit of glitter to highlight the pink floral design of the lace.  I used pink glitter fabric paint, sprinkled with iridescent glitter to tone it down....

The wires of the wings slip into narrow pockets sewn onto the back of the dress bodice.  
So there you are. They were actually quite easy to do once I knew what I was doing.  The 
biggest challenge to making similar wings would be finding similar shaped lace appliqués.

Well, I've finished the dress and wings for the angel ensemble, and have taken a 
few pictures. I'm using Hope as my model, since the outfit is ultimately for a Pink
 Laryssa, who is just a 'Hope' sculpt with faun ears.

I find the dress has a soft ethereal quality, and the pink accents give it a warmth 
that white alone never would have had.

A closer look at the bodice details....

Today I need to make a flower wreath to represent her halo. The challenge will be 
to make it fine and delicate and not overpowering with large flowers.