October Madness

A few months ago, my genius of a mother suggested I make Phina dolls for weddings.  I have been excited about that opportunity since beginning.  I mean, how stinking cute would a little bride and groom doll be of the happy couple?! Just as luck would have it, one of my all time dearest friends got married in October, and I knew that she, of all people, would appreciate the magic of having a mini bride of her own.  I did not, however, realize that her new husband would be just as excited about the dolls, if not more.  During the pre-wedding dinner with his family he had to go get the dolls from the car to show them to everyone at dinner.  All during the reception I kept randomly hearing my name, when I would turn to see what was going on, the groom would be holding the dolls and pointing to me.  So, without further adieu, I present to you The Bride and Groom:

Showing off the rings!

And yes, due to the brilliance of a friend, we recreated some of the couples' engagement photos.

The bride and groom are most definitely some of my favorite creations so far.  I had so much fun with the little details (the bride is taller than the groom in real life and with the dolls).  


When I returned to Denver from being the secret Maid of Honor (or so I pretended to be) at my dear friend's wedding, I had another friend ask me to make her guest sign in book.  I had grand plans and it was going to turn out absolutely amazing!  After late nights at Kinko's, more late nights watching the Vampire Diaries while working on the book, and it not turning out exactly how I had envisioned, I was relieved to find that I am pretty pleased with the final outcome.

 Sorry it has taken me so long to post the latest madness.  If these caught your fancy please take a minute to pass the magic along to someone else, or let me know your thoughts!

Finals.

I am finally settled in from my 'big move' (a whopping 2 buildings away) and find myself working like a mad woman to keep up with final exams, presentations, papers, and, of course, projects.  The last couple of weeks have been a whirl of moving boxes, Adobe Illustrator and Loteria.  I just kicked one project in the seams that has been tormenting my life over the past three weeks: my first ever infographic.  "What", might you ask, "is an infographic?"  Well, let me tell you.  It is a way to convey information through the use of graphics.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Pssh.  I wish.  I decided to do my infographic on the Evolution of Eyewear, seeing how I have been a crafter of lenses for the past few years.  Considering that all I know about Illustrator has come from just playing around with it and begging friends to help me out from time to time (for which I am so incredibly grateful!) my little project turned out pretty okay.  There are some changes I would love to make if I had the time, patience, and experience, but all things considering, I'm pretty proud of myself.

 There is always room for improvement, but like I said, I'm pretty okay with it as my first attempt at an infographic. 
  Though there hasn't been much chance to work on anything Phina related I have some pretty exciting projects coming up in October and I will post more of my final projects next week, and then hopefully be able to report back regarding my super awesome grades in a few weeks.  For now, I hope this will suffice any Phina fix that has been needed out there in the world.
  As always, please feel free to give me any feedback regarding The Phina Project, my infographic, final projects, whatever area you feel feedback is needed in my life.

Marvelous happenings.

  Sorry for the absenteeism Phina folks!  School has been crazy crazy crazy lately!  The good news:  Thanks to The Phina Project, my next quarter of school is paid for! woot. woot.  I have also recently discovered that I am on the Dean's Honor Roll.  I don't think I have been on any kind of Honor Roll, let alone the Dean's, since I was a freshmen in high school.  Again with the woot. woot.  I do love finally being back to school, and the craziness is pushing me more creatively than I have ever been pushed before. 

  Now, for what you have all been waiting for.  It is my greatest pleasure to introduce you to the most recent additions to The Phina Project.

The Mr. Monkey Doll.  Mr. Monkey is playful, and always fun to be around.  He is my first animal attempt and is for my nephew's first birthday.

The Spider-man Doll...er...'Action Figure'.  He is a lover at heart and a hater of all evil doing.  Another experimental Phina doll, The Spider-man is for my other nephew who is a Spider-man addict.

The Lady Monster Doll has a sweet innocence about her.  I have been wanting to make some monsters for quite some time now, especially after watching the Weepies - the World Spins Madly On video. 

For those of you who have not seen the music video...Enjoy:

  As I mentioned earlier, school has had me running and slightly insane lately.  So far this week I have had a night of 3 hours of sleep, 4 hours of sleep, and 5 hours of sleep.  Two of those (extremely) late nights were due to homework, and one was due to The Phina Project (I just got caught up and lost track of time...that's when you know you love what you do).  Today (after a full 6 hours of sleep) I spent 9 hours in the screen printing lab printing my second project for the class.  "Why" you ask "would you spend NINE hours at the school on a precious, precious day off?"  Well, I'll tell you.  I spent the first few hours finishing up my homework and the rest was spent on.....wait for it......

                  ..........wait for it..........


                BUSINESS CARDS!

Each card has the same front and come in four different colors: Orange, Green, Pink, and White.

The green doesn't show up very well in the picture, but trust me: it looks pretty sweet!  This is one back.

Another back to represent The Phina Project (each has the blank space to write down my phone number or email address).

The third back.  Her registration doesn't line up exactly, but we'll just call that 'added personality'.

 If you don't know much about the screen printing process, let me just tell you: no one does.  Everyone I have ever talked to that does silk screening has just kind of figured it out and made it up as they go.  A couple weeks ago my Design Layout assignment was the make a business card.  Thinking it would be fun to actually make my own business cards, I started to screen print them.  Sadly, I was unable to get them finished in time for my Design Layout class, so I just printed them off (boring, I know) and turned them in.  My teacher said he really liked them and wants me to bring in some when I have finished screen printing them, he even asked if he could keep the three I printed off.  That may not sound like a big deal, but to have an art teacher ask to keep your work is kind of a big deal (at least for me it is).  I like the idea of having different colored cards with different backs to them.  It adds just a little more variety and personality.  The registration (lining them up) was a bit of a beast for the backs, as you can tell on the little monster.  Registration on the front, and getting it to line up with the back, was a lot easier than I had anticipated...a LOT easier.  I like them.  They were pretty time consuming, so I may not screen print many, I'll just take the file to Kinko's and have them do the hard work.  So far I have been told there is a couple local businesses in the area that like hand made items and will display business cards, including Meininger's (a hot little art store a few blocks from me), who actually asked me to bring the cards in when they are ready.  Hopefully I'll get some more orders and be able to pay for future quarters of school (finger's crossed)!  I can then bobble my head and declare: Mm, yes. Business. Business. Business.  I may even be tempted to say, 'It's business time'.

(Oh, Flight of the Conchords.  You are delightfully funny though slightly inappropriate)

Sarah Smiles

I have recently finished my first official custom order.  I have been waiting to post pictures until I had some good shots of the people with the dolls.  I still don't have the pics, but since we all know I tend to be impatient (and if we didn't all know, we do now), here are the dolls minus their owners.  It was my privilege to turn my friend and coworker, Sarah, and her husband into little cloth dolls (not in the creepy sinister movie kind of a way).  It took a second try to get her glasses just right, and he kind of looks like a tourist Chuck Norris with glasses, but all in all, I'm pretty pleased.

Sarah

Romeo (and Juliet) and sugar skull tattoos

Juliet (and Romeo)

Sunrise

Sunset

Matt

Crown and Cross

Camera 1

Camera 2

Film and camera

Sarah and Matt

And fantastically enough, the whole time I worked on Sarah's cloth dolls I had Sarah Smiles stuck in my head (don't judge, you know you secretly love Panic at the Disco too).

 The lovely miss Sarah just did a super fantastic feature of her dolls and their mad creator on her blog, La Vie Culturelle.  Check out the love here!

Day of the Dead

I have recently finished a couple sweet little Day of the Dead Bride and Groom dolls for a friend of mine who has been so amazingly supportive when it comes to my insane ideas.  Not only does the poor girl have to work with me, she puts up with me 'borrowing' ideas from her for my school project (um, p.s. I just stole -borrowed- another from you for class tomorrow), she doesn't make fun of me when I ask waiters/waitresses what is the most super fantastic thing on the menu that they would absolutely recommend I order, she endorses my Bad Day Cupcake days at work, and she doesn't tell me I'm being annoying when I ask her several times if she really likes her new little Bride and Groom. 

Day of the Dead Bride and Groom

The Day of the Dead Bride and Groom were a little bit of a challenge for me, and fortunately enough, I loved it.  They are both about 12" instead of the normal 17" the rest of the dolls have been so far.  That doesn't sound like a big difference, but it made their arms and legs that much smaller and a little trickier to work on.  I figured it out easy enough and they ended up taking a little less time than a normal sized cloth doll (duh Chelsie).  The real challenge was painting them.  I don't know much about Day of the Dead, if there is significance behind the decoration or color, or anything else.  I Googled a couple pictures and went from there.  All in all, I'm pretty pleased with them, now it's weird working on a normal 17" doll again.  The Day of the Dead couple are available in my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePhinaProject  (just keep in mind that everything is custom and no two dolls are alike).

In my screen printing class (which I absolutely love) I started talking about The Phina Project with a couple friends, one of which had a Day of the Dead wedding.  She asked if I could make a Day of the Dead couple for her.  I have been working on them amid the craziness of my life, and I am quite please with the result.  They are the regular sized dolls I have made in the past (17") which made them a little easier to work with and I applied some suggestions and feedback I have received a long the way.

Between classes, homework, work, and 'The Project' I have started to feel like each day is a day of the dead for me.  Fortunately, as I mentioned, I have some amazingly supportive people in my life who keep me laughing and chugging along.  I try to remember: Things could always be worse...like poor Jerry here:

Moral of the story:  When you start feeling as though you're having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of the dead, just remember things could always be worse.  Always.

The Potter Thief.

My wonderfully supportive friend, Leslie (who is quite possibly one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I have ever had the privilege of meeting), ordered a Harry Potter doll the moment she saw him on the blog.  She has been excited all week to get him and he just arrived today. 
(Tangent:  When I went to the Post Office to mail Harry to her, the postal worker stood him up and danced him around, all the while talking in a British accent worse than mine...which is saying something very, very sad.  I asked if Harry would be okay in what I was about to send him in and the postal worker looked at me with a worried look on his face and told me that I had better poke some holes in the packaging so Harry could breath.  He was quite convincingly concerned about my rudeness surrounding Harry's comfort, it was rather fantastic.)  
Sorry, back to my main story...Where was I?  Ah, yes: Leslie has been excited all week to get him and he just arrived today.  I don't think she got to have him to herself for 5 minutes before a cute little thief discovered the mini HP.







She text me a little later to let me know that Gabey (the cute little thief) was sitting in bed watching Part 1 of the 7th Harry Potter and asking the doll why he lets Snape be so mean to him.  The image of a concerned 4 year-old who is obsessed with Harry Potter deep in conversation with his new little friend totally and completely made my night.

Thank you Leslie and Gabey for being so super fantastically awesome!

Cloth Dolls

The Ray Doll.  Full of life and adventure Ray is talented and loves to travel.

The Potter Doll is brave, magical and has a strong faith in family and friends.

I just can't seem to resist sharing the HP love...I constantly have this song stuck in my head.

The Jaylee Doll is full of hope, love, and an unquenchable sense of wonder.

For information about the dolls, please visit The Doll Project page (found on the upper right hand corner of my blog).

The Lady Mouse is kind and considerate and is constantly looking for ways to learn and grow.

The Buccaneer.  A master of teamwork, the sea, and awesomeness.

The Ninja Doll.  An advocate of choosing right over wrong and a gentlemen to boot.

 I had the Ask A Ninja song stuck in my head the whole time I worked on The Ninja Doll (aka: Roger).  Please remember to say 'Thank you' when you walk through automatic doors, for they are actually gentlemen ninjas.