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!

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!

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!