the teacup incident

New Garden Party Girl doll: Sally Bird

New in the shop: handmade doll "Sally Bird". Sally is a wife and mother to three girls, as well as a kindergarten teacher. She and her husband own a small farm where they tend to a large vegetable garden and a menagerie of pets. NOTE: This doll SOLD last night, but there are lots of other handmade dolls in my shop if you are looking for an heirloom quality doll.

Sally is made from a mix of new cotton and muslin fabrics with ribbon details. She is 23" long, 13" sitting height (59 cm, 33 cm) and stuffed with hypoallergenic Polyfil.

Her multi-color and navy blue cotton dress has a gold and white fabric belt with a navy blue ribbon bow. Her shoes match her dress and have navy blue grosgrain ties. Sally's knickers are made from yellow and white gingham. Her dress, shoes and knickers are sewn securely to her body.

Sally comes with a removable light blue felt coat and a felt hat decorated with band of fabric that matches her dress. 

Sally has yellow rayon/acrylic yarn hair attached securely in a flattering bob. Her hand-embroidered face features brown eyes and a pink heart-shaped mouth. She has double stitched internal seams so she can be posed several ways. Her arms open wide for hugs or can be crossed to show a bit of spunk. 

Dolls Kellee and Sally love the color blue. Kellee's wool yarn hair is a gold/yellow while Sally's acrylic/rayon blend yarn hair is bright corn yellow.

Sally wears a cute trouser and wrap top set while shopping for a new teapot.

Sally loves trying on clothes at PinkGingerKitty. This blue leopard print scarf and beret looks especially appealing in cold weather.

Have a great weekend!

Inspired by: Dollhouse Miniatures

1. Patisserie  2. French townhouse  3. English shopfront  4. Stocked Toy Store

It takes a brave and dedicated soul to open a brick and mortar shop in the digital age. Even though I enjoy imagining how I'd stock and display handicrafts in a shop, I have no plans to open a physical store.

If you harbor dreams of opening a shop, dollhouse miniatures are a fun way to realize your fantasies. Imagine opening a little village shop in England or France, perhaps time traveling to a different era in order to stock the store with your favorite goods. You can decorate your tiny shop any way you wish, unconcerned about customer preferences, advertising or competition.

There are lots of dollhouses and shops available on Etsy. Type doll house or doll shop in the search line to find many options, from fully built to DIY kits. A search for "miniature dollhouse food" (or furniture, or decor) will bring up many options for stocking your miniature abode, from vintage bakery, dress atelier or modern coffee shop. 

Click on the links I've assembled here to find some wonderful Etsy shops specializing in miniature worlds.

1. French bread loaf molds  2. Clocks  3. Tiny cake  4. Dolls tea set  5. Tiny platters  6. Christmas tree  7. Christmas dollhouse tour, ebook  8. Mini macarons

One enjoyable thing about miniature shops vs. a real store is this: stock the mini shop once and you're done, that is until a new inspiration strikes your fancy!

Have fun planning a tiny shop of your own.

New at PinkGingerKitty: Handmade Doll Jilly Burnett

New Garden Party Girl doll Jilly Burnett

Jilly is made from a mix of new cotton and muslin fabrics with ribbon details. She is 23" long, 13" sitting height (59 cm, 33 cm). She is stuffed with hypoallergenic Polyfil.

Jilly's floral cotton dress has an aqua fabric belt with a coral satin bow. Her shoes match her dress and have coral grosgrain ties. Jilly's knickers are green and white gingham. Her dress, shoes and knickers are sewn securely to her body. She comes with a removable light blue felt coat and matching blue felt hat decorated with a teal grosgrain bow. 

She has blue-green wool yarn hair attached securely in a flattering bob. Her hand-embroidered face features green eyes and a pink heart-shaped mouth. She has double stitched internal seams so she can be posed several ways. Her arms open wide for hugs or can be crossed to show a bit of spunk. 

Jilly tries on a red hat and scarf set. She also loves the blue Ikat jacket and beret set in the photo below, just listed at PinkGingerKitty.


The cotton jacket is partially lined and comes with a coordinating blue felt beret. This set looks great on most of the Garden Party Girl dolls.

Handmade doll Mary Alice looks beautiful in every shade of blue! She paired the jacket with a salmon pink felt hat for extra pizzaz.

Jilly wears a cute trouser and wrap jacket set for her weekend jaunt. 

DIY Halloween Postcards!

Note: this post first appeared here in 2012

Here's a fun project for those of you who like playing in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Turn old photos into Halloween postcards that will have your friends screaming with laughter! All you need is a couple of photos, a scanner and photo altering software that allows you to color parts of the photo. If you've ever done digital scrapbooking before, you're halfway there! 

Start with a scan of a photo and convert it to black and white. Color the skin of the people depicted in Halloween colors. Layer the resulting photo over digital papers purchased online (or print and layer on actual scrapbook paper), then add a funny quote. 

Let's look at some examples first: 

All of these postcards were created using the same process. I'll walk you through the steps with a photo of a man I'm calling "Tyler".

Step 1. Scan in a photo and convert to black and white, if necessary, for better contrast with the color you're adding. In Photoshop you can do this by clicking on Image/Adjustments/Black and White. In Photoshop Elements click on Enhance/Convert.

Step 2. Create a new layer above the photo. Using the brush tool, color over the skin of your person (I chose purple for Tyler). You could also color in the neck and limbs if visible. Keep the eyes and lips free of color for a more realistic "skin disorder".

Step 3. Adjust the color layer's opacity to 67% so you can see the facial features through the color. You could stop here if you wanted to and merge the skin color with the photo layer. Then layer your photo over digital paper, add a funny quote and you're done!

If you want to create stripes like I did with Tyler (above), use the rectangular marquee tool to make long rectangles across the skin color layer. Holding down the shift key lets you to make as many stripes as you want in one go. Once you have sufficient stripes, press the delete key to erase the color from the selected stripes.

Step 4. Merge the color layer with the photograph layer. If you have a blank background around your person, you can use the bucket tool to color the area with a contrasting color.

Step 5. Layer your photo over digital papers or print out and adhere to scrapbook papers to create your postcard. Add a funny quote and "Happy Halloween" to your card. Set the size to 6 7/8" x 4 3/4" or to fit your envelopes.

The end result will look something like this:

Your postcard is complete! Print it on photo paper, cut it out and snail mail it to your friends. Or resize them to 72 dpi and send as an attachment to your email or post on social media.

Have fun making up your own cards or you can download mine in PDF form for printing. My postcards are for personal use only, please.

Download 1  Alien Family and Pumpkin  Download PumpkinBigFamilyPDF

Download 2  Miss Radiate and Spooky Kids   Download HelenSpookykidsPDF

Note: I made my own digital background papers but there's loads available online. Just Google or search Etsy for digital scrapbook paper.

Enjoy! 

Note: this post first appeared here in 2012

Here's a fun project for those of you who like playing in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Turn old photos into Halloween postcards that will have your friends screaming with laughter! All you need is a couple of photos, a scanner and photo altering software that allows you to color parts of the photo. If you've ever done digital scrapbooking before, you're halfway there! 

Start with a scan of a photo and convert it to black and white. Color the skin of the people depicted in Halloween colors. Layer the resulting photo over digital papers purchased online (or print and layer on actual scrapbook paper), then add a funny quote. 

Let's look at some examples first: 

All of these postcards were created using the same process. I'll walk you through the steps with a photo of a man I'm calling "Tyler".

Step 1. Scan in a photo and convert to black and white, if necessary, for better contrast with the color you're adding. In Photoshop you can do this by clicking on Image/Adjustments/Black and White. In Photoshop Elements click on Enhance/Convert.

Step 2. Create a new layer above the photo. Using the brush tool, color over the skin of your person (I chose purple for Tyler). You could also color in the neck and limbs if visible. Keep the eyes and lips free of color for a more realistic "skin disorder".

Step 3. Adjust the color layer's opacity to 67% so you can see the facial features through the color. You could stop here if you wanted to and merge the skin color with the photo layer. Then layer your photo over digital paper, add a funny quote and you're done!

If you want to create stripes like I did with Tyler (above), use the rectangular marquee tool to make long rectangles across the skin color layer. Holding down the shift key lets you to make as many stripes as you want in one go. Once you have sufficient stripes, press the delete key to erase the color from the selected stripes.

Step 4. Merge the color layer with the photograph layer. If you have a blank background around your person, you can use the bucket tool to color the area with a contrasting color.

Step 5. Layer your photo over digital papers or print out and adhere to scrapbook papers to create your postcard. Add a funny quote and "Happy Halloween" to your card. Set the size to 6 7/8" x 4 3/4" or to fit your envelopes.

The end result will look something like this:

Your postcard is complete! Print it on photo paper, cut it out and snail mail it to your friends. Or resize them to 72 dpi and send as an attachment to your email or post on social media.

Have fun making up your own cards or you can download mine in PDF form for printing. My postcards are for personal use only, please.

Download 1  Alien Family and Pumpkin  Download PumpkinBigFamilyPDF

Download 2  Miss Radiate and Spooky Kids   Download HelenSpookykidsPDF

Note: I made my own digital background papers but there's loads available online. Just Google or search Etsy for digital scrapbook paper.

Enjoy! 

New Garden Party Girl dolls: Polly and Penelope Howard

New this week at PinkGingerKitty: handmade "sister" dolls Polly and Penelope Howard. These dolls were created to look cute together but they are sold separately so grab the one you really want!

Polly and Penelope are both 23" in length, and 13" high when sitting. My dolls have double inside seams so they are durable and can be posed several ways.

Penelope has burgundy wool hair with a hand embroidered face featuring brown eyes and a dark pink heart shaped mouth. Polly has bright pink wool hair. Her hand embroidered face features brown eyes and a bright pink heart shaped mouth. Both dolls are made from a mix of cotton and muslin fabrics with ribbon details. They are stuffed with hypoallergenic Polyfil.

Penelope comes with a removable dark pink felt coat and matching hat with an ombre purple and gray-green bow. Polly comes with a light pink felt coat and a medium pink felt hat with gingham bow.

October bonus: purchase any doll or accessory from PinkGingerKitty in October and get a free felt beret! See my shop for details.

Dolls Penelope and Polly decided to host a pumpkin party with their friend Genevieve. Genevieve supplied the berets and the sisters provided the chocolate mousse pumpkin cakes and pumpkin spiced tea. (The tiny cakes are from Trader Joe's and they're delicious!)

Penelope looks adorable next to anything orange and loves pumpkin spiced chai, pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup. It was her idea to host a pumpkin party.

Polly and Genevieve went along with Penelope's idea because they knew they'd look cute in berets and who doesn't want a chocolate mousse cake shaped like a pumpkin? Yes, please!

Happy weekend, everyone!

New For Fall: Colorful Hat and Scarf Sets

1. Red folded hat with polka dot double bow   2. Red bucket hat with dotted band and matching scarf

The Garden Party Girl dolls are excited about the changing seasons. Cold weather gives them reasons to wear hats and scarves and they like having several hats to dress up in.

I've added new hat and scarf sets and a couple of fancy folded hats to PinkGingerKitty so your dolls will always be in style. As a bonus, every purchase of doll or accessories in October comes with a free doll beret. Pick your favorite color from my stash or let me help you choose something that will make your doll stand out. See my shop announcement or convo me for details.

1. Teal hat and scarf set  2. Purple hat and scarf set  3. Red hat and scarf set

Who wouldn't want to wrap a unicorn scarf around her neck? 

Fancy folded teal blue hat with pink ombré ribbon

Have a cozy weekend!

New Garden Party Girl doll: Debra Ballard

Meet my latest handmade Garden Party Girl doll, Debra Ballard. Debra is made from a mix of new cotton and muslin fabrics with ribbon details. She is 23" long, 13" sitting height (59 cm, 33 cm). She is stuffed with hypoallergenic Polyfil.

Debra has bright blue rayon/acrylic yarn hair attached securely in a flattering bob. Her hand-embroidered face features sea blue eyes and an azalea red heart-shaped mouth. She has double stitched internal seams so she can be posed several ways. Her arms open wide for hugs or can be crossed to show a bit of spunk. 

Debra wearing a cute jacket and trouser set under her coat. This is a great weekend look for Garden Party Girl dolls!

Debra is a librarian during the day and a cosplay enthusiast at night. She likes making her own costumes and dressing up like Laura Croft, Tomb Raider. She posts photos of herself and friends posing in various costumes on social media. Her dream is to travel to Mexico and Thailand, visiting the sites of ancient civilizations.

In this photo Debra wears a faux fur jacket and hat (sold separately) while posing with her friend Kellee.

During the month of October you will receive a free beret with any purchase of a doll or doll accessories, a $10 value. Choose the color you like or allow me to pick one for your doll. I have a range of colors to choose from. See my shop for details.

Check out all the Garden Party Girl dolls at PinkGingerKitty and pick your favorite!

New for Fall: Blue Faux Fur Jacket and Hat Set

I found a beautiful blue faux fur remnant that inspired me to make this fun doll jacket and hat set , modeled here on doll Mary Alice. The jacket is 7" long and ends at the hips of my Garden Party Girl dolls.

The jacket is fully lined with blue patterned cotton and has a snap closure to hold it in place. A satin bow adds elegance to the jacket front. It looks adorable paired with a blue felt hat decorated with a matching faux fur band. The set is now available in my shop, PinkGingerKitty.

The sapphire blue fur set looks charming on my handmade dolls and adds a cozy note to any fall wardrobe. 

Imagine the fun you'll have dressing your doll in faux fur when the weather turns chilly! 

Doll Kellee wants to wear this fur set to Boulder's Open Studios art show coming up in October. She's shown here with a small floral I painted for fun.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cozy Fall Decor

 1. African basket  2. Chunky wool throw  3. Scented candle  4. Fall print  5. Enamel teapot

 6. Fall mug  7. Knitted pumpkin display  8. Fall scented soaps  9. Felt ball garland  10. Cotton ball wreath

With fall upon us its a good time to cozy up the house in anticipation of cooler weather. I chose some of my favorite finds from Etsy shops, shown in the photos and links above. Click through to add a little fall warmth to your home.

Have a great fall weekend!

Fall Doll Adventures

Doll Kellee is researching a trip to the French Antibes via vintage travel journals.

As summer draws to a close the PinkGingerKitty dolls are enjoying fall adventures at antique fairs, farmer's markets, art shows, and country outings. Let's see what their plans are for the weekend.

Henrietta is going to the flea market, hoping to find a new addition to her Chinese soy sauce bottle collection.

Hannah collects pretty creamers so she's joining Henrietta at the flea market. They are going to enjoy scouting the goods together.

Bonnie collects vintage Japanese china birds, like this one on a vase. She finds them at antique shows or on Ebay.

Dolls Emma and Mary Alice will be trading celebrity gossip over lunch at their favorite cafe.

Kim is going apple picking at a farm her friends own in the countryside. She plans to make a dozen pies for a local charity auction.

Naomi is taking her dog, Mr. Peppy, to the park where they'll join friends for a picnic and a game of dog Frisbee.

My handmade dolls make adorable companions for all your adventures. See all available dolls along with cute fashion accessories in my shop, PinkGingerKitty.  

What are your plans this weekend?