Blue Halter Dress with Yellow and Pink Flower Pattern

Click for larger version of blue dress (PNG); click for PDF version of blue dress. Click for larger version of black dress (PNG); click for PDF version of black dress. Click here for the list of dolls.

Someone got a new tooooy ♪
I ordered some white gel pens, because I wanted to see if I could do, well, something like this. After playing with them all day, I can happily recommend the Sakura Souffle for use on top of Prismacolors. I will do a tutorial about it at some point, and a comparison of the types of pen I bought as well. But for now, I’m just happy I could do what I wanted to do with white ink! Or rather, I’m on the way to making some cool things, I think.

So this is just me playing around with my toy, I hope you like it. And since I am in such a cheery, experimental mood I couldn’t help fussing around in Photoshop and making a bonus version, too, which is a little less refreshing and springy, a little more chic.


Colored Ruqun in Green, Blue and Yellow

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Ophelia won my last contest by guessing that I had 400 colored pencils, which was the closest guess to the actual number of 403. She picked the ruqun and said, “I loved the movie Mulan when i was little, so what about a Mulan inspired dress? Mulan wears a different style of ruqun in the movie, so it won’t be the same, but what about the same colors; light green for the top and dark, almost midnight blue for the skirt, maybe navy or red for the sash.”

I added some detail, because I just can’t help myself, and Ophelia, I hope you don’t mind the little addition of the dragon… my mom wanted a dragon on this one, and it is certainly very hard to say no to my mom! Anyways, I hope you like it.

I like doing contests, because it’s fun to color according to someone else’s wishes every so often… I have to think of other kinds of contests to run. I was thinking I would ask “How many colored pencils did I just order?” (because I’m down to my last colorless blender… time for an infusion) but now I am bored of colored pencil counting. Anyone have any suggestions for me?


Purple and White Striped Towel In Honor of Towel Day

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Today is Towel Day, in honor of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and other fine books. Why towels? Because towels are the one thing an interstellar hitchhiker should never be without, no matter what else they might lose. Not only is it useful in a wide range of situations (gas mask, blanket, improvised weapon, at least against creatures with sensitive skin) but it’s tremendously impressive to have braved the galaxy without once having lost one’s towel.

OK, I am the sort of gal who keeps her towels in the linen closet, but at least my creations can be hoopy froods, and I think Ivy would be the type to have a towel at hand during her journeys. As you can guess, there are some days where an interstellar hitchhiker is very, very grateful indeed for a nice big stripey towel. (And perhaps a safety pin or two, if the galaxy has any pity whatsoever.)

You can thank Brian for the copy of the Guide; he went on to suggest a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, but I think that might be pushing it…

I really had no reason for putting up this poll, but thank you all for indulging me none the less.


Contest Conclusion!

As of May 18, I owned 403 Prismacolor pencils.

That means that Ophelia’s guess of 400 from the very first day was the closest one. Congratulations Ophelia — pick out a black and white dress (any of them, not just the most recent) and tell me how you want me to color it!

Thanks to everyone else for guessing! I’m sorry I made it go on so long, though…

Brian made this chart of what the votes looked like. Thanks dear!