Every month’s last Friday (or just once a month, sometime on a Friday) is part of a feature on BlytheLife.com, Freebie Friday Five. Welcome everyone to this month’s instalment! I mention 5 things I love every month that’s free to do/read/see.

If you have any suggestions for next month’s Freebie Friday Five, please don’t hesitate to email me! Maybe you have a site you think that I should feature or a pattern that’s free and up on the web? Tell me!

For the month of December, I wanted to find things that would hopefully serve for inspiration for whatever goals you have for 2012 so I’ve included sites for photography tips, crafting and more.

1. For the 365-enthusiasts, I found photocorrect.com which has free tips and tricks for taking photos. My favourite article was on bokeh in photos.
2. If you’re new (or not!) to knitting, knittinghelp.com is a fantastic resource with videos and a forum! Many of the videos are free and there’s a lot more cast-on methods that I ever really need to know – and it’s always a good idea to use the method recommended in the pattern to get the desired look!
3. For a lot of lovely free patterns (if your goals this year are to craft a wardrobe for your dolls), you can join Ravelry! It’s free to join and there’s a pattern search engine. You can key in the type of yarn you want to work with, how much you have and even search for Blythe and see what you find.
4. Wanting to edit some photos? Maybe correct the colour a bit or just blend two together? GIMP is a free photo program and there are a ton of tutorials out there for you!
5. Start writing! Write a blog (BlytheLife.com has a guide to get you started!), and you can start one for free on Blogger or WordPress. And when you’ve set up your Blythe-related blog, be sure to let me know so we can exchange links!

And this my last blog entry for 2011! I hope you all had a lovely year! See you all in 2012!

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** Special Reader Deal ** If you saw my blog entry last Friday about advertising here on BlytheLife.com… If you apply for January 2012 advertising (and already have an appropriate advert image), you can tack on the month of February (so you get both January and February!) for $15 (large size) or $7.50 (small size) if you mention seeing this deal in the comments section.

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If you know of a site, group or activity that you think I should highlight in next month’s Freebie Friday Five, let me know! Comment below or email me.

I find pull charms really cute on dolls, especially when there’s a theme or it just goes well with the doll’s personality. If your Blythe has sleep eyes and you find that the lids are a little droopy, the main suggestion that you’ll find is to add a heavier charm to the string for sleep eyes. It needs a weight to keep the lid open after you’ve taken away the spring.

A lot of people like using beads. As someone who will dabble in designing jewellery, I like using beads too. Some beads can be really expensive (seeing as how you don’t need that many!), but there are a lot of inexpensive sources as well – especially if you can shop smart. You can find beads at a lot of different stores – dollar stores carry both plastic beads and nicer beads (one local dollar store had semi-precious stones and glass beads). If you’re opting for beads from a big box craft store, many have sales or regular 40 or 50% off coupons that you can use on regular priced strands beads. You can cater the doll’s charms to match their hair colour, the theme of their face-up or just whatever you like.

Other sources for charms for your doll’s pull strings are: beads or charms from jewellery [you can find inexpensive jewellery at thrift stores, dollar stores or clearance bins], make your own with polymer clay, vintage buttons or small plastic knick knacks. These are just some suggestions. I’ve also seen people use alphabet beads to spell out their doll’s names, plastic Kewpie charms or even Swarovski crystals (but that’s not really budget friendly!). Whatever you choose, it doesn’t need to break the bank and you can use a lot of things that you already have.

To attach charms, you can undo the knot of their pull string and add the charms on. After, you just retie the knot with or without the pull ring. For the sleep eye string, you want to make sure that the charms are heavy enough to keep the eyelids open so your Blythe doesn’t always look tired.

What sorts of charms do you have on your doll’s strings?

365 is a year-long project where people take photos of something (sometimes the same thing, sometimes not) every day for a year. It doesn’t have to start on January 1st, but a lot of people do start on the 1st. It’s a popular time to start and a lot of people will begin a Blythe-themed 365 with their chosen girl in just a couple of days.

I did a 365 with Sophie, my Cappuccino Chat, that I started on February 23rd, 2010 and ended February 22nd, 2011. She spent a lot of time watching me study, very little time out of the house (I found that I disliked dealing with her wispy, thin, flyaway hair – but she still looks glamourous!).

It is a rewarding experience, just knowing that you’re capable of doing it is a wonderful thing. Everyone has the capacity for taking a photo every single day for a year, but not everyone will try, or even remember to do it. Even if your photos are a little blurry on some days or taken in poor lighting, at least you’re putting in the effort to try and to take on the project!

If you are interested in participating in 365 or finding out more information, you can always check out the Flickr group, 365 Days Blythe.

Will you be starting a 365 project in 2012?

New to the website is advertising spots. I’ve received more than a few emails asking if I’m open to having ads on the website. I am, because getting some help with hosting costs would be fantastic and I could also use some funds for prizes in giveaways. At the same time, I am going to be selective about what kind of ads will be featured on the website. I want to keep the ads on BlytheLife.com doll related. That can be ads to any kind of website provided it’s related to Blythe or dolls.

If the advertisement images are inappropriate, they will not be used and refunds will be issued. Advertising images should be tasteful, feature no nudity and showcase your work. If you need an advertisement image created for you, you may request one ($10/image) and provide the image(s) you want used.

There will be 3 advertising spots per month in two different sizes (1 large, 2 small). All advertisement spots will be on the sidebar. They will appear on the sidebar of all pages and posts of BlytheLife.com.

Advertising will be available for one month at a time. There is a small discount for multi-month purchases and can be paid for via Paypal in USD funds.

I am taking applications via the Advertisement page form for spots for January 2012. If you want to reserve an advertising spot for future months, you can also indicate that as well.

Large – 1 spot available (325×200 pixels)

• $10 – 1 month
• $18 – 2 months
• $26 – 3 months

Small – 2 spots available (160×160 pixels)

• $5 – 1 month
• $9 – 2 months
• $13 – 3 months

Treasures For Dollars is a mini-series that is completely focused on things that I actually find (and buy) from dollar stores and other similar stores. It will alternate with Blythe On A Budget articles for the next little while until the finale of the mini-series (at Part 10). I hope you enjoy the series!

I have been fascinated by handpainted eye chips for the last little while. There are a lot of people who do handpainted chips, I’m not sure who was the first to do it, but I know there’s quite a few people who do them. And all of them are beautiful. I love looking at photos of them, I like the look of them in the eyes of dolls. But one of the things that I really wanted to do was try my hand at handpainting chips. I’m not the best at drawing, but I can wield a paintbrush somewhat decently (okay, half-decently). I bought some clear smooth chips (no lines) and then I had to get paint. My local dollar store (which I love) has a very small selection of paint. But I knew that I wanted something metallic and all of their colours were not metallic based paints. But a few days ago, I found silver paint in the craft section when I was looking for some blue thread. Silver paint! While that’s not metallic paint in all the colours that I wanted, mixing silver in with, say, blue makes a somewhat decent metallic blue colour. And that’s good enough for me! Best of all? It was on a special for 2 bottles of acrylic paint for $1. So it cost a grand total of $0.50+tax.

What’s a good inexpensive dolly-find you discovered recently?