Next in the month of March’s Talent Showcase is Kayla a.k.a pin_upkitten! I first met Kayla via the Blythe Swap group when we got paired up as partners. She paints brilliant designs onto fabric that was previously plain and makes it all magical. Not only is she an artist, but she also creates felt shoes and boots for Blythe and she customizes too! Not bad for someone who says she’s in a little city with a lack of crafting supplies!

Hi Kayla! What can you tell us about yourself?
Well, first things first, I am a nut! I am always going 20 directions at once but I’m happiest when busy so it all works out. I am a bit of a nomad, I am constantly on the move, if I stay in any one place for too long I go a bit stir crazy. I have always been into creating and have dabbled in just about everything, I even have a year of design school under my belt. I like to move around creatively as much as I do physically, but luckily I have a super boyfriend who graciously puts up with my shenanigans and experiments!

How did you first discover Blythe? What drew you to her?
I stumbled across someone’s Flickr photostream a few years ago with a tonne of really great, colourful vintage toys and I kept seeing these really captivating photos of her Blythe doll. I just couldn’t get over how sweet she was and found out everything I could about Blythe, though I didn’t get my first doll until this past may. I love their sweet little faces and the personalities to match! Though I think the thing that has made me fall so hard and so fast for Blythe, is how great of a creative outlet they make. I get to draw on all of my creative background. I am constantly testing myself and new gaining strengths. I love always having an outlet for my creative juices whether it is sewing, painting, photography or my new favorite, customizing!

You design clothes for Blythe with handpainted designs. How did you start doing that and where do you draw your inspiration?
I have always sewn and created out of necessity so when I got my first doll, Zoe, she HAD to have something to wear so I started sewing for her. I loved that it got me back into sewing and creating but we don’t have a tonne for sewing in craft supply in my small “city” so when I joined the Blythe Swap group and needed to create some Halloween themed items for a swap I had to think on my feet! I experimented with staining fabric and acrylic paints and loved the result! I really enjoy that it combines painting, sewing AND those gorgeous big eyed gals. As for inspiration, sometimes its as simple as fulfilling a task, like with the swaps or a commission, and the rest of the time its just an odd little idea in the back of my head that HAS to come to life like, “what would a Dr. Who fangirl Blythe wear?” (By the way, the answer is: “A beaded Dalek dress, of course!”)

You customized Zoe yourself and she was your first doll – what challenges did she present to you when you decided to change her look?
Honestly, I had NO clue what I was doing. I couldn’t find any Basaak doll specific tutorials when it came to opening or scalp removal so it was a LOT of guess work at the beginning. Luckily for me, Basaak dolls are a piece of cake to dismantle. Unluckily for Zoe, all my trial and error means that she has had 3 separate make overs! Her first makeup job was a disaster, the second was better and her current look is cute but now that I’ve started carving I will probably take another STAB at it, pardon my pun. But trial and error is how you learn, so I wouldn’t trade my mistakes for anything.

I know you’ve customized your Can Can Cat and your Simply Guava – what did you learn while customizing them that you wish you’d known while customizing Zoe?
The biggest thing I’ve learned is how to overcome the fear, I wish I had that same ability to just jump in while working on Zoe that I’ve had since. The second my Guava, BonBon, arrived all I wanted to was start carving her. Although I was truly awful at sculpting in Art class, everyone else’s gorgeously carved, highly emotive dolls really inspired me and I HAD to tackle it. I was so happy with how that turned out that I wanted to add rooted highlights to BonBon, give Can a boil perm, change eyechips and even work on a few petite reroots all of which were completely foreign to me!

You’ve made some pretty creative things for Blythe since joining the hobby – what would you say has been the most difficult thing that has happened so far in your creative process?
Well, the most difficult obstacle has also led to the best results! I live in a really small “city” and crafting and sewing supplies are in limited supply so I’ve had to improvise a LOT. I couldn’t find any doll furniture I liked so I made a kitchen from upcycled items around my house. Then I started participating in Swaps and without a fabric store in town I had to make use of my current fabric stash, which always has a tonne of plain white cotton, so I experimented with dyeing and painting it and loved the result! And THAT is how my hand-painted dresses started!

A lot of the things that you’ve made so far have been for yourself or for swaps, what do you have planned for the future in your clothes designing venture?
The ultimate goal is to open an Etsy shop to sell my custom hand-painted dresses, both made-to-order dresses and some pre-made ones, I also have plans to start stocking my dresses in a few small independently run stores and even travel to BlytheCons to sell them! Unfortunately, right now I don’t have the time to devote to creating a backstock but I am, and plan to continue, offering slots for made to order dresses on Blythe Kingdom (Hint, hint, nudge, nudge.)

Where would you like to see your customizing go in the future? Do you have any plans?
I really want to keep growing and honing my skills. There are always new skills and techniques to learn and that’s part of keeps me driven. Looking around at all the gorgeous dolls that the top customizers create is really inspiring and is definitely something I aspire to, in a perfect world, I would be a full time dolly clothier and customizer bringing Blythe cuteness to the world!

I think that it’s fantastic that you just jumped right into customizing your dolls. What’s your favourite part about changing the look of a doll?
I like that extra glimmer of personality it brings to our big-eyed friends. They become so expressive and individual. Take BonBon and Can for instance, BonBon always looks kind of unsure and reserved, while Can is all bubbly and full of soft smiles. They take on the characteristics of my favorite (non-plastic) people, sitting with Can always reminds me of one of my closest friends, while Zoe is a sassy mother-hen, much like my own mother.

How has entering the doll hobby changed you so far?
It has definitely helped to reconcile me with my creative side, I had hardly touched my sewing machine since leaving school. I even sew and paint about a 20 times more often now! Also, the community is a blessing! I was beginning to feel cut off and disconnected, having moved away form all my social roots, but the Blythe community is so open and welcoming. The open discussion and encouragement has really helped to get me back out of my shell.

Thanks so much for doing this interview with me, Kayla! What kind of advice do you have for someone who’s new to customizing?
JUMP IN! Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back. Mistakes are natural and luckily in the Blythe world there always seems to be someone willing to jump in with a tip or some advice when you find yourself in a real pickle.

You can find Kayla over on Flickr!

Custom Dress Set Giveaway!

The above image is an example of what you could win! Kayla is offering up one custom handpainted dress with a matching pair of shoes or booties for the winner of the giveaway! You’ll get to pick something for her to paint on an A-line dress.

You can get up to eight (8) entries for this giveaway draw and you can enter until Saturday March 31st 2012 at 11:59pm PDT. The draw will be held on Sunday April 1st 2012 and the winner will be announced on BlytheLife.com. Remember to use a valid email address for all comments. If you win, your email will be forwarded to Kayla so she can get in contact with you about your custom dress set!

Please only use one email address per person, those using multiple email addresses for more entries will be disqualified.

Mandatory Entry: Comment below about this interview or what kind of design you’d want on the dress if you win! This is worth 1 entry into the giveaway.

Bonus Entry #1: Tweet about the contest! Please retweet the following once per day from your public Twitter account! (If you look below, there is a box for you to include your Twitter username, if you do, I can easily verify your bonus entry!) Each tweet is 1 entry into the giveaway for a maximum of 2 entries into the giveaway. Please comment below to tell me that you’ve been tweeting (1 comment per tweet!)

Check out the @blythelifecom interview with Kayla for a custom dress set giveaway! http://bit.ly/GOdpzE

Bonus Entry #2: Blog about the contest! Be sure to include some details about the contest and include links to BlytheLife.com, this interview/giveaway page and to Kayla’s Flickr photostream! For 1 blog entry, this is worth 5 entries into the giveaway! You must comment below with the URL to your blog post.

The local Blythe group where I live has a meet once a month since we’ve started, which has been very fun. We try to make the meets fun and put as little stress as possible on the hostess who’s volunteering up their house. So I’ve made a list of some of the things that my local group has done to make meets budget friendly:

1. Food – Bring food when/if you can to the meet so that the host isn’t required to come up with food for everyone. While not all group members bring food every meet, members have brought items to meets as they can.
2. Workshops – We’ve had fun group activities with workshops that have involved sewing and decorating hats. It’s a great way to be taught new skills and to also see how everyone makes the same starting item look completely different at the end.
3. Photo ops – I always find it fun to put together groups of Blythe dolls into big photo opportunities. We’ve done a ‘class photo’ of 1972 dolls. We’ve done a fairy ring of Blythes. It’s always fun to take big photos and to also share photos online for others to see as well.
4. Locations – We’ve had meets at people’s houses, in public parks. It’s a great idea to find places that are easy to get to via transit, easy to find nearby parking spots and low-cost or free locations.
5. Themes – It’s a fun idea to give the meet a theme! The most recent one I attended was St. Patrick’s Day and a lot of the dolls that had attended wore green, which was neat. We’ve also done a Hallowe’en-themed meet where there was a costume party (for the dolls!). Not only does it make for a great reason for your dolls to wear fun animal suits that you’ve kept for whatever reason, but it means that all your other clothes can have a reason to come out to meets.

When I first ‘discovered’ Blythe, I fell in love with photos of custom dolls. I loved stock dolls too, but custom dolls had such attitudes and flair. And then I started collecting dolls and…  well, besides string changes, sleep eyes, chip changes and gaze lifting… They’ve all remained stock. Some have remained fully untouched while some have had most of their chips changed. I still love looking at photos of customs and I just adore looking at custom Blythes in person too! I fell in love with several dolls both in Portland last year and at local meets where I get to see the work of people who have beautiful portfolios that I’ve admired online in person. It’s really great to get to see the art work and all that detail and attention in person. While photos of custom Blythes can be so incredibly beautiful, nothing beats seeing the work in person. But my current love, according to my dolly family, is mostly stock dolls. None of them have even had their shine removed! I’ve grown accustomed to seeing my camera and face in their shiny, big foreheads.

How has your dolly tastes changed?

I’d like to thank everyone who entered into the giveaway for the two fantastic beaded helmets by Meg of The Helmet Factory! I thought it was really neat to see what colour combinations that people were coming up with for suggestions.

We had 14 people enter and 39 entries in total! So there were 39 entrants for the helmet on the left and everyone got 1 entry for the UV helmet on the right (where Oscar the dog picked a name out for the winner).

And the winners are…

Click to read more of this entry.

The March Talent Showcase just keeps getting better and better! Lauren, also known as Cakewalk Queen, does it all. She knits, she crochets, she customizes and reroots. Her most recent venture is Sparkle Monster – a shop full of yarn things for Blythe. With the quirky style of granny squares incorporated into a super cute helmet, her work brings about a new look to the Blythe helmet that we all know and love.

Hi Lauren! What can you tell us about yourself and how you discovered Blythe?
I’m 24 and I live in the Dallas area with my husband and dog. I first saw Gina’s book, This is Blythe, and couldn’t get that strange big-eyed doll out of my head. It wasn’t until I saw a Samedi Marche Encore being sold online in a store that I ever thought about actually owning one. I started looking at Google images of Blythes which led me to Flickr and that’s when the obsession started. I just had to have one! We all know how that goes, just one turns into many!

Where did the name Sparkle Monster come from?
I love sparkly things. Glitter, tin foil, diamonds, if it twinkles I dig it! I also love the word monster for some strange reason so the two just kind of came together. I guess I consider myself a bit of a sparkle monster!

How long have you been making things with yarn?
My mother-in-law taught me how to knit in 2008 but it wasn’t until 2010 that I really got into it. Last summer, I taught myself how to crochet and that seemed to be the catalyst for making things for Blythe. I’m getting more confident in understanding both knit and crochet and that’s leading me into making my own patterns and experimenting with shapes.

I know you’ve recently made some sparkly pink hats for a special cause – what can you tell us about that and your involvement?
They were made with special little girl, Alissia, in mind. She’s Rob’s (of Rob & Sioux) niece and she’s fighting brain cancer. She’s only 4 years old and it amazes me how strong little kids are. I wanted to do something that would help her family out a bit so I made the hats in Alissia’s favorite color and 100% of the proceeds are going to her family. I just wanted to hopefully bring a smile to their faces.

What is your day-to-day schedule like when it comes to crafting and getting the word out there about your business?
I don’t currently have a job so I have a lot of time to spend on crafting. I tackle custom orders first, but other than that, I don’t really have a schedule. I almost always have a couple of works in progress and I knit or crochet while doing just about everything! If I could craft and cook, I would. I try to keep my blog, Blythe Kingdom, and Facebook page updated with any new products or information and I’m constantly on Twitter. I’ve found that people are finding me through all of these places so even thought it takes a bit of time to update everything, I know it’s important.

What has been your favourite moment so far since you’ve opened Sparkle Monster?
I recently had someone tell me they wanted a helmet in every color and just couldn’t decide. That totally made my day! I want to make stuff that people will like and hearing good feedback on something you’ve handmade feels great. My first sale was also a big happy moment for me!

Where did you draw your inspiration from for your helmet design?
Like most Blythe people, I love the way helmets look on their heads but it seems like every idea was already in production. I ‘m totally obsessed with everything granny square and thought it would be a fun homage to Blythe since she’s a 70s chick. I started playing around with the pattern and soon it just came together! It’s the first time I’ve had an idea that I’ve seen through start to finish and I feel so proud of my little helmets.

What did you think or do when you first saw someone taking a photo of their doll wearing something that you made?
It’s kind of surreal to see your work through someone else’s photography. It’s a great feeling to know they appreciate what you’ve made enough to photograph it!

Your cardigans are really darling – where did the inspiration for the design come from and how you decide on what colours to use when they’re all so pretty?
I love the look of tiny knits and I also love layered outfits on Blythe. Choosing colors is so hard for me since I really love them all. I have the hardest time shopping for yarns!

What would you say has been the biggest learning curve for you with opening up a shop?
Probably navigating my way around Etsy. I’ve used it for years as a buyer but selling on there is totally different. Luckily, it’s fairly easy to get the hang of.

What kinds of things can we expect from you in the future?
I have so many ideas! Middie sized helmets and cardigans are in the works and I’m also going to have special collections. They will be themed and feature OOAK or limited edition cardigans and helmets.

Thank you so much for doing this interview with me, Lauren! What kind of advice would you give to someone who’s new to crafting for dolls?
Just jump in and start playing around with things. I made several cardigans before I found an exact pattern I was happy with. You will have duds but with every mistake you learn what not to do the next time. Eventually, you’ll get something great!

You can find Lauren over at Flickr under the username Cakewalk Queen, over at Tumblr and, of course, on Etsy with her shop Sparkle Monster.

Cardigan Giveaway!

Lauren has graciously decided to offer up one custom Blythe cardigan, which is why I don’t have a photo to show you! If you are the winner, you will get to choose the colour and any add-ons (buttons, ties, collar and/or sleeve length).

You can get up to eight (8) entries for this giveaway draw and you can enter until Saturday March 24th 2012 at 11:59pm PDT. The draw will be held on Sunday March 25th 2012 and the winner will be announced on BlytheLife.com. Remember to use a valid email address for all comments. If you win, your email will be forwarded to Lauren so you can get in contact about your custom cardigan!

Please only use one email address per person, those using multiple email addresses for more entries will be disqualified.

Mandatory Entry: Comment below about the interview with Lauren! This is worth 1 entry into the giveaway.

Bonus Entry #1: Tweet about the contest! Please retweet the following once per day from your public Twitter account! (If you look below, there is a box for you to include your Twitter username, if you do, I can easily verify your bonus entry!) Each tweet is 1 entry into the giveaway for a maximum of 2 entries into the giveaway. Please comment below to tell me that you’ve been tweeting (1 comment per tweet!)

Check out the @blythelifecom interview with Sparkle Monster for a custom cardigan giveaway! http://bit.ly/x388i5

Bonus Entry #2: Blog about the contest! Be sure to include some details about the contest and include links to BlytheLife.com, this interview/giveaway page and to the Sparkle Monster shop! For 1 blog entry, this is worth 5 entries into the giveaway! You must comment below with the URL to your blog post.