We’re halfway through the March Talent Showcase! I hope you’ve been enjoying it as much as I had enjoyed interviewing everyone. For the third installment, I interviewed Jenni – she’s the one behind the name ThriftyDolls and she customizes Blythe dolls. She’s a braver soul than I am, clearly!

Hi Jenni! What can you tell us about yourself?
Hello! I’m 25 and from England, I’m married to my teenage best friend and sweetheart and we have a beautiful daughter who I stay at home with. I have a long history with art and attended art school. I love creating, be that painting, sculpting or customising Blythe!

How did you discover the world of Blythe?
I discovered Blythe when a good friend of mine posted on Facebook that her husband had bought a pair of Irregular Choice Blythe shoes for Valentines Day, because I am nosy I Googled them! I instantly feel in love with the big eyed girl on the shoes and started researching them like a mad woman! Blythe was all I could think about and I ordered my first (superior skate date) a few weeks later!

What drew you towards customizing dolls?
I saw the beautiful custom Blythe on Flickr and thought the artists had really bought the dolls to life, so I looked into it found all the information I could and decided that I wanted to try it, and having an art background I was confident I could give it a good go!

What can you tell us about you first customizing experience?
My first customising experience didn’t go exactly to plan! She was Superior Skate Date, notoriously difficult to open so I decided to work on her with her head still on her body, which does make things more difficult! I made so many mistakes, such as accidentally filing her cheek with the end on file while I tried to found her nose, but I was ever so proud of her at the time! She now lives in my daughter’s toy box!

What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned about customizing so far?
I think the most important thing I’ve learnt so far is that there is no single “right way” to do things. If you remember that you can always learn, evolve your skill set and develop your techniques.

What is one mistake (besides filing the cheek) you’ve learned from since your first custom experience?
A mistake I’ve learnt from is using the wrong tool for a particular job. When I first started carving the file I was using for shaping the lips was way too big and the groove between the lips was huge! I’ve since invested in a Dremel bit set which gives enormous variety and range.

What’s a tool that has become indispensable to you?
I couldn’t work without a curved craft knife, I use it for reshaping the sides of the lips, the sides of the nose, finishing off nostrils, smoothing out the chin, all sorts! It is completely indispensable to me!

How would you describe your customizing style?
At the moment it’s mostly cute and whimsical, I have a lot of pink and fluffy girls through my doors which I love to do. I would love to try and push my limits with a goth girl or something similar!

What kind of styles or techniques are you hoping to experiment with in the future?
I’d love to work on more “out there” girls, I’d to experiment with illustrations on the face and I’m bursting to work on a tanned girl, Ideally a tan girl with a pale scalp! I’d also love to try a vampire girl as I think there are some adorable vampy customs out there!

What would you say so far is definitely “your style” in the dolls you’ve customized so far?
When I started I thought bottom eyelashes would be my “thing” but then no one requested them! Looking over my past work I think the thing that makes them obviously “my style” are the lips. I like quite full bottom lips with lots of detail so it’s something all of my customs have.

What’s your favourite mold to customize? What makes it your favourite?
My favourite is RBL, I find the mold to be so versatile, she can be happy or sad, sweet or sulky. The ease of opening the head certainly adds to it too! I also think that she looks the most like my idea of “Blythe”, I suppose that’s because she’s the most Kennerish as a stock doll.

Thank you so much for doing this interview with me, Jenni! What kind of advice do you have for someone who’s looking to try their hand at customizing?
Thank you for interviewing me it’s been so much fun!

My advice would be to do lots of research, look at lots of pictures and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Blythe people are very friendly and I have found that people are happy to help. Then when you do decide to jump in, be confident in what you’re doing, most mistakes can fixed and everything can be a learning experience!

You can find out more about Jenni and her ThriftyDolls custom work on Flickr, Twitter and on Facebook!

Blythe Face-Up Giveaway!

Jenni of ThriftyDolls is offering up a face-up for one of your dolls! You could get Jenni’s beautiful work on one of your dolls! The winner will be responsible for provide the base doll and shipping costs (to and from Jenni).

You can get up to ten (10) entries for this giveaway draw and you can enter until Saturday March 23rd 2013 at 11:59pm Pacific. The draw will be held on Sunday March 24th 2013 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 Jenni so she will be in contact with you about your doll’s face-up.

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 Jenni of ThriftyDolls! 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 Jenni of ThriftyDolls! #giveaway http://bit.ly/Y3Fleb

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

Bonus Entry #3: Share this giveaway on Facebook! Include a link back to this interview page! For 1 Facebook share, this is worth 2 entries into the giveaway! You must common below with the URL to your shared link.

Do you love to write? Do you have a story, a tutorial or a bunch of fun tips to share with the Blythe community? BlytheLife is looking for you to guest post here!

Some examples of what you could do is: write about your Blythe journey, talk about a customizing project, share a knitting or crochet or sewing pattern (or tips!), share your 100+ doll family, talk about your love for Middies & Petites – the sky is the limit! I’m open to guest posts about just anything. It does need to be ‘family friendly’ and be original material. You’ll get to be published here and lavished with attention via links to your blog/sites and comments from the readers! Are you intrigued yet? I hope you are! You can find more information on the How to Contribute page.

Eden says “You should help Michelle out! She’s been super busy with this thing called ‘school’…”

If you have an idea but don’t want to write it yourself, you can send in a suggestion via the Suggestion box.

If you have any questions regarding the process, you can send me an email (michelle@blythelife.com)

It’s that time of year again – Spring Break! Or at least it is for some people (like myself). So while I’m not exactly “relaxing” – I have studying to do, a paper to write, a presentation to somehow put together and work-work (the kind that pays) – I’m still trying to make the best of the fact that I’m not hanging around a campus every day for a week!

I have a lot of classmates who decided to hop onto planes and go traveling for a week. A few popular destinations included: Hawaii, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and (the one I’m the most jealous about) Barbados. So while I’m bumming around and not relaxing all that much, I’m being peppered with photos via Facebook of gorgeous sandy beaches, clear blue skies and the fact that they’re all somewhere else besides here. So what’s a girl to do? Have my own Spring Break fun, of course!

On Sunday, I went out with dolly friends (and made some new ones!) and we went and had a tea party at this lovely place. And, well, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:

Click to read more of this entry.

It is always so much fun to read the comments left after an interview! I’m sure that Jessica appreciated the comments as much as I did. Be sure to check out the Sew Do Something shop to get your own fancy dolly frocks.

And as a a reminder, the winner will be receiving a dress in Jessica’s Pre-Civil War era style pattern from a selection of fabrics:

And the winner is…

Click to read more of this entry.

As the March Talent Showcase continues, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to someone who knits, sews and does a lot more crafting than I do! Lyndell could costume your doll to fit any holiday, it’s pretty amazing! Here’s Lyndell from the Etsy shop, BlytheStar.

Hi Lyndell! What can you tell us about yourself?
I’m a gran’ma and a constant crafter, happiest when I’m in the middle of making things. After decades working in offices in various admin / secretarial roles I finally made the break about a decade ago and now I work as a costumier and milliner. I sew and knit costumes, mostly for stage productions but sometimes for movies or TV and I work part-time for a milliner making fashion hats for women. When all that is not keeping me busy I make clothes and toys for my two grandchildren or I make clothes and accessories for Blythe dolls.

How did you discover the world of Blythe?
A hopeful suitor gave my grownup daughter a French Trench Blythe doll in 2004 – FT is very much a mini-my daughter. Although that suitor was unsuccessful we are now an inter-generational Blythe family and my granddaughter’s name is – Blythe.

What made you decide to start crafting for your dolls?
Well, I started sewing dresses for that French Trench, her name is Bibi. I had been sewing clothes for a friend’s Barbie and found the Blythe body shape a whole lot easier to sew for! Like many people in the fashion and costume making industry, I started as a child sewing dresses for my dolls; I guess I just never really stopped.

I noticed you do a large variety of types of crafts – which one do you like doing the most?
Knitting – I love knitting and the whole process of turning a ball of yarn into a garment. I love the tactile feel of a good quality yarn running through my fingers and knitting is so adaptable – you can make everything from a fine lace shawl to a thick warm coat. There are so many different techniques in knitting – always something new to learn and master. Currently, my favourite technique is ‘short-rowing’ which I use a lot to create shape in the clothes I knit for Blythe dolls.

What was the first design that you came up with for your shop?
My first design that I thought would be a ‘seller’ was the knitted bathing suit. Currently I don’t have any left in the shop – must do something about that!

How was the experience of selling your first crafted item for Blythe? How did that make you feel?
Absolutely ecstatic! Actually had 2 sales on the 2nd day the Etsy shop was open which was very exciting and then worrying … would the buyers like the goods? had my descriptions been misleading in any way? would the parcels get lost in the post?

What would you consider to be your favourite design to make?
The favourite design is always the one currently in my head and not yet made. At the moment this is a circus outfit – loosely based on the classic Petrushka costume. Second favourite is usually the last outfit off the needles – currently the cherry red ‘pleather’ raincoat and cap. Like a lot of my designs that one was inspired by the fabric – a lovely Italian light weight vinyl.

There’s a lot of niches in the dolly clothing market – where do you fit in?
Not quite sure if I’ve found that niche yet. I would like to make costumes for Blythe – complete theatrical outfits, historical fashion, ballet tutus … however, those are very time consuming so they have to be quite expensive and it is always hard to find those larger blocks of time. Meanwhile I’m offering more conventional Blythe garments plus some jewels and a Passport service! My garments are professionally made and finished – in sewing I aspire to the quality and craftsmanship of the awesome Kikihalb.

I know you haven’t been crafting for long, but what have you learned so far about yourself and the process?
Oh I have been crafting and making things since I was little – but I’ve only gone fully professional in the last decade.
What has crafting taught me about myself and the process? That I’m a perfectionist and that I will spend hours doing something I don’t really enjoy (like beading) to get the result that I want (nicely placed twinkles). With most of the crafts that I do I’m a ‘results’ person; the crafts that I also enjoy for the ‘process’ of doing them are mostly very tactile & sculptural such as knitting, spinning and blocking hats.

What kind of routine do you have for when you sit down to craft?
Drink coffee, draw design, drink coffee, gather the materials, drink coffee …

For all the things that you use when crafting, what is one tool that you cannot live without?
My expensive and very sharp scissors – good scissors are a wonderful thing!

What can you tell us about what we might see from you in the future?
I have so many plans for things I want to make for the BlytheStar shop! Hats for Blythes, flapper dresses, more ballerina tutu outfits, glam ‘red carpet’ evening gowns …

Thank you so much for doing this interview with me, Lyndell! What kind of advice do you have for someone who’s new to Blythe?
Thanks for the opportunity, I do love being part of the Blythe community. Advice for a newby? Be prepared to fall in love with these funny big-headed dolls they can hijack your heart!

You can find Lyndell on Flickr, over at her blogs (Fashioned by Lyndell and Blythe Dolls’ Bon Voyage) as well as at Etsy (BlytheStar and Fashioned by Lyndell).

Dress & Necklace Giveaway!

Lyndell of BlytheStar has graciously decided to give away a sparkly turquoise dress! The winner will also be receiving a matching (not pictured) necklace for their doll.

You can get up to eight (8) entries for this giveaway draw and you can enter until Saturday March 16th 2013 at 11:59pm Pacific. The draw will be held on Sunday March 17th 2013 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 Lyndell so she will be in contact with you about your prize.

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 Lyndell of BlytheStar! 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 Lyndell of BlytheStar! #giveaway http://bit.ly/Zj4hfF

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, BlytheStar Etsy shop and the Fashioned by Lyndell blog! For 1 blog entry, this is worth 5 entries into the giveaway! You must comment below with the URL to your blog post.