Barb Keeling's 'Chit Chat

How to get a FREE Doll Pattern

2012-01-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

SORRY THESE HAVE BEEN SOLD TODAY 1/25/12. COME BACK HERE IN A FEW DAYS AND I WILL HAVE SOMETHING ELSE SPECIAL PRICED.

Thank you so much for your interest.

hugs, barb keeling

I am beginning to sell off my own personal collection of doll patterns. I am not selling then because I don't like them. Sewing is not easy for me to see anymore. I have three new Pam Groses Patterns....The Unicorn, The Dragon and the Lady Centaur. They are awesome. They are on my website. The Lady Centaur requires that you ALSO purchase PamGroses BASIC pattern in order to have instructions for, Techniques for Facial Features, Wire Armature and construction of the body. You need this pattern in conjuction of a number of her patterns. I will give you that BASIC pattern FREE when you buy all three Pam Grose Patterns. The Lady Centaur, The Unicorn and The Dragon.

My Basic Instructions pattern is totally in tack. All the patterns and instructions all in one piece. BUT I made copies of all the body parts and each has been cutout and laminated in clear plastic. They are awesome. So you have the printed pattern, plus the pattern pieces laminated. I took a class from Pam which was a nude doll, that is why I have these pattern pieces so nicely cared for.

So check my website under doll patterns. Pams patterns are all listed in a row. Buy all three and I will send you the basic one FREE.

http://www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2/index.php?cPath=92&sort=2a&page=5

Huggers, Barb Keeling

Using leftovers.

2011-09-22T14:58:00.001-07:00

You might get a kick out of some of my left overs. Now that we are retired from traveling doing craft and doll shows (BUT STILL IN BUSINESS ON OUR WEBSITE) I found all sorts of samples I no longer need. So I decided to turn them into a left overs bed-spread thingee. That funky afghan is made all out of yarn. There are a number of started but not finished things there is, a knit sleeve, sox, sweater back, back of a jacket, scarf, tote bag...to mention a few. The rest of the project is done with left over yarns mostly done in FREE-FORM CROCHET....and odds and ends of felted pieces. Have some more left over yarn so will add a little more border on the piece. This is for my bed.... really warm and fun funky-ness. Will take it to the old ladies home when it is time for me to go there. No one will steal my blanket. TWAS so fun to do and use up all those left overs.

hugs, barb keeling

barbkeeling@aol.com

www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2

Redye Faded doll.

2011-08-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

One of the first cloth doll class I ever took was taught by Lynn Butcher from Austraila. She came to our doll club, IOLCC in San Diego , CA area. It was a fun elf-ee doll. My poor doll has been in my sunporch for years and very faded, so I decided to give it a face lift. With very little effort turned the doll all new by painted its clothes with my Colorant dye, redid her face with new "makeup" and some new hair. It is totally all new.

This is the old doll ready for a redo.

You can see the inworks painting, then the doll all done sitting in the chair. Sorry these photos are "backwards" on the page. Never can remember how to do the right lineup when adding a group of photos. Anyway you can see what a very little bit of my colorant did to redo this cute doll. Some new hair a make up adds to the NEW DO.

hugs barbkeeling http://www.keelingskrafts.com/

Steampunk-ness and Zentangles

2011-07-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Fun to mix a couple of fun processes to make up a project. This is a Wall/Door Decor Doll.

The dolls blouse is made of a plain piece of white fabric that I painted with my White Shimmer Paint. Let it dry then use a copic black multiliner .7 plus copic markers in red and black and a gold fine liner also from copic. Anyway did my Doll Doodling on the fabric (zentangles) to create the pattern, cut it out and put it on the doll. Added her under collars. The Gold and Silver is Shimmer paint which turns the fabric into a leather look. Do'dads and what'nots are added for embellishment. Part of them are painted pasta. Again all done with the Shimmer paint. The goggles are kids swim goggles out of rubber, used the copper Shimmer paint and they came out awesome too.

Check out my website for the Shimmer Paint and other nifty goodies.

www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2

Zentangle

2011-07-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

I always love new stuff and the word ZENTANGLE came up a month ago on one of the doll lists. Can't say as I had heard of that word before. I found a local class which I took and enjoyed. Can see some fun patterns that can be done for dolls using the sort of "orgainized doodling". The zentangle-ers don't like the word "doodling" to be included on the same page as any 'tangle-ing....but no less it is a form of doodling art. I have done a couple of "off the wall" just fer fun projects in my sketch book. They have no purpose other than just "give it a try-ness". So here are a couple of my tangle-ing done with a creative spark of "just do it". Fun. Now to work on a fer-real project. The hat on the one face is part of a Steampunk doll I am doing. Wanted to see what THAT would look like. This is all on paper, next adventure on cloth. hugs, barb

Punch Embroidery What is it.

2011-05-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Punch embroidery is an fast embellishment process done with easy to use tools. Here is a sample of some of the things that can be done with the EasyPunch Embroidery electric/battery machine and the Plush Punch hand punch tool. Both use regular type sewing threads. However no sewing skill is needed to do this. Check my website for more info on the punch embroidery tools. Also check back here I will be doing more video and will show how easy it is to use these tools.

Kid Story Board Game.

2010-12-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

For years I have written kids stories, mostly done for our Great Granddaughter who is now nearly six. The stories began when she was born. We did a doll for her we called Mrs. GilleyWilley, who is a magical Nanny. We added an Olivia Ann Doll (our great grans name) and a talking Teddy Bear named BB Bear. That was the start of Mrs. GilleyWilley Adventures. I wrote the magical adventures and Doug did the illustrations. We are having a blast.

I decided the stories needed a "Game" kids could play. Soooo dreamed up a really simple board game, including cutout paper dolls of the story characters. I love the illustrations Doug did for the three characters. We have done a bunch of different creative things in our long years, but doing a board game had never been tried. One is never to old to try something new. I thought up the game concept and Doug did the board & illustrations. It was a fun new creative experience for us both. It will be a Christmas gift for our Great Granddaughter and Granddaughter.

Both Olivia Ann and Mrs. GilleyWilley are cloth doll patterns on our website. I will add the Board Game too.

hugs, Barb Keeling barbkeeling@aol.com

Opps DOOR DECOR DOLLS

2010-11-26T06:37:00.000-08:00

Having a little trouble publishing these Door Decor Dolls. Here is one of them. The actual post is the next post. Be sure and scroll down.

Punch Embroidery Doll Shading

2010-09-25T13:54:00.001-07:00

This Doll Face is competely covered in tiny hand done punch embroidery stitches. I used our Plush Punch Hand Punch needle and a sewing type of thread. The body project is embellished with the same process only done in Free-form punch embroidery style and beading.

Punch Embroidery has been around for a "zillion years". There is a long and interesting history that goes with the punch embroidery process. We have promoted it since the 1970's. We were part of a group of "crafter" who found it again and began designing patterns and promoting the tools and supplies. This rediscovered process was 'new again then, so many people had not heard of it or had any idea how it was done. Several new and some old tools surfaced. We developed our own version of this easy to use hand punch and began doing designs for magazine publication. We got to be known as the Punch Embroidery King and Queen. In due time a battery and electric punch embroidery hand held machine was developed. This added speed to the whole process up making projects even faster to do. We have sold that EASY PUNCH Embroidery Machine for nearly 25 years.

For years we have said we "should" do a doll face and the shading using punch embroidery which we just did. It was designed for a project I will teach at our Doll Club. But it is so smashing I wanted you to see it too. As always my husband Doug did the face design and the shading area, maped out for me to follow. I used our hand punch the Plush Punch and some thread that is the weight more or less of buttonhole twist. I did the punch embroidery, which took a couple of evenings. Sew the doll head, cut it out, stuffed it as usual. There it is, part of our class. I also did a body. First dyed the fabric, then followed the pattern that came out of the dye process and added punch embroidery stitches and free form punch embroidery stitching and added beads, button and what 'knots as additional embellishment. All this will be part of our fun class.

Can't wait til we are teaching. This is going to be SOOOO MUCH FUN. Check out our websites to purchase the Plush Punch Hand Punch or check Dougs site for the EasyPunch Embroidery machine. If you are thinking about Punch Needles, it a best to have both the hand tool and the battery/electric. They have different looks.

A new book was written last year on Punch Embroidery. It is written by Marinda Stewart and called PUNCHNEEDLE The Complete Guide. We have two projects in the book. Check pages 132 and 170.

Barb Keeling

http://www.keelingskrafts.com/

Pin Cushion Dolls

2010-08-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of "Pin Cushion Dolls" I designed to be a fun, but simple class. The flower body doll, is a recycled piece that use to be a pillow top. It is done all in regular sewing thread, using the EASY PUNCH embroidery machine we have sold for some 30 years. That hand held punch needle runs on batteries and is electric, so a projet that big would not take long to complete. Punch embroidery just doesn't wear out, but the pillow it had been on did. It was a sample we used in our booths when we traveled as vendors. Glad I saved it to recyle on such a darling project.

The other is a hand dyed piece of fabric, done in free form embroidery using all sorts of stuff...beads, bangles and what nots. Then I took a hand punch needle and did random punch needle stitch trails of embellishment. I also used it to create ramdom "french knot" look all around. Only with the hand punch needle it took only a few minutes to create that many funky stitches.

I have called these "Pin Cushion Dolls". Sometimes people like to have a "purpose" to what they do. The project is about 15" tall, so a nice size to work with.

I will have these up on my site (shortly) as patterns. So check back now and again.

hugs, barbkeeling

Tyvek Doll Clothing

2010-05-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

For a while I have had the idea of making a "TreeBark ELF DOLL" using painted tyvek as the clothing. I realized the tyvek is rather stiff for clothes, but I NEVER say NEVER when it comes to trying things. For me part of the creative adventure is the journey of the process. I have never worried about things failing, for failure can become a new technique.

I took a used postoffice EXPRESS envelope and split the sides to make one long piece of paper/tyvek. I used my fab SHIMMER Paints and colored the one side with mulit layers of differnt colors. Paint color on paint color. WOW awesome shine. Then let it dry. I love this paint it for it dries fast. Hate it when I am on a creative roll and have to wait forever for paint to dry. Once dry I used a hot blower to melt and bubble the tyvek. Don't over do here, for you will be doing more of that.

I had made the Elf out of white fabric, so painted his arms and legs 'Eco Green...Used one drop of colorant green dye and two drops of yellow and two tablespoons of water. Did the Skintone area with my pinktone base using just one tiny drop of the dye, mixed with a tablespoon of water. Mixed each combo in an small empty yogart cup. So basically had used about 50 cents worth of paint mixed in a tablespoon or so of water. WOW SOOOO EASY .

I used the green to paint the dye on legs and sleeve area of the doll and the skintone for the head, hands and neck. If you like more shine, paint the body with the Shimmer EMERALD instead of the dye. LOVE that color. You can see it on some of the other dolls on this blog.

I made a pattern for the top and pants for the doll, cut them out of the tyvek. Sewed the pieces rightsides outside, leaving raw seam edges on the outside. (it is to hard to try and turn the tyvek rightside out. ) Put the clothes on the doll and used a hot blower to melt the clothes on the doll. Go over those raw seams and melt them away. Don't over heat/melt for it will make holes. However this is a cool look too.

I have always said Dolls tell the dollmaker what they want to be. My "Tree Bark Doll" , looks way more like a FUNKY FLAMBOYANT IRISH MATADOR. What a hoot. Maybe he needs a "cape" too. Ahhh a green cape with gold poka-dots. Seems like something he would like. LOL

I named him "TYE"

I have a couple more ELF dolls I am doing. My husband Doug created this new style and look doll face for this group. Fun, easy and delightful as usual. Makes me smile too. This new group will all become patterns. Check the site now and again. Check my website for the shimmer paint and colorant dye.

www.keelingskrafts.com/

barbkeeling@aol.com

barbkeelingdolls@gmail.com

hugs, barbk

Painted Clothes ARE the stuffed Doll too

2010-05-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

I enjoy fussing around with weird ideas that give my creative soul new adventures. Since I am featuring some new and wonderful Dye and Paint, I wanted to do some dolls that didn't take long to make, where fun to do and cute to look at. All that to help show off the new paint and dye.

So I designed some dolls with the clothes as part of the stuffed doll. Some are done that way and some I simply painted the clothes on the stuffed doll. The clothes are painted the my fantastic SHIMMER Paint, and the faces are done with the new Skintone Dye, all of which is now on my website under Non Toxic Paint. The SKINTONE is done for me and called KEELINGS KUSTOM COLORS Skintone as my exclusive product.

I am the Queen of Quick & Easy and this is just that. You can paint a doll in five minutes. Doing the skintone is a whole new process now with my NEW SKINTONE dye. I make the dolls out of white fabric the weave and style I want to use. Make up the doll and then paint the area I want to be "skin" color. There is no wasted fabric. I mix one drop of the dye add in a tablespoon of water, stir it and if I like the tone, paint it on the doll. Let it dry usually for 15 minutes and that is that. NO COOKING and NO SETTING NECESSARY. You can make a zillion tones of the skintone one drop at a time. Skintone fabric are expensive and limited in type of fabric you can have. This way you can buy and dye what you want. I even painted some "cheap fleece" and it look very cool.

Skintone comes in three basic tones, pink, peach and brown which comes in 1.25 fl oz eyedropper bottles. A little goes a very long way. (remember I redyed an 8 foot couch with less than one bottle of this type of dye, costing me less than $6.00) Soooooooo very little goes a really long way. As you know my help and support is always there. TRY IT you will be so happy you did.

hugs barbkeeling

http://www.keelingskrafts.com/

barbkeeling@aol.com

Doll with Painted on Clothes

2010-04-12T11:07:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things to do is make dolls. That is WHAT we do. I'm always looking for new and fun ways of doing this. I decided I wanted to make a big Fairy Doll, I can put on my front porch, so designed a 30" doll. I'm loving the larger size, easier for these 'old eyes to see what I am doing. Inspiration came because I have a drawer of Fairy Wings I have collected for a long time and have these huge wings I wanted to use.

I decided to paint on part of the dolls clothes, so took my Shimmer Paint and painted on her blouse including long sleeves. I used the teal, gold, emerald colors shimmer paints done in sort of stripes. I let the fabric dry in the sun which took no more than 10 minutes.

I used Keelings Kolors our new Skintone dye and dyed the face, head, neck and hands in a very pale dye mix. Used about two drops of the skintone base color and about two tablespoons of water. It is so easy to do your own skintone. The skintone fabric is expensive. My two drops of dye likely cost less than ten cents.

Painted some tyvek, a used envelop, with Shimmer paint, used the heat blower on it to 'shrink it into fun bumps and bubbles. Drew a shoe the shape of the doll foot, sewed the tyvek into a shoe shape, but it on, used the Heat Blower to shrink the shoe to fit the foot. Ahhhh-haaa a done deal.

My husband, Doug who is the master of our doll faces took on the head/face design. I added a big glob of fab colored SoySilk for hair and our Flower Fairy is ready for a cup of Tea while she sits in the garden.

I have painted shoes and boots on dolls before, but never a blouse. Came out very cool, then I added in some beading and a bunch of machine embroidered leaves. Think she is totally cool. I am thinking I might turn this doll into a pattern if anyone is interested let me know. It very fun and nice change to do the bigger size. We have done two full size dolls too.

Barb Keeling http://www.keelingskrafts.com/

Painting the Couch and shoes, and cardboard

2010-01-06T19:23:00.001-08:00

This was really a fun project and not as over powering as one would think. Figuring out what to do and how to do it was the hard part.

We have lived in the same house for 18 years. It was time to fresh'n up, so I took on the painting of the living room, hall, and kitchen. Painting always makes things look so snappy. We got new drapes for the living room and everything looks great. However anything that is a little drab sitting there by the fresh painted walls and new drapes can look really terrible. Our poor "retro" denim couch was not to worn but was a fright sight because it was so faded. There was no "budget" for recover-y. So needed another plan.

I wondered if I couldn't "paint" it. I am a fiber artist and dye or paint fabric all the time. Just because this is a 8 foot faded couch, filled with padding, stuffing and four very large pillow on the back and two huge seat pillows, not to mention the miles and miles of awful looking denim covering it, should not be a problem. Sounded like it would work to me.

I am fearless when it comes to trying things. I figure the worse that can happen is that it does not work. With the idea that this COULD work, I figure I could start the paint/dye process on one of the four pillows and if it turned into a disaster I could cover the pillows with some fresh fabric and not worry about it.

Possible failure never worries me. So I let my “dye the couch” thoughts move forward and I did have a plan. Well sort-a. I mentioned to my husband I was thinking of "painting the couch". He never said a word, just gave me that "of course you will" look, knowing I WOULD try it. We've been married over 50 years so there have been more than one weird idea that has pop't into my head.

I have been working with a wonderful company that makes a Non Toxic paint that I now sell on my website. They have a fab dye that is so easy to use. I mixed my own color using their concentrated color liquid. A few drops of color and water and a spray bottle. And off I went . Tried a pillow first For the pillow the all blue seemed boring so with the wide choice of color in the dye I added all sorts of color. Mixing the Non Toxic paint/dye colors is so easy. Then sprayed the dye onto the pillows. Spraying and brushing to blend the colors.
The dye does NOT change the feel of the fabric or make it stiff. This dye is awesome.

I could see this would work so I did the whole couch with the blue.
This dye is easy to use, is Non Toxic and can be made to go on clothing and be washable too. While I had the dye out I also dyed a silk scarf, justing the spray bottle process.

Go to my website and get the basic dye set. There are four colors you can use to mix any color plus the fabric magic if you plan to dye anything you want to wash.

When you order the paint I will send you more detail how I did the couch. You may not be planning to do a couch, but the process will set you in motion on other projects.
Go to my website: www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2 Click on the NonToxic Paint. Click on the COLORANT DYE SET.

Happy Painting. Barb Keeling barbkeeling@aol.com

Painting Sneakers

2010-01-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

I remember wearing "keds". There were no "fancy" sneakers in 'them there days. Now sneakers are a basic shoe wear. I suppose I am like others in that you get favorites and it hard to give them up. But in due time that start to look terrible, I mean really terrible. I had two pair headed for the dump when I found this fab Non Toxic paint that goes on "anything". So figured I had nothing to lose by painting them. They came out so funky and fun and put new colorful life into the old 'kicks. This is Shimmer/Opaque paint. It is on my website. Be sure and get all the colors for it will give you great fun to paint, fabric, use on rubberstamps, leather, rubber, metal and so much more. Check out the great old rollerskate I did too. The wheels are rubber, leather uppers and there is metal under the skate which I also painted. Go to my website and order the paint. You will just love it. www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2

Painting Shoes.

2010-01-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

I have always loved shoes. In my youth I would romp around all day in 4" spike heels and not think a thing about it. Now as a 'Snappy Senior I have had to lower my "stand"-er-s. No matter still love fun, funky or snazzy shoes. Some shoes I have walked nearly to pieces others who wait for "special occasions" so grow old with little or no wear. They often just need an update. I have found a wonderful new Non Toxic paint that you can use on nearly everything. It is a Shimmer/opaque with dandy colors. A sort of thick-ish wee like nailpolish spreadness, that can also be thinned down with water if you want a diluted paint to paint with. Anyway here are some of the shoes I fussed with. A pair of boots I've had some 15 or more years and worn them nearly to a shred. That look totally fab. A really wonderful pair of black heels, great looking shoes but BORING, so splashed them into smashing fashion wear with a small amount of magenta paint. Way coooool looking now.

There are 12 great colors of the wonderful Shimmer/Opaque paint, www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2 Go the the Non Toxic paint catagory. All the color are there. But get the set you will not want to miss any one of the colors. When you buy the paint remind me and I will send you some extra info on how to do the shoes.

Check out BRA DOLLs Blog too

2009-10-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

Check out this fun blog to see each of the Bra Dolls I did for the BRA DOLLs Pattern for Cancer Awareness. After you look through these pattern dolls also check out the BraBlog.

Then check out my Bra Doll Blog where I show you some of the great bradolls that were made for the Bra Doll Challenges or people who made dolls as Cancer Prayer Dolls and Cancer Awareness. You will be amazed at the neat fun and funky dolls people made and included a bra as part of the doll. Check it out at: http://bradolls.blogspot.com/
The Bra Doll pattern is available on my website: www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2 Part of the BraDoll pattern income goes to cancer.