I had every intention of posting pictures of these 2 weeks ago, but life got in the way. I bought these a year or two ago in a little vintage shop a few blocks away from my work.

Aren’t they just lovely?

The pipe cleaner arms and legs are thick chenille, the dress and hat are foiled paper and the head is ball of tightly spun cotton. I’ve looked over these carefully and I’m 99% sure that each face is handpainted.  The “Happy  New Year” is typed on a piece of thick cardstock, something similar to a manilla folder.

I’ve tried in vain to recreate these, I just haven’t found the thick pipe cleaners or the correct size of cotton bead. I don’t think I’ve found the right resource, please feel free to share your resource ideas if you have them!

And then I decided to add a little color to the photo with these vintage, unfoiled glass gems.

So pretty! And if you need some glass gems for yourself, you can get them where I did, from vintagerecreations on Etsy.

Then I took it a step further and staged a fancy tea party.  I couldn’t help myself!

I hope you enjoy these little girls as much as I do, they’re going back safely in their jar to be broken out next year!

For Christmas, my Mom (who totally understands what makes me dork out) bought me an origami kit that makes Japanese dolls. I’m willing to bet that the kit was for a child, maybe a tweener but it was filled with pretty papers and pretty decent instructions and the whole thing made me quite happy.

I’m also pretty sure that this gift was put under the tree for me because my husband is really good at origami, hence a recent Facebook update of his that stated “More bacon for the origami king!” (Mom rewarded him with bacon when he helped me out with a confusing fold and yelled out “More bacon for the origami king!” as she served him his prize.)

I even added more dorkiness to the situation with another present from her; Martha Stewart’s 24 pack of glitter. I’ve never really had much of a use for glitter as I’m into fabric, thread and yarn but I’ve always wanted to use glitter on something, I just never really had a use for it. If you’re looking for an excuse to buy glitter, just go ahead and get Martha’s assortment pack, every color is named after gemstones.

First was this lady, who needs a touch of glue on her right sleeve. Note the sapphire glitter in the middle of the flowers.

Then came an easy peasy little girl who got peridot glitter.

The third girl is my favorite so far, she was made from the prettiest papers and her hair style is the best.

There’s much more paper to play with and I think I might frame one or two of these to hang in my huge project that’s going on now; the creation of my craft studio!