MONSTER HIGH - CREATE-A-MONSTER DOLLS

Picture I took at my local Target on 4/30/12

Watch out Barbie, there is a new girl in town. 

Mattel started a line in 2010 of "Monster High" Fashion dolls, based on old horror movies and monsters. They are goth and glam with a lot of attitude.  I find them to be a refreshing alternative from blonde-haired, blue-eyed, big bosommed beach going Barbies that I grew up playing with.

I was excited to see they now also have a "Create-A-Monster", that come with parts so you can create your own doll and is for ages 6 and up.

The above kit, which Target was selling for $19.99, has one torso, but two sets of everything else: upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs, hands, heads, outfits.  You can create a Vampire or Sea Monster themed doll, or combine any way you want and call the creature whatever you would like.

The only downsides that I see are if you have children under 3 some of the smaller parts could be a choking hazard if not kept out of reach and I think they should also have torsos in the kit so you could create two dolls.

They also have these for sale at Amazon.com for around the same price, along with a Skeleton, Bee and 3-Eyed Girl accessory kits to create even more options for between $10-$10.96.


The above was Create-A-Monster was the only one available at my local store; however, when I looked online here they indicate that Werewolf/Dragon, Witch/Cat Girl and Gargoyle/Vampire should also be available in stores.  

What do you think of these dolls? 

Be sure to check out all of the other participants in the May Monster Madness.

Show your monster spirit

1.	Annie Walls	15.	Horror Author Vanessa Morgan	29.	blackdragon
2.	Little Gothic Horrors	16.	Cayce @ Fighting Dreamer	30.	Jurassic Goth
3.	Pensive Pumpkin	17.	It Came From The Man Cave	31.	Monsterfink's Midnight Monster Spookshow
4.	Queens of the Wild Frontier	18.	It's On Random	32.	Residentgamer
5.	Lady Bethezda	19.	Not This Time, Nayland Smith	33.	nitebyrd
6.	Le Professeur Gothique	20.	Artwork By Living Dead Girl Nicole	34.	Everything You Want
7.	wicKED	21.	Metamorphosis	35.	Kweeny Todd
8.	Shingle Creek Manor	22.	Crafts and Creations with KMOM14	36.	Ghost Stories and Haunted Places
9.	Daph's Dark Little Corner	23.	skarlett	37.	Jess @ Wickedly Bookish
10.	Jenny Krueger	24.	Dani Harper, Paranormal Author	38.	GingerRead
11.	Holly's Horrorland	25.	Manvshorror	39.	Lynoire
12.	blackwood	26.	Horror Shock Lolipop	40.	HorrorSmorgasbord
13.	Punk You	27.	Bob @ Beauty in Ruins	41.	The Purple Broom
14.	Kharisma Rhayne	28.	Precious Monsters

(Collection closed)

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LARGE DRAGON EGG

Welcome to the first day of Monster Madness Blog Hop running from May 1 - 7th.  Check out the other participants at the link at the bottom.
My first project is a dragon egg that you can make out of an empty 2 liter bottle. 

-  1 empty 2 liter plastic bottle, rinsed and label removed
-  Scissors, Xacto knife, hot blade or box cutter & Sharpie
-  Duct Tape
- Glue Gun and Hot Glue Sticks
-  Spray Paint (black) and Glitter Glue (gold)

I used this to hold a small present for my son for Easter - it does make a unique package!  He uses it to hold miscellaneous items. 

The first step in making it is to measure up 4 inches from the bottom of the bottle and mark using a Sharpie.  Cut the top off the top of the bottle (I used a hot knife) then measure 3 1/2 inches down and mark with a Sharpie.  Cut along the lines (I used a pair of scissors as it allows better control).  It will look like the pieces below when you are done.

Cut a small square of duct tape, enough to cover the opening on the top.

Put the top inside the bottle and an angle and wiggling it until it fits snuggly, the use the hot glue gun to give it texture.  On the very top I put swirls on the tap and down about and inch then made oval shapes all the way around and added other squiggles in the middle, but don't cross over to the bottom of the bottle.   On the bottom I mostly did different squiggles; on this too, don't cross over to the top of the bottle.

I used a few coats of black spray paint on the outside, allowing it to dry between coats, but you could use any color that strikes your fancy.

After completely dried, I also then used glitter glue on mostly on the "veins" created by the hot glue gun  to give it sparkley, mystical look, but it you could omit it if you wanted a different look.

E-Smiles - Send a Smile and Raise a Dollar

HP currently has an Esmiles promotion where you upload a photo, poem, a joke, a sketch or just a few encouraging words for a sick child or their family and select one of five Ronald McDonald's to send to and it will eprint to the house selected. 

If you are not familiar with Ronald McDonald Houses, it is a charity ran by McDonald's Corporation that allows families to be near their a seriously ill or injured child if they have to travel far away from home so they can be near their hospitalized child and can stay for little to no cost.   For additional information, visit there website here.


For every approved "Esmile", HP will donate $1 to the house selected up to $10,000 for each house ($50,000 total).   I sent an Esmile of my son (above) on 4/24/12 and received an email today indicating it had been approved.

Click here to send your Esmiles

"Life Is A Highway" Nails

These were inspired by the nail art below by Frippery Digits.  The "LIFE" lettering is based on the popular board game of the same name.

I changed mine up a bit from the original project and spelled out "LIFE" on the index through pinky nails then put a black highway with white dots in the center and silver for the shoulder of the road. 

Source: fripperydigits.blogspot.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

I used 7 different nail polish colors and a thin brush dipped in white polish for the lettering to achieve this look, but you could be creative and change it up any way you would like.

On the right hand side I painted the lettering upside down and on the right I painted it right side up. 

Getting the lettering to look decent on you own nails is tricky and I had to do some nails more than once - if I do this again I am going to try printing the lettering out on a label, cut out the lettering with an X-Acto knife and then stick it to the nail after applying the different colors to give it a more professional appearance.

If anyone out there tries this, I would love to see how yours turns out.

Happy crafting:)