Barbie Brides

These are actually all the artwork of my talented friends and family!

My crack team of bridesmaids came up with a brilliant game for my wedding shower, perfect for a crafty group. They purchased a bunch of fashion dolls (I recommend Dollar Tree for their $1 ladies)and stripped them down. Each guest (or you could do teams) got their own doll, and a huge tray of art supplies was placed in front of them to use. The supplies were all white items - tissue paper, toilet paper, paper towels, coffee filters, cupcake liners, ribbon, etc., along with tape and scissors. Guests had a certain amount of time to design their own bridal gown, and the winner (as judged by the bride) got a prize.

I liked it obviously because it was crafty, but also because nobody had to dress up themselves or otherwise feel uncomfortable, as some bridal shower games can be. It also reminded me of "Project Runway" but on a scale an amateur could easily accomplish :)

I was actually really impressed with what my guests came up with! Some of them are even pretty, and most of them look like actual dresses (save the mermaid tail my mother made). They stayed up on my mantle for a long time.

Easy twists:
-cut out a photo of the bride and cover the doll with the bride's face to "personalize" the game,

-give out prizes for the most original, best use of materials, closest to the bride's actual dress, etc.

-give each person/team a paper bag of different supplies, and they can only use those items on their design

I'd like to thank the academy...

These were my costume awards from last year's party, which you'll remember was a Hollywood theme so the Oscar-gets-mummified style was doubly appropriate.

I borrowed the idea from someone on this guy who is someone I came in contact with on Halloweenforum.com (excellent site for sharing and getting ideas!) - what a super nice fellow! He actually sent me directions on how he made his little darlings, and I co-opted it for my skill level. They required a little practice and one test dummy, but I think the end result was spectacular.

I picked up the dolls at my local Dollar Tree, can't beat that price. I sent their ball gowns and tiny shoes off to my cousin's daughter, who was thrilled and only tentatively asked what I had done to the dolls who used to wear them.

I banded the hair to the neck, and cut off the excess - it just gets in the way and disrupts the stickiness of the tape. For the bases I varied from the original guy's version with wood because I really didn't want to cut and drill, but I happened upon these fantastic little blue triangle bud vases which looked to me exactly like an award base. The top was just a bit wider than the legs, but stuffing them with some plastic bag pieces held the ladies firmly in place, and the vases were heavy enough to keep them solidly upright.

The tape was a quandary, I actually tried several kinds of medical tape. The first attempt was a shiny reflective-type that was the perfect width (1/4" I think?) but it didn't like to stick to itself, hold the paint, or otherwise behave. It actually curled off my practice lady.

What did work was fabric medical tape, it had a little texture and was wider but I cut strips in half and that looked fine proportionally.

I wrapped the ladies using 4-6" strips for the most part, any more than that and you get bumps and wrinkles. I wrapped from the bottom up for the most part, as the head is sort of the focal point, but spent most of my time on the arms.

Barbie arms are sort of evil. At least knock off barbie arms. I found I really had to force them to do what I wanted, and more than once they ripped the tape right off going back to their original pose. Since they're wrapped, you could always rip the arms off and replace them with q-tips or pipe cleaners or anything else, but I just cut and bent and taped till I got the effect I wanted.

Don't forget to leave a little peep hole for the eyes, and to mask it while you're spray painting - this is a little challenging, but worth it.

For the "best couple" I used 1 1/2 dolls - I actually cut both torsos off (they popped off pretty easily) and repositioned them to be equally supported on the legs. I think I used duct tape to attach them first, then just covered with the medical tape like the rest. This is my favorite one by far :)

I went pretty low-budget for the nameplates, but I didn't think anyone would mind - as much as I'd like to think everyone will keep them prominently on their mantle forever, they're a novelty item, and a seasonal one at that. So I just cut a mat out of black card stock and used gold stickers to spell out the awards - this year we did "Most Creative," "Best Costume," and "Best Costume - Couple." Everyone seemed happy to get them and I would highly recommend this craft.