Meet Baby Austin a new baby for the Alzheimer's Center

I have been working on another baby to donate to the St. Mary's Alzheimer's and Dementia Center.  I have also been spending some time visiting with the residents and helping out however I can during their activities time one day a week.  I can not tell you how sweet and wonderful the residents are!  They love the reborn babies so much and they also enjoy someone spending time to visit with them.

After I made the reborn Berenguer Shy Face doll that they named Angie after me, I decided to make them a boy reborn with the 1/4 limbs as well.  It seems that they really like the cuddliness of the softer limbed babies and I am also finding that it is better not to make the babies very heavy.  While we collectors and reborn artists find the heavier babies more life-like, the elderly find them a bit tiring to hold.  I have discovered that a 3-4 pound baby seems to be the best size.  This gives the baby just enough weight that you  have to support the head and the limbs still move well like an infant.

So here is the latest addition to be going to the St. Mary's Alzheimer's and Dementia Center.  His name is Austin.  He is 21" long and weighs 3 lbs.  Click on each photo to see larger image.

Baby Anastacia has arrived!

I finished up baby Anastacia's photo shoot yesterday and OH what a wonderful baby she turned out to be!  She is so fun to hold and cuddle!  She is soft and snuggly with chubby legs and arms!  Her darling face is the perect image of serenity as she sleeps through most anything!  She is such a good baby.  Her hair is softly wavy yearling mohair and can be scrunched and styled to soft curls when wet or brushed down to dry straight.  I prefer her with the curly look so that is how I styled it.

Here she is!  Click images for larger pictures.

Anastacia has hair now!

Well I finally have finished rooting the hair on Anastacia!  I am hoping to be able to sew her body this weekend and get her all put together.  I can not wait to hold this cuddly chubby baby!

Here she is so far!  Click image to see larger:

Anastacia is getting some hair!

I touched up some of the coloring on Anastacia's face since the last photo and have been working on rooting her hair. It is a slow going process as she has a BIG head but it is going to be worth it!  Here are some preliminary pictures of her wild child hair as it looks in the rooting process.  Of course it is not cut and styled so you have to use your imagination and keep in mind I didn't wet it down before I took these pics so it is a little wild looking.  Once I am finished I will cut, wash and condition it and then style it to a sweet baby look.  This is very soft yearling mohair that has a slight wave.  I am just so in love with this chubby baby!

Click each photo for larger image:

I have been working on an AA baby

This isn't the first AA baby I have done but it is the second one using a Caucasian kit. When I painted Whitney and Lee Lee they both started as bi-racial vinyl and I just had to darken them. In the past I have found it very hard to get a nice even skin tone that didn't have a slight orange hue with a Caucasian kit.  However, this is the first one I have been totally pleased with my coloring. I started with a Caucasian Anastasia kit by Dee Stastney.  The original color was what we call a pink vinyl.  I had heard many other reborners say that pink vinyl is great for building an ethnic skin tone and based on how well this baby is turning out I would have to agree. 

This is where I got finished on Saturday.   I realized I forgot to do brows but other than that and needling Genesis Matte Varnish sealer  to knock down the shine she is close to being ready to root.  Once she is all rooted I will go back and gloss her nose and mouth.  Before she is finished I will also paint and seal her nail tips.


I rally like her limbs as she is going to be a nice chunky baby.  I like chubby babies!  Her head is larger as well, about 14 inches around so that will take some time to root.  Especially for someone like me to doesn't particularly enjoy rooting the hair!

I am hoping this bubble suit will fit her when she is done.  I think it will be the right size.  It has nice ruffling at the neckline and a colorful butterfly applique on the bumm.

Here is the baby so far.  Click photos for larger images.

Using Jo Sonjas acrylics over thinned Genesis Matte Varnish

I recently had someone ask me if you can thin down Genesis Matte Varnish instead of using it full strength as a prep sealer and then paint over it with Jo Sonjas. I wasn't sure as I had not tried it before.  I had been told by someone else who uses other air dry paints( LDC) that she found sometimes the paints would not stick to GMV that had been thinned down.    However, I was not sure if she was using Genesis thinning medium or odorless thinner.  I know that the Genesis thinning medium is a bit more "slick" when it dries so it stands to reason that other paints might not stick to it as well.

Recently I was painting a Berenguer with Genesis paints to be donated to the nursing home.  I had "tried" to sand the grooves in the doll's head in hopes of painting mottling over the head for a bald baby as I do not root hair on babies for nursing homes since they  get handled a lot.  Once I had finished painting this doll I sealed her with Genesis Matte Varnish thinned down with Masterpiece Odorless Thinner.  I thin the GMV down so that it spreads easily yet still knocks down the shine on baby and leaves just a hint of texture to baby.  Once finished I was not happy with the look of the head because my sanding job was not as perfect as I would like it to have been.  At that point I decided that some painted hair would help to disguise the lack of smoothness to the head.  However, for some reason I haven't yet been able to paint hair well with Genesis.  I do however paint a decent peach fuzz of hair using air dry paints.  SO I decided to get out my Jo Sonjas and see it it would work on top of the thinned heat set Genesis.  I mixed my hair color using a ratio of 50/50 JS paint to JS Flow Medium.  Then to that mixture I added just a couple drops of water.  I got out my liner brushes and my comb brush and went to work.  The paints seemed to be sticking just fine.  Once I got the hair painted I decided it was a bit too hard looking for my preferences so I then took a wet cosmetic sponge and lightly "washed" over the hair so as just to lighten the coloring of the hair without removing all the paint. Remember at this point the JS paint is only dry to the touch and not cured so you have to be careful not to totally remove it.  Once done I went back and touched up a few strands of hair that needed darkening and then left baby's head to cure.

48 hours later I checked the hair with a wet q-tip and the paint was not rubbing off so I decided to go ahead and seal the hair.  I used Genesis Matte Varnish thinned down with the Masterpiece Odorless thinner just like I had used to seal the Genesis paints.  Once I pounced this on the hair with a cosmetic wedge, I took a round pointed toothpick and used the tip to "draw" lines through the wet Genesis Matte Varnish.  I then set the head aside to allow the thinner to flash off.  Once the thinner was flashed off I heat set the head in the oven for 12 mins on 265 degrees.  I pulled the head out and let it cool.  I checked the head once cooled and in a couple places where the texturizing I had done on the hair strokes was a bit thick it looked like it might need more curing so I put the head back in the oven for 10 mins more at the same temperature.  Once it cooled again I could see the GMV was now fully cured.  When heat setting Genesis Matte Varnish you have to play with it like this because application thickness and varying ovens will affect how well it cures and each time is just different.

The finished product is a nicely painted head with a bit of textured painted hair.  Click image to see larger photo.

Reborn Shy Face Berenguer

I recently had someone donate a Berenguer doll to me who wanted me to reborn it for a nursing home donation.  I had another lady donate the cloth body and I painted, assembled and dressed the baby with things I had here in my stash.  I think she turned out very cute!

I have to say though that it is easier to reborn a reborn kit than a doll because I had a difficult time sanding the grooves on this doll's head trying to make it smooth enough to paint!  I didn't do a perfect job but I think with the texture painted hair it will be okay.

I am planning to place this baby over at the local Alzheimer's and Dementia center here in town.

Click pictures to see larger images.

Dimples Dumplin in progress

Well I have been on a painting trend lately.  With having more free time in the summer sometimes I paint nearly all day!

This is the Dimples kit being reborned. She is a limited edition # 49/500, sculpted by Melissa Palesse.  I just LOVE the toes on this baby! I am also pleased that I got good 3D textured strokes on her brows with the Genesis Matte Varnish. I was trying to show that in the closeup photo of the eyebrows but the camera didn't pick it up. I wasn't using a flash so as to not wash out her coloring but the flash would probably have illuminated the brows better. I tried to give her a mottled look but yet subtle. I am thinking of rooting her some gorgeous dark auburn red hair that I have been really wanting to use.  I am going to try to root her some sparse auburn hair. Rooting sparse is not my forte as I tend to get caught up in trying to cover the head in hair but we shall see.

So here she is so far.  When this baby is finished she will be 22-23" long and probably about 5-6 lbs.  She will be going up for sale. Click each photo to see the larger version.