Monster Crafts

Hello again dolly-friends! Long time, no see. As I mentioned in previous posts, I'm doing an internship with the school, so I work in the mornings and go to class in the afternoons. I had hopes of finding some time here and there to post on the blog, even if it's just some quick posts, but it has been impossible. It just takes all of my time, as I start working at 9 a.m. and finish school at 9 p.m. most days. The only days I have off are the weekends, and those are busy picking up the slack of both school work and house chores. But now I finally have a few days off from school until January 8th, so I thought I could take a couple of festive photos and write a quick post to wish all of you a very happy holiday season.  There hasn't been much news going on in my life. Work is going fine. It's very busy and I have a lot of work, but overall, I like it a lot. Chances are that I will stay at that company and work part-time once the internship is over. I think that mainly the...

And, before you know it, it's already September.  I'm so glad that summer and the unbearable heat are going away, and it's finally time for fall, my favorite season. To kick-start the month, let's do a Photo compilation of the photos I've been sharing on Instagram these past two months.  Let's start with two photos that I took during our trip to Vielha, but didn't include in the post. First, this photo of Chloe during our excursion to the Uelhs deth Joèu and Artiga de Lin. I took it at one of the very first spots we found, and I love the result.  Also, this photo of Victoria that I took in the Carlac forest.  Most of the photos I shared these past two months I have already shared on the blog, but I have a couple of "extras" that didn't make the final post. I took this back when I wrote the Room in a bookcase post but didn't include it in the final post, so I edited it for Instagram.  Similarly, I had photos from the "limewash effe...

Hello dolly friends and welcome to a new post from the Travelling Dolls series, a series in which I talk a bit about the story of the places I've visited with the company of my dolls. Last year I wrote the first post in this series when we travelled to Albarracín  and I loved having the chance to talk about a place in Spain that maybe isn't as well known to people from other countries. You also seemed to find it very interesting, so I thought it would be interesting to do it again. When we thought about travelling this summer, first we considered going to Vienna, but international travelling is getting so expensive, so we decided to stay in Spain again. Pretty much like last year, our criteria were to find somewhere that is cooler than our hometown, isn't too crowded and that has yummy food. So, after a lot of debating, Mr. Monster suggested Vielha, in the province of Lérida, Cataluña. Vielha, also spelled Viella, is located in northern Spain, very close to the borderline ...

After my last post , I felt the bug to create more backgrounds, so I decided to make yet another back wall. Originally, I wanted to make a geometric design using pastel colors, but I thought it might not be very versatile. So I decided to go with a textured wall. I did make one a couple of years ago, using a very light gray color, and I've been wanting to make a warmer-tone version for quite some time. The process for this wall is very similar to the one in my original post , but I'll still share as much information as I can about the process.  First, we cut and prime our walls. I had already done this while I was working on my previous post, so I'm already starting a bit ahead.  O nce the primer has dried, it's time to choose our base color. I want it to have a warm tone but be very light, so I chose Light Buttermilk by Americana Acrylics, which is a creamy color with a yellow tone. Then, I took a white acrylic and, picking up very little paint with my brush, started ...

If you were following my blog back in 2020-2021, you might remember a series called Mix and Match backgrounds  in which I made interchangeable floors, walls, and accent elements to use as backgrounds for my doll photos. To assemble the scene, I would stick the wall to my craft table's peg wall and set up the scene every time I wanted to take photos. The problem? I use the same table for both craft projects and photos, so if I want to take photos, I need to remove whatever I'm working on. I don't always have time for that, specially during the school year when I've been quite busy (and the table was often occupied with school stuff). So, I needed to come up with a solution: a diorama that fits inside a bookcase. I've had this idea to make a permanent or semi-permanent diorama scene for quite some time. First, I wanted to build a room box, but since space is a problem, I thought I could make it so it would fit inside my Billy bookcases. Then I couldn't make up my ...

Hello again! Can you believe it's July already? Where does time go? I have done nothing of what I had planned for before July! Like every other month, it's time for another Photo compilation , the series where I share all the photos I've posted on Instagram, and tell you a little backstory about them, and even sometimes share some behind the scenes photos (once in a blue moon, actually).  Let's start with my favorite photos. I took these photos back in April, during the Easter break, in a nearby town.  Last time we visited this town, I mentioned how cool it would be to take photos there, so on a day off we had, we went back with dolls. It's a residential area that is far less busy than downtown, and it has some parks in between the houses. The parks aren't very nice, but I still managed to take this photo of Chloe, which is my favorite.  I like the result of outdoor photos, especially when it looks like the doll is out there in the real world, but they can be a ...