Where to See Us!!

Hey guys!!!
Let's start off by getting this out of the way- I'm not back for good, just here for a minute to tell you something, sorry :/ Anyway, I've started posting and taking pictures of my dolls on my AGIG (American Girl Instagram)! The account is called AG.Beans (Linked HERE.) Please check it out, and if you want to keep seeing the girls from the blog, make sure to follow!

A sample of my much improved doll photography!

 If you want to see my reborn dolls, the account is called @ashleighlovesreborns (Linked HERE) if you want to see Lucas all finished!
Anyway, that's all!
Ashleigh

P.S.- If you're still reading this, leave a comment to let me know if people are still looking at this blog!

Goodbye For Now

Hey y'all,
     It's Ashleigh. I'm sorry to say, but I don't think that I'll be posting anymore on this blog. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I just haven't wanted to do anything with my AGs. All of my dolls except for Taylor are going to be stored at my grandparents' house for now; they're just taking up a lot of space in my room. I know that some of you will be upset, but I'd rather not post about something that my heart's not in. I WILL be leaving this blog up for you to come back to, if you want to read a post or something. And who knows? Maybe someday I'll start posting again, once I start feeling like doing something with my dolls; right now just isn't working out. If you have any questions, you can feel free to leave a comment or email me (you can find the email address on the "contact us" page) and I'll do my best to get back to you. 
I hope that you understand,
Ashleigh

Taking a Break.

Hey guys, it's Ashleigh.
     I'm not sure why, but lately I just haven't wanted to do anything with this blog. I don't think that I'm leaving permanently or anything without letting you know first, but I am taking a break for a while. I've started an Instagram account for the dolls called AG. Ashleigh where I'll post nicer pictures of them. A few of my dolls may be getting their names changed as well. I'd love it if you'd give the account a follow :) There aren't any posts yet, I'll work on that when I actually feel like taking pictures of them. Anyways, I guess that that's it. 

Ashleigh

Camp's Almost Over!!!

Hey guys! It's Natalie!
     Well, Camp's almost over... This is the last week for campers, and then we leave on Saturday. We thought that it would be fun to share some of the pictures that we took while we were at camp this year, so here you go! There's not a lot (like I said before, we got almost no free time), but I hope that you'll like them anyway. 

We are posing by the cabinet of crafty goodness here... That's where we put a lot of the stuff that we made over the summer.

Taylor came to visit!

     Did you notice that Saige has a cast on her arm in these pictures? She broke her arm last week on a double dog dare from a camper to climb the tallest tree in camp. She fell off before she even got ten feet into the air. You can't decline a double dog dare without sounding like a wimp! Oh, Saige... 
     Have you noticed anything else about these pictures? They were taken with an actual  camera!!!!!!! Almost every single picture on this blog was taken with the cruddiest laptop camera ever produced.... Eew. That's right readers! Our photos will (mostly) be of a much higher quality from now on! You may have noticed this in our craft last week :)

Well I guess that's it... We might not update again until we get home, so this may be our last post from Camp Little Lake this year! 
Goodbye!
Green Bean
Sparky

Craft Time With Natalie and Saige!!!!- Easy Magnets

WAAAA HOOOO!!!!
     We've finally gotten around to making a craft post!!! This time, we're making some easy magnets like the ones that we made with our campers a few days ago.

Materials:

• Mod Podge or clear glue
• Scrapbooking paper or old magazines
• A paintbrush
• Scissors
• Clear rocks
• Crafting Magnets
• Hot glue gun and sticks- Make sure that you have adult supervision!!!

1. Paint a layer of Mod Podge onto the flat side of the clear rock with a paintbrush.

2. Press the Mod Podged side of the rock onto the decorated side of your scrapbooking paper or magazine. Make sure that it's stuck really well! Let it dry completely.

3. Cut the excess paper from around the rock.

4. Paint another layer of Mod Podge onto the back of the rock, over the paper. This will help the paper stick a little bit better and it will create a seal. Let it dry completely.

5. Hot glue the magnet to the back of the rock. You're finished!

     We hope that you enjoyed this craft! Did you notice that we actually used a camera? Hahaha... Let us know if you can tell a difference in photo quality please!

Saige

Natalie

Ashleigh's Off To Camp!

Hey guys, it's Emily!
     I just wanted to let you all know that Ashleigh will be at camp this whole week, so if you leave a comment or something on here, It won't be visible until next Saturday or Sunday:) We just wanted to let you know that so you don't think that we ignored/deleted your comment. All comments left on this blog need to be moderated by Ashleigh before they are visible on the blog:)

Emily

P.S.- Don't forget to put a vote in our poll off to the right! It would really help Ashleigh decide:)

What IS a Reborn Doll?

UPDATE: You can vote for Lucas's middle name in the poll off to the right side of the blog!
Hey guys, it's Ashleigh.
     I decided to make a quick post explaining what a reborn doll is! A reborn doll is an extremely lifelike doll that is painted and assembled to resemble a real baby.  A reborn doll starts off as a blank vinyl kit. This kit is then painted in many thin layers to create a realistic skin tone. Each layer of paint is set into the vinyl by baking it. The kit below is mine; it is the Twin B kit by Bonnie Brown. He isn't painted yet, I'm going to send him off to an artist in a few months when I've saved up enough money.  I've assembled it because I wanted to see how big he would be when he's finished:)

He's so detailed. And tiny. He's like 17 inches!

Squeeeee!!

     By the way, I'm naming this reborn Lucas. If you have any middle name suggestions for him, please leave them in the comments! I'm drawing a blank;)

     Once the kit is painted, the doll's hair can be micro-rooted, painted, or there can be no hair at all. Micro-rooting can take days, but the results are well worth it. This picture is of micro-rooted hair.

This is not my picture! All credit goes to the original photographer:)

     Once the doll has hair(or not!), it is assembled and weighted to be as heavy as a real baby. Usually, the doll is assembled to make the head slightly floppy, so that you would have to support its head like with a real baby. The reborn artist will then pack the doll and layette into a box and ship it to its new mommy/daddy. Reborn box packings are usually very fun to open, like a whole bunch of presents! Here's an example-

This is not my picture! All credit for this picture goes to the original photographer:)

Some Key Words
Artist- The person that creates the reborn doll (painting, rooting, assembling, etc.)
Kit- The unpainted vinyl pieces (head, arms, legs, head, and sometimes a tummy plate) that are                  painted by the artist

     Well, I hope that this post helped you understand just a little bit more about what reborns are! If you have any questions at all,ask me in the comments! I'd be happy to answer them!

Ashleigh

P.S.- I JUST got my new laptop, so now I have to find the camera cable and photograph the craft post. I should have it up soon!