Repaint Story #7 - Monster High Draculaura - Flower Fairy (Merry Christmas!)

Merry Christmas!

Today, I am happy to be showing you one of my absolute favorite customs!  I made her a while ago, but only had the time to get good photos recently.  

I got the idea to make a flower fairy doll when I was digging through my junk stash and found some nice fake flowers.  I started to think about what it would look like as a doll wig (I love to experiment with alternative materials in wigs).  

I made a wig cap with fabric and glue (to see how, check out Mozekyto's amazing video tutorials).  The doll I used to make the cap was my blank mannequin doll, an old Draculaura.

I started out with the large roses in the front and back, then filled in the spaces with smaller flowers, buds and leaves.  I added more leaves at the bottom and back to imitate loose locks of hair.

This is what the final wig looked like.  I was originally planning to use it on a different skin-toned doll (Clawdeen), but I liked the way the pink worked so much that I decided to use a Draculaura instead.

This was my candidate.  Like most of my Monster High dolls, she was bought secondhand off of Ebay, in a giant batch of dolls.

Her body and face were in pretty good condition, but even after washing, her hair was totally gross!  I think the plug glue had leaked out of the rooting holes in her scalp, because her hair was super sticky and nasty.
That's why I decided to use this doll for a wigged custom.

Boiling water softened the plastic enough for me to pop her head off.  I think Draculaura's might be my favorite MH face mold.
I also cut her hair close to the scalp, and used pliers to pull the roots and glue out from the inside.

100% acetone nail polish remover took off her makeup and scalp paint.

Here she is, ready to go!  The nicest thing about doing wigged dolls, as opposed to rooted dolls, is that you don't have to worry about masking off the hair when you do the faceup.

First layer of MSC and pastels, with some light pencil mapping on top.

More pastel shading, and the basic color blocking with acrylic paint.  I really had fun with the complementary orange/green/pink colors.  I think that the green in her makeup and pupils really pulled the faceup together.

Painting completed, she's ready to have glossy sealant put on her eyes and lips.

 Here's the faceup and wig together.  The bold reds in the faceup really made it pop!

 For her outfit, I decided to make a skirt with one of the leftover fake flowers.  This one was a big white rose.

 First, I cut off the leaves and separated the layers of the flower, then lined them back up and glued them together.  I reversed some of the layers, placing outer leaves on the inside to add volume.  When gluing, I also used a ring pattern to avoid gluing them together in the middle.

 Next, I cut through all the layers to create a center hole that would become the skirt's waist.

 I enlarged the hole to fit the doll's waist, and cut a slit to the back of the skirt.  To avoid the layers separating, I also glued the edges of the slit.

A hidden Velcro tab glued in the back makes it super easy to put the skirt on.  It fits perfectly!

 Here's the front view.  I folded and glued some of the larger petals to make points at the ends, which added some more texture.

 I glued in a spare piece of leaf for modesty.  It also keeps the skirt from rotating and riding up.

 At the last minute, I decided that the plain white petals were too boring.  I used watered-down pink and brown acrylic paint to give it some color!

 For her top, I used more spare leaves to create a simple fitted bikini top with shoulder pieces.

 Like the skirt, it closes in the back with Velcro, making it easy to get dressed.

 Then, I glued some long leaves around the sides of the top, leaving them loose, kind of like fringe.  Then, I added a little ribbon rose to the front and glazed it with paint to make the color match nicer.

I covered some basic cardboard shoe forms with leaves (I may make a post about how to make these shoe forms later).  For her arm braces, I just trimmed, wrapped, and glued leaves.

 Finally, I was able to assemble all the pieces!  Her wig is held on with three regular little sewing pins.  Three is a good number to use, since triangles are very sturdy.














I'm so happy with how she turned out!  I think she may be my favorite custom yet.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's just because I had so much fun making her!

(She likes to hang out in the houseplants.)
Thank you for reading!  As usual, comments, questions, etc. are welcome at modelhorsemagic@gmail.com.  Stay tuned for my next update!