Our Generation doll turned into Hermione Granger

 My oldest daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan.  She's ALSO a huge American Girl doll fan.  We have been on the hunt for a doll we could turn into Hermione for quite a while, and just saw this sweet doll.  She is Mila by Our Generation.  She had the right face shape and the right color hair.  Based on this video, I thought we could straighten her hair *just enough* to make it look like Hermione's fluffy locks.  

The first thing we did was follow the steps in the hair straightening video.  This was the "before".  As you can see, her hair is VERY fluffy and curly.  

We washed it with Dawn then soaked it in fabric softener.  We dipped it in boiling water then brushed it and repeated dipping and brushing about 5 times.  The hair is still pretty curly on the ends, but is much more relaxed.  This photo is while her hair was still wet but had been towel dried.

I used acrylic paints to add her features.  I mixed brown paint with a bit of black to get Hermione's signature dark eyebrow color.  The above picture, one eyebrow has been painted.  I extended her brows in towards the middle a bit and past her eye a bit as well.  They aren't perfect but they look pretty good.

I used a skin tone color with a little bit of brown for her freckles.  I did a full layer of freckles with that color then added a tiny bit more brown to it to make a slightly darker shade.  I also added a layer of paint to her lips in a more natural tone.  It helps to add a bit of water to acrylic paint for things like lips so the paint will go on more smoothly and not leave paint lines.  

The final step was her bangs.  We were debating on whether to cut them or not and I left them a little long in case they curled up over time.  If they don't, I will trim them a little more.  

This is a close up comparison of her face painting before and after.  It's amazing to me what a big difference a small amount of paint makes!  

And finally, the side by side of the factory doll versus our "fixed up" Hermione.  My daughter is so happy with her!  <3

Frozen II (2) birthday!

My sweet middle girl is turning 5 this week and we celebrated her birthday today.  She had a Frozen themed party when she turned 3 and wanted a Frozen 2 themed party for this birthday.  Here is my take!

This is the main table with all the food.  For the backdrop, I painted birch trees on a large piece of paper then cut them and used ticky tack to attach them to the wall.  I added leaves to be "Gale" and hung a "Believe" balloon from Party City.  For the table itself, I bought a Dollar Tree table cloth and traced outlines of Olaf, Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Sven walking through the Enchanted Forest.

The food included snowball (white popcorn), string cheese, Kristoff's Ice (blue jello), Sven's treats (carrots), cupcakes with leaves, and the Frozen 2 cake our girl wanted.  I knew I wanted the kids to be able to decorate cookies but snowflakes aren't really part of Frozen 2.  Then it dawned on me that we could decorate cookies like the elements!  I used a holly leaf cutter and then a knife to cut the holly leaves into diamonds.  This helped me make sure they were all the same size.  The cookies were a big hit.  The water was "melted snow".  I really lucked out when I went shopping for the water as the bottles were frozen 2 themed already!

I found this "paint your own rings" set at dollar tree.  The kids painted their rings as they came in and they dried while we were having the party.  

  

The birthday girl and her sister were dressed up like Elsa and Anna.  The "cloak" from the Elsa set can be removed and then the outfit turns into what she's wearing when she meets Water Nokk.  She LOVED that she could transform.

My children love the new characters so I wanted to incorporate Gale into the mix.  I had a vision for making this mobile and it turned out exactly as I planned!  The leaves are all hung at different lengths using fishing line.  It can twirl and the leaves all flutter.  It was just magical.  

Finally, we played Pin the Tail on Water Nokk.  I printed Water Nokk on some printer paper then traced him onto a poster board.  We used ticky tack to attach the tails and Elsa's belt to be the blindfold.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed this!  

Happy 5th birthday, baby girl!!!