My Life As Get Well Play Set and Art Supply Play Set

Today at Wal-Mart I picked up a couple of sets. I knew as soon as I saw pictures of the Get Well Play Set that I wanted it, and I've learned that when I really love a set, it's better to snag it while it's available. I've seen sets go away while I waffled over whether to buy them or not.

At first I didn't think the set was there. There were a lot of very cute new sets and in the middle of all that it took a few minutes of searching. I also ran into the Art Supply Play Set, and picked that one up.

First: the Art Supply Play Set, my impulse buy. It comes in this adorable little plastic tote and includes all sorts of things.

A plastic "canvas" with a painting on it, some tiny sketches, and a sketchpad. That sketchpad was my deciding factor. It is filled with blak pages.
There's also an artist's palette, paint tubes, three paint brushes (with different brush sizes and shapes!), glue, glitter, colored pencils, markers, and scissors.

The scissors open and close, and THE MARKER CAPS ARE REMOVABLE. I actually squealed when I realized.
Those are going to be very easy for youngsters to lose. Lots of small parts in this set. I love that it all comes with its own convenient tote, so I can keep them all together easily.

The drawing implements have loops, so the dolls can hold them. All in all, a gorgeous little set. Wal-Mart is stepping up their game - and has been for a while now. I was just in awe going through the aisle seeing the new sets and new twists on old sets (like a new vending machine with different packages inside).

Now: the Get Well set. First, there's a little dining tray. The legs fold out.

There's a tissue box, a bowl of soup with a plate and spoon, an ice pack, a thermometer, a hot water bottle, and TEA. The mug of tea, two lemon slices, two little teabags labeled green tea and herbal tea, and a bottle of honey.

The soup didn't really impress me (and to be honest I thought the plate was a piecrust at first, it just looks odd).

The tissue box is plastic. It actually opens and has one cloth tissue inside. The icepack can also be opened up and you can put things in if you like; if you have some pretend ice, you could insert it.

The hot water bottle is a single piece of solid hard red plastic. Here it is compared to Molly's water bottle.

The mug of tea is the same as the hot chocolate mug from one of the My Life As winter playsets. However, the drink is translucent.

The tea packets were one part that really impressed me. I'm used to seeing Wal-Mart sets where the paper pieces are just a flat piece of cardboard printed on one side only. But when I opened it up, I found that they were actual envelopes!

And of course, for the tea you have lemons and honey. The honey bear was my entire reason for buying this set. I mean it's all pretty cute but that bear sold me on it.
My bear actually has a black mark on the back of the head.

Size comparison: here's the dolls' honey bear with a honey container from my cabinet, along with a little mini one I saved from a while back.

Here's Molly feeling under the weather. At least she has some good food to help her feel better.

Well, except for the honey. That's in the kitchen with the other condiments. The dolls can start collecting stuff for a spice cabinet!

Maleficent Doll Costume

Here's an update with a project I've been working on: transforming Elphaba into Maleficent.

This tutorial for a Maleficent cosplay was helpful: http://www.breannacooke.com/how-to-make-maleficent-horns/

I still had a lot of fabric from about a year and a half ago, when I got this sparkly, scaly black cloth for Elphie’s Gamora costume. 

I thought it suited Maleficent nicely.

I made a robe that fastens in the front with Velcro. For the ragged purple trim, I cut up strips of fabric and touched the edges with FrayCheck.

The more challenging part was the headdress. The route I took was a helmet. Here I followed the lead of Evil Ted Smith's video "How to Make a Foam Helmet Tutorial." Here's Elphaba in the midst of having her template constructed.

After getting that template, I put together a simple helmet of craft foam and tape. The horns were made of foam.

One of the tutorials I looked at used electrical tape to cover the horns and get that textured look of the lines on Maleficent's horns in the Disney cartoon. However, I wasn’t able to get good electrical tape and so I decided to go for papier mache.

I was not sure if the soft, floppy foam helmet would hold its shape while I was applying the paper strips, so I pressed Elphaba into service as a model.

Very carefully. With layers of a towel, cling wrap, and tinfoil.

She survived.

While all that was going on, I thought of adding a felt inner layer to the helmet. I used the helmet patterns to quickly sew up an inner cap.

Since Elphie was busy, Larkin modeled it.

Once the paint was complete, I glued the inner cap to the inside of the helmet. And voila.

 She is the mistress of all evil!

As a result of the stiff papier-mache and the skullcap, the helmet is a little tight, but that snugness also means that it stays well on Elphie's head.

All she needs now is a staff and possibly a raven. As we're going towards Halloween, I'm hoping to see some little ravens I can pick up at a dollar store or craft store. I also want to find a stone or bead that will look perfect for her staff.