Dotees, Round 10!

I have decided to try my first swap on Craftster. I am so excited about this! I've sort of been lurking around Craftster for awhile, I've posted a few projects, but nothing to write home about. Always wanted to do a swap, thought that dotees 10 would be the perfect opportunity!

Swaps are pretty simple, actually- you can either join a group swap or do a personal swap. You exchange a little info (shipping address, basic likes and dislikes) with your partner(s), then you create personalized crafty projects for each other. For instance, in the dotee swap, I create mini dolls for each of my group members based on their personalities, then send them their way. You create one for everyone in your group. I have three other group members, so I will end up with three dotees made just for me.

I started and finished the first one today It was easier than I thought it would be to do a Bucilla-like felt contraption freehand. One of my partners mentioned that she liked nature. I thought that a tree would be great for that. The rules are that the doll can't be taller than about 6 inches, it needs a face, and a tail. I was having a hard time coming up with how to incorporate a tail into a tree, and then decided to add a stuck kite, using the kite tail as the dotee tail. I kept having visions of that episode of Robot Chicken where they show the Charlie Brown kite eating tree as this evil demon tree, but decided to go a little easier on my partner. It's really cute, I'm pleased with it.

There's not really much else to say about it, the end of the tail is not connected and so it swings free, and there is a little tiny bow at the end of the kite. I tried to make the tree look nice, like he's saying, "Whoops, sorry 'bout that!" in regards to eating your kite. The other two are still taking shape, one is going to be a cat, and one is going to be a turtle. 'They' suggest making one for yourself every swap, so I probably will. I might have to stick with my nature theme, which would mean I'd make myself.... um.... something naturey. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Breakdown of cost: Felt, $1.74 (6 sheets total for all dotees)
Shipping, probably around $7 total

Total cost of project and end result: $8.84 for a fun activity, first swap experience, new friends, and three dolls. Not too shabby. I could've spent A LOT more making the dotees, but I had a lot of extra materials in my stash already.

Anyways, it's getting late and so it's beddy bye time for me. G'night!