Block B Merchandise!

I have stated this fact a few times on this blog I think, but the most recent time was in the Super Junior "Mamacita" review post and it is this:

I may look like I am 24, but I am actually a 12 year old girl. Why, you ask? Let me tell you.

My first K-pop group was Super Junior and because of that, they will always be number one my heart no matter what. The thing that makes me a 12 year old girl is that sometimes when I get too excited about another group, I feel bad because I feel like I am abandoning Super Junior. You may judge me now. I can accept that, I judge myself on this topic.

Onew - Dream Girl Doll

If I didn't like the finished product of the "Lucifer" Onew doll, I freaking love the "Dream Girl" Onew doll. Murphy commissioned me to make this for her friend who was graduating from college. It makes me feel cool to say I was commissioned to do something.

I had to pump this doll out though. I was working on him right up until I left and Murphy didn't even pick him up until after I had been in Korea for a while.

This guy is my new masterpiece I think. My other masterpiece dolls involved a lot of finger work and small pieces but this is a masterpiece in painting. I painted on his shirt and I painted the entire jacket which was both parts painful and fun. I also really enjoyed making the tie. Since it was a checkered pattern, I had to cut out tiny pieces of felt and glue them on to a tie shape. It went pretty well as long as I didn't breathe too hard. I learned that the hard way.

Another little detail that you can't see is that his pants are a little short and he has little turquoise socks. They're pretty adorable.

~ Alora

Onew - Lucifer Doll

It hit me the other day that I completely forgot to put up some pictures of dolls that I made before I came to Korea. It makes me a little sad to post this and the one coming after because they will be the last ones that get posted for a while. I miss making dolls. *cries quietly*

I have been making a set of SHINee dolls from the "Lucifer" era and this Onew doll was the last one that I was able to do. Someday they will be completed with Jonghyun, but who knows when the heck that is going to happen.

Onew actually took a really long time because I started him as a project to keep me occupied as I took the train from Utah to California, and then I didn't work on him for a long time. He obviously got finished though, and maybe it's because I wasn't super interested in this doll, but I'm not in love with it, especially his hair which I realize looks slightly tragic in this picture, but there is nothing to be done about that.

My favorite part about the Onew doll, aside from the fact that he has a furry vest like Key that you can't see, is that the bottom oh his shirt has fringe. That was an experience. I cut out a strip of felt and then make little cuts all around it for fringe and then glued it to the base of the shirt. So yeah, there is one piece of glory on the doll.

~ Alora

G-Dragon - Fantastic Baby Doll

And here we have the last installment of dolls that would have gone on an Etsy account had I not got a job in Korea.

GD in the leader of the the boy group BIGBANG and "Fantastic Baby" might be one of the best song ever. Ever. He was also really fun to make and a little stressful because there was quite a lot to do on him.

Starting from the top and going down, there is the crown. I first only decorated the base and was then slightly hesitant to glue jems to the head parts because I thought it would collapse, but luckily the glue stiffened it so that didn't happen. It is still a little delicate though.

Then there is the jacket. In the video, there is a lot more detail, but I just left it at the "Hermes" on the front of the jacket. I had never made letters before and they were also really small AND I had to make an identical set. Wow. They turned out well though.

Last, there are his shoes. I made them in a similar manner to the Minho Etude House doll and then I painted them with some gold glittery paint for an extra bit of pizzazz. Something I forgot, I also made those white and black leg things he has with white felt and fabric paint. Yep, this guy was not easy, but it was fun! A good thing is that he didn't have a lot of hair to do on top of all these other things. Hair normally starts out fun, but the closer I get to the end the more tedious and boring it becomes.

~ Alora

Hongbin - VooDoo Doll Doll

Hongbin is the visual, or "artwork", of the boy band VIXX and I thought that it would be appropriate to post this since they are going to have a comeback on Tuesday! Yay!

I made this Hongbin doll as I was pumping dolls out when I was considering making an Etsy account. I knew that I wanted to make a VooDoo era doll because I thought that the clothes were really cool with all the exposed stitching; and as we know, if there is one thing that I like, it detailing that will make me blind.

Unfortunately, you can't see all of it in the picture, but trust me, it's cool looking. Something cool that you can see though is the little voodoo doll that I made for Hongbin. I tried to copy it as much as possible from all the promotional pictures and I think that I did pretty well. He has a little heart and the word VIXX on his arm and everything. I'm pretty proud of it.

~ Alora

Sehun - Wolf Doll

Next up in the "Dolls Made for an Etsy Account that is Never Going to Happen" collection is Sehun! He's the maknae of the K-pop group EXO. This, of course, is from the Wolf era, the era that brought much, much joy to all the Exotics out there who were starting to tip over that edge they had already been teetering on for so long.

The main reason that I wanted to make a Sehun doll was because I wanted to do his hair because, let's be honest, his hair is crazy awesome.

I always make these dolls at my kitchen table and man, there were just mountains of felt everywhere. There was a large pile of red felt since his entire outfit is red. It was also because I COULD NOT make his hat. I don't know why I had so much trouble making it, but this is hat number three.

Then there was the pile of nine different sheets of felt, some full sized and some scraps which made it very hard to find what I needed. I usually watch things on my laptop as well while creating and I almost lost my laptop under the felt. Seriously, it was a problem.

~ Alora

CL - The Baddest Female Doll

I have created a masterpiece! A masterpiece I say! Look at that thing! Admire the headdress!

Now that I've got that out of my system.........

CL is the leader of the girl group 2NE1 and this is one of the MANY outfits from her solo debut "The Baddest Female" and while I didn't really like the song, that outfit was rather amazing.

I don't think that I can say that CL was harder to make than Hwon, because even though the headdress was no easy task, it's not structural like his crown, nor does CL have any embroidery. This was the first time I had ever used any kind of metal though and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. All I really did was cut a chain up, but it was still something new and I like trying new things.

The reason that I made this, along with a few others, was because I wanted to try to start an Etsy account or something similar and see if I could sell a few, except now something else has come up and I don't think starting an Etsy account would be the best thing to do now. What am I going to do with all these guys now?

Wol

Wol is the female lead in the 2012 drama The Moon that Embraces the Sun. I don't want to give too much away, but something happens to her as a child which causes her to loose her memory and now she is being passed off a shaman in training.

A few months ago my friend challenged me to make a Lee Hwon doll and at the back of my mind I also wanted to make him a Wol doll. At the beginning of this week when I started to do it, I almost made her in a queen outfit, but decided against it because she is most known in her shaman outfit.

Wol was actually a lot easier to make than I expected her to be. Sure, there are a lot of parts to her outfit, but it wasn't anything too crazy, just a lot of small pieces. The thing that gave me the most problems was the back of her jacket. I made it wrong, but when I figured that out I had already glued everything to the front of it. After much hemming and hawing, I just cut out the back but left the front because redoing the whole thing was not happening. Her hair was also interesting to make because while I did braid Martina's hair, this braid is architectural, but in the end, I did it and while I wish that it was a little longer, I really like it.

I'm going to add some extra pictures below that didn't fit in the general picture. Appreciate them!

~ Alora

Pig-Rabbit Hoodie & Blanket

July 4th was not only the US's Independence Day, but it was also our Korean friend, Henry's birthday.

Isn't he so handsome!

Since my little sister Becca is visiting Henry in South Korea right now, I wanted to make him a birthday gift. But before I show it to you, let me tell you a little bit about him.

We met Henry through our friend, Lindsi. They were taking an accounting class together in San  Mateo, California last year. When Lindsi found out he was from Korea, she freaked out. We all did. We had been obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas for months but hadn't made a legitimate Korean friend yet. This was a big deal because 1. All Koreans are cool, and 2. We needed someone to talk to about all the strange things we noticed about Korean culture. Luckily for us, Henry filled these functions perfectly.

This was Henry's first time in the US, so we were also excited to introduce him our American holiday traditions. For Halloween, we considered curling his hair so he could be Goo Jun Pyo, but decided that might be a little dangerous. So instead we made him this costume.

L to R: Murphy is a Murphy, I (Autumn) was going through chemo and lost my hair, so I couldn't pass up the chance to be an Airbender, Henry is a Pig-Rabbit, and Lindsi is a cat.

Yes, that is a Pig-Rabbit hoodie, like the stuffed animal from "You Are Beautiful." I even made a hair clip and everything. Henry had never seen the show, but was vaguely familiar with it. Regardless, he loved his costume. So for his birthday I decided to stick with the same theme, and made him a Pig-Rabbit Fleece Rag Quilt. Check it out.

The lettering was hard, but I wanted him to remember who sent it... hence who loves him the most. 

The fringe is my favorite part. It is so soft and warm.

Look, I turned the pigs into Pig-Rabbits!
(Also, appreciate how much my hair has grown!)

This was a lot of work, but totally worth it for Henry. He is the sweetest Korean I know & has taken great care of my sister, Becca, on her trip.

Hope this inspires you to make your own k-pop themed gifts as well. Leave a comment to let us know what you have created.

~Autumn

Minho

I have already done a Minho doll so I won't introduce him again.

This version on Minho is from the Etude House CFs that SHINee did with 2NE1's Dara. I had a lot of fun making him, especially the jacket and the shoes. All of the zipper details were hard, but things like that are my favorite part about making these dolls. If I'm not doing things that force me to hold my breath as I glue and create, it's not exciting enough!

The crowning glory of this doll are definitely the shoes. Cutting all the pieces to fit around the shoe and making both shoes look the same was a trial, but it was fun. The shoelaces were probably the hardest part because I have to shape them, and then they didn't want to stay on. Obviously they did though, and I am totally happy with what I have done.

This doll was commissioned by one of the F4Plus1 members for a firend. 

Taemin

Taemin is a member of the Korean boy group SHINee. He is a singer, dancer, and the maknae of the group. His status of the maknae kind of automatically makes him the cute one, but lately he has become TaeMAN, so let's see how long SM allows this concept to go on.

I made this doll this past week because I haven't really been working. School is over and I don't have a schedule at the pool I'm starting to work for. I only worked last Monday, so by Thursday I was starting to get the crazies. Making dolls is the perfect way to keep the crazies at bay because it takes up all your time to make one of these if you let it, and I did. I pumped this guy out in about two days.

The only snag that I ran into with Taemin is his vest. I was watching the "Lucifer" music video to try to get a picture of his necklace when I noticed something, the entire back of his vest was mesh. So, after I cried and swore, I tore out the back of his vest and created the mesh pattern that you can kind of see in the bottom picture.

All I have left of the SHINee "Lucifer" collection is Jonghyun and Onew and the question "what the heck am I going to do with these five when I'm done?" still gnaws at me, but oh well, it's fun. 

Taeyang

Taeyang is a member of the Korean idol group BIGBANG. He has amazing vocals and it is a rare thing to catch him wearing a shirt. Unfortunately you can't really give a felt doll muscles so he needed clothes.

A friend from school asked me to make this for her and she didn't have a specific era that she wanted so she just found something that she liked and I made it.

This was the first Mohawk that I ever made and it came out pretty good. The focal point of this doll is really the jacket though. There are a lot of little parts and it was not easy. Especially the shoulder decals because everything was sticky from the glue and the head was in the way. It came out good looking though and that's what matters! 

Lee Hwon

Lee Hwon is the male lead in the 2012 drama The Moon that Embraces the Sun. He is a king that, as a child, loses the girl he is going to marry to an evil plot to put another girl in her place. He spends his whole life pinning for that lost love and it is kind of sad, also slightly ridiculous, but I loved it anyways.

This doll almost killed me, there was so much to it. I had a friend challenge me to make it and I tried to ignore her, but it was too fun sounding to push it from my mind.

I had to embroider four patches, two big and two small, which I glued to his chest, back, and shoulders. I'm pretty sure I almost went blind making those things. I also had to figure out how to give him a square belt. My eventual epiphany about that was to use two paper clips and sew the felt around it to give it the structure it needed. I thought that I was pretty clever to think of that.

The hardest part was definitely the hat though. I have made two hats in the past, a fez and a fedora, and those were nothing compared to this. The hat here is actually the second one I made because the first was bad, like really bad. This one still isn't perfect, but at least it looks like a crown unlike the first monstrosity that I made. It was a challenge to make that rope effect with the felt.

Overall I am freaking proud as heck about this thing. It isn't perfect, but I am proud that I accomplished this. 

Minho

Minho is a member of the Korean idol group SHINee. He is the rapper and the resident sports freak. He also may be the least person inclined to do aegyo in the group. For this reason Key (who is a master aegyo-er) likes to do aegyo around him to make him uncomfortable and it is hilarious.

I made this doll a few months after making the Key doll, again from boredom. I also made him because I thought that it might be fun to make an entire K-pop group someday. I only have three more for SHINee and I don't know when they will be made. The problem with this is what to do with them when I am done. I already have three other dolls, excluding Key, that are sitting around.

I had fun making him because I got to use fabric dye for the first time. He is suppose to have a metallic jacket, unfortunately felt does not come in metallic. It made it kind of hard to work with, but it was fun. I also put lines on his shin guards and that was a mess. There was sparkly paint everywhere, including on my phone. I also gave him shoelaces which was a fun touch. Overall, I am happy with him. 

Key

Key is a member of the Korean idol group SHINee. Key is the diva of the group and can do most girl dances better than the girl groups who made them popular.

In January, when I first came to Utah to substitute teach, I was so bored. I didn't actually get any calls until February, so to prevent myself from going insane, I made a doll.

I decided to make Key from the "Lucifer" music video because I really liked his hair, and I would get to use some fur, which I have never done before. Little did I know, cheap synthetic fur from Michaels does not dye well. They only had white fur and I let that stuff soak FOREVER, but this was as dark as it got. It matches up with the color of everything else though, so it's okay.

My main issue is that the doll's hair looks horrible in the photo. I forgot to push it down a bit so it's just sticking straight up. I had already made this little collage though, and I'm lazy, so this is what you get.

Mir

Mir is the maknae of the Korean idol group MBLAQ. I don't really have anything to put here for a little biography because I am not a huge fan of MBALQ, just a little fan. Seeing Mir does make me want to break out into the music from The Little Mermaid though.

A friend from school asked me to make this for her and unlike most doll requests, she didn't have a specific era that she wanted. She instead chose an outfit and a hair style that she liked.

I enjoyed making Mir, especially his bow tie even if it was really hard. I had to create a polka-dot effect which involves making really small felt balls and gluing them on. The worst thing about making these balls is that you can't breathe very hard or else they will go shooting off into oblivion, never to be seen again. 

Yi Jung

Yi Jung is one of the supporting cast members from the 2009 drama Boys Over Flowers. He is the resident Cassanova and he both loves and hates that that is the label he is given.

Before I talk about the doll I would just like to mention how hard I ship Yi Jung and Ga Eul. That is all.

Anyways, I think that Yi Jung, next to Ji Hoo, had one of my favorite outfits. If Ji Hoo gets the prize for most clothes, Yi Jung gets the prize for most accessories. I gave him a tie, a belt, and (my favorite part) a pocket square.  I also really like the color that I used to make his clothes.

I'm not totally sold on the eyes though. They're.....okay.....not my best.......

Yi Jung is owned by Lindsi, member of the F4Plus1

Ji Hoo

Ji Hoo is the second male lead from the 2009 drama Boys Over Flowers which of course means that he is one of the most wonderful people on the planet, but unfortunately does not get the girl because to quote StillNotDavid's video "Things I've Learned from Korean Dramas" (watch it here) "the a$$hole always wins."

I really enjoyed making this doll because Ji Hoo's hair (before he cuts it and gives himself perpetual helmet hair) is amazing. You can't fully appreciate his hair in this picture though because most of the magic happens in the back.

I loved making his clothes too. He has a bow tie (which you can't see) and a vest AND a jacket with super cute buttons. And the winner for doll with the most clothes goes to......

Ji Hoo is owned by Alyson, member of the F4Plus1

Kyuhyun

Kyuhyun is the maknae (youngest member) of the Korean boy group Super Junior. He is known as the 'evil maknae' because he is always making fun and being disrespectful to his hyungs. (older members).

When I was going to school I introduced a friend to Super Junior and it was so funny watching and helping her to learn all 13 + 2 members of Super Junior. She, in the end, chose Kyuhyun her favorite member and the doll that she wanted. The costume that she chose for him comes from the Super Junior M (a sub group) music video Perfection.

I really enjoyed making him and I also got to use printed felt for the first time, even if it is a little baby amount for his tie/scarf thing. The part that gave me the most trouble were those little circles that he has on his lapels. In the end I discovered that if I tied some silver thread around the end of a chopstick, I was able to produce the prefect sized circle and glue it on. I think that this may be one of the few dolls that I have nothing to complain about. Success!

Jason

Jason is a supporting character from the 2011 drama Dream High. Jason thinks a lot of himself at first and that doesn't really change by the end of the drama. In the end though, he does realize that it is important to pay attention to the people around you and do the things you say you are going to do.

When I was first asked to make Jason, I didn't know what outfit to make. I couldn't think of anything that was uniquely him. I did eventually find this one though as I was searching Google and I knew it was the one. The only problem was he had a checkered shirt and a fedora. That hat....it came out nice though, so I'm happy. I even gave him earphones because I am all about those little things that will probably make me go blind when I am making these dolls.

Jason is owned by Murphy, member of the F4Plus1