Chatty Cathy Ornaments

Approximately 12 years ago, this Hallmark Chatty Cathy ornament ©2007 was painted brown.

I painted the above Chatty Cathy ornament brown shortly after Hallmark released the white-only version in 2007/2008.   After recently viewing the above photo and noticing the unevenness of the paint, I decided to purchase and better paint another ornament.  The original retail of these ornaments was $16.50 US and $22.98 Canada.  The second one was found for under $4 on Etsy.  Surprisingly, after 12 years, this battery-operated talking ornament still talks when the pull-string is pulled.

The second Chatty Cathy ornament before painting is shown with the original box and in a close-up in the next photo.

Close-up of the second Chatty Cathy ornament before painting

It took about a week to complete the painting of the second ornament because each initial thin layer of paint was allowed to dry up to 24 hours before applying the next.  I did not do this when the first ornament was painted, which resulted in an uneven appearance of the paint.  The results of painting the second ornament are illustrated and captioned below.

After the lace pinafore and hang tag were removed, masking tape was used to cover the bodice of the painted-on dress and the arms.  The face, neck, breast area and exposed back were painted brown as shown in this photo.

After the head, neck, chest, and back were painted, the lips and teeth were painted and the masking tape was removed.  Like the first ornament, other than painting the "whites" of the eyes, I left the irises blue.

The hair was painted black and freckles added to the face.  The close-up before photo was used as a guide to paint the freckles.  Stretch or click this image to see the freckles better.  Next, the arms were painted.  (I used masking tape to protect the red shoulder strap area of the dress while the arms were painted.)

The legs were painted and a final neck, chest, and back touchup was done before Chatty was laid face down upon a roll of masking tape to dry.

End result

Chatty Cathy's lace pinafore and hang tag were replaced before she posed for these final photos.

Side photos

Chatty Cathy posed with the original box.

The 1st and 2nd ornaments are shown in this final photo (stretch or click to enlarge to see the difference in the appearance of the painted surface).

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Celebrate the Magic of Christmas, Art Dolls by Daisy Carr

Books of the Bible 11-1/2-inch cloth doll by Daisy Carr, photograph courtesy of Cheryl Bruce

The above Books of the Bible doll was created by Maryland-based doll artist, Daisy Carr, circa 2007. It is featured in chapter 2 of  Black Dolls a Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion. This interesting doll has the names of the books of the Old Testament on one side of the body and the books of the New Testament on the other.  Both sides have a face.   The photo of this doll brought Carr's doll artistry to my attention in 2008.

Several years after including the Books of the Bible doll in my book, I contacted Carr to feature her dolls on this blog.  She sent several hard copies of photos by mail to me that had been taken in low lighting.  I scanned these but was unsuccessful at achieving publish-worthy copies of the photos. Therefore, the feature post remained on the back burner, until now.  In addition to wanting to feature Carr's dolls here, I also have wanted to own at least one of her one-of-a-kind art dolls.  Little did I know this would eventually happen.

This past Christmas season, Cheryl Bruce, the owner of the Books of the Bible doll, who has been a long-time member of my doll group, asked me if I received a package she had mailed to me. At the time she asked, I had not.  Last week, however, after three months, the package finally arrived!

I opened the package before returning home and shouted for joy upon viewing the contents:  a doll ornament by Daisy Carr!  Finally, I own at least one Daisy Carr piece.



The front and back of the ornament are shown above.  What appears to be a long strand of hair are loops of yarn by which the 9-inch ornament can hang.

In this photo, the loop of yarn is extended to illustrate how the ornament will look when hung.

Along with the Daisy Carr ornament, a Christmas greeting from Cheryl was in the package which reads:  Celebrate the magic of Christmas!

I am still celebrating.

Thank you again, Cheryl, for your thoughtful gift.  I am thrilled it finally arrived.

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Below are more enhanced versions of the scanned photos Daisy Carr sent in approximately 2009. The images are still rather grainy which compromises details, but they are much better than they were initially.

In this photo, lying on the table are a couple of Carr's Books of the Bible dolls.

What took so long for Cheryl's package to reach me?  It was addressed to my former PO Box, which was closed November 30, 2015, but a forwarding address form was in place two weeks prior to that PO box being closed.  Why it took the PO three months to complete the forward, remains a mystery.


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