#tutorial step 6

Materials: Exacto knife, pencil, tweezers, course sanding needles, googly eyes, Goof Off, Q-tips

I like adding glass eyes to my monster high dolls, because I feel like they add a certain level of detail in their 3-dimensional aspect that you can't get with paint. You don't have to do this, and if you want to just paint or draw on eyes, that's okay too! You can completely skip this step and go on to Step 7.

Note: I would also like to mention here, that because I am doing glass eyes in this tutorial, I will not be re-rooting the doll- but doing a wig instead. While it is possible to re-root a doll that you've done eyes in, it can be extremely difficult and it doesn't usually take well.  If you guys really want a re-rooting tutorial, let me know and I'll be happy to make one for drawn/painted eyes and re-rooting.

Using a pencil or pen, draw on the shape of the eyes you want. You'll want to make them a little smaller then your end goal so that you have room to trim and sand them.

(You can see some discoloration on Frankie’s head. I’m not sure what causes this, but it does happen frequently, especially with used dolls as she was. It’s totally normal, don’t panic. You won’t see it at all once the painting is done.)

Next, take your exacto knife and perforate around the edges of the lines you drew. Do this using only the very tip of your knife; you don't want to try going straight to cutting out the eye holes because you risk the straight edge of the knife giving you odd, geometric eyes. Unless you want weird box eyes.. then, by all means, cut away. Once I have carefully perforated all the way around my eyes, I carefully start connecting them, again using just the tip of my knife. Repeat this step until you can remove your eye holes.

Try to make them as even as you can as you use your knife to round them out. Carve thin sheers of vinyl and use the tweezers to remove stubborn pieces.

Never try to remove too much at once. Once you have them the general shape you like, use the fine sanding needles to smooth out your eye hole edges. Be careful and gentle that they don't get away from you and get too big! I have found that the soft vinyl doesn’t take well to sanding. You’ll want to squeeze the head to make it a little easier.

Once you’re happy with the shape of your eyes, you’re going to cut a hole in the doll’s head that you’ll use later to insert the eyes. On monster high dolls, there’s usually already a circle around the top of the head, and I usually use that as a guideline.

I notch my doll scalps when I cut them out- I do this because it makes lining them back up and putting them back on easier, in my opinion.

You’ll notice when you’ve cut open your doll head, that inside might still have glue and bits of hair in it. Use your tweezers, Q-tips, and Goof Off to clean that out so the inside of your doll head is clean.

Now, I like to use 8MM doll eyes for my Monster High Dolls, but I’ve heard a lot of people prefer the 10MM- this is all based entirely on preference, I have bought a pack of 8MM and 10MM cheap googily eyes that I use to get the size right before ordering the more expensive glass eyes (There’s no worse feeling then ordering your special eyes and getting them in the wrong size! Save yourself the headache with this simple test.)

Now that you’ve tested it, you can go ahead and order your doll eyes, by the time you’re ready to put them in, they’ll probably have arrived! (I like glass eyes over acrylics, and I’ve found ebay to be the best place to find them).

Stay tuned for Step 7: Base Painting Your Doll! This step is currently on hold as I await the arrival of the paint in the mail, thanks for your patience! Note: I am uploading as I work on this doll- which is not every day! I will try to keeps posts coming at least once a week, but please be patient – this is something I do for fun.

ALL STEPS TO MY CUSTOM MONSTER HIGH TUTORIAL CAN BE FOUND UNDER #monster high tutorial