Kawaii

Lalaloopsy ButtonTails Giveaway Raffle!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This raffle was completed and a winner was chosen in March 2011. Thanks to everyone who entered it! You can view the blog post where the winner was announced here. Stay tuned for future fun activities on my new blog that will be launching in early 2012!

Welcome to Kawaii's Lalaloopsy ButtonTails Giveaway Raffle! Read this entire blog post for all of the information regarding the giveaway, and please don't hesitate to ask me any questions you might have. ^__^

The reason behind the raffle

Lalaloopsy dolls have become a huge sensation for both adults and children around the world, including myself! Recently, I've been working on a special Lalaloopsy custom and I'm planning to sell her very soon. I thought hosting a fun raffle would help celebrate the beginning of a fun new custom doll journey for me. ^o^

Raffle details

I am raffling off a brand new Lalaloopsy ButtonTails cat plushie (seen above). It's one of the two current ButtonTails releases and has a value of about $15.00 USD. This raffle is completely free of charge, meaning that you will not have to pay for the ButtonTails OR the shipping. Both are my gifts to you!

The raffle will begin today, March 28th, and will end this Friday, April 1st, at noon (Central US time).

The raffle is open to adults (ages 18+). While a large part of the Lalaloopsy market may be geared towards children, I have to ask that only people who are 18 years and older enter the raffle. The winner will have to provide me with a home address and I find it appropriate to ask only adults for that information.

If you're younger than 18, feel free to show your parents this blog post. They must then follow the given directions in order to enter the raffle for you. (I will not accept entries from children who say they have a parent's consent.)

The raffle is open to people in the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe (with the exception of Italy).

How to enter

ONLY ONE ENTRY IS ALLOWED PER HOUSEHOLD!

1) Read this entire blog post so you know all of the information before entering.
2) Leave a comment in this blog post stating that you're entering. In the name field, make sure to enter your real first name. You only have to say that you're entering in your comment. The rest of your personal information can go in just the email!
3) Send an email to me (happilycandied@gmail.com) with the following information:

Name (first and last):
Location:
Email:

4) Check my blog and your email on April 1st (sometime around 1-2 PM) to see the announcement about the winner.

I ask for both a comment and an email for the rare occasion that I don't receive your email. Your location will give me an estimate for what I'll need to pay for shipping, and it will also help me make sure that people aren't entering more than once.

After I receive your comment and email, I will email you back with your raffle number. And then on April 1st, I will use http://www.random.org/ to pick a winner! I will immediately contact the winner by email to let them know that they've won the giveaway. The winner will have two days (until April 3rd at noon) to email me back with their address. If I do not hear back from the winner within that time, I will pick a second winner and go through the same process.

Thanks for entering!

I'd like to thank everyone who enters and to anyone who passes along this blog post to other people. If this Lalaloopsy giveaway is successful, I'll try to hold more in the future!

Lalaloopsy dolls: my new obsession.

If you know me on Flickr or Facebook, you'll know that a huge chunk of my life has been dedicated to Lalaloopsy dolls for the past two months. I originally discovered them last year when they were first released by MGA Entertainment, but I didn't get serious about them until January of this year. What attracted me to them? Easy. It was their bright hair, cute styles and unique similarity to Neil Gaiman's Coraline (one of my favorite books).

While some people are scared of Lalaloopsys because they slightly resemble the evil characters in Coraline (like the Other Mother) I'm drawn to the dolls because of the fact. The button eyes set them apart from every other type of doll out there and they greatly show off the fun story behind Lalaloopsys, which is shared on all of the dolls' boxes:

"Lalaloopsys were once rag dolls who magically came to life when their very last stitch was sewn. Each doll has her own charming personality from the fabric used to make her. "

Putting initial aesthetic attraction aside, Lalaloopsys are uniquely special in another way. Basically, you get the product that's described to you: a rag doll. Upon taking a Lalaloopsy out of her box, you'll notice that she's extremely floppy and loose. I've heard some people express concern over the floppiness of the bodies, as if they believed their dolls were broken, but there's no need to worry! MGA was true to its word and created a rag doll for kids and adults alike. Only, this doll isn't made of soft fabric; it's made of a heavy, durable plastic. Personally, the heaviness is something that I immediately loved about the dolls. I feel that the dolls are sturdy and can handle being tossed around by younger children, the product's target audience.

The first series of Lalaloopsy dolls was made up of eight dolls: Crumbs Sugar Cookie, Spot Splatter Splash, Pillow Featherbed, Peanut Big Top, Mittens Fluff 'N' Stuff, Jewel Sparkles, Dot Starlight and Bea Spells-A-Lot. All the dolls have their own unique, fun and bright personalities, qualities that people of all ages can relate to!

The first Lalaloopsy doll that I bought for myself was Blossom Flowerpot. I had originally been attracted to a doll in the first series, Crumbs Sugar Cookie, because I loved her bright pink hair, but I didn't like that the pink leaned more towards magenta rather than a true HOT pink. (Magenta is purplish-pink and is my biggest pink pet peeve!) I held off and waited for a different release. MGA then released two new dolls during the holiday 2010 season: Blossom Flowerpot and Tippy Tumblelina. As soon as I saw Blossom, I knew she was the one for me. That bubblegum pink hair was a perfect shade of pink and her light brown skin set her apart from all of my pale skinned Blythes and BJDs. (It's close to my own skin tone, yay.) She looked like candy to me! Unfortunately, because she was so new in December, all online sellers hiked up her sales prices. The waiting began.

Finally, in early January of this year, I found one Blossom sitting on a shelf at my local Target. I immediately snatched her up and took her home with me. After deboxing Blossom, I realized that I wasn't completely happy with her style. The whole flower theme was a bit too spring and not enough dessert for me. That's when I decided to give my new doll a brand new look. I'm still learning to sew and my capabilities are nowhere near where I need them to be in order to create a frilly (and rather complicated) dress for a Lalaloopsy. I decided to raid my Blythes' clothes. Out of the hundreds of items I own, only two dresses kind of fit the Lalaloopsy body.

So here's a warning for anyone who is wondering about clothes that fit Lalaloopsys: Lalaloopsys have VERY large waists compared to other dolls (like Blythes) so it's very unlikely that other doll clothes will fit Lalaloopsys. I would check measurements on garments and comparing them to your Lalaloopsy's measurements before purchasing any clothes online! I would hate to see you waste your money on clothes that won't fit the dolls.

The two dresses I found didn't even fit my doll very well; they refused to close in the back. Still, the pink and brown dessert dress that kind of fit her was a perfect match for my doll's theme. That's when I decided to name her Pocky, a Japanese sweet treat composed of a biscuit that's partly covered in chocolate. My favorite type of Pocky is strawberry, which happened to be the color of my doll's hair, so I knew the name was a perfect fit!

The weeks following Pocky's arrival were incredibly fun. I started making some very minor customizations to her. She received new hair decorations. I first removed the original Blossom stock flowers that were attached to her head. Then I attached some desserts (a cupcake and macaron) in place of the flowers. (I had picked up the desserts at a fair a while back and had been saving them for a special project.) Some brown ribbons tied into bows completed the new hair look.

I had very much disliked Blossom's original bright orange shoes so I bought one of the new Lalaloopsy Fashion Packs and used the black pair of Mary Janes on Pocky instead.

One of the last touches I made to Pocky was adding her pink bear friend, Yan Yan. (Like Pocky, Yan Yan is a Japanese treat composed of a biscuit and icing. The only difference is that the icing is not on the biscuit; it's in a separate container and is used for dipping.) Now that Pocky has a little pink friend, I feel like her customizations are complete! I'll eventually make Pocky a new dress. I just need to perfect my sewing skills.

Since Pocky's arrival, I've been slowly picking up new Lalaloopsy products. While the big Lalaloopsy dolls are my favorite products in the toy line, I don't plan to collect all of them. (They take up so much space! My hobby room is already overflowing with toys and dolls...) Other items, like the ButtonTails plushies (seen above) and the mini Lalaloopsys are fun friends to get for Pocky. She currently has three mini friends and a ButtonTails mouse friend named Shortbread. I think all of my Lalaloopsy products will end up revolving around Pocky in one way or another. ^__~

Recently, I've been searching for the newest Lalaloopsy release, the very first boy doll! His name is Patch Treasurechest and he has a pirate theme. When I eventually get him, I'll be de-pirating him and customizing him to a special theme I have in mind.

I'm ecstatic over all the new Lalaloopsy releases planned by MGA over the next few months. To help contain my excitement, I'm often "talking Lalaloopsy" with other fans over at the official Lalaloopsy Facebook page and on my Twitter.