Barbie and the Festival of Trees

My sister’s church does a festival of trees every year. People donate and decorate themed Christmas trees and gifts and then the trees are auctioned off to help support a local charity. This year, my sister and I decorated two trees: a baby tree (with gifts for a newborn) and a Barbie tree. Here are photos of the Barbie tree. My sister made the quilt and pillow from Riley Blake Barbie panels and fabrics. I made the tree skirt from coordinating Riley Blake fabrics. The tree is trimmed with a variety of Hallmark Barbie ornaments and Barbie accessories. A Barbie house, helicopter, dolls, miniatures and more are included.

New Hallmark Keepsake ornament: 1:6 scale crayon box

This weekend, I went to my local Hallmark store to see the new Hallmark Keepsake Christmas ornaments for 2021. I bought a bunch that I’ll share later, but one of my favorites is the mini box of crayons. They’re the perfect size for Barbie and they look great with my 1:6 scale Barbie paper dolls! (Paper dolls are available to download from my Etsy shop.)

I didn’t have any real crayons in the house, so here’s a pencil and scissors to show the scale of the paper dolls and crayon box ornament.

2020 Hallmark keepsake ornaments

Hallmark introduced their 2020 Keepsake ornaments this weekend. These can be a treasure trove of 1:6 scale miniatures for your fashion doll dioramas. I’ve picked up a few so far. Here are a couple of them.

First, in honor of Princess Beatrice’s wedding, this adorable wedding cake.

And then, in the frisky kittens series, this cute kitten and hamster.

It’s a Barbie Christmas … tree

The church my sister attends does a Festival of Trees event every year over the Thanksgiving weekend. Individuals choose a theme, decorate a tree in that theme, and then donate the tree for a silent auction that benefits local charities.

This year I talked my sister into a Barbie themed tree. Throughout the past year, we’ve been collecting ornaments, dolls, and a variety of Barbie items from eBay, Etsy, antique malls, dollar stores, and the GAW Barbie Convention. My mom made a tote bag, I made a tree skirt, my sister knitted a Barbie blanket, and we roped the whole family into making a variety of ornaments.

Tonight, we spent an hour and a half decorating our tree. I think someone’s little girl is going to have a very Merry Christmas!

The toy shop

I’ve been collecting miniature Barbie items for some time now, and I finally decided to set up a little toy shop. The minis include a variety of Hallmark ornaments, keychains, Disney figures, and even a Steiff teddy bear I bought at the factory in Germany.

 

My GAW purchases

During the GAW Barbie convention, many attendees will sell doll stuff from their hotel room, as I did. So when we closed the door for a break, I took the opportunity to do some room shopping.

My sister and I bought a few Barbie Hallmark Keepsake ornaments for the Christmas tree she’s decorating for the Festival of Trees at her church. (I talked her into the Barbie theme, of course …)

I found some cute custom shoes, gloves, and clutch purses from a couple different vendors. I scored a couple shopping bags that I’m in love with by Rogier Corbeau of the delightful Etsy shop DutchBarbieWorld. And the Fashion Designer outfit that I didn’t get when I bought the doll nude from eBay a while back.

At the shopping mall adjoining the hotel, I also found a cute Von Maur store shopping bag full of cinnamon candies. In the sales room, we bought some more Barbie ornaments that went home with my sister. And … I broke down and bought Gal on the Go Silkstone Barbie, a favorite of mine that I hadn’t been able to find before at a reasonable price. There were some OOAK dolls I fell in love with too, but they were a little outside the budget …

Delft Chic for Silkstone Barbie & Victoire Roux

I love shades of blue and hand embroidery, so this hankie drew me in right away. Luckily, I had a blue Irish linen hankie that coordinated beautifully to make the blouse. And this outfit also coordinates with my “new to me” Hallmark ornament of another lovely Silkstone Barbie doll. Fashion now available in my Etsy shop.

2018 Hallmark Keepsake ornaments

This weekend marked the debut of the 2018 Hallmark Keepsake ornaments. Our local Hallmark store had some special promotions for Gold Crown members, so I stopped by to see if there were any cute Barbie size minis.

There were too many choices! I walked out the door with 3 ornaments but could have just as easily bought a dozen.

Here are the ornaments I purchased. The skipper doll in her original box, a tray of Christmas sweets, and a cute corgi puppy running off with the Christmas tinsel.

And here are some other tempting choices. The snowcone machine was a little pricey but oh, so cute. The guitar is the perfect size for Barbie. Soda Shop Barbie was cute. The tray of Halloween sweets includes candy apples, candy corn shaped cookies and glittery spider candy. The Playdough jar, car, and Santa figurine are all from their mini collection and would look nice in a toy store diorama. And I almost picked up the kitten in the box of Christmas ornaments. Might have to go back for that one!