At the Movies AND our biggest game giveaway yet!!

Can it really be April already - what happened to March?  I cannot believe we've had no communication for sooooo long!!  But, finally,  here we are again with the CDS news, and I cannot wait to see what wonderful new designs the crew has come up with!!  I think we all could use a little shopping therapy, don't you??

There are definitely lots of new opportunities. We have welcomed soooooooo many new people it's hard to keep up!  Did you know that Steven Fraser of Dressmaker Details has a large cornerstone shop on Designer Drive now?  We also have welcomed an OOAK artist, Dolly's Dolls, who may be new to Couture Court, but whohas been active on a certain auction site for some time.   

We also have had four people build new websites in our free class, and we'll have one more coming on board soon who is working away to get his shop  finished just right.  We are really becoming international now.  Our new people include the Russian winner of the Couture Doll Design Challenge, Yana Emelyanova; our first member from France, Rosy Bazile; from Canada is a great knitter and pattern maker, Karen Daniel; and  those who collect the little dolls may want to check out the new shop by Elizabeth Fenton from the USA.   As soon as Carl Wicham finishes building his site you will have yet another place to get your knitwear - and some of his items also features beading!

Oh, and be sure to pick up the Fantasy issue of FDQ.  In there you will see the contestants from our Fantasy contest show what kinds of things they happened to imagine.  And, speaking of contestants, I am finally to the part where I can actually show you some of the new things our artists came up with for the latest challenge.  Grab your popcorn, kiddos, and read on!

It looks like plenty of our action figures are going to burst on the widescreen this summer! There are going to be so many sequels plus new movies that it will be hard to pick just one to visit or revisit! But that is just what our shop owners did who took our Pop Culture At The Movies challenge!

Each of them had to come up with a contemporary view of the clothing a character in one of these movies would actually be able to wear out in public. So obviously it could not be a costume, and to fit into Couture Doll Shops, it would have to have a couture flare!

  A total of ten brave souls took up the challenge. Three designers were influenced by Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Ahoy, Mateys, I believe this one was influenced by Mr. Depp himself! 

ENTRY NUMBER 5




It's hard to resist the Pirates call....especially when they are played by such delightful characters.  

Yes, Johnny Depp will be on hand as usual, but this time, he'll have a female character with him played by Penelope Cruz.  Looks like this artist was leaning more toward designing for her!


ENTRY NUMBER 6 

Many of you might remember, this is not the first time these two have graced the big screen together.They did a little movie called Blow a few years back that you might remember. 
I don't think that's anything this designer had in mind though - this doll is channeling Penelope's softer side thanks to the work of her artist.   ENTRY NUMBER 2

  

Others chose newly introduced action flicks. This entry took inspiration from X-Men: First Class.  January Jones' character  had a lot more going for her clothes-wise than Mystique ever did!

ENTRY NUMBER 3 




The artist who took on Green Lantern felt that if you've seen one skin tight jumpsuit after another, you might prefer something a lot different.  

The character played by Blake Lively, Carol Ferris, would be ready for fun at any party in this ensemble that might just leave you green with envy!.

ENTRY NUMBER 8 

   

Captain America: The First Avenger is a not-so-gentle reminder that he was stomping out crime and more than a few Nazis during the first World War.  Aren't we happy his sweetie Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell, has a much more hot uniform then they did way back when.

ENTRY NUMBER 1 



I'm not sure I'll be going to see Sucker Punch.  I have a hard time imagining that several beautiful women could end up in a not very nice insane asylum!  But this artist had no trouble putting together an appropriate ensemble for Emily Browning's character of Baby Doll for a popular doll like Ellowyne.  It's rumored this artist has also developed outfits for the other lovelies in this crazy movie

ENTRY NUMBER 4 

There were three designers influenced by the new Thor movie. Two formed a team who brought both a furniture piece influenced by the decor of the days of Thor, and an ensemble that Natalie Portman playing Jane Foster would be quite comfortable in!

ENTRY NUMBER 7

  

The Thor movie was the only one that gave an artist the desire to create clothing for a  male character. 

I can only say that if he takes off his sun glasses I swear I will swoon! Oh, and I'm also glad this artist was savvy enough to develop just the right look for this modern day Thor! 

 
ENTRY NUMBER 10



  

No one was brave enough to tackle Cowboys and Aliens!! I guess that was because they were all very serious about the challenge.

But there was one artist beating to a very different drum.  Their choice was the zany, new comedy, Bridesmaids - action figures weren't even a consideration for Maya Rudolph's Lillian.

ENTRY NUMBER 9

If you would like to see the complete set of photos for all these designs, and vote on your favorite, you will get an entry to win one of two great drawings in appreciation of your time!  You can do this on the Challenge Site.  It is well worth a visit!

And do not forget we have a game going on over on our special game site Access THE GAME on its website.


You can play April 9 through 11th.  You will put your entries for this game as well as your votes for the challenge on the vote page on the challenge website.

But whereever you go, and whatever you enter - stop back by and see this blog on April 12 for the results.  That's the day the winners will be revealed right here.

And. in case you'd like to see what our challenge winner will take home, it is the very beautiful Alice Cullen from the Twilight Movies series.  Mr. Tonner certainly has a knack of creating wonderful pop icons influenced by popular movies!   Just as George Gonzalez, of Angelic Dreamz, had a knack when he picked this beautiful doll to present to our challenge winner!!  Good luck everyone and have a fun weekend!