The Miss Beauty Doll 2012 entries are open

If you like to imagine your fashion dolls as pageant stars, go see what the Miss Beauty Doll doll artist contest is all about.

Entries are now being accepted for the 2012 contest, but you can also see the previous winners on the site.

Doll pageant: Charity appearance in winter

Continuing my doll pageant series:

Miss Barbie Roberts is dressed as if she was making a charity appearance during a Michigan winter.

Doll and Fashion Avenue outfit are both from the late 1990s. The crown I bought from a crafter on Amazon. The sash is from a different Barbie outfit. The screen shot in the background is the Miss America Organization web site.

The Miss America Barbie dolls

Since we're on a doll pageant thread, did you know there was an official Miss America Barbie doll series in the early 1970s? The Doll Reference site has pictures and details.

Madame Alexander's 90th Anniversary Miss America Doll

There is an official doll for the Miss America Organization, and it's a Madame Alexander doll.

She wears a blue dress, has a crown, sash and flower bouquet. The doll is $149, and limited quantities are still available.

Amazingly beautiful doll dresses from Olivia's Doll Closet

I'm used to buying my artist / crafter made doll dresses at the craft and vendor shows. But I live in Michigan, where the recession has certainly changed how people shop and what they are looking for.

The craft and vendor shows that once were so common as fundraiser events for the churches and mother's clubs have morphed into Mom 2 Mom sales and rummage sales. It's a sign of the times. If the crafters can't sell pieces, they won't book a table. If the tables don't book, the sponsors don't earn their money. What sells right now is the stuff people need - and doll clothes just don't fit that bill.

Therefore: while I have a nice collection of handcrafted doll clothes, I haven't had any new outfits in quite awhile.

A few days ago, I decided to do a pageant theme with my doll on my desk. I know a lot of people who are, or have been, involved with the local pageant system and thought that would be fun to add to my doll rotation. I had several dolls that would work, and I know what store local to me has the LBD models on clearance prices. I thought I had some appropriate dresses (after inspection, I did have two pageant frocks).

But I needed a crown that was doll-sized and knew I didn't have any.

After a search on eBay and Amazon, I found some crowns from one dealer that would stand in well for a pageant crown. I looked to see what else I might find from that dealer, and ordered five ball gowns in addition to a pack of six crowns.

The package from Olivia's Doll Closet arrived today and I was extremely pleased with the pieces. All I have to do is put a sash on top on any of these frocks and give the girl some flowers -- and she'll look just like a pageant queen.

While I didn't intend for these two white dresses to be bridal gowns, they were sent with veils so that I could make them wedding outfits. How nice.

Since I set out the brunette doll today with my older pageant frock, I'll put a crown on her head tomorrow and that will be the pageant doll for now.

The local pageant season is in August and while I haven't decided which doll to set out then, I do kind of like that pink dress. It has a shoulder wrap with it.

But when it's Miss America week in the winter, oh, yes, we'll either show off one of these two white dresses ... or the black and white dress that is my favorite of the ones I purchased. This is a close-up of the details on that skirt.

Salute to Miss Michigan

The newly crowned Miss Michigan from the Miss America Organization pageant system is Elizabeth Wertenberger of Dundee, Mich.

While she ran under the title of Miss Southwest Michigan, Elizabeth is a former Miss Monroe County queen. My job as a reporter for The Monroe Evening News includes getting the Miss Monroe pageant appearances listed in the newspaper - although when it comes to actual competitions, that assignment does vary based on who is scheduled to work that weekend. I've also met many of the queens, contestants, princesses and volunteers over the years. That includes Kaye Lani Rafko Wilson, Miss America 1988, who still lives in Monroe.

Because I figured it was time to do a pageant doll display on my desk, and the local pageant season will be in August, I ordered on line a few days ago some doll-sized crowns and an assortment of beautiful ball gowns.

I'm really glad I did that now, but the doll fashions haven't arrived yet.

This will be my "doll on my desk" display for now. This is a brunette Barbie from the late 1990s. She came with beads you could pinch into her hair. I still have the hair kit, although I don't use it much. This was the first "pink box" Barbie I bought for myself as an adult. Her face was just too cute. Once I bought that doll, I knew I had crossed over into Barbie land.

The pageant frocks are, as best as I can remember, from the late 1990s because that is when I bought a lot of pink box fashions. The red dress and its sash came in a package of three outfits intended as college campus wear, along with a graduation cap and gown. The blue dress may have belonged to my daughter at one time. Personally, I like the red dress so that's what the doll will wear today.

I also found some fake flowers in my craft supplies that she can hold.

I have nothing - absolutely nothing - that can be repurposed as a doll crown unless I want to take a crown off one of my collector dolls. I'm not going to do that when I'll have a selection of doll crowns in a few days.

Update: Here's the doll on display, with her crown: