Paper Thin Personas • Rachel Cohen's Paper Doll Creations

Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks: Ghost

October 31, 2025

Download Page 7: Bianca Boo Bloody Ghost | Download Page 7: Bianca Boo Ghost | The Bianca Boo Collection

Today’s costume for Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks is a Halloween ghost outfit! It’s inspired by 18th-century rococo style and my love of deconstructed hoop skirts (even if it’s not exactly historically accurate). I made two versions. There’s one with blood splatter and one without. The splatter version was really just an excuse to finally use my ink splatter brushes in Procreate, and honestly, I love it. But I also know not everyone wants to hand their kiddo a blood-splattered dress, so there’s a “cute” version for those who prefer their Halloween less creepy.

Speaking of ghosts: Occasionally, I think this blog might be haunted. My server’s been acting up for days. It’s nothing major, just those annoying little downtimes that fix themselves if I wait long enough.

Anyway, here’s a poem, as usual for my Halloween ghost paper doll, two versions for the two dresses:

Beneath the moon’s silver light,
Bianca Boo floats out tonight,
Her tears fall where love has bled,
A bloody ghost among the dead.
—or—
Beneath the moon’s silver light,
Bianca Boo floats out tonight,
Her tears fall where love has bled,
A silent ghost among the dead.

The idea behind this one was more costume than literal ghost. Transparent people just aren’t that exciting to draw. I’m usually a “creepy but not gory” Halloween person, so the blood surprised even me, but once I did it, I thought, “Huh, maybe I should splatter more things with blood.”

When Julie and I started this project, she suggested reasonable black and white designs, and I was like, “Nope! Full color, patterns, shadows. The works!”

(She was right, by the way. This was way more work than I anticipated when I schemed it up.)

At the time, I wanted to push myself creatively, focus on painting, and not worry about the usual mix-and-match practicality. Normally, I design paper dolls that can swap clothes endlessly (because representation and flexibility matter!), but for this project, it was just seven dresses, one doll. Totally manageable—and honestly, a breath of fresh air. I don’t regret the decision to go full color and try my hand at digital painting, but I admit I might not be doing it again for a while.

Paper dolls have always felt a little like theater to me. Change the costume, change the character. Funny story: when I named Paper Thin Personas, I discovered that the “correct” plural of persona is personae, but in theater, cast lists are often titled Personas. I loved that. So, each paper doll is a performer, and every outfit is a new role to play. Super fun! And in this case, the transformation is into a Halloween ghost!

Oh—and don’t miss Julie’s ghost! Hers is totally 1980s-inspired and so much fun.

If you’re enjoying Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks, consider supporting me on Patreon and leave a comment. The full set will be available to download soon. I need to catch my breath.

Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks: Pumpkin

October 31, 2025October 30, 2025

A printable paper doll for Halloween themed around pumpkins with a wig and stockings.

Download Page 6: Bianca Boo Pumpkin | The Bianca Boo Collection

Today’s theme for Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks is Pumpkins!

This paper doll outfit was another case where I designed the hair before I designed the outfit. (Just like I did with the Bat design) I feel like I must have seen this somewhere. I don’t imagine I came up with entirely on my own, but I have a sort of “no research” rule when I do Halloween things. So, I don’t know where it came from even though I imagine it came from somewhere.

For the outfit, I was inspired in part by a these pumpkin designs from (I think) Nyahallo. The designs aren’t signed, which is hard. I love pumpkins. Not only do I love to eat them (I do love that), but I love the shapes and colors of them. They’re so sculptural. I wanted to bring this love of the shape of pumpkins to the outfit.

I wish I had not used the word “rows” twice in the poem. I was writing fast, because I was behind. “Oh, well, perhaps something I’ll fix someday in revision.” (I say this knowing I will never do that.)

Bianca Boo with laughter sweet,
Steps through rows of pumpkins neat,
Orange globes in cheerful rows,
Her Halloween magic clearly shows!

While Julie Matthews from Paper Doll School and I are doing a fun joint paper doll project between our two sites: Paper Thin Personas (mine) and Paper Doll School (hers), we didn’t consult about what out ideas were for the themes. So, I have no idea what she’s done. It looks amazing though. You should go check it out.

I think this one really captures what I love about Halloween paper doll design. Those little intersections of whimsy, nostalgia, and seasonal color. Pumpkins have such a joyful presence, and translating that into a costume was just plain fun.

As always, I hope you enjoy dressing up your dolls in these frightful frocks and maybe feel a little pumpkin magic of your own this spooky season.

Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks: Fortune Teller

October 29, 2025

Download Page 5: Bianca Boo Fortune Teller | The Bianca Boo Collection

Today’s Halloween paper doll dress theme is “Fortune Teller.” I don’t have a lot to say about this one. I really struggled to come up with an idea. I think this ended up somewhere between a mystical wanderer, pirate, and a free-spirited artist. I spent quite a while experimenting before finally finding a direction that felt right. I decided to center the look around a dress decorated with classic Rider–Waite tarot card designs. These cards were first published in December 1909 by William Rider & Son of London. Because the original cards were printed cheaply, the color palette was quite limited. I don’t know tarot, so the one I chose mostly had to do with what I thought I could draw and simpify and would still be clearly cards. If you know how to read these cards, let me know!

It’s deeply hilarious to me how close Julie’s design and my design are. We do not consult when we do these! I had no idea what she was planning.

Today’s little poem:

Bianca Boo with a knowing grin,
Foretells where your fate will begin.
As cards reveal their mystic hue,
Dark whispers tell what waits for you

As in many Octobers past, I’m teaming up with Julie Matthews from Paper Doll School for this fun joint paper doll project between our two sites: Paper Thin Personas (mine) and Paper Doll School (hers). This year, though, things are a little more hectic than usual. I usually like to have everything finished a few days ahead, but right now I’m definitely scrambling. Still, we’re determined to make it happen and with a bit of luck (and plenty of caffeine), the spooky magic will come together once again.

If you enjoyed today’s design, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! You can also check out Julie’s latest Frightful Frock over on her site, or join me on Patreon to help keep the paper dolls coming (and get a few fun extras along the way).

Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks: Bat!

October 28, 2025

A printable halloween paper doll dress with a bat theme in lilac and black from paperthinpersonas.com

Download Page 3: Bianca Boo Moth Queen | The Bianca Boo Collection

Today’s Frightful Frock for Bianca Boo is a bat-themed dress in lilac and black. It is probably the darkest of all the dresses I designed for this series. From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to give her a bat hair clip, and the rest of the look grew from there. I don’t usually start with a hair idea, but in this case, that was how my brain worked.

This was actually the first dress I designed, and its over-skirt (meant to resemble bat wings) made it tricky to come up with a unique idea for the Moth Queen gown later on. My early drafts for that one looked way too much like this bat-themed dress! That’s part of why I leaned into the Qi Lolita style for the Moth Queen from yesterday’s post. Of course, I didn’t work in order, because I am not that organized.

There’s a subtle pattern on this dress, though I wish I’d pushed the contrast a bit more. That is something I’m still learning to balance in digital art. One of my “rules” for this was that I was designing things that were inspired by their themes, rather than literal costumes for those things; however, I didn’t 100% follow that, as you shall see later on.

Here’s her poem:

Bianca Boo with lilac hair,
Found a bat swooping through the air,
They spiraled past the haunted trees,
Two happy friends on a ghostly breeze.

For the poetry fans out there: each of these poems is a quatrain, a four-line stanza. This one uses an AA/BB rhyme scheme, meaning lines one and two rhyme, and lines three and four rhyme. This is a very common poetic form. I had planned to write limericks, but limericks are actually a really complicated form to work in.

And can we talk about Julie’s bat corset? It’s an absolute delight. I wish I’d thought of it first! She also has a procreate “bat brush” available for folks over on Paper Doll School. So much fun.

The epic of Halloween’s paper doll dresses continues!

Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks: Moth Queen

October 27, 2025

Download Page 3: Bianca Boo Moth Queen | The Bianca Boo Collection

Today’s Fright Frock for Bianca Boo, my Halloween printable paper doll project with Julie Matthews, is a “Moth Queen” themed gown. So, of course, I needed a dress and a crown and a wig, because Bianca’s hair has to match the rest of her style. When Julie and I first brainstormed this Halloween paper doll project, we started with a list of thirteen ideas and narrowed it down to our favorites. Today’s design, The Moth Queen, isn’t a costume exactly, it is more of an “inspired by” outfit. I admit that I first thought of a more “fairy” feeling sort of dress, but that felt cliche, so I turned to other ideas.

Lolita fashion has always fascinated me. Originating from Japanese street fashion, Lolita draws inspiration from Victorian and Rococo clothing, creating that signature modest, doll-like silhouette full of lace, bows, and ruffles. What I find endlessly inspiring about the style is that outfits are organized into coordinates around themes, so everything matches from the purse to the dress. I think that’s very rich fodder for paper dolls, myself. For today’s Moth Queen themed paper doll outfit, I was inspired by Qi Lolita fashion, a substyle that mixes the frilly sweetness of Lolita with traditional Chinese clothing details.

Moths seem to be having a real moment right now. I’m not sure why, but then again, I rarely understand fashion trends, and that’s never stopped me from drawing them anyway. Personally, I like to think of moths as butterflies for autumn. They are a little moodier and perfect for spooky season (which is apparently what the internet is calling ‘fall’ these days).

As with the rest of Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks, I’ve been pairing each outfit with a short, whimsical poem. I don’t usually write formal verse, but I’ve been having so much fun experimenting with these little rhymes. Here’s the poem for today’s dress:

Bianco Boo in a frock so bright,
Dancing and twirling through the night,
With wings unfurled in golden gloss,
She crowned herself the queen of moths.

If you’d like to add The Moth Queen to your collection, you can download the printable paper doll outfit above. And if you missed the earlier designs in this Halloween series, be sure to check out the rest of Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks. Each one comes with its own little verse to celebrate the spooky season. Also, be sure to check out Julie Matthew’s Paper Doll School where she’s also creating outfits for these themes.

Bianca Boo’s Frightful Frocks: Vampire Aristocrat

October 26, 2025October 26, 2025

Download Page 3: Bianca Boo Vampire Aristocrat | The Bianca Boo Collection

Today’s Halloween paper doll dress theme is “Vampire Aristocrat.”

You might wonder, what exactly makes a vampire an aristocrat?

If we’re being literary about it, Dracula can be read as an exploration of how the powerful exploit the powerless: noble men with titles preying on young women without them, a subtle class critique of late Victorian England.

Or, more likely, I just thought it sounded cool.

Speaking of cool, did you see Julie Matthews’ “Poison Bottle” dress? It’s stunning. And really creative.

Every so often, I find myself feeling lucky to have a friend like Julie. She’s someone I can text and say, “Look at the reflection I did on the gems! I’m so proud,” and she completely understands. She also understands digital art far better than I do, which is another blessing. It’s invaluable to have creative friends who are more skilled in areas you want to grow in. Very handy.

Julie mentioned she’s challenging herself to use as little black as possible in the Frightful Frock Halloween project we’re both doing. I really admire that kind of artistic restraint. I didn’t set out with the same rule, but now that I think about it, there isn’t much black in my own designs either. Not intentionally; it just didn’t happen. Art is like that.

Here’s the poem that goes with my Vampire Aristocrat dress:

Bianca Boo, her fangs so bright
Glides through shadows, pale as light.
With velvet grace and eyes that gleam,
Her fancy frock a monster’s dream.

I tried to work the word vampire into the poem, but it’s not the easiest term to rhyme elegantly. It’s also three syllables which makes meter a little rough with it. I could go on… I admit formal verse isn’t really my thing, but I love nonsense verse and light verse.

I wasn’t sure this dress really said “vampire” after I finished it. For testing purposes, I turned to my ever-patient husband. I showed him the design and asked, “Okay, what’s the theme?”
He looked at it for a moment and said, “Vampire?”
Success! The message came through.

That’s exactly what I was hoping for: something elegant and just a little eerie, leaning fully into the creepy-cute aesthetic that makes Halloween design so much fun.

Meet Bianca Boo my Halloween Printable Paper Doll for 2025

October 26, 2025October 24, 2025

Download Page 1: Bianca Boo Doll | Download Page 2: Poison Bottle | The Bianca Boo Collection

Like I’ve done many Octobers before, I’m teaming up with Julie Matthews over at Paper Doll School for a fun little joint art project between our two sites: Paper Thin Personas (mine) and Paper Doll School (hers). We’re each making different paper dolls that play around with the same spooky themes: Poison Bottles, Vampire Aristocrat, Moth Queen, Bats, Fortune Teller, Pumpkins, and Ghosts. It’s our shared paper doll adventure for the season! That said, this October has been kind of a whirlwind (lots of panicked emails back and forth), so we’ll see if we actually manage to pull it off this year. Fingers crossed! I know we’re both excited, but also life gets rough.

So with that context, Happy Halloween everyone! Meet Bianca Boo!

Not only do I have a Halloween printable paper doll, I have a poem for my Halloween printable paper doll.

“Bianca Boo, the paper doll of night,
Wears frightful frocks that cause delight.
With ghostly grace she’ll charm your view
Beware her style… it may haunt you too!

As candle’s flicker and cauldron’s brew,
Bianca Boo stirs something new.
A dash of venom, a drop of spite—
She brews her poison dark as night.”

I don’t usually write rhyming verse, so I am quite proud of those two efforts. There may be more. I have a few more already written, but I don’t have one written for every gown yet.

This whole halloween project was a stretch for me, creatively. I don’t often work as a digital painter, and patterns aren’t usually my thing, but I really wanted to push myself for this one. Bianca Boo was inspired by Betty Boop, so I aimed for something that felt vintage, a little Art Deco, and delightfully quirky. Her outfits are all meant to be costumes with a mix of vintage silhouettes and a dash of Lolita flair.

Her first dress around the theme “Poison Bottle” and I decided to use that as a silhouette on the skirt and then made a plague doctor style mask. One of the things I’ve been working on is coloring both the glass in the mask and the brass accents with some colors. I decided to work with patterns as well, something that I have never been very comfortable with, mostly because I get frustrated with the challenge of making patterns directional when working with digital brushes, but that’s another issue all together.

And that’s Bianca Boo! I hope she brings a little extra fun to your Halloween. Whether you’re dressing up, passing out candy, or just curling up with something pumpkin-flavored, I hope your night is full of treats and creativity. Check back in soon, as there are more Bianca Boo frocks to enjoy.

Pantheon Gowns: A Fun Ancient Greek Inspired Paper Doll

October 24, 2025October 17, 2025

Digital paper doll download with braided hair and two elegant ancient Greek–inspired gowns, plus matching accessories. A fun, artful printable from Paper Thin Personas. Perfect for fans of historical or fantasy paper dolls.

Digital paper doll download with braided hair and two elegant ancient Greek–inspired gowns, plus matching accessories. A yellow and pink color scheme. A fun, artful download from Paper Thin Personas. Perfect for fans of historical or fantasy paper dolls.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

This is the second of two digital paper doll downloads I designed with an ancient geek inspired theme. The first one went up last week, so you can go download that paper doll too, if you feel so inspired. I don’t think two paper doll is enough to make a series right? We’d need at least four, I think?

It’s not really the “second” one, because my brain doesn’t work like that. It’s more like, I drew three dresses, remembered that three dresses is one two many for my usual paper doll layout and then was like… well I guess I better draw a fourth dress and make that work.

Lately I’ve been very into wig designers for interesting hairstyle ideas. I think wigs are fun, because they don’t have to be realistic, much like paper dolls don’t have to be realistic. Over a decade ago, I interviewed Liana of Liana’s Paper Doll Blog (anyone else on the planet remember that one?) and she told me that drawing paper dolls made her “feel like I’m getting away with warping reality for fun.” I 100% agree.

Also, I cannot believe that interview was over a decade ago. It feels like yesterday. Wow.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the “end of the internet,” and when I think about how old this site is (17 years now!), I realize it really is kind of old-school. It’s from the days when one person could just make a website about something they loved and share it. The internet is so different now, which makes sense. 17 years is a long time. Were this website a person, it would be able to vote next year.

Increasingly, keeping a site up like this is hard. There’s a lot of costs associated with running a site like this (especially one this big) and it is occasionally janky and slow (I know, I know.) Still, when I go back to old interviews like that one, I’m reminded why I did this in the first place.

That makes me want to keep going.

If you’ve been enjoying my paper dolls and want to help keep the site running (and ad-free), I’d love if you considered becoming a patron. Your support really does make a difference and helps me keep creating.

I don’t think I’ll ever have the budget to hire someone to totally “clean up” the site, but Patreon makes it possible to cover the basics (like server space) and to pay for help when something breaks that I just can’t fix myself. That’s been happening more often lately; turns out websites have gotten a lot more complicated in the last 17 years. Shocking, I know.

Ancient Elegance: A Foray into Fantasy Greek Inspired Gowns

October 8, 2025

A printable paper doll coloring sheet titled "Ancient Elegance" from the Ensemble Eclectica series by Paper Thin Personas. The central doll has braided styled with a headpiece and bold earrings. She wears a strapless bodysuit and sandals. Surrounding her are two Ancient Greek toga-inspired gowns. Additional accessories include strappy sandals, gold and blue jewelry, a scroll, and Greek-style decorative vases and pitchers. The sheet is designed with cut-out tabs for dressing the doll.

A printable paper doll sheet titled "Ancient Elegance" from the Ensemble Eclectica series by Paper Thin Personas. The central doll has light skin, pale green eyes, and braided red-brown hair styled with a gold headpiece. She wears a blue strapless bodysuit with gold details and blue sandals. Surrounding her are Ancient Greek toga-inspired gowns, including a flowing deep blue mermaid-style dress and a pale green and navy layered gown with a gold belt. Additional accessories include strappy sandals, gold and blue jewelry, a scroll, and Greek-style decorative vases and pitchers. The sheet is designed with cut-out tabs for dressing the doll.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

Step into the world of myth and elegance with today’s paper doll set, Ancient Elegance, part of my Ensemble Eclectica series. This Greek mythology fashion doll is well within the realm of fantasy and one of two dolls with this theme I drew. I’ll share the second soon, I’m sure.

I’ve loved Greek myths since I was a child, devouring them in every form I could find from illustrated books for kids to my mother’s old college encyclopedia of mythology. Of course, if you’ve been around here for any lenght of time, you know I also loved the old Xena television shows.

One of the rare things I did with this paper doll (that I don’t do with many of my creations) is I gave her a head piece. It’s easy enough to trim off with a pair of scissors, should you wish to do so. I just thought it added a fun element to the paper doll. She’s got two gowns, of course. To complete the set, you’ll find strappy sandals, jewelry, a scroll, and a collection of decorative Greek-style vases and pitchers and these the kinds of treasures you might imagine in a temple or mythic hero’s home.

Color scheme-wise I went with blues and pale green. I don’t know that I’ve ever done a color scheme quite like this and it was largely inspired by a color card from the Color Cube, something I treated myself too as a source for color schemes last year, I think. This was card 007 from volume 1 of the cube, which I am not sharing out of respect for the creator of the Color Cubes. It’s very blue color scheme! As you can see, I suspect.

As fall tips into winter up here in Alaska, I always notice my cat deciding that yes, my lap is officially the warmest place in the house (a sure sign that winter has arrived, even if snow has not). It does make cozy evenings, but it also make drawing occasionally challenging when there’s a needy cat.

Celestial Fashionista: A Fantasy Astronomer Paper Doll

October 1, 2025

A paper doll coloring page with braided hair, wearing corsets and bodices. The set includes two gowns, a pair of boots, an armillary sphere, books, and notepaper.

A red-brown skinned paper doll with braided hair, wearing corsets and bodices. The set includes two gowns, a pair of boots, an armillary sphere, books, and notepaper.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

Today’s paper doll is a fantasy scientist I think. Some sort of astrologer or astronomer paper doll perhaps? I’ll leave that up to others to decide.

Netflix did a version of Cinderella back in 2021 and honestly, it was not a film I enjoyed very much. The attempt to modernize the story fell a bit flat. The costumes were cool and I love a musical, but I didn’t actually think it was a very good movie. The film’s excessive close-ups and awkward staging make it feel less like a true musical and more like a disjointed movie where people randomly burst into song. It was a jukebox musical, but not one that worked very well. I thought Pierce Brosnan was quite funny as the king and Camila Cabello was charming enough as the lead.

Even though nothing will ever replace the 1997 Brandy version of Cinderella in my heart, I did find some of the costume designs in the Netflix version interesting. I created this printable paper doll inspired by those looks—specifically the main outfit Cinderella wears for most of the movie which is a heavily boned set of stays over a skit with a wrap belt of some sort.

After designing the two dresses, I started thinking about the character behind them. There was something practical about the costumes that made me imagine this astronomer paper doll. That’s when the idea to draw the armillary sphere came in, and the concept evolved from there. The color palette was inspired by what I think of as “galactic” colors. Not colors I tend to use that much, I don’t think.

This photo from Pinterest inspired her hair. I added some dramatic earrings.

This month has absolutely flown by. It’s been one of those stretches where I keep thinking “I’ll do that when I have a moment” but those moments are in short supply lately. I’ve been teaching, attending a historical conference, catching up after August travel, and taking a class.

I have been scheming on a October project, so that might be happening. We shall see!

Garden Gowns: A Coloring Page from my Patron with the Cut & Color Paper Dolls

September 28, 2025September 27, 2025

Chivalry in Paper: Cut & Color Couture Knight Paper Doll

September 19, 2025

A knight paper doll coloring page with mix and match armor, a sowrd and an axe.

Download Black and White PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Cut & Color Couture Series

Today’s paper doll is a knight, decked out in her armor and ready for adventure. She comes with both a sword and an axe, because why settle for just one weapon when you can have options? I really love her sword and her axe. I’ve done a fair number of knights over the years. You can check all those knights out here. This knight’s series has been running for a while, so you can mix and match with Archer of the Realm, In Full Armor, and Gallant Garb, of course.

Of course, I couldn’t resist giving her cute hair, because knights deserve good hair days too. Just because you’re wearing heavy plate and carrying sharp objects doesn’t mean you can’t have style. I have always loved two buns as a hair style. I think it’s super cute, even though I’ve never worn it much myself.

Underneath all that metal, she’s wearing a padded coat called a gambeson. Gambesons were basically the medieval multitaskers of clothing. They could be worn on their own as light armor, or layered under chainmail and plate to add cushioning and keep the metal from rubbing skin raw. Think of it as a combination safety pad and anti-chafing solution, because no one wants to spend the day riding a horse, swinging a sword, and getting stabbed while also dealing with terrible blisters.

So, this knight paper doll isn’t just fierce. She’s also fashionable and practical. You might remember some of the previews of these outfits, if you’re a patron.

September has just slipped away from me. I don’t mind. I’m busy and that’s not a bad thing, but it hasn’t left much time for working on paper dolls. I hope once winter comes things might slow down a little.