First off: I was not abducted by aliens or eaten by a polar bear or killed by some strange monster which lives in the depths of the library stacks.

Rather, I was busy working on class things, working on work things and working on thesis writing things. The truth is that for the next semester, the blog is going to be neglected and I am going to feel guilty about it, but I am really really crazy busy.

My mother attends a quilting retreat each January with some friends and there is a tradition of bringing a little gift for the other quilters. Since I gave her a set of magnetic Marisole paper dolls this year for the holidays, she decided she wanted a set for her quilting friends. Everything about these paper dolls was produced with her consultation.

The magnetic paper doll (who can can clothing with magnetic Marisole) has gray hair, red glasses. She comes with her sewing machine, a rather lopsided quilt and several different important quilting accessories (scissors and things).

After she approved the paper doll design, we went through all of the Marisole paper dolls I have drawn and selected a collection of clothing to go with the doll. Each attending person got one main doll and then one page of extra clothing.

It was fairly entertaining to sit down with Mom and have her select what she liked. Sometimes, I guessed right on what she would pick, but often I was surprised. My mom and I have similar taste in clothing and jewelry and fabric, so I suspected we’d have similar taste in paper dolls.

I knew she’d like the pirates and the commercial fishing paper doll. I was fairly certain she would go for something fantasy and I thought the art deco stuff was a shoe in. I knew Tones and Shades would be important since she shares my love of beautiful textiles that are used in Kimono. I was a little surprised by the fantasy set she liked, since it’s one I’m not totally pleased with.

I have come up with some quick fixes which I think should at least feed the blog while I’m so very busy. There will be some sketchbook posts, probably some black and white posts (mostly of things which have already appeared once in color since that is the easiest sort for me to do) and possibly something else as I figure out what I can find time for. I don’t want to give up PTP, but I do have a thesis to write.

One last note on these magnetic paper dolls, they are sized as an 8 by 10.5 inch image, rather then my usual 8 by 10 inch, since I knew which printer I would be printing them on. Double check the PDF settings before you print them to make sure they will fit. Enjoy them.

I love how drop waisted dresses look on paper dolls, but lord knows I can’t wear them. Putting a line right across the widest part of my hips isn’t exactly my idea of a flattering look. Still, the wonderful thing about paper dolls is that they don’t complain, so I don’t have to worry about what they think about things.

Emily Clarke Studio is a paper doll blog which I stumbled across recently. The artist is skillfull and it updates regularly. She doesn’t just have paper dolls to play with, but also uses paper dolls as a re-occuring motif in her art which I think is pretty darn nifty. All in all, I’ve been impressed by her work and I enjoy her site. Others should check it out as well, though I confess I don’t know how printable her paper dolls are.

So, unless some miracle happens, there won’t be a Friday post, because I have school things to be doing I’m afraid. Hopefully things will settle into a stable routine in the coming week or two and I’ll be able to actually get on a regular updating schedule.

Embracing the gothic once more, we have another Shadow and Light paper doll. There’s something very saucy about both her outfits. Also today is Friday the 13th, so it seems only fitting we do something suitably gothic here in paper doll land. It’s finally started snowing here and I wish it would stop all ready. Not to say I don’t like the snow…. I do, but I walked through it quite a bit today padding from and to work and getting things sorted before my classes start next week.

I am not really ready for classes to start, but I am working on getting my schedule sorted out as I need to do that before classes begin. I have a big order of textbooks which I am waiting to come in from Amazon (along with a paper doll or two, I confess) and that’s taking what feels like forever.

Still, here we have a shadow and light paper doll and on Sunday there will be a Pixie and then Monday there will be Marisole and we’ll be off and running. In the mean time, vote in the poll if you haven’t and tell me what you’d like to see new for the blog in the coming year. It seems a male paper doll it getting the majority of the interest, so I might have to do what Boots suggested.

We still haven’t had much snow here, but I don’t mind. I’m able to walk home from work which is just about a mile and a half and it’s a nice walk to do when the weather isn’t too cold. I’m dreading when it gets colder and I’ll have to decide between wait ten minutes for the bus or walking 25 minutes in the cold. It’s a hard call and depending on how horrid it is, I usually decide right after work.

I’ve been playing around with color pallets a lot lately. I realized, I’d never done a sort of Norse/Anglo-Saxon/Medieval fantasy paper doll in a pale color scheme. Somehow that lead to this and then the idea of giving the paper doll blue skin came to me last minute. Once the paper doll was fully colored, I knew she had to be some sort of other worldly winter fairy or something. She might be smiling, but I get the feeling she might be very dangerous. Not someone you’d want to cross.

And, in case I haven’t mentioned it or you haven’t noticed, there’s a poll. Feel free to vote or tell me what you think in a comment.

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So, this is up a little later then intended. I wanted to do a sort of belly dancer fantasy set, and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I think I went through about six color schemes before I settled on this one. It’s not quite what I wanted, but it’s a lot better then the purple and blue version (trust me on that one). When I was a kid, I had a friend whose mother was a belly dancer. I thought that was a most cool exotic thing ever. I’ve never belly danced though- perhaps I will someday.

On a semi-unrelated note, The Black Apple is offering this wonderful Winter Girl paper doll download. If you’re not familiar with her art, Emily Martin has also produced on commercial paper doll book called The Paper Doll Primer. I haven’t bought it yet, but its on my list of things to purchase. I love the whimsical, but not cute nature of her paper dolls. I’m a huge fan of whimsey and I’m not a huge fan of overly cute.

Oh and there’s a new poll on the side bar for people to vote in. I’m thinking about what to add to the blog over the next year, so there are some options listed there. I can’t promise I’ll actually do what wins, but it’ll probably help push me in some direction. (I have a half finished tutorial on how I color paper dolls sitting in a folder and it’s been there for almost a year.)

And here we have the first Shadow and Light paper doll of the new year. And we are here going into the third year of the blog, technically the fourth if you count the total collapse the site suffered after its first year. Anyway, I’m pleased with how I’ve done and pleased with how things went.

It’s been a good year for the blog and while I disappeared a bit, I was much better about posting this year than last year. We had a few contests, put up about 140 printable paper dolls (not inculding my magnetic ones), started two new series (Dictionary Girls and Shadow and Light) and retired two series (Flora of the Regency and Curves).

In the coming year, I would like to draw a male paper doll- a challenge from Boots of 19th Century Paper dolls and maybe try to post more sketchbook things. I’d also like to do some child paper dolls. Perhaps as erratically updating series rather then my weekly ones… would that bother people? Having both? Or should I just focus on doing more of what I’ve already committed too.

So, I didn’t think these dresses for the Dictionary girls paper dolls would get done tonight. I barely finished the paper doll dresses up in time to post them before midnight. I’ve been drawing a lot of paper dolls lately, but those dolls haven’t been making the jump from my sketchbook into the computer very well. It’s not a time thing, though I did just get back from my trip, but rather something else. I’m not sure what…

Still, I’m happy to have managed to get this up tonight. I’ve been neglecting all the paper doll series lately on the blog (except Shadow and Light, but truth be told I had those posts drawn and reformatted before I left, so the time is lessened considerably). I should probably put together a list of things to do for the blog for the new year, but at the moment I can’t think of much. There’s always post more regularly, but I’m not sure I’d pull that one off even if it went on the list. What would other people like to see done around here?

So, I’ve been a little lazy lately with getting things posted. Rather than going home to Alaska, I went to Arizona over the holidays. It’s a very dry place, Arizona. Full of cactus and other desert plants, but the landscape has a desolate arid sort of beauty to it and I’ve been enjoying watching rabbits (also known as mobile coyote food) hop around the backyard. Still, a part of me missed the cold wet forest of my homeland. But I am back in Illinois, land of the corn now, and since I don’t go back to work for a few days, I have devoted myself to working on the blog and paper dolls.

I’m always looking for paper dollsPrintables 4 Kids is a pretty ad heavy site. I’m not a huge fan of most of these sloppily made ad heady websties aimed at children. I think they usually teach bad lessons about internet veracity (and there are plenty of good kids sites out there). But I’m a sucker for an interesting paper doll and this site has two I’ve found. First there is Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 Printable Paper Doll Activity which allows you to print and dress up a Chihuahua, which always seemed a little mean to the Chihuahua to me. Princess Kate Printable Paper Doll is also available, though I think you have to go to the Disney site to find it.

What and where are other people’s well loved paper dolls?

Today’s paper doll reminds me of Marlyn Monroe… a dark gothic Marlyin Monroe, I suppose. For those of you who want a far less gothic paper doll- something a little lighter, Lily & Thistle has this darling little girl printable paper doll with two dresses. There’s versions you can pay for as well, but the free version is enough for me.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday for this lovely time of the year. I’m visiting family, so things might be a little erratic around here. I’ve been thinking a lot about goals for next year for the blog- what I would like to improve and do better at and have more of. The list is long and expensive, but I have high hopes for things going well here in paper doll blog land.

If this were a dating game show, I would describe Mara as a charming young woman with a love of flowers and long walks through the woods. Since this isn’t a dating game show, as far as I know, I think I’ll just stick with saying that Mara is a one page paper doll with a wardrobe of nine pieces that can be mix and matched to make up 18 different combinations.

In case you’re wondering how I got to that number, the calculation looks like this:

((Number of Tops * Number of Bottoms)+ Number of Dresses)*Number of Shoes= Outfit Combinations

It gets a little more complicated if you add in jackets and other layering pieces, but usually it works out well and, of course, it doesn’t consider things like how well the pieces match with each other. Yes, I might be a little OCD to have come up with a formula for calculating paper doll wardrobe options. (Only sort of math I can really imagine doing…)

Later or tomorrow, there will be something fun and new for the first day of Hanukkah (a holiday no one likes to try to spell) which starts tonight at Sunset.