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Enchanted Elegance: A Fantasy Paper Doll

A printable medieval princess paper doll coloring page with two fantasy gowns and accessories. She has braided hair and two fantasy gowns, along with other accessories.
A printable medieval princess paper doll with two fantasy gowns and accessories. She has long blond hair and two fantasy gowns.

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I don’t know why this paper doll looks Russian to me. I have no explanation for that one, but something about the hair just screamed “slavic fairytale” to me. Once I decided that, than she needed to be blond, because if I was going to go slavic fairy tale, I might as well lean into all the stereotypes.

For some reason, and I don’t know why, I’ve found that working digitally means I am less drawn to doing fantasy as I was in pencil. Again, I’m not sure why. I suppose I’ll figure it out.

Actually, I’ve been frightfully unproductive over the last few weeks/months. I mean, I’ve been very productive, but not paper doll related. I’ve been working on a million other things. I have some work to get done for the convention and so that’ll get me motivated I hope.

Meanwhile I do have lots of thing “in-progress”, but I am struggling quite a lot to get those things over the finish line. We’ll see where it all ends up, I suppose.

A Purim Paper Doll for 2024!

A paper doll coloring page for purim kids activities!
A printable paper doll for purim kids activities!

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Today’s paper doll is a Purim themed paper doll. So, I historically have saved holiday paper dolls for the actual day of the holiday, which for Purim this year is March 24th. However, this year, I decided that if people were going to print these off and use them for any sort of Purim kids activities, posting them early made sense. So, I’m trying this out to see how it feels.

My niece loves purple. She inspired this color scheme. I had a much more sedate color scheme in mind and then I thought, “What would my niece like?”

And this where I ended up. A lot more bright and colorful than I tend to go under normal circumstances, but still a lot of fun.

I won’t recap the entire story of Esther here (because you can find that elsewhere). Our paper doll has most of the things I think you need to celebrate the holiday. There’s an Esther scroll. The Book of Esther is not in the Torah, so it is held on a separate scroll. There’s a grogger for making noise and a big plate of hamantaschen. Plus, an Esther costume for dressing up (which is traditional). Technically, you can dress up in any costume that suits you, but when I was kid the person everyone wanted to dress up as was Esther. So, there you go.

I’ll be dusting off my hamantaschen baking skills this week to make up some for work, because I love making them and the recipe I have from my grandmother makes a huge amount. Personally, I like poppy seed ones, but most people I know prefer apricot. I had such a hard time finding poppy seed filling last year, that I ordered extra from Amazon. It’s been quietly waiting since last year, so it’s time for it to get used.

Snowflake Sophistication: Winter Princess Paper Doll

A winter princess paper doll coloring page with two dresses and accessories.
A winter princess paper doll with two dresses and accessories.

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When I think of a winter princess paper doll, I think of elegance, but also quiet and soft colors. I like winter and I love bright colors, but this time of year where I live, everything feels muted. The mountains in the distance look pale blue and white and they seem to melt into the sky.

So, when designed a winter princess paper doll, I went for blues and soft purples and lots of layers.

I was inspired by this Winter Princess Dress from 2018. In my little paper doll world, “big gown” is my mental short hand for these 1860s inspired gowns that have bit skirts with lots of fancy layers. I realize that these gowns don’t have to be for princesses, but I watched a lot of Disney at an impressionable age and therefore I will always associate princesses with these big gowns.

In my head today’s winter princess gowns are the sort of thing a fairy tale princess might wear while wandering through a snow covered landscape. Possibly to meet a prince or possibly just because, she felt like it. Princes need not always be involved. 

In fact, princes never really were involved in my princess games as a child. They were not needed. Princess could do everything they needed to do.

So, I will admit that I had to get pretty close to the edge to fit on these big skirted princess dresses, but since the images I made had a .5 inch border, they should still print just fine onto letter sized paper. I would strongly recommend adding floating tabs to the backs of these skirts to help hold them to the doll.

What do you think? Do you love winter?

Imperial Elegance: An Hanfu and Kimono Inspired Fantasy Paper Doll

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This pair of fantasy gowns were heavily inspired by hanfu, which are traditional Chinese clothing, specifically those of the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). However, this has about as much in common with actual historical Chinese clothing as this paper doll has in common with actual historical English clothing. That’s to say- not a whole heck of a lot.

Rarely have I had a set that I have more trouble with coloring. This gave me fits! I initially planned on the two dresses coordinating, but then decided that seemed boring, so broke out and did two very different color schemes inspired by seasonal Japanese colors. (Yes, I know hanfu are Chinese, not Japanese, but again- this is fantasy clothing.)

In Japan, traditional kimonos are styled with seasonal color schemes. So, I tried to base these color schemes on traditional seasonal colors of Japan. One dress uses February colors, crimson and purple. The other dress uses March colors which are peach and khaki. The Kimono Lady, a defunct blog, has a really detailed write up about March colors here. I had a little more trouble finding references for February colors, but this yukata influenced the colors I chose.

I love color, but I find my own eye attracted to specific color schemes. It’s really valuable to see how different cultures combine colors. I never would have used purple and crimson together in the way that I did, but once I did it- I really loved how graphic it made the dress.

Astro Allure: An Alien in Blue

Black and white alien paper doll cut outs to color with a doll and 10 piece wardrobe.
Super fun alien paper doll cut outs with a doll and a mix and match wardrobe.

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Yes, it is another one of the alien paper dolls! This is the last of the alien paper doll cut outs I’ve got ready. I think for the moment I am over aliens, but I sure did have a lot of fun drawing them for a while.

When I was working on my alien paper dolls, I knew I wanted one to feel very feminine in her clothing. So, I designed a lot of baby doll style dresses for her. I was influenced a lot by this older paper doll, David Koma’s Winter 2014 Collection, and a dash of retro-futurism. So, an eclectic collection of influences there.

Beyond acknowledging the fun I had drawing all of these pieces, I want to emphasize how mix and match the whole little aliens series is. Some of these pieces would go great with Galaxy Glamour, Interstellar Seas, or Stardust Styles.

While today’s paper doll’s color scheme is very monochromatic, I actually went through a few different color schemes. So, there’s a second color scheme for today’s paper doll and I’ll share that one later this week for my Patrons (you can join us here).

Interstellar Seas: A Cute Alien Fashionista

One of my space creature paper dolls with a mix and match wardrobe. She has an ocean theme
One of my space creature paper doll printables with an ocean theme and a mix and match wardrobe of different clothing pieces.

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Today’s paper doll is a super cute alien with a sort of underwater theme. I mean, if I am going to draw space creature paper dolls, I think I should at least give them a fancy wardrove of mix and match clothing, right? Right. I mean, space creatures want to look cute, too.

I’m assuming that a desire to “look cute” comes with a sentience, which might be a pretty big assumption on my part. (Unrelated, but am I the only person who learned the term sentience from watching Star Trek as a kid?)

Other thoughts about today’s paper doll: One of her outfits was inspired by this outfit for Marisole Monday, also my sci-fi Pinterest fashion board always inspires these dolls. The color scheme was supposed to be “galaxy” meets “ocean”, but like… not convinced it works. When I was a teen, I really liked the character Oasis from Sluggy Freelance and that’s probably where my thing for multiple ponytails (pigtails?) came from.

I caught some sort of post-Thanksgiving bug which turned into bacteria pneumonia. So, then I ended up on a cocktail of antibiotics and all the side effects of those were super fun. Anyway, long story short- I am at like 80% capacity at the moment. However, I am looking at a week off work for the holidays (the Uni I work at closes) and therefore I am super psyched for this week to be over.

Going to draw lots, pet my cat, and maybe sew something. Super psyched to have a whole week off!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely holiday and enjoys this second little space alien paper doll. There will be two more I think… yeah, two more.

Hanukkah Paper Dolls: The Eighth Night

Hanukkah Paper Doll Templates with menorahs for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

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Happy eighth night of Hanukkah and our paper dolls have many menorahs to show off, all shining brightly.

I wanted to make it super easy to download these Hanukkah paper dolls, so I added a link to a full 8 page PDF of the whole set that you can grab.

Today, let’s talk about menorahs. A Hanukkah menorah, also known as a hanukkiah, is a special nine-branched candle holder. Out of the nine lights, eight represent the nights of the holiday. Every night, an additional light is lit compared to the previous one. By the last night, all eight branches are shining brightly.

The ninth light is called the shamash (“helper”), which is used in some traditions to light the other eight. The purpose of the shamash is to adhere to the prohibition, specified in the Talmud, against using the Hanukkah lights for anything other than showing and thinking about the Hanukkah miracle. So, the shamash is available to do the work of lighting the other lights and give light if needed.

Except in times when antisemitism is so high that it would be dangerous to do so, menorahs are typically placed in windows, visible from the street. I like to position mine where I can keep an eye on it and ensure my cat doesn’t get too close. She tends to get closer than I would like to candles.

If you have more questions about Hanukkah, Chabad has a handy Hanukkah FAQ.

I wanted to draw three different styles of menorah, because they can look like all sorts of different things. I like this dinosaur one, myself.

This is the end of this series for Hanukkah 2023! I’ve been wanting to do a Hanukkah series for years, so I am happy I finally buckled down and got it done.