Announcements

New Featured Paper Doll Artist: Irma of Papernukublogi

I am so pleased to announce that there is a new Featured Artist page up. This time I got the pleasure of interviewing Irma of Papernukublogi. Irma’s blog is bilingual in Estonian and English, which I find completely impressive. Her paper dolls are usually black and white with a wonderful simplicity and almost a folk art quality.
Emilia by Irma. Posted with Permission.There is something very charming about all of her paper dolls. I am consistently impressed by her creativity and variety of her art from 1940’s vintage ladies to some darling children. Irma shares with me a love of crisp line work and the possibilities of black and white paper dolls.

Irma is an art student, who has also studied music. She kindly also provided a beautiful black and white paper doll name Anka to print and color after her interview. I couldn’t be more happy that Irma was gracious enough to allow me to feature her here (even if it is two days later than I had originally hoped.)

So, go read interview with Irma and get the printable paper doll that she was kind enough to create.

The Contest Entries and The Winner of a Custom Paper Doll Is….

Before I announce the winner, I wanted to list all the contest entries, so everyone could read the wonderful ideas proposed by my readers.

Drawing Entries

  1. I would love to see a vintage wedding dress paper doll. Perhaps a dress to represent each era, especially the 1920s and 1950s. She could also have some different bouquets, hairstyles/veils, and retro shoes.
  2. I would like to see something different i want to see a heather all dainty with makeup and her done in a French knot and her clothes must be all frilly and of course must be dry cleaned. she drives a fancy red mustang. she is something like your fashion=girl=
  3. Something Laura Ingalls Wilder-esque. Or, one with my daughter’s sense of style, 5 years old–short florescent yellow skirt, snake-skinned cowboy boots, pink shirt with paisleys. Seriously, I don’t know where she gets her fashion ideas from.
  4. I think I would want an ancient Greek paper doll with togas and things. Something like the Greek Chic paper doll, but historically correct, if you know what I mean.
  5. I’m all about jackets, so I’d suggest a set where the jackets are the show pieces and their are only a few other basic items. Leather, moto, tweed, sleeveless (also called vests), buckled, zipped, snapped, cropped, tailed, etc.
  6. A poodle skirt doll with red hair, blue eyes and tan skin. the poodle skirt is blue with a white poodle. Marisole style doll
  7. A female greaser or native American marisole doll. A military Flock doll with an outfit for each branch, maybe with Oriole?
  8. I would want a Hobbit paper doll. WITH FUZZY FEET AND CURLY HAIR!!!
  9. I’d want a doll to represent the 70th anniversary of D-day; complete with full army dress uniform, a civillian suit of clothes. He’d be in the tenth armored division with black hair, a striking set of blue eyes, tall, and little skinny
  10. i think a robin hood or knights templar themed marisole would be awesome. maybe throw in a nice dress for court events.
  11. “purple skinned mermaid action hero who fights with a scythe” yes! oh wait…. i’m still hankering for an Atzec fantasy (lots of jaguar and quetzal feathers)! : D
  12. I would also like an Aztec Marisole, or a red-haired Marisole, with her hair down to her knees in a french side braid with roller skating clothes, an ipod with headphones, and a dress with split sleeves.
  13. Rachel, I am giving you a challenge! I want an autism acceptance Marisole doll. (not awareness anymore–thanks to Sandy Hook, we are too aware) Here’s your challenge: -no puzzle pieces -ditch the ribbon -tone down the blue I hope you can do it. If you can’t, i’ll think of something
  14. Storm cleanup Marisole – someone who has all the things they need to clean up after a natural disaster. I realize the Tyvek suit won’t be too cool, but I like the idea of a paper doll willing to get dirty to help someone.
  15. I would like to enter. I’d want a Flock inspired by the fairytale Twelve Dancing Princesses which was one of my favorites when I was a child. (Via Email)
  16. I’d like to enter. If I win I’d like a dark skinned, ’70s-inspired paper doll, with huge Afro, hoop earrings and ’70s style clothing — bell-bottom pants, mini and maxi length dress or skirt, halter top in paisley, ’70s flair all the way.
  17. I would like for you to do a summer themed Marisole with some flowey, floral print sundresses and cute skirts and things like that.
  18. A Pin up doll that looks like Joan from Madmen mixed with a Lumberjack lady
  19. If I had to pick anything I would pick a doll based on Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Little House On The Prairie series. so the long brown plaits, white lace dresses, and maybe a raincoat to go with it. thanks 😉
  20. think that two paper dolls that are twins would be an awesome thing to have. I think that it would be cool to have the twins have opposite styles. Maybe one could have a rough and tumble style while the other is a cute type.
  21. I would love to see some of the Shadow & Light outfits for the Marisole’s. I would really like to see the more steampunk looking ones.
  22. I would love to see Marisole with clothing inspired by 1,001 Arabian Nights!
  23. I would love to see a Steampunk version of Amelia Bloomer’s Bloomer Costume. Just because it’s Steampunk doesn’t mean that you must have a bustle!
  24. I would love to see a Flock based on the Princess and the Pea, solely for my love of nightclothes.Or a a 1980s Marisol (or Mia, specifically).
  25. I’d like to see a historical doll, maybe from the Tudors with underwear and a few dresses. Thanks. (Via Email)
  26. Black and white, so I can color her myself, with nice firm dark lines to make bucket fills easier. I’m torn. I love the pixies, but marisols tend to have more clothes….A modern suburban homesteader. Gardening tools, chickens, blue jeans and boots and t-shirts with green slogans on them. Style taken from L.L. Bean with a generous admixture of thrift store finds. And she needs a buffalo plaid flannel shirt and a denim jacket and good old classic Birkenstocks with fleece socks, and of course glasses, preferably with short wavy hair (if there’s a colored version, the hair should be at least half grey).
  27. Would love to see a western/cowgirl themed Marisol & Friends. With denim skirt & pants, western boots, gingham, bandana print, western hat, etc. Or maybe a Cowgirl and Indian theme, so they could be either.
  28. I think I doll based on one of the major fashion icons would be a lot of fun to play with, and to draw! Isabella Blow, Diana Vreeland, Frida Kahlo, Catherine Baba, Iris Apfel – they all had/have such unique, wonderfully bold senses of style and there’s plenty of reference material to draw from. Imagine all the hats, and just the sheer abundance of colour and accessories – you could go nuts with it! 😀

Thank you to everyone who entered. I really enjoyed reading the entries. The Winner, selecting using Random.Org is number 24. Congratulations Lina! Lina has her own blog which you should check out as well.

New Contest For a Free Custom Paper Doll Open Until Midnight June 18th 2014

contest-june-2014

I am pleased to announce a new contest or more accurately a drawing, since the winner, as usual, will be decided randomly. The drawing is open until June 18th at Midnight and the winner will be announced on Friday June 20th. This gives me a day to get the actual number selection done.

How to Enter:

Put a comment in below (or feel free to email me, if you prefer at paperthinpersonas@gmail.com) with a one or two sentence description of the custom paper doll you would want if your won the drawing. By the way, there is no obligation that the submission actually be the custom paper doll you ask for if you win. So, if your submission is a purple skinned mermaid action hero who fights with a scythe, but two weeks later you decide that what you really wanted was an orange tabby cat-girl ninja with three heads, then that can be changed.

Contest Rules:

1. You can only win one contest a year.
2. I will email the winner at their email address attached to the comment to notify them of winning. If I do not hear back from the winner within a week, I will use a random number generator to select the next winner. Your email address MUST be functional for you to win.
3. The winner will receive a one page custom paper doll based on one of my paper doll series within a month of the end of the contest. Sometimes life gets in the way of this goal, but I will email the winner if that is the case and we can make other arrangements. (A few of the previous prize custom paper dolls include Dark and Steamy, Kadeem and Gabriel Ready for Dates, Marisole Monday visits the 10th Century, Sewing the Seventies and Elven Maiden)
4. You may only enter the contest once. Entering more than once, will disqualify you.

Announcing the Winner:

On June 20th, I will list in a post every entry with a number. This allows everyone to read the submissions, even those which are emailed to me and will announce the winner via a random number generator.

Lastly, it is entirely possible if I really like any of the ideas suggested that they will show up on this blog at some point, but no promises. Have fun. I can’t wait to read the entries. 🙂

The contest is now closed. Thank you to eveyone who entered. The winner will be announced on the 20th of June. 🙂

Hiatus Until June 1 2014

hiatus-2014

I was hoping beyond hope that I would not have to put the blog on Hiatus at all this year, but that just isn’t going to happen, sadly.

A lot of things are happening at the end of May, so I’ve decided to place Paper Thin Personas on hiatus until June 1, 2014 when I will return with a bang I hope… including a contest and hopefully a new featured paper doll artist. So, high hopes for tall of those things.

I will be checking my email and you can still contact me there if you need too. In the meantime, feel free to look around and enjoy the paper dolls.

See you all when I return in June. It should be a fun ride from there. 🙂

An Interview with my Featured Paper Doll Artist of the Month: Liana of Liana’s Paper Doll Blog

Paper doll gown by Liana of Liana's Paper Doll Blog. Posted with Permission. This month I was so pleased to be able to interview Liana of Liana’s Paper Doll Blog. I fell in love with Liana’s Paper Doll Blog back when she was posting Anna in 2004 (There’s a wonderful retrospective on her site) which was my first year of college and I remember reading it while sitting in my dorm room and feeling pleased that someone else actually liked paper dolls other than me.

Many years later, after college, I followed Sylvia and Iris while I was working at the State Library of Alaska. I checked the site every day at lunch. I watched her site and I thought, “I could do this. I could make a paper doll blog.”

In a very real way, Paper Thin Personas would have never existed without Liana’s Paper Doll Blog. I owe her so much.

So, I was excited and elated when she agreed to let me interview her for this month’s Featured Artist. Go read her interview and check out her amazing site.

Announcement: Email Subscription

announcement_2For those of you who have signed up for email notices when the site updates, that system not currently working.

Something has gone wrong with the email plugin I was using. I am working on fixing it, but in the mean time, I have removed the sign up form until I can get it figured out. It also has deleted everyone’s email that was on the list.

So… this kinda sucks. I’ll let people know when I have figured out either a new system or fixed the old system.

Until then, there is no email subscription for the site. Instead, you can sign up for the RSS feed if you wish, or just check back. As always, I update about three times a week.

Thanks for your patience guys. Any questions? Feel free to ask.

Best,

– Rachel

An Interview with my Featured Paper Doll Artist of the Month: Boots of 19th Century Paper Dolls and Comic Book Chronicles

Paper doll by Boots. Posted with permission. I interviewed Boots of Comic Book Chronicles and 19th Century Paper Dolls for my Featured Artist of March 2014.

Many years ago when I started this blog, I started in part because of two wonderful paper doll blogs that existed at the time. One was Liana’s Paper Doll Blog and the other was Boot’s 19th Century Paper Dolls. Since then, I am pleased to have come to think of Boots as not just a paper doll artist whose work I deeply admire, but also a friend.

Boots’ paper dolls are wonderful, wether historically accurate or comic book inspired. Her work has a realism that I deeply admire and she uses pen and ink, markers and paints with equal skill to create vibrant and beautiful paper doll sets. Along with her serious work, there is a delifhtful playfulness to Boots paper dolls. Judy, her seriocomic paper doll or Batman and Robin from the Bronze Age of comic books. I see in Boot’s wonderfully rendered figures a depth of character. I never doubt that each of her paper dolls has a history or comes from a place where if I asked about each costume, there would be a story behind it.

Check out my Featured Artist Page for a free printable paper doll by Boots and a fascinating interview.

An Interview with my Featured Paper Doll Artist of the Month: Toria of the Paper Closet

Vet paper doll by Toria of Paper Closet. Posted with permission. I am totally excited about my new Featured Artist Page. One of my goals for the new year has been to feature other artists I think draw beautiful paper dolls and this my first-
Toria of A Paper Closet.

Toria, was kind enough to be interviewed as my inaugural artist of the month. I adore Toria’s work and
her blog is beautifully designed and consistently updated. Her paper dolls are fabulous.

Read Toria’s interview and download a free, unique, printable paper doll set featuring a man (I know… people who aren’t me draw them) and women with beautiful historical costumes over on my Featured Artist Page.

And the Contest/Drawing Winner Is…

Originally, I was going to have just one winner, but then I took a good long look at the wonderful and constructive comments I got from my readers and I’ve decided that I should do more than that.

So, I decided to have two winners of my drawing. This does mean that it might take a little longer for their winning paper dolls to be finished.

Congratulations to Gwendolyn and Jo– my winners. Jo emailed me directly, so her comment does not appear on the site.

If I don’t here back from my emails to them (which I will send in the morning when I am a wee bit more coherent) in a week, there will be a second drawing for a new Winner.

In case anyone is interested, what I did to find a winner was number all the comments and emails in chronological order, ignoring places where people posted more than once. I ended up with 23 entrants, including three people who chose to email me rather than post a comment on the blog. Because I placed those three entrants into my chronological list where their emails would have fallen if they had been comments, the numbers don’t line up with the comments perfectly.

Number 19, which was Gwendolyn, and number 23, which was Jo, according to my list, were the number produced by Random.Org at 12:03 and 12:05 tonight.

On that note, I am crawling into bed which is what rational people do after midnight. Seriously, next time I do a drawing, I’m going to schedule the end at like 3pm in the afternoon when sane people end these things.


This poll is no longer accepting votes

What kind of thing would you like to see on Patreon from me?
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I’m trying out a new polling code thing. We’ll see if I like it long term.

January! Time for My Usual Poll…

Every January for the last few years, I have posted the same poll. I’ve asked readers to tell me what they want to see on Paper Thin Personas. I usually make a list of a few different things I think I’d like to do and I let people tell me what they want.

This time things are going to be a little different.

This time I’m asking for a tiny bit more involvement. If you want to vote in the usual annual poll, it’s over on the sidebar and will be there for the next two weeks and I encourage everyone to do it. I really do pay attention to the results. Heck, that’s how the Poppets and the Pucks and my poorly drawn male companion to Marisole happened (he’s getting a reboot… someday).

BUT… if you want to possibly win a custom paper doll AND get some input on what you’d like to see… than post a comment as well (or email me if you’re concerned about privacy) and answer two of the following three questions:

    A. What would you like to see on PTP in the next year? (This can be anything. More contests, a paper doll of a librarian, or tutorials or something that’s on my poll)
    B. What brings you to PTP? (I get most of us come for the paper dolls. Some of us come because they know me (Hi Mom & Dad), but what draws you in and what makes you return or not return?)
    C. What do you dislike most about PTP? (Please be honest. You don’t hurt my feelings. I promise. Do my spelling errors bother you? (Hi Dad) Do the sometimes broken links really get on your nerves? Do you wish you could just find every black and white Marisole Monday paper doll easily?)

If you answer one of my questions (either here or through email) then you will be entered in the drawing. If you won a contest last year, it’s a new year, so you can still win this one. The drawing/contest is going to be open until Wednesday the 15th of January.

Otherwise, my usual contest rules apply (see the FAQ) and the prize is a custom drawn paper doll from any of my series. I will contact the winner via the email entered in the comment form, so make sure that email actually works. If I don’t hear from my winners in a week after the email is sent, I’ll draw another name.

By the way, this is my 499th post. Next one is going to be 500. Maybe I’ll do something special.

Edit: Congratulations to Gwendolyn and Jo winners of my drawing. The contest is officially closed, however, feel free to continue telling me what you think you want. 🙂