Magnetic Paper Dolls Using Adhesive Magnets
Magnetic Paper Dolls Using Printable Magnetic Sheets
Printable Magnetic Marisole Paper Dolls & Clothes
Printable Magnetic Flock Paper Dolls & Clothes
After a fair bit of experimentation, I found there are two ways to make magnetic paper dolls. One uses adhesive backed magnetic sheets available from craft stores (I got mine from Micheals), the other uses printable magnetic sheets (I got mine from Staples).
Personally, I liked the printable magnetic sheets better (once I figured out how to convince my ancient printed to print on them without jamming). However, if you don’t want all 24 dolls and over 200 clothing items, then you might want to print the dolls on paper and then cut out the pieces you want and apply them to the adhesive magnets. It allows you to be a little more picky about what you make.
Magnetic Paper Dolls Using Printable Magnetic Sheets
- Supplies:
- Printable Magnetic Sheets
- PDF’s to print of Paper dolls (Here)
- Metal Tin (to hold the paper dolls)
- Scissors
Directions:
Put the magnetic sheets, one at a time, in your printer. I found it worked better if I put a few sheets of paper underneath them to convince my printer it didn’t need more paper.
Print the paper dolls onto the magnetic sheets. The ink might take a few minutes to dry completely, so handle the sheets with care.
Carefully cut the excess from around the paper doll piece. I think leaving a slight border of black looks best (except around the tops of shoes where skin is visible, there I cut down so the skin of the foot would meet the skin of the paper doll without there being a line).
Repeat for each piece. I tossed mine in a metal tin as I finished cutting them out so that they wouldn’t get lost in the couch cushions.
Magnetic Paper Dolls Using Adhesive Magnets
- Supplies:
- Paper for Printer (I used non-gloss photo paper)
- PDF’s to print of Paper dolls (Here)
- Adhesive Backed Magnetic Sheets
- Metal Tin (to hold the paper dolls)
- Scissors
Directions:
Print out the paper doll on heavy weight paper (I used non-gloss photo-paper), using whatever settings your printer recommends. In order to match skin tones, it’s best to use the same settings on all the sheets of paper dolls and their clothing.
Begin by rough cutting around the paper doll (or dress, or accessory or whatever), cut close to the piece but not actually as precise as you plan on cutting it.
Cut a piece of magnet the same size as the rough cut paper doll piece leaving the backing in place.
Remove the backing and stick the paper doll piece to the magnet. Work from edge to edge to avoid wrinkles. I also found smoothing with the back of a spoon was helpful.
Carefully cut the excess from around the paper doll piece. I think leaving a slight border of black looks best (except around the tops of shoes where skin is visible, there I cut down so the skin of the foot would meet the skin of the paper doll without there being a line).
Repeat for each piece. I tossed mine in a metal tin as I finished cutting them out, so that they wouldn’t get lost in the couch cushions.
Hint: You might want to unroll your magnetic sheet the night before and lay it flat on a cookie sheet or your refrigerator so it can flatten out. I found this made cutting the pieces a lot simpler.
Printable Magnetic Marisole Paper Dolls & Clothes
In what I think of the as the “classroom set”, this collection of paper dolls is designed to be printed and then attached to magnets. In total, the set of Marisole magnetic paper dolls includes 24 paper dolls in six skin tones along with over two-hundred different clothing pieces ranging from jeans to a mermaid tail. Hopefully enough to keep a group of children occupied for a little while at least.
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| Download PDF | Download PDF | Download PDF |
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| Download PDF | Download PDF | Download PDF |
Flock Paper Dolls & Clothes
I designed these paper dolls to be my first set of purely magnetic printable paper dolls. This paper doll set is structured so that each paper doll’s shoes (the only thing they can’t exchange among each other) is on the same sheet as the doll, so each doll can be printed by themselves, rather than having to print out the entire set.
The Flock Magnetic Mermaid Paper Doll Set
Our first Flock set consists of six dolls, six pairs of shoes, There is also a set of tails and a set of dresses for when the mermaids are on land and not in the ocean.
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| Dove PDF Download | Oriole PDF Download | Phoebe PDF Download |
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| Robin PDF Download | Starling PDF Download | Wren PDF Download |
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| Dresses PDF Download | Tails PDF Download |
Thank you.
These are awesome! I like the magnetic dolls for my little girl because she can manage them better.
Thank you Ticia, I hope your girl likes them.
Hi, great dolls and clothes. I’m having trouble downloading doll sets 3, 5 and 6 when I try to download doll set 4 downloads?
Hello, mb. Assuming I correctly understand the problem, it should be fixed now. A small typo on my part, caused a world of issues.
Just a thought… being a librarian myself and working with children also, how about covering the exposed side with contact paper? It seems like it would make them much more durable…
Contact paper is a pretty good idea that I hadn’t even thought of, Toni. Not having tried it, I can’t speak to its usefulness for this project.
Great idea!
OMG, I didn’t realize you had so many dolls and so many clothes for them!!!
Thanks for the tutorial on how to make magnetic paper dolls!
EJ
thank you
I used to see these when I was little! I think I’ll try with some of my dolls too. This is a great idea, and I like how you used them on a metal tin. Did you just print on a regular setting, or did you use a photo paper setting?
Janani- the printer paper should have directions on what settings to use for your printer.
Wow! I had made a set of magnetic paper dolls for my little girl about a month ago, using your Marisole dolls. They have been a hit. I used contact paper to make them a little more durable. I printed some on printable magnetic paper, and did some on paper and just stuck some adhesive magnetic strip bits on the back. I liked the magnetic printer paper best, but it’s a bit expensive to do loads of magnetic dolls. Anyway, I love that you have put up these paper dolls just for making magnetic dolls, I think I will be printing out more sets of clothing for the dolls we made!! Thank you!
Lydia, great minds think alike, but before you print out more clothing for the dolls you have already made, I strongly recommend printing out a test sheet on fast draft to make sure they will fit. The resolution was lowered for these PDF’s to save ink and they might not print the same size as your other paper dolls.
holy cow this is cool. i don’t have a printer to do this, but maybe i can convince Kinkos to do the printing for me if i buy the sheets. i want some!
: D
Holy cow! I just found you through the “etsy 101 pretty printables” link up and you can’t imagine how happy I am… I now have a little girl of my own and you bet she will be getting a huge set of those.
Thank you for your work and for putting me in a happy state
You’re amazing! I’m so impressed with your art (really like your doodle dolls),
but overall with your generosity. A great example. Thank you!
Thank you Luseea and Renata, I am so glad you like the paper dolls- magnetic or otherwise. Enjoy them. I hope to be updating this page with a few more pages of clothing soon.
do the magnest make the clothes stick to the dolls and are marisol paperdolls able to be magnetic
Yes. Printing the dolls on magnetic paper will allow the clothing to stick to the doll if you have them on a magnetic surface like a white board.
Thank you sooooo much!!! These are wonderful!