Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Growing up in Southeast Alaska, the 4th of July was a really big deal. There was always a parade, multiple barbecues and fireworks. I have many fond memories of spending the holiday with family and friends and at least one bonfire.
So, I always try to make a paper doll for the 4th of July. For the last few years, that has been just shorts and a thematic t-shirt, but this year I wanted to do something different, so we have a patriotic evening gown.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Hmmm…. I drew this one super fast, so I’m not sure really where it came from. I didn’t want to do another pair of shorts and a t-shirt.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Occasionally, I just kinda want to draw a pretty dress. I mean, sometimes I like to draw complex things with nuance and stuff, but sometimes, I just want to draw a pretty dress. Years ago, I read an article about Oscar De La Renta (an amazing fashion designer) who when asked what he did, he said something like, I make pretty dresses.
And well, sometimes I want to draw pretty dresses. Nothing more, nothing less. Remember that I draw extra pretty dresses (and other things) for my Patrons.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll As I said above, I just kinda wanted a pretty dress. There’s something sort of 1980s fantasy princess happening here, I think, but I don’t recall a specific source of any kind.
Specific Source Images: Nothing that I remember.
Learn/See More On the Blog: More Jewels & Gemstones paper dolls Around the Internet: Hmmmm…. I’m not sure. If you want to see more pretty dresses, I do keep a board of Fantasy Clothing on Pinterest which is full of them.
Last Thoughts Clearly, this isn’t my most “complex” blog post. Sometimes I think a lot about what I create and sometimes I just draw. Not everything has a complex history.
I’d like to take a moment here to thank everyone who pledges on Patreon. You make this little corner of the web possible and I am very grateful to you all.
By the way, at the moment, there’s a lot going on with my world, so please know that while I love the blog and I love creating paper dolls, I’m keeping a lot of plates spinning at the moment.
I love drawing paper dolls for various holidays. So, here are all the 4th of July paper dolls I’ve created for the site. I wanted to post these early, so if you wanted to print some out for kids at a party or something, than you’d have time before the big events on the 4th.
4th of July Paper Dolls to Print
So, I am from Alaska, as a lot of you know, and in my home town the fireworks go off on midnight of the 3rd, because it doesn’t get dark until close to 11 pm. Some of my fondest childhood times were spent trying to stay up late enough to see the fireworks on the beach.
The 4th of July sneaked up on me this year, so we’ll see if I have time to get something draw for the Jewels and Gemstones to celebrate the holiday.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Confession, I have no idea who out of my usual crew- Julie of Paper Doll School, Melissa of Miss. Missy’s Paper Dolls and Boots of Popculture and Paper Dolls – have actually kept up with this collaboration. One of the rules from the beginning for me (a personal rule, not one I told anyone else) is that this project has always been about only one thing- having fun and I was never planning to enforce any sort of participation requirement on anyone.
So, I have no clue whose sharing something this month. I am entirely comfortable with that level of ignorance.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Technically, I drew these mermaids for May, but I didn’t get them finished. And I didn’t get anything drawn in June, so I thought- June’s theme is Beach. Mermaids live in the Ocean. What is the ocean, if not, a beach under water?
Specific Source Images: Um…. Nothing really. It’s Mermaids.
Last Thoughts I’ve been thinking a lot of lately about black and white vs color. I find I do draw differently if I am working on a piece that I know won’t be colored vs a piece I know will be colored. I think line work can be very powerful and I wish I had more time to experiment with it then I usually do.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll This is the 51st post in the Jewels and Gemstones series. Dames and Dandies got to 129 last year, but I have no idea if I will get Jewels and Gemstones to that many. Life is been extremely busy this year and it doesn’t look like it will be slowing down anytime soon. I’m still drawing and still very happy to be creating my paper dolls. I’m just not naive about how much time I have these days to devote to my paper doll related activities.
And I actually have an absurd about of stuff in “progress”, but I have been having trouble finishing anything. There’s some big skirted princess dresses, three paper dolls with cocktail dresses, a mermaid, and a whole set of ballet stuff that’s all in various states of “not quite done yet.”
But I digress.
Here is Diamond getting her shoe set. I try to do some of these sets of every paper doll, because skin-tone is visible on shoes and shoes are hard to cut out while omitting skin tone. Those white and black strappy sandals would be nigh impossible to cut out, so I do these sets to help increase the mix and match options for my paper dolls while also having a bunch of diverse paper doll skin-tones.
The Jewels and Gemstones series, for example, has 8 skin-tones at this point.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll I really have been seeing a lot of pastel tennis shoes lately. Plus, I try yo give every paper doll skintone a pair of super absurd strappy heels for fancy dresses. As a kid, I loved paper dolls with fancy dresses, so I try to channel that.
Specific Source Images: Nothing really this time!
Learn/See More On the Blog: More Jewels & Gemstones paper dolls & more armor designs in my Other Version of Diamond Around the Internet: Along with collecting fashion images, I also keep a Pinterest board devoted to hair. Diamond’s hair today is pretty straight forward, but I did want to mention it in case folks were curious.
Last Thoughts My hair goes down to my waist and I have to say, I love how it looks, but occasionally I get really annoyed at it. Mostly when it gets caught in like a car door or my cat attacks it.
Don’t forget that if you want this paper doll to actually wear clothing, you’ll need to cut along between her hair and shoulders, also by her side. There’s dots indicating that, but I like to remind folks in case they don’t notice.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll You spend anytime watching fashion, as I do, and you pretty quickly see that sleeves are the THING at the moment. Sleeve details are everywhere. Personally, I think a lot of them are pretty fun- also a lot of them are pretty absurd.
Anyway, today’s post is, like the ruffled tunic, the preppy summer polka-dots (patron exclusive) and the tropical mini-dresses one I designed after looking at a lot of summer fashion magazines and wanting to make sure the Jewels and Gemstones got some fun summer fashions.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll As with the other paper doll outfits I’ve made in this summery collection. I based the colors off the Pantone 2019 Spring Color trend report. It predicted the coral would be the color of the season, so I wanted to make sure I used that color.
Specific Source Images: I used Instyle March 2019 issue– their big Spring Fashion report. Sometimes it is super nice to get away from screens, you know?
Last Thoughts It’s been a super hot summer here in Alabama. I am not a heat person. I hate the heat. I grew up in Alaska. I am a cold weather soul. You can dress for the cold weather. At some point, you can’t take off more clothing (and not get arrested.)
By the way, while I am not prioritizing keeping blog posts regular (too much in my life), I am making sure I get my weekly Patreon Paper doll up, so head over there to join and see those.
Secretly, I think of this set as paper doll knights, the practical armor edition. Because I also have a love of super impractical armor and I suspect someday I’ll have to gather those up too for a collection.
10 Knight Paper Dolls
It always fascinates me to see all of one style of paper doll in one place, especially when the dates range from the early part of the blog’s life back in 2014 with Rebecca Grace to something I created just a few month my Noble Knight set.
And, since it is Friday, I thought I would remind folks that there’s a Friday paper doll on Patreon every week. Just 2 dollars a month gets you access.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll I really love how clothing changes with the seasons. Maybe, because I grew up in Alaska where there were really only two seasons- rain and icy rain. But then I moved to the midwest and there were four seasons and I was quite happy to discover fall and spring.
Now I live in the South where, I confess, there really are once again two seasons- chilly and so hot you want to die. There’s a short period between these that is relatively pleasant, but this spring has been brutally hot.
So, I try to pick up the big fashion magazine issues in March and September, which tend to be thick with forecasts on what is coming down the pike in the fashion world. Not coincidentally, this lines up with Fashion Week in New York.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll The color comes from the Pantone 2019 Spring Color trend report which predicts the popular colors each year in home goods and fashion. One of the trends that is very popular at the moment is ruffles, so that was part of my inspiration here. I added in some shorts and white peddle pushers, because I was also thinking about paper doll wardrobe building and those are such great basic pieces.
Specific Source Images: I used Instyle March 2019 issue– their big Spring Fashion report. Often when I draw, I like to get away from screens.
Last Thoughts I have fun drawing all sorts of things, but I try to mix it up. I know my favorite paper dolls as a child were historical or fantasy, but I like drawing contemporary fashion. It feels real and meaningful for paper dolls to be reflective of their time-period. Plus, not all my readers are me.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll I’ve been a on regency romance novel reading kick. I just finished the whole Pennyroyal Green Series which was okay. I confess that when it comes to my regency romance novels (or historical romances in general), I really only expect one out of five to be really good. Two out of five usually fail the 50 page test. (This is, for the record, where I read 50 pages and if I don’t want to continue I stop reading.)
It’s just that there are so many regency (and historical, I’m flexible on time period) romances in the world that I don’t see any reason to waste my time with ones that don’t engage me.
Anyway, since I have been enjoying this particularly fluffy genre, I remembered I had one regency dress I made a while ago that I hadn’t yet gotten around to sharing.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll So, the red dress is round gown. This was a style that was popular in the every early part of the 19th century and really evolved pretty directly out of the Chemise A La Rein . A lot of round gowns have trains, but not all. Most have very high waistlines and rounded out skirts. The style sticks around until about 1810 or so when it is replaced by more structured garments. Making things a bit more confusing is the fact that the round gown can refer to 18th century styles that fastened in the front. So, this make the terminology a bit of a nightmare.
Generally, though not always, you can sort of get a sense of the era of a garment in this period by how high the waistline is. The higher the waist- the earlier the gown. But fashion trends moved a bit more slowly than they do today and, like today, a lot of people wore what they liked even if it was a year or two out of date. After all, not everyone wears skinny jeans now.
When I was picking source images for this collection, I wanted to stay before 1810, though I wasn’t super picky about year.
Last Thoughts While I don’t really know if I have favorite periods of fashion history, I do have periods I seem to go back to more than other periods. I think part of why I like the regency era is that there were so many amazing fashion magazines of the time that make it really fun (and fairly easy) to get a good idea of what was in style.
It occurs to me that some might have missed all of the Jewels and Gemstones Regency paper dolls thus far, so here they all are. There’s also a Dinner Dress and a Morning Dress for my Patrons. If you enjoy the blog than consider becoming a patron, there’s an extra paper doll dress for my Patrons on Fridays.
The Jewels & Gemstones Regency Dress Thus Far
As usual, comments are always delightful and I’d love to hear what you think about today’s regency paper doll dress. Is there an era of fashion you really love?
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll I know you’re not supposed to have favorites among your children and I probably shouldn’t have favorites among my paper dolls, but I did sort of save my favorite Space Princess Gown for last. Sure, I love them all, but today’s gown is my favorite.
I don’t know if my Patrons would agree, but I am a sucker for the high-waist and the reflective bodice which, in my head, is armored.
While I never thought Space Princesses would win the poll I gave my Patrons, I am sort of over joyed the theme won, because it has been so much fun to draw these over the top outfits.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll As some of you may recall, my affection for Space Princesses dates back to this card. My grandmother sent it to me when I was a kid and ever since, I’ve had a thing for Space Princesses. I don’t know what a space princess is… but it sure is a good excuse to draw futuristic fantasy gowns and who doesn’t want an excuse to do that?
I chose Jade as the model for the Space Princess, because there has one been one Jade paper doll on the blog so far and it was very nice and very modern and I thought… clearly, she needs a super absurd hairstyle and fantasy gown. After all, doesn’t everyone?
Last Thoughts I have one more big piece of travel in June and then hopefully things will quiet down for a little bit. Or not. I keep thinking… soon I’ll have more paper doll time, but paper doll time has been in short supply. I am drawing a lot, but I’m not finishing much. Follow me on Instagram if you want to see my progress on the #100dayproject where I’m drawing #100daysofpaperdolls along with some other amazing artists.
There was an extra Space Princess outfit for my Patrons (join us if you like), but this is the last Space Princess piece for the moment. Maybe I’ll draw more later.
Should I draw more Space Princess content? Let me know in a comment. I love to hear from y’all.
