Jewels & Gemstones: Floral Elves Paper Dolls

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Well, when I decided to shift to this newsletter and monthly update schedule, I did not consider the downsides. The biggest one being that it’s much harder for me to step away as might be needed from time to time. I need to think on that, but I am enjoying the newsletter most of the time.

This month has just been very busy with non-paper doll related tasks. The statewide library conference was in-person for the first time in years, so I went to that. And I have two more library related conferences I’m attending this year. Plus, I’ve been working on a side project that isn’t quite ready for prime time (soon it will be and I couldn’t be more excited). And I’ve been prepping things to become prints for the paper doll party in May. Any leftovers from the party, I plan to offer for sale on Etsy, so maybe that’ll be an interesting change of pace.

Anyway, about this paper doll set- I admit that I started on these paper dolls largely, because I wanted to work with an old Marisole Monday set- Fabulous Fairy that I’ve always had a fondness for. Originally, I had planned on drawing wings, but actually ended up running out of paper in a sketchbook and not having a back up one. Opps. I really didn’t want to deal with paper I didn’t like. So, needless to say, the wings never happened.

Influences were largely flowers and the fact that I like gardens. I’m not much of a gardener, though I keep thinking I should take it up. I rent, so I don’t really know if tearing up the yard would be okay. I do keep herbs on my porch when spring comes and I like flowers. Flowers are pretty, useful to insects, and smell nice. It’s hard to be opposed to them, really. Plus, you can eat some of them.

The other big influence over this drawing fantasy hair which I don’t get to do nearly as much as I’d like. I love complicated hairstyles. You can check out some of my influences on my fantasy section of my Hair pinterest board.

If you’re a patron, there will be a Vivian gown sometime next week (exact date depending on how life shapes up) and we’ll continue on from there.

Regency Autumn Fantasy

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One of my favorite things is taking a historical silhouette and just playing with it. It’s pretty much just a chance to draw pretty dresses for paper dolls. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing variety (like this Cybergoth Set), but I think anyone whose a regular here knows my first loves are the fantasy and historical stuff.

The fantasy stuff is easier than the historical stuff, because there’s no research involved. I simply am unable to call something historical if I haven’t actually done some research to back up that claim. And sometimes, I just don’t wanna do research.

Despite the research free nature of these dresses, they are based on Regency Era styles. In my head, the dress on the left with the yellow skirt is a ballgown, because it is the lowest cut and fanciest. The dresses on the left are a dinner dress (the blue one) and day dress (the one with the vest).

If you want some actual regency dresses, rather than these regency fantasy dresses, I recommend my Regency tag and as I was working on this post, I realized I do have other regency fantasy dresses- enough that maybe I should make a tag for that too, so I did.

I now have a regency inspired tag for all my non-historical forays into this silhouette, including my regencycore modern stuff which I think I’m going to draw more of. I really enjoy drawing romantic dresses. And yes, I am eagerly waiting for season 3 of Bridgerton.

Meanwhile, this is Newsletter week, so if you haven’t, sign up and get an extra paper doll coloring page in your inbox every two weeks.

Witchtober Continues: 18th Century & Winter

Download the 18th Century Page PDF to Print | Download the Winter Page PDF to Print | The Rest of This Project

If there was one thing I knew from the beginning of this whole Witchtober adventure, it was that my 18th century gown was going to be big. When Julie and I picked out our 8 themes from this list by Juan Joltaire of witch themes, I immediately loved the idea of an 18th century witch.

First off, it has been a while since I drew anything 18th century inspired. Secondly, my love of giant paper doll dresses is well documented on this blog. And is there a better century for giant paper doll dresses than the 18th century? I think not.

For me, nothing in Western Fashion can beat the 18th century for pure over the top glorious absurdity in dresses like this one or this one. There will forever be a soft place in my heart for eras when things are just more is more and that is where the 18th century lives (also, the 1830s, because what even is this?).

Once I decided I was going to go big on the 18th century design, I had a technical problem. I knew that dress was going to fill the whole page. So, when it came time to design the Winter costume, which was the other theme for this week, I knew I needed to at least try to make something that could hold its own against the 18th century spider-queen delight I’d just drawn. After all, a little shift dress was not going to stand up.

So, I went with a sort of coat/top-thing with a bit of a train. For my Winter costume, I wanted something that would feel actually warm, but also I realized none of my outfits were trousers. Since that seemed a pity, I decided at least one of them should get trousers. There’s a little 1890s/1900s in this one with those sleeves and the cut of the bodice. Boots and a fur trimmed hat complete the outfit.

You can, of course, check out Julie’s takes on these two themes over on her blog. They’re great! I especially like like the hat to go with the 18th century gown.

Sapphire as Gallant Lady

A black and white printable paper doll with curls and medieval fantasy dresses.
A black printable paper doll with fantasy dresses

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So, occasionally, I have a reason to dig into my own archives, which is always a kind of weird experience. Seeing art I made like 10 years ago feels… strange. Anyway, I was looking for something else and I came across Knights and Ladies for Marisole Monday from 2011. It was a paper doll printable that I made way back in the early days of site which, at the time, was only 2 years old.

Man, I was back in Library School then. Wow, it’s weird to think about that era of my life.

A medieval inspired printable paper doll from Paper Thin Personas.
The Original Knights and Ladies Paper Doll

Anyhow, this was a paper doll I have very distinct memories of. I drew her in the library while I was in grad school and I was stuck between classes and I didn’t want to leave campus. I based the sleeves on some 19th century fashion drawings I’d been skimming through.

I saw it and I thought, man… I could do so much better now.

There’s things about the original Knights and Ladies that I found super compelling. I liked the hair and I was interested in the belts.

So, I decided to would draw the paper doll printable design once more for the Jewels and Gemstones series. This time I tried to think about how the belts would actually “function” if they were made of leather. I added some new details to the dresses and I fixed the skirts- before they clung way to much to the doll’s legs and I wanted more pooling. Though I debated recoloring the dresses, I decided against it. I thought I’d stick with my original color scheme.

I did go with a lighter hair color, because I wanted to keep the doll’s hair brown and I wanted a nice contrast with the skin-tone. I also was pretty sure that the original crown wouldn’t work very well on the doll, so I redesigned it to have the doll’s hair integrated.

All in all, I am very happy with how the new version of the Knights and Ladies came out. I don’t know how often I’ll do this, but it was a fun diversion.

What do you think of this paper doll? Let me know in a comment. I love hearing from y’all.

Welcome to Witchober: A Paper Doll Project with Julie Matthews!

A witch Halloween coloring page printable paper doll with one dress and accessories.

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It seems obvious to me that there’s no better holiday for paper dolls than Halloween. So, I am happy to share this Halloween coloring page featuring the first of what will be a month of paper dolls featuring this stylish witch and her stylish wardrobe.

I was super psyched in my planning for the month of October when Julie of Paper Doll School reached out and suggested we go back to our paper dolling roots and do some sort of joint project. The last time I attempted a collaborative project was in 2019 and I lost steam around September and never finished it. Of course, that was also around the same time I was diagnosed with some pretty serious medical stuff, so I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.

So, this year, Julie suggested a Witchtober theme. She drew a super fantastic paper doll. I played Dr. Frankenstein in photoshop and put a head I drew on the doll and we are off to the races. The first dress, we both decided would be a basic “witch” dress.

Then we agreed on 8 different themes from this list by Juan Joltaire of witch themes for October. The idea is to post two outfits on a page and share them once a week on Mondays.

I’ll be totally honest- I am not confident I’ll get through the whole month. I’ve already discovered that with the size of the doll and my tendency to draw gowns… layouts might get creative, people! I may need to stop including the stand in the dresses… I did that for my first few pages and it adds a lot of space…. thinking…thinking…

Anyway, I figure even if I don’t get all 8 outfits done and posted on the Mondays of October, it’ll still be a fun distraction!

And a big thank you to Julie for not only designing the doll, but also making the super cool frame around the doll! Her version is also super neat.

Greek Fantasy Dresses with Evening

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We had out first super hard frost a few days ago and now there’s been some snow mixed with rain. Winter is coming! I can tell as the days keep getting shorter. Sigh. Well, that’s the downside of living as close to the arctic circle as I do. Let’s move on.

So, there’s a lot of Xena Warrior Princess/Hercules and the Legendary Journeys wrapped up in this set. Not gonna lie. I wanted an autumnal color scheme without feeling too obvious and I figured the jewelry could help tie together the colors of the dresses. Evening here hasn’t gotten as many sets as some of the other dolls. She’s the newest, but she’s catching up fast.

As I mentioned in my last goals review post, this is my 7th Dolls Du Jour doll this year. Woot!

I want to do a few more historical themes for Dolls Du Jour. I’ve been asked for 1950s. Is there another period people would like to see? I’m leaning towards either 1950s (because someone asked) or 1400s (like this, if you’re wondering.)

By the way, did you know I have a newsletter? You can sign up for that Newsletter here. There’s going to be some super cute Halloween content in there come October. I’m excited, at least.