Paper Thin Personas • Rachel Cohen's Paper Doll Creations

Wrapping up the 100 Day Project: I made it!

June 4, 2025

Over the years, I’ve never actually finished the 100 Day Project on time. For those who aren’t familiar with the 100 day project, it’s a creative challenge where you commit to doing something artistic every day for 100 days and share your progress along the way.

I’ve started a lot of them and inevitably petered out mid-way through or took a long time off and then managed to wrap it up. (Here’s my project from 2019 and my project from 2020 and Julie’s Project from 2019).

This time I finished! And on time, too! Yay!

Now that it’s done, I’m giving myself a short break, but I’m already thinking about how to turn this series into a downloadable set or something bigger like a coloring book… Stay tuned!

My project was simple: draw 100 outfits for a new series of kid-friendly paper dolls. Yes, there are dolls. No, I’m not sharing them publicly, only paid Patreon members get a preview.

From the start, my goal was to produce 100 outfits. I’d read somewhere (can’t remember where) that 100 day projects can be about play, practice, or production. This time, I focused on making something tangible. So, my goal was production.

To me, that meant batch-working was fair game. I also gave myself permission to skip Instagram or Facebook updates when it got overwhelming (which it did) and focus on Patreon instead. And if I worried about over-posting? I reminded myself: patrons can always turn off notifications.

What did I learn along the way?

Honestly, it wasn’t so much about learning something new. After all, I’ve been drawing for a long time. I already know that creativity feeds itself. Once I get started (which is often the hardest part), the act of making something inspires me to keep going. The more I create, the more I want to create. It becomes a loop of positive reinforcement.

What I was reminded of, though, is that I have complicated feelings about creativity. Often, I feel like I “should” do things a certain way: I should be able to do a daily project (even though I always burn out when I try). I should want to post regularly on social media (even though I don’t enjoy it). I should write intelligent and witty things about everything I create (even though sometimes I have nothing to say, also how witty can you be about cargo shorts?).

This project helped me try to let go of some of those “shoulds” and work in a way that actually suits me. I worked in batches (eventually). I pre-scheduled things. I set up a plan and then I executed it as best as I could. I like a plan, but I also gave space for- I am sick of drawing this now and I just want to do something easy like jeans.

Finishing this project (on time!) felt like a big win. Not just because I completed 100 outfits, but because I let go of perfection, ignored the pressure to do things “right,” and trusted a process that actually works for me. That was harder than it sounds. I still feel a little guilty for not following the “rules”, but there really aren’t any rules when it comes to making art.

Just do what works for you.

Having said that, I do think regular practice (even if it isn’t daily) is really central to getting better at anything and also to keeping creativity alive.

That said, by the end, I was exhausted. A little grouchy, too. One hundred days is a long time to stick with anything, even something you enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who followed along, left kind comments (especially when a day or two were missing), and supported me on Patreon. Knowing you were out there cheering me on really helped; especially when I was staring at my iPad thinking, I swear I’ve already drawn this dress….

Will I do it again next year?

Absolutely. Maybe even sooner. Or maybe that’s just the post-project high talking…

If you want to learn more about the project, #the100dayproject podcast inspired me, this article helped me structure my project, and I kept this tracker, because checking off boxes feels super-duper satisfying.

You can see all 100 outfits on my Patreon. Free and paid members can view the outfits; paid members also get a peek at the dolls that go with them (well, some of them, I still have a few more to make).

Sixteen Different Printable Paper Doll Coloring Pages from Past Mays

May 29, 2025

Looking for printable paper doll coloring pages and don’t feel like digging through the archives? Who can blame you.

Over the years, I’ve created a wide range of paper doll printables from fantasy characters to historical fashion. This curated collection features 16 unique coloring pages you can download and enjoy, whether you’re a parent, teacher, or just a fan of paper dolls.

To keep myself from getting too lost in my own archives (which is very easy to do), I decided to focus on things I posted during the month of May from the blog’s beginnings all the way up to last year. It gave me a clear timeframe to work within and helped me narrow down the massive collection of paper dolls I’ve shared over the years.

I will openly admit that when I go back through my own archives, it is a little like a time capsule, highlighting things I forgot I drew and the stuff that I was going on my life that I felt like sharing.

Sixteen Different Printable Paper Doll Coloring Pages

Paper doll with curls as a printable paper doll coloring page for kids — *These paper dolls were chosen, because I’m still proud of them after all these years.*

Astronaut printable paper doll coloring page for kids — *These paper dolls were chosen, because I’m still proud of them after all these years.*

Some of these are paper doll coloring pages for kids like Ethan or Emily, while others of these are more teenager focused like my bone fairy. The bone fairy was part of a whole series of mildly creepy paper dolls I drew in college.

Want even more printable paper dolls? Explore my Etsy shop, Patreon collection, or browse hundreds of printables in the archives here!

There is a lot to explore, I have to say.

Patron Exclusive: Evening Lace with Cut & Color Couture

May 27, 2025May 27, 2025

Cut & Color Couture: 1630s and 1640s

May 28, 2025May 21, 2025

Printable 17th century paper doll coloring page featuring women's fashion from the 1630s and 1640s. Includes historical details like stays, chemise, lace collars, and voluminous sleeves. Great for homeschool history, crafts, or coloring activities.

Download Black and White PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Cut & Color Couture Series

Today’s printable 17th century paper doll coloring page is showing off styles from the 1630s and 1640s, a celebration of Baroque fashion. She’s the first of two I drew. I confess that this is not my favorite period of historical fashion, but that’s part of why I drew it. I’d drawn a few other historical paper dolls for the Cut & Color Series: 1940s and 1920s. I thought I would continue the trend.

I both wanted to stretch myself and work on something that I wasn’t super comfortable with. Also I needed to practice drawing lace. There’s so much lace in Baroque fashion.

Women typically began dressing with a shift or chemise as the base layer, over which they wore stays to shape the torso. These stays created a pronounced, rounded cleavage, accentuated by the often very low necklines popular at the time. The effect was dramatic. As they say in Monty Python, “huge… tracts of land.”

The overall silhouette for this 1640s paper doll includes broad shoulders and a higher waist, though this would begin to descend in the following decades. Bodices were typically fastened with stomachers, crafted from the same fabric as the gown, making them less visually distinct. While the long, pointed bodice would become more common in the 1650s, the historical gowns featured on this doll are a bit less extreme in their styling. Maybe one day, I’ll take on the 1650s as another paper doll project. For now, I’m sticking with my printable 17th century paper doll coloring page and calling it good.

Full, voluminous sleeves, sometimes cinched at the elbow with ribbons or decorative rosettes, are also a big part of the look. I made sure to include them on this historical costume coloring page for one of the paper doll’s gowns. This style of sleeve can be also seen in this 1630s portrait, which was one of my reference images.

Lace collars and cuffs were also super popular. There was often lace trim around the low, square necklines too. Since lace was extremely expensive, wearing it was definitely a way to say, “Look how rich I am!” One reason I chose to create this Baroque fashion paper doll printable was to practice drawing lace. There’s so much of it in this era, like in this portrait.

Hairstyles in the 1630s and 1640s were very distinctive. Hair was usually pulled back with structured curls framing the face. It’s a super distinctive look. Occasionally, women wore soft, wispy bangs at the front. One of the challenges of drawing this Stuart-era dress-up paper doll was getting those hair details. Curls and I have a complicated relationship.

This is the first of two of these I drew. I’ll get into why that happened when I post my next one.

Explore More About 1630s–1640s Fashion

I haven’t done any other 17th century paper dolls, so I can’t add any to this list. It’s not a super popular period for paper doll creations. Brenda Mattox did a Cinderella paper doll in this era and Tom Tierney has a coloring book from the period as well.

If you know of any others, please let me know and I’ll add them.

Wardrobes of Whimsy: Fjord Fantasy

May 28, 2025May 14, 2025

Download 2 Page Black and White PDF | Download 2 Page Color PDF |

So, back in June of last year, my husband and I went to Norway for a few weeks. Partly a work trip for me and partly a lovely vacation for the two of us. It was very fun. We went to several different cities and lots of museums. Norway is beautiful and reminds me so much of Alaska where I am from. The fjords, the mountains, the weirdly large number of stuffed polar bears in Tromsø, and the presence of lots of plants that looked familiar.

It was a really really fantastic trip.

While I was there, I did a lot of doodling of Viking inspired clothing (especially because I got to see actual dwarf broaches and they were just as beautiful as I suspect they would be) and so here’s a bit of that coming out in paper doll format.

So, these garments are inspired by “apron dresses” over under dresses. As I discussed at great length a decade ago when I wrote about Viking dress, no one really knows for sure what Viking women wore, but man there are a lot of people on the internet who get a lot of joy out of arguing about it. I’m not entering into that debate, but I did have fun creating these fantasy dresses inspired by my limited understanding of Viking clothing.

These aren’t very traditional mix and match dolls, which is kind of the point. As I mentioned last week, the whole concept of these was how layering comes together for a paper doll outfit. I really like the idea, but I’m not sure. There’s more than two outfits here- you actually have 8 different combinations, between the shoes and the various apron dresses that go over the dresses.

I don’t know if I’ll do more of these or not… I’m having many thoughts.

Wardrobes of Whimsy: A Romantic Evening

May 28, 2025May 7, 2025

A printable paper doll evening gowns themed coloring page with a doll and two dresses.

A printable paper doll evening gowns themed coloring page with two dresses and shoes.

Download 2 Page Black and White PDF | Download 2 Page Color PDF |

Sometimes, I talk myself out of ideas—and this project was one of those cases. I’ve always really loved mix-and-match paper dolls, but designing sets like these comes with certain compromises. One challenge is layering, especially when it comes to tops being tucked into pants or skirts or long gloves, like on this set. That limitation got me thinking: what if I could have both the full layered outfit and the individual pieces as separate, layer-able parts in one paper doll set?

One of the great things about digital art is the flexibility it offers. It’s so much easier to draw, erase, and redraw without relying on tons of tracing paper.

I originally designed these printable paper doll evening gowns in summer of 2024 and was really excited about them at the time.

But then life got busy, and I started second-guessing the whole idea.

I showed them off at the Paper Doll Convention in Indianapolis, and the reaction was a bit lukewarm. People didn’t seem to quite “get it.” That made me wonder if the layout just isn’t doing a good job of explaining the idea, if maybe it was a poor idea in the first place, or if ballgowns are maybe not the best example of the concept… I feel like maybe it needs a revision or two.

So, with the caveat that this might get heavily revised in the future and I am not even going to give these their own category yet, as the two I’ve currently made may end up being the only two that are ever made, here’s my printable paper doll evening gowns experiment.

The other set that goes with this experiment, I’ll share next week.

Fashionable Florals: A Patreon Exclusive

May 28, 2025April 30, 2025

Rediscovering Vasilisa: A Magnetic Paper Doll Tale

May 28, 2025April 24, 2025

A blond printable magnetic paper doll with a doll, three shoes and four different outfit pieces. Inspired by the Russian fairytale Vasilisa the Beautiful.

A printable magnetic paper doll with mix and match pieces inspired by the fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful.
She has a 28 piece wardrobe.

Download Page 1 | Download Page 2 | Download Page 3 | More Paper Dolls from the Flock Series

So, funny story… Back in 2014, I did a series of fairy tale inspired printable magnetic paper dolls and this one is Vasilisa the Beautiful, a Russian fairy tale. I never finished this one, but I posted about it back then on Patreon as a work in progress.

A week ago, to my shock, a patron left a comment on a very old post on Patreon. It went something like, “I know it’s been almost a decade since this was posted, but I’d love to see another Flock set!”

For those of you who haven’t been following PTP for over a decade. The Flock were a printable magnetic paper doll series I did, specifically for a friend of mine who wanted bigger dolls for kids with smaller hands to handle. They started really mainstream and then got increasingly quirky. This was part of that series and I hadn’t thought about the series in a very very long time.

Anyway, after I got asked this I thought—Wow, I totally forgot I even drew that.

Naturally, I figured I’d look through my files, tell the kind person who asked that I couldn’t find it (because, let’s be honest, I probably wouldn’t), and move on.

But then, after some digging, there it was—exactly where I thought it would be.

And my first thought was, “It’s probably corrupted.”
It wasn’t.

Next thought: “If there’s any coloring left to do, I’m absolutely not doing it.”
It was already fully colored.

Then I thought, “If I have to deal with scaling, I’m not even touching it.”
It was perfectly scaled.

And finally, “If I can’t find a master layout file, forget it.”
Sure enough, the layout file was sitting there, clearly labeled “Flock Fairytale Layout.”

And with that, I was out of excuses.

A few things you should know. This paper doll is magnetic (hence no tabs). Yes, it should work with all the other Flock paper dolls. But no, I did not test it.

The story tells of Vasilisa who is sent into the dark forest by her stepmother to fetch fire from the fearsome witch Baba Yaga, armed only with a magical doll her dying mother gave her. The idea is that the witch will kill her. However, with the doll’s help, Vasilisa completes Baba Yaga’s impossible tasks and earns the witch’s grudging respect, leaving with a skull-lantern that burns her wicked stepfamily to ashes. So, it’s just your typical doll saves the day and you kill your stepmother with witches magic and then marry the Tsar.

When I was a kid, I had a book of fairytales with illustrations by Ivan Bibilbin. His art was a huge influence on me. If you haven’t seen his work, check it out. It’s really beautiful.

Leave a comment if you remember this Flock Fairy Tale series. 🙂 And let me know your favorite.

And if you want to see some very old work in progress pieces, I do have some interesting stuff over on Patreon.

Celebrating being 50% done on my 100 Day Project- 100 Paper Doll Outfits

April 16, 2025April 16, 2025

If you’re a Patron or follow me on Instagram, you probably already know that I’ve been quietly working away on a 100 Day Project since February. For those unfamiliar, the 100 Day Project is a creative challenge where you commit to doing something artistic every day for 100 days and share your progress online.

My version of the project? Drawing 100 paper doll outfits for a new series of kid-friendly, crayon-approved dolls. It’s been a “just draw and keep going” kind of project—simple, consistent, and as low-pressure as committing to something for 100 days can be. I’ve tried to do this before, but nearly every time I burn out, because I am too ambitious, so this time I was trying very hard not to be ambitious.

I’ve mostly been posting the outfits over on Patreon (with occasional updates on Instagram when I’ve had the time and energy). But now that I’ve officially passed the halfway mark, I thought I’d share a little peek here on the blog—for those of you who don’t follow me elsewhere and may have been wondering why things have been a bit quiet.

While the doll bases themselves are currently only available to paid patrons, the outfit sketches are visible to all patrons—and yes, you can join for free to follow along! Or you can check out more of these on Instagram.

Will this project eventually become a fully finished paper doll set with polished layouts and tabs? Honestly… I don’t know yet. Right now, I’m just focused on showing up and getting to 100. What happens after that is a problem for future Rachel.

A Ruffled Evening for my Patrons

March 27, 2025

Brass & Brocade: A Steampunk Paper Doll Design

March 19, 2025

A Victorian steampunk paper doll coloring page. There is a doll with a wardrobe of ten pieces to color.

A Victorian steampunk paper doll with blond hair and pink color scheme. There is a doll with a wardrobe of ten pieces.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

This paper dolls color scheme comes from a card in the Color Cubes by Sarah Renee Clarke. I ended up picking color scheme 229 for this set. It was beautiful soft pink, black, sand and a dark coffee color. I loved the idea of the black, brown, and sand with the pink. Keeping some pink in the color scheme was important to me, because a 2011 steampunk paper doll called Neapolitan Ice Cream inspired this paper doll’s wardrobe and that paper doll’s scheme is cream, brown, and pink. I had planned to stick to that color scheme, but darn it, I couldn’t make it work.

Actually, if you look closely, you’ll see a that my paper doll Neapolitan Ice Cream inspired pieces on both Victorian Whims and Straps and Lace. So, all three of these Victorian steampunk paper doll printables took some inspiration from that earlier paper doll. As my art has improved over the years, I sometimes find going back to things I really like and trying to draw them again is a chance to revisit favorite ideas and see what they might look like now.

I teach a class on research and I while I know “self-plagiarism” is sort of a thing, I also sort of feel like it is silly. I mean, I don’t think you can steal your own ideas, but you can not give proper credit to your own earlier work.

This is the last of these steampunk ladies for the moment, but who knows, I might draw a few more. They were a lot of fun.

Straps and Lace: Steampunk Paper Doll For Ensemble Eclectica

March 12, 2025

A black steampunk costume paper doll printable coloring page with a wardrobe of ten pieces. She can share clothing with the other paper dolls on Paper Thin Personas.

A black steampunk costume paper doll printable with a wardrobe of ten pieces.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Paper Dolls from the Ensemble Eclectica Series

Today’s steampunk costume paper doll has a mix and match wardrobe of ten pieces. There are about 12 different outfit combinations here. I really wanted to experiment with drawing lace and lace like patterns using some lace brushes I have in Procreate. I use the brushes during the penciling stage and then I ink over them. I don’t like how they look “raw”, but they really help when I’m trying to draw a repeat pattern that runs along something- as lace often does.

I feel like I am getting much more confident in rendering lace in my digital ink style, which I am really happy about.

I will save you all from my “steampunk” vs “Victorian fashion inspired” language musings from last week. Instead, I will simply say that that steampunk is a combination of modern styles and Victorian looks. It is both fun and whimsical and usually brown. I find brown boring, so I tend to lean into color with my steampunk costumes.

(This is why I never could have been a Goth. I just find all black so uninteresting.)

For the holidays, I treated myself to a set of Color Cubes by Sarah Renee Clarke to help choose color schemes for paper dolls. I randomly selected a beautiful teal, cream, and blue palette (Color Card 101) and added yellow for extra contrast. The new pieces can mix with last week’s Victorian Whims paper doll, though the colors don’t coordinate perfectly, so some creativity is needed, but the black and white versions work well together. If you combine these two steampunk costume paper doll creations together, you’ll end up with 72 outfit combinations, before you even add in hats and purses.

As some folks know, I have a coloring book out from Colouring Heaven and I’ve heard that it’s popping up in the occasional Walmart. I am still going to recommend you order it directly, if you want a copy, because as far as I can tell distribution in the USA is not consistent at all. However, if you happen to see it in a Walmart, I’ve love a photo. I am psyched to see it “in the wild” out there in the world.

Purim is this Friday. I confess that I have been do wrapped up with other things that I completely forgot about my favorite Jewish holiday, but if you need some Purim paper dolls in your life, I have several. If I remember I’ll see about drawing a new one for 2025, but life has been a roller coaster these last few weeks.