Full Color

Meet Tashi- Talia’s Friend and her Refined Winter Wardrobe

A printable paper doll coloring page set with one doll and a 17 piece wardrobe.
A paper doll printable with a 17 piece fashion wardrobe.

Download the 2 Page Black and White PDF | Download the 2 Page Color PDF | More Talia Tuesday & Friends Dolls

Meet Talia’s first friend Tashi! My patrons helped me name her. Tashi is a Tibetan name that means “good fortune” and beat out several other names to win the poll I shared on Patreon. Thanks Patrons for helping me name her! I had planned to wait a while to share her, because I had several other Talia dolls finished, but I really wanted to show off her and her fun winter looks, so she jumped the line- as paper dolls sometimes do!

According to my research into Winter trends for this year, I noticed a few things- tapered trousers, pleated skirts, mini-skirts, puffed sleeve sweaters and crop tops with high waisted styles. Interestingly, I also noticed that these lady-like styles got paired with more chunky masculine boots which felt very 1990s. Anyone else getting Doc Marten’s with floral dresses flashbacks? Anyone?

Colorwise, lilac has been an on-trend color for Fall 2021, so I decided to embrace that when I was coloring this paper doll set. I really like pastels for winter, but you have to keep them dusty and vintage feeling, or else you get into saccharine sweet territory.

If you want to get to help me name paper dolls, than join us on Patreon.

DDJ: A Medieval Inspired Set of Fantasy Gowns

A paper doll printable coloring page with fantasy gowns.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Dolls Du Jour Paper Dolls

So, I tend to categorize my fantasy paper dolls in my head based on the time periods that inspired them. This paper doll is vaguely medieval while last year I did a Renaissance inspired Twilight paper doll set. Evening is my newest member of the Dolls Du Jour family who I created because I wanted a more medium-brown skin-tone.

Evening has two dresses which in my head are a Winter Dress and a Summer Dress, though I suppose they could be anything you might want them to be. I had particular fun with this color scheme that I wanted to feel soft and muted, but also rich. I am of the Lord of the Rings Movies generation, so those costume designs have long impacted the way I have thought about fantasy gowns for paper dolls.

Evening, like all the Dolls Du Jour, was named with the help of my Patrons. So, as always a big thank you to those folks without whom this site would be a lot less fun. Also, tomorrow is a newsletter day, so sign up here if you want to get that sent straight to your inbox.

Ombre Stripes in Purples with Lapis

A printable paper doll in pwith a 9 piece mix and match wardrobe.
A blond printable paper doll in purples and teals with a 9 piece mix and match wardrobe.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones 2.0

So, according to the internet, source of all wisdom, lilac is a big color for Winter 2022. I wanted to really focus on two colors- purple and teal- for the this paper doll. The set was supposed to be a look at monochrome colors which isn’t something I do a lot in my paper doll coloring.

Recently, I got a question from a reader asking if I did anything with my finished paper dolls. At first, I didn’t understand the question. What did “do anything with” mean? I wondered. I told her about my messy files, my boxes of sketchbooks in my office closet, but that answer didn’t feel right. It’s been percolating in my brain for the last week.

What do I “do with” my finished work?

And then the answer occurred to me as I was working on scheduling this months paper doll posts and it was utterly obvious…. What I do with my finished paper dolls is this. PTP is what I do with my finished work. Completing things is deeply satisfying for me and how I complete my paper dolls is sharing them with all of you.

Once I thought about for a while, the answer was obvious. So, thank you for being a part of my process and a part of my little corner of the inter-webs. If you’d like to support my little corner of the internet further, I have a Patreon page, Etsy store, and a newsletter.

Happy Purim & A Paper Doll to Celebrate

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Oh, where to start… Okay, so Purim begins at sunset tonight and as it is a Jewish holiday where dressing up is a tradition, I’m sort of embarrassed I haven’t done a Purim paper doll since this one way back in 2011. So, here we are to rectify that situation. To be honest, I tend to forget about Purim until after the fact which is not really fair to what is technically one of my favorite Jewish holidays (which I am like 80% into because of the amazing cookies involved.)

So, what is Purim? Well, Purim is a holiday that usually falls in March or April and commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to have all of Persia’s Jewish subjects killed, by Esther and Mordecai as recounted in the Book of Esther. There’s more to the story of course (some of it involving a lot of drinking and nudity, oh my!), but to make a long story short, the day that the Jews weren’t killed is now remembered as Purim. If any of this did actually happen (a subject of some debate) it would have been around 400-500 BCE in the Persian empire of the time. By the way, this is the cutest 4 minute video of this story ever, if you want a kid-friendly primer.

Reading the Book of Esther from the Esther Scroll (the Book of Esther doesn’t appear in the Torah) is a religious requirement of Purim, as is giving to the poor, exchanging food with friends, and eating a celebratory meal. Non-religious traditions of the holiday include making noise (using a noise maker or just booing loudly) when the name Hamen heard during the reading of the Book of Esther, dressing up in costume as characters in the story (or just costume in general), and making hamentashen. Hamentashen are a traditional cookie shaped like a triangle and filled with poppy seed, prune, or apricot filling (or, if you’re me, raspberry). It is said they looked like Hamen’s hat, but I think there’s no historical backing for that one.

I like this hamentashen recipe, though I sub out the brandy usually with orange juice, and I think it is better than my Grandma’s recipe. (Don’t tell!) I usually buy my poppy seed filling, because I’m a little lazy about it. However, you can make your own poppy seed filling which I might have to do, because poppy seed filling is super hard to find in the grocery stores around here. I would add that if you’re used to making cookies with butter, than traditional hamentashen will taste odd perhaps, because they’re usually made without dairy for kosher cooking reasons. I’ve been known to make hamantashen outside of Purim as a non-dairy cookie for friends who don’t eat dairy.

Anyway, as a kid, I loved Purim. I love getting to dress up as Esther, or one memorable year, as a hamantashen. I loved getting to use a noise maker, hearing the story of Esther, and the general feeling of celebration the holiday creates. There’s also something about the slow slog towards spring when everything still is frozen up here in Alaska which makes baking some cookies and having a party seem like a really good thing to be doing.

I didn’t want to make a paper doll of Esther, because honestly, that was way more research than I was about to undertake. What did Jewish people wear in Persia in 400BCE? No idea!

Instead, I decided to draw someone celebrating Purim with a hamantashen t-shirt (because that’s fun) and some Esther costumes. For some reason I had it in my head that this whole thing took place in 1400 BCE, not 400 BCE, while I was sketching, so these outfits are way too early for the actual period, but I’m not sweating it. The trim on the second costume is supposed to look a little like hamentashen. I also included a traditional noise maker called a gragger (or grogger, or grager, or… there’s like a million ways to transliterate Yiddish, I swear) and plate of hamantashen. (Note: Drawing a plate of cookies is hard!)

For anyone else celebrating, have a happy Purim! For everyone not celebrating, have an amazing Wednesday evening and Thursday! I’m spending mine baking.

Sci-Fi Citrine- A New Jewels and Gemstones Doll

A printable paper doll coloring page with a sci-fi or cyber fashion theme. Nine mix and match wardrobe pieces.
A printable paper doll with a sci-fi oy cyber fashion theme. Her mix and match wardrobe is 9 pieces colored in shades of grey.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones 2.0

I’ve been thinking it was time to add a new doll to the Jewels and Gemstones family. So, I am happy to introduce Citrine (whose name I keep spelling wrong, but I digress.) Citrine’s skin-tone is somewhere between Topaz and Amethyst or Pearl. She’s pretty close in tone to Jade, but there’s more of an orange undertone. A variety of distinct colors is always my goal with skin-tones. However, the nuance probably gets lost unless you look at them all side by side. Her skin changed color a few times in the process of coloring her. Eventually, I found a shade that I both thought looked nice on screen and prints well.

Your printer may, of course, vary.

Citrine is named for citrine, a type of quartz crystal (like amethyst). Apparently, most citrine is actually heat-treated purple amethyst, because natural citrine is super rare. Some people believe citrine contains solar energy, though the web was unclear on what that meant. Citrine is associated with positivity and prosperity. It’s also a November birthstone (along with Topaz which has a similar color). Maybe I should have save this paper doll for November… too late now.

Today’s Citrine is being a sci-fi babe with a black and white theme. I had more fun putting zippers in non-practical places than perhaps I should admit here. Anyway, when I do black and white sets I try to make sure the shapes of the clothing are interesting enough to carry the set without needing color.

If you love paper dolls (and want to support the blog) remember that I do have a Patreon page where there more paper dolls every month and a newsletter.

Meet Citrine! New Paper Doll Whose Name I Keep Spelling Wrong! And her evening gowns!

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A Whimsical Winter Paper Doll to Print

A winter themed paper doll with nine mix and match clothing pieces including coats, jeans, sweaters, and hats.
A winter themed paper doll clothing page with nine mix and match clothing pieces.

Black and White PDF | Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones 2.0 Paper Dolls

In my world, it is still way below zero and the snow is still deep. People tell me spring will come, but I am beginning to have my doubts. I’m antsy and super tired of winter. Up here, some people call this feeling the “heebie-jeebies” – that antsy icky anxiety that comes from wanting winter to end. This time of the year time seems to blur together. There’s not enough day light yet and there’s not enough changes in the weather. You start wonder- will Winter ever end?

Different people deal in different ways. I deal by being deeply and intensely attracted to all things cheerful and whimsical. I want hats that look like pandas and pink shoes. So, I designed this paper doll set to capture the whimsy of winter- the things I seem to crave as the dark and cold feels like it will never end.

Other coping strategies this time of the year for me include covering my planner in flower stickers and sticking unicorn washi tape all over my journal . What do you do to deal with long winters? Or do you live in a place where spring is already on the way? I’m only a little jealous.

By the way, I have restarted my newsletter for 2022 quietly. If you haven’t signed up, you can do that here- Newsletter Sign Up. It usually goes out about every two weeks and there’s a paper doll coloring page in every issue.

If you’d like to support PTP in a more direct way (plus get extra paper dolls very month and access to a backlog of wonderful things as well) you can sign up to be a patron on Patreon. It was a slow start to 2022, so you haven’t missed anything new there.

Happy Valentine’s Day with a Rockabilly Vintage Paper Doll

A Valentine's Day printable paper doll coloring page with a mix and match wardrobe. Great idea for kids crafting over the holiday!
A Valentine's Day printable paper doll with a mix and match wardrobe in teals and pinks. Great idea for kids crafting over the holiday!

Black and White PDF | Color PDF | More Dolls Du Jour Paper Dolls

I have a deep fondness for Valentine’s Day paper dolls despite having a long history of having truly awful Valentine’s Days. However, my grandmother used to send me and my sister cards for Valentine’s Day and they often included paper dolls, so I like to continue that tradition here in her honor.

So, first off, Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope it is, if not great, at least uneventful and, tomorrow, there’s a lot of cheap chocolate available which always seems like a nice perk. It’s also a good time to get some roses on sale if you like roses. I confess to being more of a peonies person myself, but each to their own.

For today’s Valentine’s Day paper doll I wanted try out something I hadn’t done before, so I slipped into the world of vintage inspired rockabilly fashion. If that wasn’t a stretch enough, I then gave myself the challenge of coloring the whole thing without using any red, because I do think the color schemes for Valentine’s Day can get a little boring. How. much pink and red does one person need?

If you’re looking for even more Valentine’s Day fun, I did a Valentine’s Paper Doll Coloring Page in my first newsletter of 2022. (Sign up here if you’d like to get it.)

Meanwhile, you can get any number of additional Valentine’s Day paper dolls from previous years here and let me know if you’ve got plans for the holiday in a comment.

All the Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 Paper Dolls of 2021

Normally, I have a few paper dolls that I have finished at the end of the year and they over lap into January. As usual, I did this year as well and because of various life events, I decided the best thing to do would be to wait on my round up until I’d posted all of them. I knew I would be away from the site for a while and it seemed the easiest thing for the pre-scheduling I knew I would have to do. As I did with my 2020 round up, I decided to break down the paper dolls into categories.

Contemporary Fashion Paper Dolls

Historical Fashion Paper Dolls

In Chronological Order By Era

Fantasy, Steampunk, Sci-Fi and Fairy Tale Paper Dolls

This was not my most productive year on the blog (though this doesn’t count my Newslettter or my Patreon content), so there were 27 different Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls shared on the blog today, taking the total Jewels and Gemstones 2.0 count to 77, I think? I might be adding that wrong- it would not be the first time. There are, of course, the Patreon exclusive Jewels and Gemstones as well for my 2 dollar and up patrons, so there’s a few more, if I wanted to add them all together.

I always look at my stats at the end of the year and while this is a little early, I think I can still do it. The numbers are always odd, because my most popular post of all time, according to my Google Analytics is this Marisole Monday Black and White Modern Girl post from 2010. Why? Not sure, but I think it has something to do with how Google values “age” of pages and that image is all over Google image search and Pinterest.

To my own surprise, it wasn’t a Jewels and Gemstones paper doll that was my most popular post in 2021, but rather my retro space foray with the Dolls Du Jour (who have been a bit neglected this year… I should draw more for them). Second place goes to my 1860s historical paper doll and another DDJ post gets third place- my foray into fantasy renaissance gowns. The rest of my top 5 slots are taken up by non-paper doll posts (like this book review and my book announcement). I don’t really know if any of this means anything (especially because most people just go to the main page and don’t click into the specific posts, so really… who knows?) But I do find the numbers always interesting.

Since I am in recovery mode from some medical stuff, I am taking a break for a few weeks. I hope to be back for Valentine’s Day in February (because I love Valentines Day paper dolls) and until then I hope everyone has a lovely few quiet weeks.

I’m opening up comments, because I am super curious: What was your favorite paper doll of 2021 as we settle into 2022?

Pearl as a Pulpy Fantasy Warrior

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones 2.0

Yes, I did watch a lot of Xena: Warrior Princess at a young impressionable age, why do you ask?

Seriously though, I get the whole idea of the male-gaze and I get the whole idea that this sort of armor isn’t practical and I understand that there’s a lot of patriarchal sexist BS wrapped up in the whole “women warriors must be sexy” concept. I get it. I really do.

And yet, I just like drawing sexy pulpy armor. It is important to acknowledge the problems of the patriarchy, but still like what you like. And lord knows I’ve done by fair share of non-pulpy armor over the years (here and here and here and here and here and here and…. I could go on.)

Meanwhile, this set began with my first ever Pearl paper doll from 2019 which was inspired by Callisto’s Armor from Xena: Warrior Princess. I really liked that armor when I used to watch that show as a kid, but now I look at it and I think- Wow, it’s so short! I can’t imagine it was comfortable for the actress, but I digress. I tried to use the elements from the original paper doll set to design the additional pieces so that it would feel like a cohesive piece.

Next week there will be a round-up of all the 2021 Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls (and yes, I know it is 2022 already but I drew all these in 2021). And then I am taking a few weeks off to continue resting and recovering from some surgery (in case you are wondering, almost everything I’ve posted here and on social media was pre-scheduled, because the internet is like that). I hope to be back in time for Valentine’s Day (as you know, I love Valentine’s Day) and with some new paper doll content. We’ll see!

Diamond with her 1960s Mod Dresses

An Asian 1960s fashion paper doll coloring page with her 10 piece mix and match wardrobe of mod inspired fashions. Print her to color and play!
An Asian 1960s fashion paper doll with her 10 piece mix and match wardrobe of mod inspired fashions. Print her to color and play!

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones 2.0

When I think of the 1960s, these playful swing dresses come to mind. They really don’t show up until the second half of the decade, but they are so iconic. I knew when I decided to so some 1960s sets that I wanted one to be mod styles like these. My other two themes are sophisticated (see Sapphire from last week) and a beach summer set which was a Patreon piece.

There are, as always, a lot of different sources for today’s dresses. Working left to right, the orange dress was inspired by this Bill Blass dress designed for Maurice Rentnerfrom the Met. The blue dress is from Simplicity 7852 in 1968. The red and white dress is from Simplicity 6405 dated 1965. I did not draw the matching coat which I sort of regret. Coats that matched slip dresses were certainly a trend I noticed. The mustard dress is based on an illustration by Creators Studios, a New York design company. The pink dress is from Butterick 3398 from about 1966.

Her flower shoes are here from Charles Jordan in 1965. Her other shoes, hats, and purses are from John Peacocks’s 20th Century Fashion Source Book.

I have one more paper doll from 2021 that I have finished to share, than there will be a round up post for all the 2021 (though I know it is 2022) paper dolls for the Jewels and Gemstones. After that I plan to take a few weeks off as a treat and we’ll see how I feel. I love doing my Valentine’s paper dolls, so I don’t want to miss that this year.

Sapphire: A Fashionable 1960s Paper Doll for Printing and Playing With

A 1960s fashion printable paper doll coloring page with historical outfist including 2 dresses and 2 suits, along with hats.
A 1960s fashion paper doll with four outfits, shoes and hats to print and play with.

Download Black and White PDF | Download Color PDF | More Jewels & Gemstones 2.0

After I did 1970s sets (one with Sapphire and one with Opal) and a 1950s set, drawing some 1960s paper dolls felt pretty inevitable. The 1960s are a fashion era I like, but haven’t done as much drawing from. I think because my mental image of the era (super 1960s mod dresses) exists and the actual mainstream fashions which were much more conservative. I love the wild mod looks, but most folks weren’t wearing them.

So, today’s 1960s paper doll is Sapphire with a very ladylike wardrobe from mostly the early 1960s, though I didn’t notice that until I was labeling everything. Here’s a few of the sources- her underwear comes from Sears in 1968. Her bra was based on several different years like this one from 1962 or this one from 1964. The pink suit is from McCall’s 6437 from 1962. Her hats both come from my John Peacock book on 20th century fashion, The Complete Fashion Sourcebook.

The evening gown was based on this Vogue 1452 pattern from 1965 designed by Galitzine of Italy. The green suit is from Vogue Couturier Design 1127; ca. 1962 designed by Michael of England. The 1965 Montgomery Ward Spring Summer Catalog was the source for the yellow polka-dotted dress.

You can, of course, see a lot more 1960s fashion references and inspiration on my 1960s Pinterest board. I tend to collect a lot and then pick and chose when the drawing point happens. There will be another 1960s paper doll up soon, as I have a second one finished as well.