Full Color Archives • Page 51 of 67 • Paper Thin Personas

Florals & Stripes & Ruffles: More Paper Doll Fashion in Color!

May 21, 2020December 22, 2013

Yesterday, I posted this paper doll in black and white. Today, she’s going up in color. I’m not sure if I like doing this whole… one day black and white next day color thing. It sort of defeats the point of being able to reduce workload. I might start spacing them out a week, depending on how things seems to work out as I get into the crazier time of the year for me.

I went back and forth and back and forth about so much with this paper dolls color scheme. As I often do with questions of paper doll fashion, I think I spent more time on it than was totally rational. I wanted her to be stylish, but not overtly girly. I couldn’t decide between pinks and blues and then I originally conceived of the blouse as being burnt orange with teal flowers. Yeah… that wasn’t my greatest idea ever.

In the end, I settled on a color scheme that was cheerful (which I think we need on these grey days of winter) and mix and matched pretty well, though not as perfectly as some of my other paper dolls have done. There’s really only nine outfit options here, and I think I’d like to do more, but the dolls are fairly large and that limits how much clothing I can fit on a page with them. I have been thinking about doing some sets that are “clothing only” as I have always liked clothes more than dolls, but I don’t want to disappoint people who feel otherwise.

Paper doll outfits or dolls? That’s always the most complicated of questions, isn’t it?

{Download a PDF of this paper doll to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG of this Paper Doll to Color} {More Bodacious and Buxom Printable Paper Dolls}

Playing with Pattern on Ms. Mannequin Paper Doll Clothes

May 21, 2020December 13, 2013

Today is Friday the 13th which is apparently bad luck, though I have no idea where that came from. Does anyone know? Anyway, I figured a good way to get rid of bad luck was to post some paper doll fashions. 🙂

As a lot of my longtime readers know, I am often playing around with patterns for my printable paper doll clothes. I think pattern, while a pain in the behind, is important for the diversity of paper doll outfits. Solid colors are all well and good, but most of us have some patterned things in our closets and there’s not real good reasons why paper dolls shouldn’t be the same.

When thinking about pattern, I tend to fall into the same styles repeatedly. I suppose I can only be so creative on any given paper doll set. Still, I am always looking for new pattern inspirations- even if they don’t make their way onto the blog. I really admire the pattern work of Julie of Paper Doll School. Her patterns rock.

(She can also use Illustrator. I’m so jealous. I have the program, but I think that like a wild dog it can smell my fear.)

Anyway… Miss. Mannequin and friends are getting pretty girly today with their full patterned skirts and rose printed strapless dress.

{Download a PDF in Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Download a PDF of to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG to Color} {Get some Paper Dolls to Wear these Clothes} {Get More Clothes for These Paper Dolls}

Before I forget, I wanted to mention that I recently stumbled across a Peal Chang paper doll. Soft Film is a blog devoted to Chinese film, as far as I can tell, and the author commissioned a fantastic paper doll of Pearl Chang, who was an actress. I confess to not being at all familair with Pearl Chang, but I knew the name Kwei-Lin Lum from her incredible paper doll work. Check it out, it’s a pretty neat paper doll.

Of course, now I have to go on Netflix and see if I can find any of these movies. Does anyone know anything about her?

Puck Magnetic Paper Dolls for the Boys

May 21, 2020December 10, 2013

I have a lot of readers who love my magnetic paper dolls (which is understandable, I love them too) and I often get asked about a boy paper doll for the boys out there who might want to play some dress up too.

I don’t have a lot of male paper dolls on this blog (because I don’t find them as interesting as girl paper dolls) and I’ve only done about fifteen Puck paper dolls over the years. The result is that I don’t have a lot of “stock” to pull from when creating a magnetic version. After some debate about what to include, I decided for my first Puck magnetic set (posted early enough for people to print them for the holidays), I would include three boys and some contemporary clothing choices.

The magnetic paper dolls have three sets of shoes, five tops, five bottoms and a few different accessories. All of the pieces can be used interchangeably amongst the three boys, meaning that there’s a lot of fun mix and match outfit options (about 75 different outfits to be exact).

It’s not as exciting as some of my other sets, I confess, but I think they’re very versatile. Since I haven’t done that many Puck paper dolls, it was a little challenging to put together a set for magnetic printing, but I hope this serves some of the readers I have with boys.

Puck Magnetic Paper Dolls Set Number One

{Click Here for a PDF to Print}

Hello! Stella… A New Asian Ms. Mannequin Printable Paper Doll

May 21, 2020December 4, 2013

First of all, Happy Last Night of Hanukkah.

And then… what to say about Stella?

Well… hmmm… I confess I try to avoid talking to much politics on this blog. The truth is that I like paper dolls. My readers like paper dolls. And really… that’s why we’re all here right? To enjoy paper dolls, play with paper dolls and feel guilt free about being in my late twenties and still in love with these tiny ephemeral objects.

Still, I think Stella deserves some commentary. I drew her several years ago, like most of the Mannequin’s while I was reading a book on the history of Asian-American theater, creatively titled, A History of Asian American Theater. I picked it up for a class I couldn’t take and ended up reading it anyway, because I was curious. So, when I sat down to draw my Mannequin heads, as I do when I’m starting a new paper doll series, I was full of thoughts about repression of Asian-Americans and stereotypes of the “oriental”.

I knew I wanted to create diversity in the paper doll series, but I also felt weird drawing an Asian paper doll and not acknowledging that Asia is a very large, very diverse place. Is it fair to simply stick Stella up, note in my tags that she’s Asian and then move on with my life? I just wasn’t and still am not sure.

Which brings us to Stella and what I can say about her. She’s based on no one in particular. I have struggled to draw Asian features, particularly eyes which have epicanthic folds and a single eyelid, for a long time, so I don’t trust myself to do them very well. I think she looks good though. She’s based, very vaguely, off a very kind Korean student I knew and also some Chinese girls who rode the same bus I did in the afternoons and with whom I struck up conversations sometimes. They were both law students.

{Click Here for a PDF in Color} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Click Here for a PDF of Black and White} {Click Here for a 150 dpi PNG in Black and White}{Click Here for Clothes for Her}{Click Here for Friends for Her}

Personally, I think Stella is Asian-American, perhaps Chinese or Korean in descent (in honor of my various models), I think she is going to university and studying to become a historian. That’s all I’ve decided about her. Perhaps other people have other ideas?

Poppets Summer Paper Doll to Print

December 6, 2020December 3, 2013

Yes, I know it’s like 30 degrees outside and there’s frost on the grass in the mornings and I’m wearing a wool coat, because I have finally acclimatized to the warmth of Alabama. And I don’t personally wish it was summer. I like the winter. I like the cold. I like rain and grey skys and falling leaves.

However, I also really like cute red-headed paper dolls with shorts and colorful t-shirts.

It was recently pointed out to me that of my white paper dolls, I have a disproportionate number of redheads. This is true. I love red hair. I think it’s wonderful. I don’t have redhair, but I envy people with red hair. Therefore my paper dolls get red-hair more often than perhaps is genetically normal.

Oh, I should mention that I have thought that the sunglasses would work really well and you could hook the two ends together behind the dolls head. When I tried this out, it totally didn’t work, so I recommend taping the ends together and slipping them over the dolls head. My paper engineering skills are in need of some work. I won’t lie about that.

{Download a PDF in Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Download a PDF of to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG to Color} {More Poppet Printable Paper Dolls}

Seventh night of Hanukkah tonight. I love the end of Hanukkah when all the candles are lit and the menorah glow is so bright and beautiful. As a reminder, these paper dolls are scaled to print out as a half page, not a full page. You are welcome to have your printer scale them up, just be aware that every printer does that differently. 🙂

The First Buxom & Bodacious Paper Doll in Color

May 21, 2020December 1, 2013

Happy fifth night of Hanukkah. It’s a full color cyberpunk fashion paper doll!

I have to say, I am enjoying trying to get a paper doll posted each night of Hanukkah this year, but I highly doubt I will ever do it again, or at least not until next year, this is stressful. Someone once told me I should do an Advent Calendar with a new paper doll every night until Christmas.

And I thought, Thanks Goodness I’m Jewish and I don’t have to even contemplate trying to pull that off. Scary. (Though I suppose if I did it as a doll the first night and than a dress every other night it might not be so bad…. Nevermind. I’m not doing that. That is insane.)

This evening’s paper doll hails from the new full-figured or curvy series called Bodacious and Buxom. I wanted to use bright cheerful colors and stay away from black which tends to overwhelm my cyberpunky sets. I don’t even know if cyberpunk is still a fashion thing. I mean it was a thing in the 1990s when I was growing up, but is it still a thing?

No matter, I like it and that’s what’s important.

A cyberpunk fashion paper doll whose free to print from paperthinpersonas.com.

{Download a PDF of this paper doll to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG of this Paper Doll to Color} {More Bodacious and Buxom Printable Paper Dolls}Of course, I did post today’s printable paper doll in black and white for coloring yesterday, so you can color her other ways than how I have- if you wish. I mean, I might be a pink yellow and blue kinda girl, but maybe you’re more into purples? I think a purple and white set might be neat… or blue and black. Either way, there are options which is the important thing.

All right, what do people think? Do they like the new series? Are people as excited about it as I am? Let me know in a comment.

Some more paper doll clothes for the Mannequins…

June 25, 2026November 29, 2013

So… personally, I would love to own that orange dress.

I would wear it around here and people would say, “Are you an Auburn football fan?”

And I would say, “Nope, but I have on a sassy orange dress.”

See? Everything is better when you’re wearing a sassy orange dress. (By the way, I’m neither an Auburn or an Alabama fan, but I’ve learned it’s best not to mention football at all around here unless you really want to be dragged into a conversation about it. Since I can’t stand football, I keep my mouth shut.)

I have no idea how the Ms. Mannequin paper dolls feel about football… I somehow seem them as being more polo types, but that’s perhaps an unfair sterotype of the rich. Not being rich, I really have no idea what absurdly wealthy people do for fun. (I always assume my paper dolls are absurdly wealthy, since they have such large wonderful designer clothes.)

Primrose, A New Poppet Printable Paper Doll Series

May 19, 2020November 28, 2013

Have I mentioned recently how happy alliteration makes me?

Also, I am really pleased with this new printable paper doll series. Poppet’s have turned out to be very fun to draw which I confess I wasn’t totally expecting. I mean, I thought they would be fun to draw, but it’s nice when “fantasy” and “reality” actually mesh properly.

For this set of poppet printable paper dolls (Yay! Alliteration), I chose to do a romantic regency inspired look with lots of ruching and a wide ribbon sash.

There’s a little Kate Greenway action going on here, I won’t lie.

Since this is only my second Poppet and it’s my second poppet in a pretty short period of time, you might be wondering… What’s up with all the poppets?

Well, I am glad you asked.

Hannukah began on November 27 and runs until the 5th of December. I decided for each night of Hanukkah it would be fun to post a paper doll. There will be a Marisole on Monday, my new Curvy series debuting and a few other things, but there’s going to be a lot of Poppets. Why?

Because they are cute and lovable. (Also I went through a Poppet drawing spasm and I have a lot of them done.)

{Download a PDF in Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG in Color}{Download a PDF of to Color} {View a 150 dpi PNG to Color} {More Poppet Printable Paper Dolls}

PS: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it here in the United States. 🙂

Marisole Monday: Mia as a Garden Fairy In Color

May 21, 2020November 18, 2013

It’s raining so hard tonight that I find I don’t want to do anything, but curl up on my couch in my sweats and listen to it. Winter has come to Alabama and with it a lot of rain.

So, Marisole has gotten to be green and blue, but Mia never has, so I thought it was high time she got the chance to show a little more variety in her colors.

I’ve been watching the show Cranford from Hulu and have been enjoying it very much. The show is awfully fun and full of beautiful historical costumes. I think it’s supposed to be set in the 1840s, though it’s hard to tell. Some of the dresses have distinctly 1840s silhouettes and other’s are older. Though the town is small and in the country, so it would be a little behind the times. I confess that the 1830s and 1840s are not one of my favorite time periods for ladies dress.

The show often shows beautiful English gardens and I wanted to capture those colors in today’s printable paper doll.

A fairy inspired by English country gardens with blue hair and an extensive wardrobe. From paperthinpersonas.com

{Click Here for a PDF to Print} {Click Here for a PNG to Print} {Click Here for More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls}{Here is this Paper Doll in Black and White to be Colored}

Vivid Victoriana Printable Steampunk Paper Doll in Color

May 21, 2020November 4, 2013

Something about the fall makes me introspective. Maybe it’s the grey days or the excuse to pull out my favorite tweed trousers again or the fact that I can feel the end of the year looming, but even here in Alabama where it’s hardly cool enough to feel like fall- I can see the leaves changing colors and I know that fall has arrived.

Fall introspection takes different forms for different people, but for me it usually focuses on the blog. It’s a little terrifying to think the blog might be turning four in January. If it was a child, it would be in pre-school.

Meanwhile… here’s a new printable paper doll. And who doesn’t want that?

Last week, we got to see today’s paper doll in black and white and here she is now in color. I wanted to go with a shabby chic color scheme and a break from the usual “Steampunk=Brown” mentality. As I always say when I post a paper doll like this, I’m not really sure how one decides if something is steampunk. Never the less, I’m very pleased with how she came out. She’s a Margot paper doll, because I thought Margot needed some love.

vivid-victoriana-marisole-monday-steampunk-paper-doll

{Down the PDF Here} {View a 150 DPI PNG} {Find More Marisole Monday & Friends Printable Paper Dolls} {Vivid Victoriana Paper Doll to Color}

Thoughts on where the blog is? Where the blog is going? How it should get there? Please let me know. I know I don’t always respond to comments as quickly as I would like, but I do read every one and I love getting them.

And yet more clothing for the Ms Mannequin Printable Paper Dolls

May 21, 2020November 3, 2013

Paper doll blogs are odd creatures. I think all craft blogs are odd creatures, but I don’t do a general craft blog, I do a paper doll blog, so I don’t think I’m qualified to talk about all craft blogs.

The thing about paper doll blogs (and all craft blogs, I suppose) is that you, the author, is creating all the content. It’s not a matter of reviewing something which exists or responding to the latest news story, it’s a matter of producing work. Work production takes time, energy and inspiration, but mostly work. Hard work.

And I tend to work in spurts. So, I would be lying if I said that I drew these dresses this month. I didn’t. I drew them… I don’t even remember when. At least one sketchbook ago. They’ve been sitting, finished, on my computer waiting to go up until I had something coherent to say about them.

Well… I don’t have anything coherent to say about today’s printable paper doll clothes, but I knew if I didn’t get them up than I would regret it. I don’t have anything else to post today and I wanted to get a post up this week.

I’m not ashamed of that and I’m not ashamed of the paper doll clothes. I think they’re pretty darn cute.

Happy Halloween! A Vampire Printable Paper Doll!

May 21, 2020October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

So, confession time: I’m totally excited at the prospect of getting to sit at home tonight and possibly give candy to trick or treaters. I don’t know if there will be any, but I’m hopeful there might be. I have a small bag of candy at the ready. I know I won’t get very many, but I do love tricker treaters.

Little kids are so cute dressed up in costume and I have fond memories of my own tricker treating days.

To go along with the holiday spirit, we have a possitively fablous, if somewhat skanky, vampiress paper doll. She’s got her black dress, her miniskirt and her corsets. All very 1980s gothic.

There’s something very sexual about vampires. I could get into the sexual imagery rampant in Dracula or Carmilla, but I never got a graduate degree in English for a good reason and it had a lot to do with having low patience for analyzing literature, but I digress.

{Download a PDF to Print and Color} {Download a PNG to Print and Color}

I’ve done vampire paper dolls before.

In 2010, Marisole got to be a vampire with a questionable hairstyle. My only other foray into the world of the undead was a zombie paper doll which I drew as a joke after abandoning the blog for a while. I still feel bad when I leave the blog, but I don’t usually draw zombie apology paper dolls.

{Download a PDF to Print in Color} {Download a PNG to Print in Color} {Click Here for More Pixie and Puck Paper Dolls}

By the way, if you want your vampire paper doll to wear something a little more… lady like, shall we say… than remember she can share the clothes of all the other Pixie paper dolls or find a ~~victim~~ friend among the Pucks. Unless we take a page out of Carmilla, and then she’ll be getting her victim from the Pixies.

In the meantime, enjoy the paper doll and have a wonderful Halloween. 🙂