Announcements

I’m taking a vacation in June from the blog. I hope everyone has an amazing June!

I had thought I would have time to load up a bunch of preplanned content before I left town to get married and you know what? I didn’t, because planning a wedding is super complicated even when you have amazing support. But there will be newsletters! Those I got done.

So be sure to sign up for the newsletter below and you can still get some fun new paper doll coloring pages during the month of June.

I’ll see you all in July!

When it comes to creativity, I’m a sprinter, not a long distance runner. When people talk about doing one thing very day for ten minutes for a year or two years or ten years, I get twitchy. I don’t work that way. I like to work intensely for short periods and recoup with something else for a while. As I said, it’s a sprinter sort of mentality.

The downside is that I sometimes have ideas and I work on them intensely and then I stop when I lose interest, get distracted, have other things to do, or whatever. One thing I’ve been planning for years has been to do a better job of repackaging my Patreon content for Etsy. I want people to get to engage with the stuff I’ve made there, but also not have to sign up to be a patron if that doesn’t seem appealing. It’s not for everyone and that’s 100% cool with me.

Back when I drew my 1940s, 1930s, and 1960s sets, I intentionally drew more clothing than I knew would fit in my usual paper doll format with plans to use that extra content for some Etsy sets. (Okay, the first time I did it, it was 100% an accident, but like after that it seemed like a good idea.)

Lately, I’ve been having a big of a creative lull. I don’t really feel like drawing and I thought I’d turn to these older pieces and see what I could do with them. After all, sometimes working something that isn’t creative in the same way that drawing is creative helps me get through minor blocks. So, I thought- I’ll focus on layout and some older things I’m proud of and give my brain a little break. Never under estimate the value of brain breaks.

Long story short- there’s a new Etsy coloring page set of 4 pages of 1940s clothing! It’s 50% exclusive and new content and 50% recycled content from the site which has been reformatted. Some of the new and exclusive pieces include an additional doll, overalls, dresses, hats, and a very 1940s evening gown.

(If you’re a Patron, there’s a big discount coupon over here, if you want to nab it for the new stuff.)

Anyway, if you nab one, leave a review, because that always helps. If you don’t want to nab one, 100% cool- enjoy all the free 1940s paper doll content on this blog (there’s a fair bit). If you’d like to join Patreon then you can do that here, there’s a lot of more paper doll stuff over there waiting for a second lease on life.

The other good news is that this did help with my creative lull and I am now working away on a big mermaid collection (probably also destined for Etsy and Patreon) and a dog paper doll for the next issue of Paper Doll Review. Yes, a dog paper doll. No, I’m not 100% certain it was a good idea, but I’m too far along to turn back now!

I am super excited (and a bit nervous) to present to you all my first ever paper doll book. Based on the contents of Greta’s Trousseau, this steampunk inspired print on demand paper doll book is now available from Lulu. I tried out several print on demand services, but liked best the quality of Lulu’s printing and paper.

The Specs: The book is 6 by 9 inches with a high gloss cover (making it hard to photograph, but super cute in person.) There are 2 dolls, over 60 mix and match pieces over 9 plates, and over 20 different outfits, plus more if you mix and match with gusto. There’s outfits for everything from fencing to balls all printed on satin finished paper.

You can pick up a copy here.  But, before you do, I have two copies to give away!

I bought a few extras when I was doing my photography and I am now ready to pass them along to new loving homes.

To enter, comment on this Patreon post and/or comment on the blog on this post. Be sure to use a working email address, because I’ll need that to contact you!

No purchase is needed to enter and the contest is open to the public if you’re over 18. On the 25th, so one week from now, I will draw two random names and will email the winners. Please don’t give me your mailing address in the comment- save that for a private email, please.

This is open to everyone, even overseas folks, assuming the USPS delivers to your country. Due to Covid-19 and US law, there are a few countries they don’t deliver too, but I don’t think it will come up. (If you’re curious, there’s a list here.)

I am so happy to get to share this two year long project with you all and I want to give a big, huge, thanks to Julie Matthews who steered me through this experience with grace, kindness, and fantastic feedback.

I am so excited to announce there’s a new paper doll coloring page set up on Etsy, if you’re looking for some early spring screen free play activities for your little ones (or yourself.)

There’s nine dresses (5 of which are brand new), lots of accessories from swords and books to crowns and two dolls. Each doll is the same size as the Dames and Dandies dolls here on the site, but has a larger stand to allow for the folded strip base. The biggest challenge for me with these downloads is stands. I think paper dolls are more fun with stands, but they take up more space than I think they will whenever I do layout.

I’m a slow learner sometimes I grant.

You can pick up these dolls here.

A little about the process of these dolls, I have been working lately on finishing up lingering projects. One of the challenges of these paper dolls was deciding if I was going to offer them in color. In the end, I decided not, because I have noticed my sales on Etsy of coloring pages out pace my paper dolls in color at an astonishing rate.

For reasons probably best lost in the sands of 2019, I decided to draw a paper doll piece of clothing for every day in 2020, not realizing it was a leap year at first, which is why I called the 365 Day Project when 2020 had, you know, 366 days.

I am super excited to announce you can now purchase this set of 43 printable paper doll as coloring pages or as a color printables from my Etsy store.

The Black and White 365 Project Bundle

Over the course of the year, I’ve posted on Patreon everything from sweet Lolita inspired fairies, a bat masquerade costume, and a lot of contemporary clothing. It has been so much fun! I’m a little sad to wrap it now that 2020 is over, but I also don’t know if I’ll do it again!

There is something interesting that happens when you have to draw a lot of something over a short period of time. It forced me to think creatively and I confess I created some sets I am super proud of and some that I am befuddled by (my short foray into sea-life masquerade costumes comes to mind).

The 365 Project Bundle in Color

Once a Patreon exclusive, there’s 43 sheets of cute paper doll coloring pages or color printable ranging from a fairy to lounge wear and 1960s mini-dresses to a ninja. There’s a total of 23 dolls and over 330 pieces of clothing spread across the 43 total pages.

I will confess openly that the collection is eclectic. But I think that makes it more fun, myself.

I’ll be creating some smaller sets of out the larger collection for purchase as well, so if you aren’t sure you want the WHOLE collection, you can grab just the masquerade pieces or something. I haven’t decided exactly how to slice and dice this creation yet.

By the way, I don’t know yet what I am going to do for 2021, but once I do, I will let you all know. Patreon is on a hiatus for a bit to give me space for my Newsletter which will be going out for the first issue next Friday, the 6th!  Sign up here if you’d like to.

Occasionally, I get an idea that just won’t leave me alone. This was one of those ideas. I wanted to create a series of paper dolls where one item was revealed each day. And I really wanted to do something special for my Patrons who have helped keep the blog on the internet.

I recently fell back in love with my sprites when I was working on my 1944 paper doll, but I wanted to re-draw them, especially once I realized the issues with their right foot. I love their big heads and slightly sassy pose.

So, I redrew the Sprites pose for my 365 paper doll project. I really don’t enjoy drawing paper doll figures, because I struggle with it so much. Figure drawing and I… have issues, but I do my best. I have a few body poses I feel like I can draw and an I tend to stick with those. I know my limitations.

As with all my paper dolls, these girls start in my sketchbook as pen and ink outlines. Once they are drawn, I scan them, clean them up and make them into paper dolls you can play with.

This year, these paper dolls are going to be for my patrons over on Patreon. At the end of the project, I’m not 100% sure what I will do with the resulting paper dolls, but I would like to maybe make them available through Etsy as a print product or digital download.

I’ve made Day 6 a public post, so you can see the style of these paper dolls up close and personal. Once each page is completed, I post it, write about it and make the color and coloring page versions available.

If you want to follow along, get a daily paper doll piece, and cheer on my progress, head over to Patreon and join as a 5 dollar or up subscriber. I’d love to have your support while I try to make 365 (okay it’s a leap year, so it really should be 366) pieces of paper doll clothing.

Questions? Comments? Leave me a comment and I’ll reply as soon as I can.