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A Printable Paper Doll Princess Ball Gown for Marisole Monday & Friends

December 6, 2020August 7, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Fantasy Gowns

Today’s Marisole Monday post is princess paper doll ball gown with a full skirt and double puffed sleeves. It’s pretty over the top, though not the most over the top thing I have ever drawn.

I love drawing what I think of a traditional princess paper doll ball gown. You know the type with big skirts and puffy sleeves. The kind of gowns you imagine being worn only in cartoon movies with musical numbers and never by actual people in the real world who need to get through doorways.

All paper dolls are about fantasy to some degree. After all, much of the armor I draw wouldn’t protect you very well and plenty of the gowns I draw would be hard to walk it or move in, but I still draw them. I do care about some levels of realism. I like the for my paper doll clothing to ‘make sense’ in so much as, I want them to actual be able to exist.

It matters to me that layers layer properly and such. Fabric looks like fabric. You know, those sorts of things.

But practicality belongs somewhere other than in the realm of paper dolls.

This dress went through three color schemes or so, before I decided I like this yellow, blue and orange option.

One of the other color schemes, is up on the Patreon page for my patrons. So, if you’re a patron hop over to see it and if you’re not, consider joining. It’s a fun time.

As always, I love to here what you all think in the comments.

Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Lady Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here.

Some Post-Apocalyptic Paper Doll Fashions for the Sprites

July 13, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Mad Max: Fury Road and Post-Apocalyptic Fashions from my Pinterest Board

Some of you may recall that I posted a pair of post apocalyptic Sprites a few weeks ago- Willow and Shirou. Around the same time I drew them, which was around the same time I rewatched Mad Max: Fury Road, I ended up drawing this set of clothing as well. I decided to wait a little while to post it, because really, how much post-apocalyptic fashion is too much?

There may not be a good answer to that question, I confess.

While I do enjoy the post apocalyptic stuff, I find the color schemes are often intensely limited. Things tend to be army green, camo colors and khaki. For this set, I really wanted to embrace the colors of the desert, so I chose a light teal, purple-brown and a oxblood red. The teal reminded me of succulents and the purple-brown of rocks.

Along wit Mad Max: Fury Road, which inspired a round of sketching for post-apocalyptic paper doll attire, I also used my own Post-Apocalyptic pinterest board for inspiration.

While I have doubts about the practicality of most of this clothing, I think we all can agree that practicality is never the hallmark of my paper doll creations.

As always, let me know what you think in a comment and have a great day!

Looking for some Sprite paper dolls to wear these outfits? Pick out Sprite paper dolls here.

B&B Russian Fantasy Outfit

July 12, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin and kosovorotka shirts

Personally, I blame my fascination with all thing Russian on growing up in Alaska and reading The Hunt for Red October at far to young of an age. I hope you all will interperate today’s paper doll outfit as an expression of love for the art of Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin and not a statement on current events in the United States.

(I’m not really sure what a fantasy Russian outfit would be saying about current events, but that’s neither here nor there.)

I’ve loved Russian fairytales for most of my life. Well, I love all fairy tales, but the Russian ones I think resonated with me more than a lot of the others. Perhaps it was growing up in Alaska where there was a lot of Russian culture still or perhaps I saw in Ivan Biliban‘s illustrations a landscape I recognized- over grown forests and snow.

In fact, I sometimes think my fondness for flat color and heavy line is in part because of the exposure to those illustrations. At the time, those things were a limitation of the printing medium, but Biliban took advantage of them to make incredible works of art. It really was the golden age of children’t book illustration.

Anyway, today’s set of printable paper doll clothing consists of a traditional Russian style blouse, a corset, trousers tucked into books and a big fur hat. Everything is better with a big fur hat. The blouse is based on a kosovorotka which is a side fastening men’s shirt.

See? I did some research.

Questions about today’s paper doll outfit? Thoughts on other wonderful classic children’s book illustrators? Let me know in a comment!

And consider following the facebook page, if you want to show the blog some love and support.

Need to get a Bodacious & Buxom paper doll to wear these fabulous clothes? Pick one out here.

New Romantics Paper Doll Fashions

July 11, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: A Patron Request for New Romantic Fashions

While I was researching New Romantics fashion for yesterday’s printable paper doll, I discovered that it was a lot easier to identify men’s clothing that was influenced by the style than it was women’s clothing.

This picture was my primary inspiration for the outfit. Because I knew I wanted to tuck the poet’s shirt into the trousers, I had to make it all in one piece

I do sort of regret not going further and doing like an Adam Ant sort of outfit… but there is always next time.

This isn’t the usual way I design paper doll clothing, but I do think you have to the adapt to the medium as it makes sense. In fact, I just finished penciling a regency Sprite’s men’s suit that does the same thing.

Sometimes, it is easiest to draw outfits in one piece, even if that’s not my natural instinct.

Now, I will admit that while I don’t know much about New Romantic fashion, I do have a soft place in my heart for a man in a poet shirt. Can’t lie about that one.

I should add my favorite Adam and the Ants song is Stand and Deliver, but I should say in the interest of full disclosure that his music is more New Wave Punk than New Romantics, or so I’ve been told.

(I still listen to that song while I clean my apartment and dance around, so I will not be deterred from liking it.)

Meanwhile, I don’t really have a guy paper doll with quite the right hair for this outfit, but I might actually recommend Marcus The Warrior. The beads in his hair seem apropos of the style. Super long haired Mikhail might also work, but not as well.

As always, let me know what you think of poet shirts or paper dolls or anything else in the comments.

Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Guy Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here.

Sprites Go Steampunk Fashion for Today

June 16, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Post Apocalyptic Fashions and Such

This is the second Steampunk set I’ve ever done for the Sprites and one of my goals has been to break away from my love of bustled skirts with steampunk sets. This doesn’t mean bustle skirts are going to go away, because my love of 1870s and 1880s fashion is extreme and will not be denied. You can not deny my love.

Thought totally unintentional these pieces really mix and match well with my last Sprite Steampunk collection that I posted on March 30th of this year. My goal was to make Sprite a focus this year and I am really proud that I have created 13 clothing set and 8 dolls for the Sprites printable paper doll series.

I confess that Sprites can be challenging, because men’s clothing just isn’t my favorite thing, but they have been growing on me and I am trying to get better at the whole male paper doll thing.

Also, I’ve clearly been on a thigh high boots for the Sprites gents kick, because the Space pirates had them too.

I hope everyone has had a great Friday. It’s Father’s Day on Sunday, so I want to give a shout out to my amazing Dad who once (I am not kidding) drew me a halibut paper doll. I love you so much, Dad.

As always, let me know what you think in a comment and have a great weekend.

Looking for some Sprite paper dolls to wear these outfits? Pick out Sprite paper dolls here.

An Earth Inspired Sorceress Gown for the B&B Printable Paper Doll Series

June 13, 2017June 13, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Earth!

Today’s B&B paper doll gown is part of the Sorceress Gowns Project in which I am drawing gowns for sorceresses (a fact that might be obvious from the name). The theme for this project was chosen by my Patrons. I’ve started the series with a doll and the four elements. This is the element Earth. I’ve also done Water and Fire.

You can see all the Sorceress Gowns and Dolls under the Sorceress Gowns Project tag.

Earth was a surprisingly easy dress to conceive of. I knew I wanted to focus on rocks rather than plant life. The pattern on her under-gown was inspired by the layers and veins in rocks.

The bottom of her over gown is supposed to look like mountains. On her staff, I put a faceted crystal, because I wanted to capture more rock imagery.

While this was one of the easiest of the various Sorceress gowns to draw, it was one of the hardest to color. I went through three color schemes. I will confess I am still not completely satisfied, but at some point you have to say, “Well, I’m not redoing this again!”

There is an Air gown forthcoming, of course, and then another Sorceress doll.

After that, I’m not sure what I’ll do next. I do have an idea for an arctic/snow themed gown, so maybe I should do a desert/sand themed gown to counter balance it?

Decisions, decisions.

Let me know what you think about that idea in a comment or what you think about today’s gown.

Tomorrow there will be a new installment in the Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme series for the Poppets.

Several folks have let me know that there was a problem with the PDFs. I think I have it solved, but if anyone has a further issue, please clear your browser cache and refresh the page. It should solve the problem.- Rachel

Need to get a Bodacious & Buxom paper doll to wear these fabulous clothes? Pick one out here.

Marisole Monday Rocking Some World Ending Fashion

June 9, 2017June 8, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: My Post-Apocalyptic Fashion Pinterest Board

So, I tend to think of paper doll clothing I create as falling into several large genre categories- historical, contemporary, traditional fantasy, Asian inspired fantasy, steampunk/neo Victorian, sci-fi/futuristic/cyberpunk, or post-apocalyptic. When I am drawing for a specific series, I try to dip into several of these categories usually based what I have or haven’t drawn recently for that series.

Clear as mud? Excellent.

So, I was working on Marisole Monday and Friend’s clothes and I realized that I hadn’t drawn Post-Apocalyptic fashions for them for a while. I did a Mikhail pair last year in color and in black and white, but it has been a while since then.

So, here is a Marisole Monday & Friend’s lady paper doll outfit. Of course, it’s about as practical as yesterday’s Space Pirates, but we all know that practicality is never a criteria when I draw paper doll clothing.

I would never draw anything if practicality was a criteria.

She has a sweater at least, so maybe we can ignore her tragic lack of pants? Or maybe not. Hard to say, really.

I keep a Pinterest boards for most of my various paper doll obsessions- fantasy clothing, fantasy armor, cyberpunk/futuristic stuff, steampunk, and, of course, post-apocalyptic. So, if you want to see what is interesting me at any given moment, then feel free to check those out.

What do you think of today’s paper doll post-apocalyptic fashion? Let me know in a comment. I always love to hear from you all.

Need a Marisole Monday & Friends Lady Paper Doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick One Out Here.

The Sprites Are Space Pirates!

June 7, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Space! And this Picture from Pinterst

When I designed today’s Sprite paper doll outfits, I was thinking of Space Pirates. Why? Well, because sometimes I think about Space Pirates. I mean, doesn’t everyone?

(Don’t answer that.)

The thing is that I saw this image on Pinterest and I really liked her outfit and I thought, I should draw something inspired by that and then well… things went from there. I’ll be among the first to admit it is hard to image a world where hot-pants and thigh high boots are really practical spacewear, so they weren’t going to be space marines or something.

Therefore, Space Pirates it was!

Coloring this set was super hard, actually. I initially had an all black thing planned, but as Boots remarked when she was talking about create her Star Wars paper doll of Kylo Ren, workimg in black can really obscure some of the details of the outfits. There’s a lot of detail here and I wanted to embrace it.

Looking for some Sprite paper dolls to wear these outfits? Pick out Sprite paper dolls here.

The Mini-Maidens Go Adventuring in Steampunk Fashion (Plus, There’s a sword)

June 6, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Fantasy Steampunk Styles

So, I’m not really sure how to categorize this outfit. It could be steampunk, but it could also just be a fantasy adventuring outfit. I think the puffed sleeves lean me more towards steampunk, but the sword is sort of a fantasy swashbuckler accessory.

Anyway, whichever way you chose to categorize today’s paper doll creation, I think it is pretty cute. I had a lot of fun with impractical straps on the leggings.

Along with impractical legging straps, she has pouches on her belt to store all the sorts of things one needs to store- chapstick, money, pocket knife, hedgehog, whatever.

Her sword is a saber style. I have been trying to branch out in my sword styles, but I’ll confess that I’m not much of a sword expert. I mostly just search Pinterest for interesting looking stuff and go from there.

I decided to make her boots button up, rather than lace up, because at the time I was feeling steampunk. After I finished the outfit, I was less sure about the genre.

So, I haven’t mentioned it in the a while, but the blog has a Facebook page and if you would like to see regular updates from both the blog and the massive blog archives, go like it and such.

Open confession: I am still learning how to use Facebook which at my age is kinda embarrassing, but I am doing my best.

Meanwhile, let me know in a comment what you think of today’s paper doll outfit, I always love to hear from y’all.

Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

Willow in a Post Apocalyptic Wasteland

July 11, 2017May 29, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Mad Max, The End of the World, Ext.

First of all, I’d like to wish a Happy (as Happy as a holiday about fallen servicemen and women can be) Memorial Day to all my Readers who are celebrating today.

I always think I’m going to do thematic posts for Holidays. I even go as far as to make a list and tell myself I totally got this.

And then inevitably, I forget or get distracted and it doesn’t happen. So, today’s printable paper doll has nothing to do with Memorial Day.

Instead, I recently re-watched Mad Max: Fury Road and that inspired a round of sketching for post-apocalyptic paper doll attire. So, today we have Willow in her world end get up.

I wanted her boots to be mismatched, but not so mismatched that they didn’t coordinate. Her dress was super hard and took about three different versions. I really wanted to contrast the soft folds of fabric with a heavy leather harness going over the top.

Her other accessories are some fingerless gloves, a machete and a canteen.

The doll herself is Willow, one of the first Sprites paper dolls. Her tattoos are, of course, original to this version. You’ll need to clip across her hair to make the tabs work, but there’s a dotted line to guide you.

I hope people are spending time today with their family and friends whether you get the holiday off or not.

Looking for something else for today’s Sprite paper doll to wear? Pick out some clothing here.

The Poppets As Little Red Riding Hood

May 19, 2020May 26, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations:Little Red Riding Hood

Today’s paper doll dress is part of the Poppet’s Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme Collection where I draw designs for different fairy tales. Today’s tale is Little Red Riding Hood. I knew from fairly early on that I would want to create a Little Red Riding Hood outfit. I don’t really feel like I need to recap Little Red Riding Hood, as it is a pretty well-known tale- girl goes into woods, girl meets wolf, girl gets eaten.

Depending on the version you read, that’s how it ends. Little girl and grandma devoured by wolf. In most modern tales, there is a friendly Woodcutter who saves the day, but in the early versions of the tale there was no Wood cutter.

The woods, in Little Red Riding Hood, are generally treated as a metaphor for growing up or recognizing a space where the rules of civilized society fail to function. The play Into the Woods takes this metaphor and really runs with it.

This is actually one of my favorite designs I’ve done so far for the Poppet’s Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes Poppet paper doll series. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to create a reference to the Woods in the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

So, I created this trim on the bottom of the hood to reflect the deep dark woods. Because of the shape of the hood, I designed floating tabs to be attached to the back of the hood to hold it onto the doll.

Her boots are a reddish brown leather and her dress is cream and inspired a little by the children’s illustrator Kate Greenaway.

Of course, you can see the other tales I’ve illustrated in the Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes Poppet paper doll series tag. If there’s one I haven’t done that you would like to see, let me know in a comment.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend here in the United States.

Need a paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Poppet Paper Doll Here.

A Rockabilly Inspired Paper Doll Coloring Page

May 25, 2017

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Today’s Printable Paper Doll Inspirations: Delaney, a Paper Doll From 2014

After you’ve created as many paper dolls as I have, I find I sometimes “forget” that certain paper dolls exist until I am going through my own archives for some reason. Part of the fun of the Facebook page is picking out older paper dolls to post each month, because I get to go back and see things that I barely remember or that I remember and think happened a lot sooner than I recall.

So, one I stumbled across was my Pixie printable paper doll named Delaney. She was a sort of sweet and punky paper doll with a little but of a vintage edge.

Using those same themes, I created today’s outfit for the mini-maiden printable paper doll series.

I am not totally pleased with how the pattern came out on the dress, I think the spacing is pretty poorly done, but I liked the concept at least.

And I think her boots are super cute.

The whole thing feels very rockabilly to me, but perhaps not to everyone. I confess that’s a style that I sometimes don’t feel like I totally understand.

If you want to color this to match Delaney, then I would go with pale blues and pinks, but I also think a black and red scheme could be really pretty. It is totally up to you, which is, I suppose, the point of having black and white paper dolls.

And, as I announced yesterday, there’s a new paper doll coloring sheet for purchase in my Etsy store. Check it out, if you haven’t (and there’s a color version, too.)

Need a Mini-Maiden paper doll to wear today’s outfit? Pick a Mini-Maiden Paper Doll Here.

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