Halloween

Happy Halloween!

A printable halloween paper doll with a regency gothic fashion style. The doll has two dresses.
A halloween paper doll coloring page with two dresses and a regency paper doll theme.

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

When I was a child, my grandmother always sent me a holiday card for Halloween and usually it was a paper doll card. This is why I always try to do a halloween paper doll.

Generally, when I think of gothic designs, I think of Morticia Addams from the movies. (Too young to have been a child of the TV show I’m afraid) and she’s a very mermaid skirts sort of design. However, I don’t see why mermaid skirts should get to have all the fun, so I went regency for this one. 

All in all, I think the paper doll’s hair is a bit 1920s and her dresses are regency and her border is very much art nuevo. All in all, what time period is this?

No idea, but I think it looks neat!

I hope you have a lovely safe and happy Halloween. Enjoy the paper dolls! I’ll be passing out candy and eating chili.

Happy Halloween: Here’s a Little Gothic Fashionista

Celebrate the October season with this little printable Halloween dress up doll and her gothic wardrobe. A coloring page, this paper doll has a 14 piece mix and match wardrobe.
Celebrate the October season with this Halloween dress up doll printable. She has a cute modern gothic wardrobe and lots of mix and match clothing options.

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

I created today’s gothic themed paper doll for Halloween. So, I hope you enjoy this little paper Halloween dress up doll. Clearly, I’ve been digging into drawing skulls which I did here. One of the wonderful things about digital drawing is that it is so easy to work with reference images and you can resize them with much more ease, so the skulls are a big part of that.

One thing I’ve noticed about most alt fashion scenes is that there are endless nuances. It seems to me that there’s often “formal” alt-fashion and then also sort of street level alt-fashion. Things people wear and then also go onto the train, rather than just get photographed posing beautifully next to a headstone.

Last week’s three Ensemble Eclectica: Gothic Glamor Collection paper dolls were all more over the top and this paper doll is more street level fashion. While I know very little about where someone buys gothic fashion, The brand Fantasmagoria inspired both the paper doll’s cropped red corset top and also her hairstyle. The brand Heavy Red inspired the corset over the t-shirt look

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this little foray into paper dolls and has a safe, happy, slightly spooky Halloween! Or Samhain or Día de Muertos or anything else that’s happening around this time of year.

Haunting Couture: A Foray into Gothic Fashion

A gothic wardrobe paper doll template printable for coloring. She has a 13 piece mix and match wardrobe. A little Halloween fun.
Gothic wardrobe paper doll template printable. She has blond hair, blue eyes, and a mix and match wardrobe. Some fun halloween things for you to enjoy.

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

Today’s paper doll with her gothic wardrobe was inspired by a lot of different things from my my gothic fashion pinterest board, including this corset, this top and this dress. I really wanted to do a take on Morticia Addam’s famous dress, but I added a bit of a puff sleeve, as those are very popular right now. Of course, Morticia Addams is timeless, but I didn’t want to copy the gown in all the details, in part, because I don’t love the bottom of the skirt. It reminds me a little too much of tentacles (true to the comic, but still.)

(Speaking of Morticia Addams, Julie Matthew’s did a nice write up about her paper doll of Morticia Addams.)

Lastly, I wanted to make a gothic baby doll dress which was 65% just a chance to play around with lace and a new procreate brush set. My first plan was to do see through lace sleeves, but then I couldn’t seem to get a version of that which I liked, so I ended up abandoning that idea. I did keep the lace around the neckline with the openings for some detail.

I can’t claim that I meticulously assembled my gothic wardrobe paper doll, because really this was not that organized (am I ever that organized?). I do think of all the pieces of the Ensemble Eclectica: Gothic Glamor Collection as sort of. mixing and matching together. I think the ruffled skirt from Dark Demigoddess, for example, would go well with any of the tops in this collection.

Anyway, stay tuned for more gothic paper doll fun Friday and Tuesday of next week.

A Vivian Halloween Gown

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Witchtober Continues: 18th Century & Winter

Download the 18th Century Page PDF to Print | Download the Winter Page PDF to Print | The Rest of This Project

If there was one thing I knew from the beginning of this whole Witchtober adventure, it was that my 18th century gown was going to be big. When Julie and I picked out our 8 themes from this list by Juan Joltaire of witch themes, I immediately loved the idea of an 18th century witch.

First off, it has been a while since I drew anything 18th century inspired. Secondly, my love of giant paper doll dresses is well documented on this blog. And is there a better century for giant paper doll dresses than the 18th century? I think not.

For me, nothing in Western Fashion can beat the 18th century for pure over the top glorious absurdity in dresses like this one or this one. There will forever be a soft place in my heart for eras when things are just more is more and that is where the 18th century lives (also, the 1830s, because what even is this?).

Once I decided I was going to go big on the 18th century design, I had a technical problem. I knew that dress was going to fill the whole page. So, when it came time to design the Winter costume, which was the other theme for this week, I knew I needed to at least try to make something that could hold its own against the 18th century spider-queen delight I’d just drawn. After all, a little shift dress was not going to stand up.

So, I went with a sort of coat/top-thing with a bit of a train. For my Winter costume, I wanted something that would feel actually warm, but also I realized none of my outfits were trousers. Since that seemed a pity, I decided at least one of them should get trousers. There’s a little 1890s/1900s in this one with those sleeves and the cut of the bodice. Boots and a fur trimmed hat complete the outfit.

You can, of course, check out Julie’s takes on these two themes over on her blog. They’re great! I especially like like the hat to go with the 18th century gown.

Witchtober- The Sea and The Kitchen

Printable paper doll coloring page with two dresses for Halloween 2022. Witch themed for October! One dress is a sea inspired and the other dress is Kitchen inspired

Download the PDF to Print | The Rest of This Project

So, Julie let me know she might be a day or two late with her designs which is 100% cool with me. As she once said to me when I was fretting about something, “We draw ephemeral paper toys for a hobby. Don’t worry about it.”

And truer words were never spoken.

On that note, let me just say, October has been a lot. September was a lot, but I kept naively thinking it would get better in October while somehow forgetting that my work always get bananas in October. Forward motion, though right? Right…

You know, it’s funny, I really wanted to add Sea Witch to our concepts for this, but not because I was thinking Ursula of the Little Mermaid or something. It was because I really really wanted to draw a cute witches’ hat covered in sea shells.

But once I’d drawn a cute witches hat covered in sea shells, I realized, I have no idea where to go with the outfit.

So, I settled on a sort generic sailor dress which was like version 7 of this.

The other dress came to me much faster. I really liked the idea of a “1950s housewife retro thing” and I designed the little skull and crossbones to look like that poison warning. I almost drew a very similar witches hat to the one I did for my Bones design, but then I thought there should me more witches hat variety.

I can’t wait to see what Julie has done with these themes and I’ll be sure to link her’s just as soon as I see it. Being that we are in two very different timezones, it might will probably go up before I see it. So, check out Paper Doll School over the next few days and keep your eyes out.

Julie has shared an amazing sea and kitchen witch. They are both super cool! Go check them out here.

Witchtober- The Bones & The Birds (Or Bird Bones in this case.)

Download the PDF to Print | The Rest of This Project

So, the first two themes, Julie and I chose were Bones and Birds…. Well, actually, Julie chose the themes, because I saw the list and I had immediate decision paralysis.

My capacity is super limited once the school year starts, plus October is National Archives Month. So, my job tends to decide that we’re going to do “all the things” and I am left feeling a little dazed. It’s fun, but.. it is also a lot. Needless to say, October is never the easiest time of year for me.

And it snowed yesterday… which I am sort of bitter about. Sure, I live less than an hour from the Arctic circle, but that doesn’t mean I want it to snow.

Anyhow, the “bones” dress was inspired by 1950s pinups and the dress on the right- the “Birds” dress was inspired by 1930s slinky evening gowns. I was nervous about drawing a raven skull, but I think it came out pretty well, all things considered. I thought the back drapes of the gown felt a little like wings.

If you missed the doll, you can grab her here. If you need more additions to this wardrobe, Julie Matthews is my partner in crime here and you can check out her contribution over on Paper Doll School. It’s lovely.

Tune in next Monday for another set of gowns for our Halloween witch.

Welcome to Witchober: A Paper Doll Project with Julie Matthews!

A witch Halloween coloring page printable paper doll with one dress and accessories.

Download the PDF to Print | The Rest of This Project

It seems obvious to me that there’s no better holiday for paper dolls than Halloween. So, I am happy to share this Halloween coloring page featuring the first of what will be a month of paper dolls featuring this stylish witch and her stylish wardrobe.

I was super psyched in my planning for the month of October when Julie of Paper Doll School reached out and suggested we go back to our paper dolling roots and do some sort of joint project. The last time I attempted a collaborative project was in 2019 and I lost steam around September and never finished it. Of course, that was also around the same time I was diagnosed with some pretty serious medical stuff, so I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.

So, this year, Julie suggested a Witchtober theme. She drew a super fantastic paper doll. I played Dr. Frankenstein in photoshop and put a head I drew on the doll and we are off to the races. The first dress, we both decided would be a basic “witch” dress.

Then we agreed on 8 different themes from this list by Juan Joltaire of witch themes for October. The idea is to post two outfits on a page and share them once a week on Mondays.

I’ll be totally honest- I am not confident I’ll get through the whole month. I’ve already discovered that with the size of the doll and my tendency to draw gowns… layouts might get creative, people! I may need to stop including the stand in the dresses… I did that for my first few pages and it adds a lot of space…. thinking…thinking…

Anyway, I figure even if I don’t get all 8 outfits done and posted on the Mondays of October, it’ll still be a fun distraction!

And a big thank you to Julie for not only designing the doll, but also making the super cool frame around the doll! Her version is also super neat.

Happy Halloween! Printable Paper Doll Fun!

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

Every year, I try to do something Halloween themed. Valentine’s Day and Halloween are, I think, my most consistent paper doll pieces. I like the colors and I like corsets and Halloween seems like a corset heavy holiday.

Her hair is supposed to have a widows peak and I wanted a sort of elegant feeling with these. Some of it is recycled, but I am 100% okay with that. It gave me a place to start. With this set, I had a lot of fun designing patterns. There’s a cute little ghost dresses, pumpkins, and skulls.

I think some fun could be had coloring these as a Halloween party activity. My grandmother used to send us Halloween greeting cards that were often paper dolls and I like to imagine someone sending this to kids or printing it out for them.

My niece is still too young for me to really be sending her paper dolls, but soon… soon.

Meanwhile, stay safe this Halloween and then enjoy!

A Pair of Halloween Paper Dolls! One Bee & One Fairy

I’m not super into scary Halloween stuff. I like the occasional well written ghost story and will watch horror movies if my best friend watches them first, provides me a summary, and warns me if I can handle it. Then I watch them at noon with the lights on and quickly watch something like the Great British Baking Show afterwards to keep myself from feeling to scared.

Yes, I am pathetic in this regard.

A pair of Halloween paper dolls on this fun coloring page! Super cute bumble bee costume and a fairy for these fun printable paper dolls.

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

So, to do with the Ghost and Frankenstein’s monster of last week I wanted to end October with another set of Halloween inspired paper dolls. Sometimes, when I draw Halloween paper dolls they are clearly a person with costumes and other times they are meant to be the actual creatures.

This set I think falls somewhere in the middle. Ruby could be fairy or she could be a person in a wig with an ear prosthetic. Sapphire is probably not a bee (clearly), but she could be somehow. I’ll need to think more on that one. I paid the bee with the fair, because I knew I could draw one set of wings for them to share.

A pair of Halloween paper dolls! A bumble bee costume and a fairy costume for these fun printable paper dolls.

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

For this set, I stuck with a pretty narrow color scheme, as I wanted the wings and other pieces to be somewhat interchangeable between the two dolls. I’ve always felt like paper dolls are best when they have more options.

I hope everyone has an amazing Halloween, but, most of all a safe one.

If you want even more paper dolls with costumes, I just finished doing a bunch of Masquerade dresses for my 5 dollar patrons. Join us over on Patreon to see those and get more paper dolls each week.