All Dolled Up: Paper Dolls And How To Embellish Them
Have you seen scrapbooking paper dolls simply everywhere lately? Have you heard the buzz about them and want to try some yourself? Basically, paper dolls have been around for centuries but only in the last year or so have they been readily available for scrapbooking in acid free papers. The charm of a paper doll is that you can dress it to look like the subjects on the page, dress it ethnically to accent a geographic place, or dress it to coordinate with a themed event.
Make your paper doll snappy and realistic instead of flat and boring! No two paperdolls need look the same in your books! There are some special tips to making your dolls great! You can change the embellishments to make them any way you like. Join me as I share some websites, ideas, and embellishing tricks with you.
Need Inspiration?
Accucut has a section of their website with some cute samples including a mermaid, cheerleader, baseball player, and ice skater.
There is also information about Jill Rinner's book and the various diecuts you can use with her ideas.
Then get inspired at sites like Scrapping by AIaine where you can find four pages of paperdoll ideas generated in a recent contest. There are over 50 examples of paperdolls here to view!
Another site with ten samples to look at is Pitchmom's site
What fun!
Want to make some paper dolls now? Of course you do! First you need to find some paperdolls. You can draw and cut your own which is labor intensive. I prefer to start with a basic store-bought or computer printed body and garment set and spend my time embellishing those. Let's find some dolls....
You Can Buy Some:
Several brand names make them and your local scapbook supply store may have them in individual or multi-packs. You can even make your own at several websites online by choosing one you like and printing it off onto safe paper. You can buy adorable paper doll die cuts and pre cut clothing as well as accessories and jumbo backdrop die cuts like castles, houses, and grass at many stores online.
You Can Make Your Own with Computer Patterns
You can also find many types of children's and grown up designs on the web. Check for children's designs at http://makingfriends.com/
http://makingfriends.com/f_themes.htm
This site has everything from modern day kids, international dolls, leprechauns, pilgrims, Christmas, patriotic, Halloween, girl and boy scout dolls, and bible dolls. Or, if you like a more grown up and modern style in your books, try this site
If you like bears, you can print your own dolls off with DJ Inkers software to make a cute bear and his clothing. I do not know the name of this program but a pal sent me some and they are sooooo cute!
Want a feast for the paper doll palette? Try Marilee's Paperdolls list of over 7o links to any kind of doll you can imagine. Most are available for printing off from the sites given.
Now comes the fun part--decorating them to go in your albums! So... choose some dolls, cut out the pieces and let's get started!!
EMBELLISHING!
The best part of paper dolls is decorating them to look the way you like. Use supplies you already have for scrapbooking to give them style and dimension. We can use chalk, marker, or facial blush on a q tip for shadowing under the arms, cheeks, on knees, or injuries. You can see the difference between the un-embellished doll on the left and the finished doll on the right below.
Use decorative scissors to scallop lace on a dress, cut a zipper for a little coat, or trim a little hair for your doll. You can also use hand torn edges on paper for rips in pants, cutoff shorts, or a scarf. Fringes cut with a straight edge are also great for scarves or hula skirts for those Hawaiian pages!
Punches work so well with paper dolls because so many punches are the right scale for doll accessories! Make geometric designs on T-shirts or clothing, use a mini punch circle for buttons. Small flowers punched in many colors for leis on Hawaiian pages add a perfect touch. Use punches on children's pages as toys for the dolls. Take a look at your small punches and use the trains, bears, gingerbread men, cars, and circles as toys your paper doll can hold in her hand. Add a hairbow or a dress bow made with a small punch and your girl's ensemble will look so real!
Folding some of the paper can add dimension to the clothing too. Cuff up shorts, pants legs, collars or sleeves on shirts, Crimp or braid the hair. Bend the arm or leg pieces to show movement. I folded the cuffs of the girl's short overalls in Embellishment figure above.
Die cuts like the jumbo castle, haunted house, grass, clouds, sun, cars, bikes, skateboards, jeeps, Christmas trees, school bus, and tents look right in scale as backgrounds for the paper dolls. And stickers of floral bouquets, sports equipment, pets, toys, and clothing make fun accents too. You can even rubber stamp elements of clothing like small clothing prints or symbols and emblems on t shirts. Make your doll a pet or two and some flowers or signs to hold.
Sometimes paper dolls come with extra arms and you may not know how to use them up. As you can see, I make borders to go with the themes of the pictures! Then it doesn't matter if I have left arms, right arms, or various colors! This works particularly well in gift giving situations! Here are examples for wedding, snowfall, and balloons concepts.
Are the paper doll possibilities perking now? The fun is endless! The more paper dolls I see and do-- the more I want to do in my books! Any outfit in a photo or special event theme can be accented with the little darlings! Before you know it, your album will be all dolled up!
