Thursday, December 24, 2015

Extra Special Homemade Paper Dolls!

 Gwen and Caroline have paper dolls that they rarely play with. I thought paper dolls just weren't their thing. But we visited with Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho in early November and they discovered a set there that they played with for hours at a time! It was kind of miraculous! In trying to determine what made Grandma's paper dolls so much better than ours at home (besides the obvious fact that they are GRANDMA's and therefore AWESOME), Gwen indicated 3 things:
1- she liked that these dolls could share each others' clothes. They were all the exact same size and pose, so everyone could wear everything. 
2- she liked the fun backgrounds included in the set. 
3- she liked the pages for designing your own dolls and clothes, letting your imagination guide you.

Armed with this information, I determined to make her a set of awesome paper dolls for Christmas! I started with these free printable dolls from Babalisme that I'd been saving on Pinterest for years until just the right occasion. So cute and did I mention absolutely free?
I knew they would be perfect because she's designed all her dolls (boys included!) with the same size and pose, so all clothing would be mutually interchangeable! Plus, her designs are just adorable, the perfect small size that my girls obsess over!

I printed out each set from Babalisme, but wanted to expand her Elsa and Anna dolls to include Frozen Fever outfits. And I wanted a mermaid. And Sophia the First. and more princess clothes. and, HONEY, I wanted cool hair styles! Time to design my own!
I used tracing paper of Babalisme's dolls to make sure I got the shape just right, then used images I found on Google to get ideas for dress designs. I transferred my tracing paper designs to card stock using carbon paper. Time to add color!
I love how they turned out! I think the girls are going to love them too! I think my 3 favorites are Elsa's Frozen Fever dress, the blue princess inspired by a Ruth Sanderson illustration, and the blue butterfly gown! Do you have a favorite?

Next was cutting out, laminating, then cutting out again. We're going to try using sticky gluey-strips (the ones that attach credit cards to paper when they come in the mail?) to hold on clothes and accessories. 

and just to make sure I covered all the bases, I prepared backgrounds for them, a little box for storing everybody and their clothes, and 2 sheets of uncolored dresses and hair styles for the girls to color to their exact desires! We are going to have fun coloring together! (I think I'll be nice and let them use my set of colored pencils. :)

So excited for the grand unveiling tomorrow for Christmas! You'd think I was getting them myself, I'm that stoked!

5 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! Can you make me some paper dolls? Wow. I'd probably need my own set of uncolored pages too. ;) Wow, Elisa. I'm excited for your Christmas. That is amazing!

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    1. Thanks, Kasia! I'd love to make you some! We'll trade. You make me lovely clothes and I'll make you lovely clothes that are 3 inches tall. :) lol!

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks, Mama! I'm sure they'll still play with Grandma's "magical" set when we come visit! :)

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  3. You got skills! The girls loved these.

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