Isabelle Release Party

Myagrocks is holding an online release party to discuss Isabelle and her collection. I'm traveling and can't link to it, but the URL is myagrocks.weebly.com.

Happy New Year's Eve from Elerie and me! 

Paper Doll World on Myagrocks!

Paper Doll World was chosen as one of Myagrocks's Great Sites of 2013! Thank you!

A sneak peek photo that I shared for the post:

It's a little blurry, so I hope to share some better photos here soon.

A Solution to the Doll Vacation Dilemma

Christmas and the winter break are almost here, and many people (perhaps including you) are planning to go on vacation. Herein lies the quandary for paper doll aficionados - bring my doll in the event of an awesome photo opportunity, or leave it at home to ensure it doesn't get lost? I know from experience the pain and frustration of losing your favorite doll on vacation, but I can never resist bringing my dolls places in hopes that I can get some nice photos to share here. So for this year's vacation I'm trying something new, and I hope you find this idea useful as well. 

                                           

I made a new doll specifically to take on trips. She's cute enough that I know I'll enjoy photographing her, but I won't be heartbroken if she gets lost. This way, I can compromise both my goals - taking fun photos without losing my favorite dolls. I'm not sure about her name, though; she might be Elerie until I can think of something better. 

So that I can get some variety in her looks, I made Elerie the bare necessities to take on this trip. It'll be a fun challenge seeing how many outfits I can pull together. Here's the one she'll be wearing to travel (I'm not taking this one at the airport because I got enough strange looks the last time I photographed dolls in a public place).

                                      

It seems a little stereotypically French, but the hat is nice (inspired by a piece by Janie Jumps) and you know how I am about that cape. In my opinion, Elerie doesn't look half bad.

When it comes to storing Elerie, I'm keeping her inside my phone case. Some other strategies that work are attaching a paper closet (search under tutorials - I'm having trouble linking it) to a hair clip and wearing it, or putting the doll and items in a well sealed plastic bag in your pocket (the plastic bag protects the doll should you forget to remove it before washing the clothing). 

Are you bringing a travel doll on your trip? How are you planning to store and photograph it?

Simplest Tutorial Ever

This is not a formal tutorial, just a quick but very useful trick that I just discovered today while working on yet another surprise for you. Regular tutorials will hopefully be up soon.

 Have you ever completed a doll and then realized that you didn't like the eye or lip color? Believe it or not, you can change it even after the doll has been tape-laminated. Here's how to do it. My apologies in advance for blurry photos - it gets dark so early these days.

Lay out your doll, and choose the new colors. I decided to change her eyes from hazel to blue, but this would work with any color, even if the new one is lighter (except if the new one is yellow, but I would be scared by a yellow-eyed doll so it doesn't make much difference to me). Caveat: this only works with markers.

Very carefully, with the very tip of the marker, color in the eyes. This picture is terrible because I tried to zoom in as close as possible, but it should be sufficient to show you the difference between the colored and plain eyes.

Let dry. I hold the face against a lit lightbulb for a few seconds to set the color because it's faster, but that's pretty dangerous so I don't recommend it. A much safer alternative is to leave the doll in a sunny area for about five minutes. 

The best part of all is that if you don't like it or want to change the colors, all it takes is a slightly damp paper towel or makeup removing wipe or what have you, and the new color comes right off. You can experiment with making dolls with blank irises and change the eye color whenever you feel like it.

Hope you enjoyed this quick trick. Let me know how it works for you!

My Darling Clementine

You may already have heard the news from Doll Diaries but I'm so excited that I'm going to share it anyway: Clementine is coming to Casa Paper Doll!

It'll certainly be different to have a vinyl doll around! I can't wait to photograph her and try my hand at making paper clothes for non-paper dolls. Thank you Doll Diaries and A Girl for All Time for this amazing doll, and thank you for all the kind comments you left on my previous post. You're the best!

Paper Doll World + Doll Mag Take Two!

Do you remember the tutorials I wrote for the Doll Mag a while back? Well, we've teamed up together again to provide a new set of tutorials, this one for a set of holiday dresses inspired by historical fashions. Click the photo below to see the first one!

I hope you enjoy these tutorials as much as I did making them. Thank you Bella and Lulu for this wonderful opportunity!

Anniversary Q&A

Thank you for your questions! I'm always glad to hear from you, and I hope you find these answers satisfactory.

Will you have another contest?

I've got one planned, but I'm not sure when it'll happen - it all depends on when I'll have a few minutes to put together the prize.

Who was your first paper doll?

To tell you the truth, it's been so long that I can't remember. The oldest dolls that I've still got, however, are Gertrude and George - you can see them here.

Do you have any plastic dolls?
Not yet - I'm thinking about purchasing the American Girl of the Year for 2014, but I'm not fully decided. Do you have any doll recommendations?

In general, though, I prefer my paper dolls. They're cheap, portable, easier to store, and give me so much more creative range than plastic dolls. So, aside from that one doll purchase, there won't be too many plastic dolls appearing here.

Who is your favorite American Girl doll?
Which kind do you mean - historical, My American Girl, Girl of the Year, or custom doll? You know what, I'll just give an answer for each:
Historical: Caroline (those eyes) or Cècile.
MyAG: #30 or #55. I like #33 as well, and #38's wig. #46 is also cute.
Girl of the Year: Jess and Kanani for sure, probably Lanie, maybe Chrissa, McKenna, and/or Saige. Still holding out for the African-American girl of the year.
Custom: Colette Denali's Miko, no question. So gorgeous. I'd get her in a heartbeat if she was a stock doll. In general, though, Ms. Denali has fantastic taste in custom dolls; Hanabi and Fiona are also lovely.

What doll that you made is your all time favorite?

That's tricky, but I'm going to go with Alia. She's got such a fun expression and her coloring is nice. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she's based on Miko, whom I've already gushed about above.

Are you going to sell paper dolls? You should totally do that!

Yes! You can see more on that here.

Do you have any American Girls? 
If you're referring to the dolls manufactured by American Girl, the answer is not yet (see above). If you mean paper dolls based on American Girl dolls, then pretty much all of them except for Holly, Meredith, Quinn, Juliet, Aisling, Madeline, and Fiona. (Whew!)

Which doll was the hardest to make? 
Hmmm... I'm going to go with Juliet, my first successful Ellowyne. That face sculpt is beautiful, but so hard for me to draw!

What inspired you to make paper dolls? 
At first, I made paper dolls because I wanted the dolls that they were based on and I couldn't afford them.  That's still true, but even if I had a plastic doll I would still make paper dolls, because it's such a great feeling to know that you can make your own dolls and have as much creative control as you want, something that's not quite as possible with a plastic doll.

If you could have any doll who would they be? 

Colette Denali's Miko (see above). I think I'm a little too obsessed with her, but she is too gorgeous. My dream is to one day own a custom doll just like her. I also love "MetroGirl" Ellowyne and "Mist, Green Tea, and Me."

And that's it! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll do my best to reply.

The Secret Project Revealed!

Happy 1 year anniversary to Paper Doll World! I honestly can't believe that people are still reading this site, but I'm so grateful to everyone who follows, comments, and spreads the paper doll love. Instead of reminiscing about this past year, we're moving onward and upward, starting with the revealing of the secret project that I've kept up my sleeve since August. Are you ready?

That's right, pretty soon you'll be able to purchase handmade paper dolls and items from the official Paper Doll World online store!

The 2013 winter line is going to include about 3 (maybe more, depending on the time) different doll and wardrobe packs, a food set, and perhaps a furniture set. Prices will range from $3 to $5, so it's super affordable, and the dolls will remain blank so you can customize them however you wish. If you're interested, I may be able to do a few custom orders, but those will be a little more pricy.

A sneak peek at one of the doll and outfit packs. Of course, the final version will be fully colored.

My plan was to have the grand opening and launch of the 2013 winter line today, but there were some technical snafus and the products aren't going to be on sale for a little while. The problem is that I want to sell the dolls and items as PDFs that can be instantly downloaded, but instead of that being a free service like I thought, it will end up being $7 to $50 a month, depending on how many items I sell. If enough of you buy from the Paper Doll World store, maybe I can break even, but I don't want to put that kind of pressure on you. My current plan is to sell the products as PDF files, but wait until the payment registers in Paypal and personally email you the file. It won't be an instant download, but it should be pretty fast. If business picks up, maybe I'll upgrade to the instant downloading service. Your thoughts?

I'm so excited to finally share this with you! I'll post more pictures as time permits, but in the meantime, what do you think of this new aspect of Paper Doll World?

Upcoming Q and A - Ask Now!

In honor of the one-year anniversary of Paper Doll World, I've decided to have a Q&A. If you have any questions about making dolls or pretty much anything (minus personal questions, of course), comment by December 8 at midnight and I'll do my best to answer them all in an anniversary post. Thanks for reading, and ask away!

Make Your Dolls Look Alive

Do your dolls have eyes without pupils, just flat color? Many of mine do, and it makes them look lifeless and zombie-like. Here's a trick to fix that with a doll who's already completed and tape-laminated. 

You'll need some white-out (a white-out pen with a thin tip is best, or a toothpick of applying white-out from a bottle), and a black pen with as thin a tip as you can find. I recommend a gel or drawing pen, but   any good pen that writes smoothly should work. 

Apply a tiny bit of white-out to the doll's eyes. This will be the catchlight. Try to apply as little as possible - you can never have too little when doing this. Wait a second to let it dry.

Use the pen to draw around the white-out to form the pupil. Try to keep as much of the eye color as you can while also not obliterating the white-out. Wait a few seconds to dry.

That's it! It's easy, fast, and works like a charm. I hope you found this useful, and if you have any questions or tutorial requests, I would love to hear them.