Saturday, February 15, 2014

Paper Doll Beauties


Remember when you were little and you cut out paper dolls?  Well it's been eons for me until I bought Julie Nutting's Collage Couture Book that takes you step-by-step on the how tos of making paper dolls. When I joined Beverly's design team for The Piece by Piece and saw the piece of pink tutu lace she included I knew I was finally going to utilize the instructions in this book!  I can't tell you how much fun I've had the past few days designing and clothing my little fashion statements.  They took me back to carefree days and the joy of just playing and having fun.  After all isn't that what adult crafting is suppose to be about too?  Don't be telling me that you can't draw, been there done that, and lo and behold I can do it, so can you!

I made the doll on the right first, she was my 'let's see if I can do this doll'.  I was sold after that, she's gorgeous, well in my humble opinion she's gorgeous, what doll wouldn't be with a skirt made out of that Venise lace from Bev's store.  

I added two other laces one for the bodice and then just a snippet of the Flat Embroidered lace for the cummerbund.  Adding the purple spray of Candy Gems completed the waste and headpiece.  I took all the little gold strand bits left from the sprays and wound them to make her jewerly, the headband, arm band, necklace and anklet.  Here shoes are just Diamond stickles with a single crystal bling.  Yes, my inner child was having one heck of a time!  Her hair is Brownstone Martha Stewart Glitter Glue.  I don't do faces so left her with just a dab of pink cheeks.
The dolls were drawn onto a grid of several pieces of cardstock glued together.  For the white and purple dolls I think it's 3 or 4 layers which is perfect if you're going to make a card like I did here.  

On the pink tutu doll I tried a piece of medium weight chipboard to see if I could cut the curves with my craft-knife.  It wasn't as difficult as I thought. Recently I'd watched a video and the crafter was cutting chipboard and  I remembered a hint from her that said cut with medium steady pressure several times instead of trying to cut through in one single swish.  That worked perfectly.  



The bases are covered with dictionary paper.  I went to the local used paperback book store and bought one for $3.00 (oh to have the old ones that I had when I was a kid, sigh).  I wanted a book that had yellowish colored pages with a nice weight to the paper, which this did but I added Vintage Photo distress ink anyway to give it an even older look to the body.   I used Aleene's Collage Podge to adhere the dictionary paper to the doll, it sticks well and allows you move-ability time.  With dictionary paper (or any worded paper) it's fun to find words that will mean something when they show.  On the white doll the word Fashion is predominant and her it's fashion.


You can see the differences in body thickness and the look with the lace choices and colors.  The purplish/blue doll on the card was white lace died with Lindy's Love at First Bite Lavender and Frosted Forget-Me-Nots.

Check out my video, I'll share many more photos and a complete start to finish of how I made the pink tutu doll.  If you are in the vicinity of Bev's California store Julie is going to be teaching a Paper Doll Book class on March 1st.  Oh how I'd love to go!  So if you're nearby don't miss this opportunity to have a class with the master paper doll creator.



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Patti

Supplies 
Julie Nutting's Collage Coutour from Amazon

from my Stash: Stickles in Diamond and Cotton Candy Pink, Martha Stewart Glitter Glue in Ebony and Brownstone, Webster's pink sparkler, Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays  in Frosted Forget me Knot and Love at First Sight Lavender, Glossy Accents, Beacon Fabri-Tac, Prima Crystals, Prima Fairy Rhymes Paper, Aleene's Collage Podge, Dictionary Paper, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Copic Markers R11 and RV13

from TPBP Etsy shop:

2 comments:

Tracy said...

Your dolls are stunning.
I love the use of the book paper and the beautiful laces.
Good luck with my give-away :)

Marimer said...

Sencillamente adorable. No solo tu creatividad sino tu literatura es preciosa, tierna y tambien me ha transportado a mi infancia, redactada con gusto y generosidad, invitando a seguirte los pasos. gracias, es una maravilla visitar tu canal de video, blogg y sobretodo leerte.Besitos.