The Joy of Scrapbooking Paper

Were you making your own doll, in front of you you'd be holding a plastic template for a skirt, and a head piece that has been made sturdy, is trimmed and ready to work with. You'll need the head piece and skirt to figure out what size and shape you want for the bodice piece, as it joins together the two pieces that you already have.

I laid my two pieces (head/skirt) on the table in front of me, to see the relation each to the other has. What looks good in other words. Then I roughly measured the length of the heart shape (this was from the centre of the top of the heart-I will be attaching the head to this area of the heart bodice) to (the bottom point of the heart which will be attached to the skirt. The point needs to merge into the skirt area quite deeply here as it has a fairly narrow point). It looked to be about 2" plus something so I got an envelope, measured 2 and 1/2" along a folded edge, and cut out half of a heart shape along the edge. When opened the heart piece turned out to be too long and too wide. So I kept re-drawing and re-cutting heart shapes until I got one that I liked. It turned out to be 2 and 1/4" from top to bottom along the centre, and 1 and 1/2" across the widest part at the top when opened. I made a plastic template.

Now I can make a zillion outfits as I have a plastic template for a flippy skirt, and a heart shaped bodice. I can make paper dolls to give away as gifts and tokens of affection to family and friends...but I am ahead of myself.

Once I had Audrey's head ready to use, I didn't like the look of the tomatoe skirt. It was too red. I really liked the pink roses from the color photocopy sheet and so I made another skirt piece using the pink roses, AND a heart shape bodice. As I had the two plastic templates to trace the exact shapes, this was an easy step. I glued the roses color photocopy paper to cardboard to stiffen it and when dried, traced the outlines I needed and cut them out. Presto! A new outfit. I make plastic templates so that when layed down onto the paper, they can be easily positioned because you can see through them.

Next, is to make a plastic template for a head piece, using Audrey for the preliminary outline.

TRACING

Before I had a light table, I taped the original to a window during daylight hours. On top of that I lay tracing paper and copied to my hearts' content. You just want to draw the outline of the head you are using (I am using Audrey's) and extend the outline at the bottom so that there is enough area to overlap with the top of the heart piece bodice. Arch it down and up again in a pleasing line. See the photograph? It shows a traced shape of the head piece I use. This should give you an idea of what it looks like. Also pictured is the cut out shapes of a skirt and a bodice, using wonderful brand new scrapbooking paper. Oh joy! This is the beginning of a new doll. I see orange sparkly high heels in my future...See you next time! Hugs, Norma.

p.s. you don't have to rush out to the store to purchase tracing paper. Often, the paper used for commercial enterprise is flimsy enough to easily see through. Have a look around your home. You'd be amazed at the papers you can find--for free!