LET'S MAKE A PAPER DOLL

I have a friend who is for reasons private to her, housebound. I know that she loves the paper dolls that I make and that she'd love to make her own. But she does not feel capable, or even qualified to do so.

In my travels over the internet this past year I have heard snippets of talk hinting at this same dilemma. The wish to make a paper doll coupled with a disbelief in one's own ability to do so.

So I decided to write this blog entry for my friend, and for any of you who similarly wish to make your own paper doll.

I am no expert. I just love making paper dolls. That's all that is needed to embark on this adventure. Love. So let's make a paper doll.

Valentine Paper Doll with moveable parts

I don't know if she is going to be a hot tomatoe or not but she will be wearing a skirt with tomatoes as the motif. She is going to be a Valentine paper doll with moveable parts. If you wish to make your own doll please feel free to follow along and see what you come up with. Each doll will be original, unique, and yours.

I drew roughly, the outline of the skirt area (profile) which I will use in the design process. From the paper label I then cut sections of the tomatoe images and arranged them to fit into a collage that wasn't meant to denote tomatoes in exact perfect form, but rather a mass of red color with the occasional bit of green tossed in for contrast. This collage I placed within the boundaries of the roughly drawn skirt profile. Having a generous margin area included in the profile enabled design choices in placement of the image overall. It's nice to have wiggle room.

I started with an illustration from a cartoon that I'd clipped from a magazine and which has intrigued me for years. It's good to have a clipping file--a place to keep your bits of paper all in one spot. Images and colors and ideas are everywhere around you. Magazines in doctors' offices or hairdressers' salons or airport lounges are examples. My local library has a FREE bin full of disgarded magazines. In languages not mine, and mine as well. I love using foreign language copy as backgrounds. I clip colors, shapes, images. It doesn't matter. If I notice it I clip it. I don't stop to question why. The 'why' will come into play later during the design process.

So I had a concrete idea to use the silhouette of this skirt shape that I saw in the original cartoon image. See the photograph at the beginning of this blog entry? It's the skirt section of a valentine paper doll that I am making. It is 2" high and at the widest point (bottom) across is 4 and 1/4". If you like the shape, draw your own version. If you want both sides to be the same, fold a piece of paper in half and draw half of the shape. Just keep drawing shapes until you get one that you like. This will be your skirt outline which you will use to make a template.

We will make a template in the next post so see you then! In the meantime, start a clipping file. Open your eyes. Look at packaging. Soak labels from tin cans and wine bottles. You can find these in the trash. Free art. At the library there is a section where posters and bookmarks and flyers advertise theatre and other events. They are chock full of images. Free art. What can you see? Creative hugs, Norma.

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Haiku morning...

Snow in Vancouver. Cold. A haiku kind of morning.

From the tip of Buddha's nose
an icicle.

Issa

Painting

I have on my drawing table, a tree fairy, or nymph, or goddess I don't know which yet. She's wearing a golden headdress and will be in attendance at the annual Forest Christmas Gala taking place deep in the woods. As she decides what to wear and as I complete her I will snap a photo of her for you to see. So I am at the drawing table if I am not eating cake at the Fairy Fruitcake salon. Hope that you all are having a fun time these days. Talk to you soon.

Angel Food Cake

Late afternoon I was out in the yard raking fallen leaves from the maple when I smelled a whiff of something wonderful. It smelled like it should be pink in color no matter what it was. I looked around the garden and then up into the sky where I saw a wee fairy and a wee PINK cake flying gently by. I asked the fairy about what she was doing and learned that it was a special delivery for Robin. Lucky Robin I thought. And so it goes here in the forest...one never knows what one is going to happen upon. Well if I have time later this afternoon I am going to bake my first batch of shortbread for the season. I'll have it with tea. And serve it in the Fairy Fruitcake salon. Maybe I'll see you there later. Bye for now!

I'm over at the salon eating cake!

Just over setting up the aluminum tree and hanging glass balls on it; starting to get into the spirit of things in my new salon. I call it the FairyFruitcake http://www.fairyfruitcake.blogspot.com/
salon, as each day at 4 p.m. I serve fruitcake with a glass of sherry. Or tea if that is your preference. This is a new place I'm setting up right next to the fairyyellowbug studio space. Here I dream up things while I munch on cake. Friends drop by to talk about things they dream up. We share stories and laugh and cry sometimes. Overall, a place to BE.

Thanksgiving swap

Thanksgiving swap
Originally uploaded by fairyyellowbug

A paper doll, an a.t.c. and a recipe were called for in this swap. The fairyyellowbug studio was a flurry of activity this past week, getting this swap package together and then off in the mails. Well it's been some time since I've last spoken with you and there has been a number of times I've meant to check in and give an update about the happening in my neck of these woods. The wedding (magpie) was a fantastic event enjoyed by all of us here in the Kingdom and I will open my new ink bottle and find my stick pen and write you all a nice long letter. Meanwhile look at the goodies for my partner Vivian. This swap was generously hosted by Debra at HopHopJingleBoo.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...

Magpie Bride Paper Doll
Originally uploaded by fairyyellowbug

Maggie, a magpie friend of mine is finally getting hitched. She's been waiting for a long time before she met the right fella. She met him at a dance in the forest, late last fall, and has found the love of her life. His name is Maurice, a blackbird from another part of the world. Maggie made the bridal dress herself out of real crow feathers; she borrowed the veil from her cousin; and the brooch is old although the photo of her soon-to-be husband is new; and she choose a blue garter to throw out to the bachelors in the crowd. I am so looking forward to this wedding and will report to you later about how it all turned out!