Paper Doll From Stencil Scraps

When I need to do a little art, something that always restores my sanity and puts me in a happy place is making paper dolls—I immediately go back to a safe, happy childhood place. As a personal challenge, I decided to see what I could do using ONLY what was already in my art bins and scrap boxes.

First, I found a paper doll template that I had already printed out. (There are many free sources online; Retro Café Arts has a variety of doll templates that you can purchase.) The graphics fairy blog has free, downloadable vintage images—I love their shoes, hats, faces and clothing, and often use them in my doll-making.

I looked through my reject projects, imperfect printmaking work, and bits left over from other projects to see what inspired me. For this doll, I started with some of my own paper, which I had designed in Photoshop and printed from a color laser. I applied white printmaking paint onto my paper through various stencils, such as compass rose, steampunk and harlequin.

Using the doll parts template, I cut the body pieces out of the scraps of stenciled paper, and connected them with mini-brads. For the legs, as well as the belt and the ribbon on the hat, I used a bit of paper that had accidentally been sprayed with lime and turquoise Dylusion ink. (The hat is a Graphics Fairy image.)

I cut the skirt from a circle of the compass rose stencil, and the fleur de lis on the hat is from the same stencil.

The doll’s face is a Dina Wakely stamp, applied with black archival ink stamp pad. It was a “reject” because the ink printed a little sketchy, but I used a black pen to touch up the imperfect sections. A touch of blue was added to the hair using a Derwent block and a koi brush, and a tiny bit of skin-toned peach chalk in was applied to the face.