Wrap-Up 2024: Paperdoll Review Projects

Happy New Year! 2025 feels like some sci-fi year set in the far-flung flying car days of the future. It's not really real, I guess. I mean it is, obviously. My kids laugh at me when I get like this and talk about "the late 1900s" just to annoy me! 

Today I'm back into normal routine mode with the first of several wrap-up posts. I like sharing what I've done and what my (very loosely defined) goals are for the year. This post is a few of my favorite projects for Paperdoll Review. 

Every single year I am THRILLED that I get to work on all of these wonderful projects. 2024 marked five years of working with Jenny and publishing my books with her. She's a dear friend. The whole community is just a joyful part of my life. I am grateful every day to be a part of it.

Ok, enough sappiness. On to the projects.

These are all of the paperdoll books of 2024! If you get the Paperdoll Review newsletter, you'll see that I shamelessly swiped this image from that!! And if you aren't subscribed to the newsletter, you can subscribe here (scroll to the bottom of the page, in the left-hand column). For more fun, check out the reel on Facebook here. I want to share a few of my favorites - even though I love them all!!

This year, I colored two books drawn by Brenda Sneathen Mattox. The Princesses of Wales and Bridal Fashions of the 1920s and 1930s.

I'm a little nervous every time I color line art from another artist. I want the line art to shine! David Wolfe really gave me the confidence to take on these kinds of projects. Collaborating on his books, his advice, and his belief that I could do this sits at the forefront of my thoughts every time I color a book. 

Both of these books were edited in Photoshop and colored in Procreate, with additional elements edited in Illustrator.  

One project that just grabbed my attention instantly was Kwei-lin Lum's Jazz Baby. Her art is so inventive and vibrant! She had a very clear vision for the covers and I used that as inspiration for the interior layouts. We collaborated on the stereo on the cover - she had an idea of what she wanted and I worked it up in Illustrator, then added the textures in Photoshop. The fashions in this book are just totally stunning. I LOVE this book so much! 

Dan DeSantis's first book from Paperdoll Review, Cairo Pemberton, is another one of those projects I was in love with instantly. His art is so beautiful! He also had a clear vision for this book, with fully designed covers and colors ready to go for the borders. This project was mostly image extraction and clean-up on my end, with title treatments. Every page is lovely and I'm looking forward to working on more of Dan's books. 

Finally, I want to highlight two books that were very special to me this year, Ralph Hodgden's Ann Blyth and Rapunzel. 

 

Ralph is a legend in the paper doll world. His knowledge of the glamorous era of Hollywood is unparalleled. And his art is breathtaking in its detail. These are the first two books he's published with Paperdoll Review despite a long career as a self-published artist. He's been kind and encouraging in my growth as an artist and it's a privilege for me to edit his art into book form. Expect more books and prints from Ralph in the future. Jenny invited me to join her on a trip to Boston to see Ralph and gather up some of his art for publication. It's high on my 2025 goals list!      

I could write endlessly about each and every book from 2024. Every book that I work on feels like the best book ever, every time! I love editing art for other paper doll artists. If I've done it well, you don't know I've done anything at all. 

In my next post, I'll share my projects from 2024 and what my goals are for 2025. 

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

 If your December has been anything like my December, it's been super busy! Two birthdays, a quick trip to Boston with Jenny Taliadoros to see Ralph Hodgden, a winter concert at the school, multiple visits to the one of the boys' schools (for good things!), several doctor's appointments, and family festivities...It's been a lot! I love being busy with the kids and I know those days are numbered, but I'm looking forward to some downtime, for sure. 

This year's holiday card comes from my ongoing Emma McKay project. I started thinking about what Betsy McCall or Dolly Dingle or other "every girl" kinds of paper dolls might be like today. I took that idea and turned it into a calendar. You can grab the calendar here.

Right-click on the image to save it at full resolution. 

Happy Holidays to you & yours, whatever you celebrate. And here's hoping the blog will be a bit more active next year!

Vintage Halloween Flapper - Page 5

Happy Halloween! 

Today's outfit is a whimsical witch inspired by several sources.

Click on the image for full-size, then right-click to download

There is just SO MUCH excellent source material for a flapper/Art Deco/20s & 30s Halloween paper doll! In some cases, I combined various elements.

For my witch, I loved the idea of this swoopy neckline and shoulder bows. I also really like the idea of a lime green accent and I borrowed both ideas from this vintage decoration.

I also really loved the idea of a huge, elaborate dress like the decoration above. Linear accents popped up a lot, too, and I liked the idea of a spooky vintage cat running along the dress. And finally, I wanted a witch costume that wasn't all black so I went with rich lime, orange, and purple with the yellow stars.

 

For anyone who doesn't know this about me, Halloween is A BIG DEAL around my house. We all love it! In 2019, I started putting up a Christmas tree decorated for Halloween. Even before the pandemic, we were a bit more house-bound than I would have liked. I started putting this tree up as a silly way to cheer up the house for the kids and they loved it! So it's been 5 years and apparently it's trendy now! We still all love it.

Much like last year, my oldest is passing out candy at home. It's a task he's always enjoyed. Trick-or-treating was never his favorite thing and he was happy to give it up. My youngest, however, fully embraces the idea of running around after dark in search of candy while dressed in an absurd costume! This year, he's an inflatable Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the Ghostbuster movies.

It's ridiculous and hilarious and awesome. We'll see how long he can walk in this get-up! Whatever you and yours do for Halloween, I hope it's a sugar-laden festival of fun and just a tiny bit frightful! And I hope you've enjoyed following along with my flapper!

Vintage Halloween Flapper - Page 4

 Fall is the absolute best time in New England. Well, most years anyway! This year has been too hot and too chaotic. We've been plagued with illness & unexpected medical issues since September! We're all fine and none of it is huge in the grand scheme of things. It's just been a lot.

Click on the image for full resolution and right-click to download and save

I don't really have a reference for today's pretty pirate. It's a bit of a mix of pirate costumes and gypsy costumes. The idea of a "Gypsy" is a bit outdated for me so I took the elements I liked, such as the hip scarf and coin-beaded vest, and added them to a pirate instead. The dress is a bit flapper-ish and she's armed for adventure with her little wooden sword.

Next week is the last week of this little series! I hope everyone is enjoying it as much as I am!

Vintage Halloween Flapper - Page 3

 In my research for this project, I came across all kinds of wacky and wonderful costumes/fancy dress. Some were understated. Some were over-the-top! I came across a lot of pumpkins, cats, historical figures, whimsical flowers, and more. And spiders. Lots of spiders. 

Click on the image for full resolution, right-click to download and save

There were so many spider costumes! I sort of blended a few together to get this sparkling set. 

This image was my main inspiration. I simplified the headpiece a bit. I really wanted it to shine so the webbing got the glitter treatment. The web and spiders sparkle while the dress is meant to be a sort of velvet material. 

There are two more weeks to go! Do you have a costume picked out? One of my sons is ALL IN on Halloween. One prefers quietly passing out candy at home. Me? It's my favorite holiday of the year! Come back next week for another page in the set!

Vintage Halloween Flapper - Page 2

 I hope everyone is having a great October! We spent the weekend apple picking with the kids and my parents, as well as celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary! It was a lovely weekend! 

Click on the image for full size, right-click to download and save

I have come across some wonderful vintage Halloween ideas in my research! Adding crepe paper to pre-existing clothing was a common way of creating a costume. I'm not sure exactly how that worked but I came across an ad for these crepe costumes and just LOVED it! 

I briefly thought about a limited color scheme for the whole Halloween set, but as I colored I realized I just didn't like that. With this, I added a bright green with some hints of pink to create a vintage inspired cat sort of like this one:

I didn't like the hat in my reference image and created a floppy hat instead. Stay tuned for more downloads every Thursday for the rest of October!

Happy Halloween with a Vintage Flapper - Page 1

Surprise! I have a short series of Halloween paper dolls for the month of October. I decided to post on Thursdays for the month since Halloween is on a Thursday. Just makes for a nice, even distribution.

Click to enlarge, right-click to download and save

 

I don't know about anyone else, but my September was just a mess! The kids went back to school and immediately got sick. My youngest son brought home a cold that left me with a horrendous cough for more than two weeks. And then the poor kiddo had minor but emergency surgery. He's fine but it was a crazy month....

This might look familiar to anyone who attended the recent Paperdoll Convention. I gave a workshop called "Fashioning a Flapper" where we used pre-cut papers to design fanciful flapper dresses for this doll. It was a lot of fun, especially for my first-ever workshop. 

I really liked this doll and just didn't feel like I was finished with her. I also knew that I wanted to get back into the habit of posting here more regularly. So I decided to color her in and see where it went. As I was coloring it, I came across vintage 1920s and 30s Halloween costumes and decoration books. 

 

 

With these and others as my inspiration, I started putting together a lovely paper doll! Today's page has the doll and a daytime outfit. The rest of the month will be Halloween costumes. I'm hoping to tinker around with this and turn it into a book at some point. For now, enjoy a download every Thursday for the month of October!