April Party Call at StencilGirl's StencilClub

Want to make your own party girl?

April's Party Call project at StencilGirl's StencilClub provided the challenge of creating a paper doll -- a jointed one, if that was our choice.  

I'd created paper dolls as a child, and now at 71, I'm back at it again!

I knew I wanted my doll to be African American, and I knew that I wanted to use a stencil-and-mask set by Valerie Sjodin  -- Figures Praising -- to make my doll's body.  Valerie's joyous figures have arms and legs long enough to let me use them in making jointed limbs:

Above, I traced around one of the Figures Praising masks, then brought out my fine-detail scissors to cut out the image.

Below:  After gluing my doll outline to cardboard for extra strength, I auditioned faces cut from clothing catalogs that often clog my mailbox --

Above, I've switched to my Joyce Chen scissors, now that the cardboard is making the figure harder to cut.  I've also added a heart, altho it will be covered later by clothing.

Below, I've drawn lines where the limbs will be cut, so they can return as jointed limbs with the help of mini-brads.

Above:  I've cut off the limbs, ready to cut slits for inserting mini brads.

You can click on the image below to enlarge it and better see detail.  This captures the auditioning of scraps cut from stencil-prints.  The orange and aqua scrap was printed with my 9" x 12" stencil Wrought Iron Gate. The green-and-white scraps came from paper printed with my 9' x 12" mask Looking Up Through Trees.  And the large scrap at far left was printed with my 6" x 6" mask Sprigs.  The Sprigs print is the one I decided to use in making my doll's clothes.

Above, I've placed the skirt on the doll just to check for size.  It was easy to make a full skirt from my Sprigs print, because of its design.

I've also added a tiara cut from a strip of Dresden's embossed foil embellishments (available at AmazonSmile and Etsy.)

Below:  I've turned the doll's torso and arms, as well as the Sprigs print, back-sides-up.  (Yes, the print had been made on an old calendar page photo!)  With a black pen, I have traced around the torso and arms, on my way to creating the doll's blouse.

Above, you can see I've moved the doll pieces aside so I could finish drawing in lines that would be needed for cutting.

Below:  The blouse pieces have been cut out and placed on the doll to double-check for fit.  The strip of Dresden's embossed foil embellishments -- shown along the top of this photo -- have been used again, to give the doll a collar matching her tiara.

You can click on the above image to enlarge it and better see detail.

In the above photo, the skirt has been placed on the doll temporarily.  It won't be glued down until the legs have been re-attached.

Below, with an embellishment gluestick in hand, I've started to paste the blouse pieces onto the torso and arms.

Above:  I've started to cut slits for mini brads that will give the doll back her arms and legs.  A close-up is below --

Again, you can click on the above photo to enlarge it to see details more clearly.

The photo below shows the back of the doll after her legs have been attached with mini-brads.

Above, a front-view shows both arms and legs jointed with mini brads.

Below:  I've pasted on the skirt, along with a belt and two bracelets, all cut from Dresden's embossed foil embellishments.  The doll is finished!

Thank you for stopping here today!  To join StencilGirl's StencilClub and get in on all its fun activities, please look here.  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl masks and stencils, please start here.