Julie Nutting Paper Doll Babies

Hello friends
I've been taken with Julie Nutting's paper doll stamps since they first appeared in the marketplace.  I've written about the dolls I've made a few times here . . .

Baby dolls arrived on the scene within the last year and since many of my friends are becoming grandparents (not me), I decided they would be a good thing to have. They arrived in the brown truck and I fiddled with them a bit, and that was it.

When the shower for the expectant Mrs. L was announced, I started making these little ones and as the time approached, decided to fashion them into a banner. I made one long banner, stringing it so it could be divided if necessary. And divided it was . . . one section was draped on the mantel . . .

And the remaining length was hung over the mirror in the foyer . . .

So, how did I do it? The dolls were stamped on white paper and cut into an oval shape.  Clothing was stamped onto patterned paper, cut out with fine point scissors and glued to the dolls. The shoes, hats, and accessories were added and the ovals were adhered to black "chalkboard" pennant shapes. Pale green seam binding was used to string the triangles together and a little "It's a girl" charm was knotted in between. The garland added a whimsical touch to the traditional decor of the party venue.

So I could remember how I dressed these babies, I took pictures of each of them before they traveled off to Virginia.

Here are the babies all dressed up . . . they all have hats because those bald heads didn't do it for me.  I played around with the hats, tilting them one way or another so they wouldn't all be identical.  Shoes and socks were all cut separately while sitting at the mezzanine watching/listening to my favorite TV programs.

And the babies ready to play . . .  I chose the areas of the patterned paper to stamp the clothes on so they would coordinate yet be different.

I think they are pretty cute . . . But wait . . . there were 19 of these little gals . . . so I apparently forgot someone! Good thing I'm done parenting!

Cheers til next time!

S.

A wedding card

Hello friends,

Here is a wedding card I made for a friend to give to a special couple . . .

The Prima Julie Nutting doll stamps, Adam and Lorrena, were used for the happy couple.  I stamped the foundation figures on buff cardstock, colored/shaded them with Prismacolor pencils and cut them out. Next, the garments were stamped - white ink on black cardstock for the "tux" and sepia ink on dotted vellum for the dress. These were cut by hand, the edges inked, and glued to the figures with rubber cement. The self stick "Say it with Crystals" used for the jewelry on the bride are made by Prima. I drew in the pocket square and colored the tie with silver pen and snipped the bride's arm so it could intertwine with the groom's (after I trimmed down his jacket sleeve a bit).

The rest of the card just evolved serendipitously. I probably slipped a dozen or more different papers behind the couple and was surprised at what looked the best. A sheet of gray paper with a wild floral border was the hands-down choice.

The paper was trimmed to take advantage of the flowers while also fitting on the 5 x 7 black card base. The greeting was stamped using white ink on black paper and placed vertically (since it was the only place it would fit).  A piece of 4 x 6 plain paper was affixed inside the card for writing  a personalized message. A custom envelope was folded to fit the card . . . the skirt just nudges over the edge and I couldn't bring myself to cut it off.

The card was a big hit with the gifter and the giftees,

Two more card postings coming next.

Cheers!

S.

Vintage "Thank You" card

I was poring over the July/August/September issue of Somerset Life magazine and lo and behold -  in an article by Connie Fong are projects made with a stamp that I own. How about that?

Using her idea, I made the card pictured below for a friend.  The stamp is from Catherine Moore's Character Constructions line called "Adventures in Tea."

 

The gal was stamped on cream cardstock and then again on the plaid paper.  I cut out the body and dress/hat and inked the edges with Distress Ink in Tea Dye. Using Prismacolor pencils, I shaded the body with peach, added blush to the cheeks and a dot of blue to the eyes. Pink pencil defines the dress folds, edges, the flower on the bodice and the bow on the hat. The garments were adhered to the body base and a white gel pen was used to color in the necklace.

I stamped a purse from a Julie Nutting stamp set in white ink on black paper, cut it out and embellished it with flowers cut from a paper scrap. The handle was trimmed. looped over the arm and the purse glued to the doll. The Thank You sentiment and outline label were stamped from a Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous set called "Simple Sayings" and trimmed.

A vintage dictionary page was cut to size and adhered to a black card. The doll was layered on the page and a strip of scrap paper adhered as a border down the left side. The sentiment was positioned at an angle and attached. I used a plain end page from the same dictionary, wrote a greeting and glued it to the inside of the card.

My friend, who is a vintage fan, was thrilled.

If  $14.99 is a bit much for you to spend on a Somerset Life magazine, you can take a look at Connie's projects (wall art) made with my stamp (lol) on her blog at Artful Play.

Til next time!

S.

It's Golf season

Hello friends

I am on the golf course - the game is coming around (finally) after hand surgery three years ago. It has taken longer than I expected for everything to feel normal and my confidence to return. 

Playing around with Christmas things - and holiday Julie Nutting paper gals.

Here's several jointed gals in progress. They are not stamped but traced from a Julie Nutting stencil and hand-cut. Then the hair is colored with Prismacolor pencils and edges inked prior to wardrobe. They all need some glitz and trimmings as well as banners with holiday words similar to the "READ." Don't you just love the glasses on the reader gal?

Interestingly I've discovered that documenting the "making" process (for a blog) to be more time-consuming than the actual making.

I will be trying to post once a week during the summer. I'm out there (or in my creative space) doing and making rather than talking about doing and making. 

Kudos to all the bloggers out there who post frequently. It is a challenge! (But a good one.)

Cheers!

Paper Doll of the Day: Aidan, one of the boys

Following the release of the many gal stamps designed by Julie Nutting for Prima Marketing,  a boy stamp finally appeared in Release 5 of the product line in 2014.  Aidan is dressed in a casual tee shirt and cargo pants outfit.  I didn't adopt him right away, thinking there would be more boys to follow. Four more fellows appeared in Release 7, but I went with Aidan. He has the least weird hair of them all (seriously, take a look) . . . and I like his clothing. Having grown up surrounded by boys and living as a parent with only sons, I am somewhat particular about boy hair and clothing.  In any event, here is Aidan.

Aidan is stamped on some script paper in Julie Nutting style.  I looked through my scrapbooking paper stash for male appropriate patterns and Aidan acquired several personas.  

Creating Mr. Aidan was the same process used with the gals - stamp the figure on sturdy paper, color hair, skin and whatever else needs coloring, stamp the clothes on selected papers, cut out everything, ink the edges, and piece it all together. Voila.

The fashionably trendy guy

The boy next door

The scholar - Sheldon Cooper style

The athlete with cropped hair and baseball shirt

The gang of guys

I am wanting more Prima fellows to join Aidan for a bit of diversity, but none of the other guys is calling to me just yet.  Give it time. :-)

A friend has asked what I'm going to do with these guys and gals I've created . . . they will grace some tags . . . inspiration will strike!

Stay tuned.  Cheers!

Paper Doll of the Day: Riley, Part 3

Ready for the Easter parade are the Riley gals from the last post . . . take a look . . .

The hat is one of four choices in a Prima Julie Nutting stamp set. The green hat on gal #3 is the stamp as it comes, while the white hat on gal #1 was stamped on the reverse of the paper so the scarf would look more realistic. The headband came from another doll stamp and sports a punched flower.

The "Bolero Doll" is counting on having a fabulous Easter - she was stamped on a page from a vintage mathematics book.  :-) Her hat was traced from one found online (sorry I don't have the page information) and embellished with a punched flower . . . it is large enough to be appropriate for the Kentucky Derby!

The twins stamped with the Ruffle Doll stamp are all dolled up and ready for Easter festivities.  Here's a sneak peek . . . they were the first gals I made after discovering the Julie Nutting stamps last spring . . . more about them next time.

Cheers!

Paper Doll of the Day - Riley (Part 2)

We have returned from our Florida vacation . . . it was wonderful to bask in the sunshine, spend time with the golfer son and his gal, visit with friends and play some golf.  Walking on green grass rather than white (or brown) snow was a remembered experience.

Sign on the deck at our hotel . . . Okaaay

In a previous post I showed a Riley paper doll makeover - using the jacket from the Prima "Business Casual" stamp set and modifying it a bit to replace a not-so-favorite dress I had colored with Ranger Distress Markers. But . . . . I didn't include a picture of Riley dressed in a "happy" dress.  So here she is  . . . in three versions of her dress.

This first version of Riley is stamped on a darker script paper in black ink.  The skin tone was softened with a peach Prismacolor pencil and pink cheeks were added. Then just the dress was inked and stamped on green patterned paper, cut out and glued to her body. Black shoes were edged in black ink to cover the white core of the paper.

The second version of  the Miss Riley doll is stamped on a lighter script paper. Her skin color is warmed with peach coloring and blushing cheeks are added.  Her dress was stamped in black on a lively floral paper. I trimmed off the black cross-hatch ruffle at the hemline and replaced it with an identical ruffle but stamped in red ink on red swirl paper. The belt and shoes were stamped on the same swirl paper, cut out and glued in the appropriate places. I love the red shoes, although tiny to cut out, they are just the right accessory for the dress.

For third look, Riley's dress combines a green dotted print with the lively floral. The top from a floral dress was pieced to the skirt of a green dress, minus the cross-hatched hemline ruffle. (Can you tell it's not a favorite of mine?) The ruffle from one of the other Julie Nutting dolls was added to the hemline for a different look. The belt was stamped on pink paper, cut and glued to the pieced dress. The original black stamped shoes complete the outfit - for now.  This one is a work in progress.

I probably should add a bow or flower to her hair . . . hmmmm . . . tomorrow.

Cheers!

Paper Dolls of the Day - Lorrena & Adam & Julie Nutting at CHA

Introducing Lorrena, the first gal with a floor-length dress who appeared in the second group of Prima's Julie Nutting doll stamps. She is quite a fancy gal and could be dressed as a prom queen, a princess or a bride. If you browse Pinterest, you will find she has many lives. (FYI, the first six dolls did not have names . . . all dolls since do have names.  I believe Lorrena is named for Julie's daughter.)

Lorrena's prom-style dress was stamped upside down on patterned paper so the flowers would cascade down from the waist. The bottom ruffle was stamped on the edge of a coordinating paper for a watercolor-ish effect, cut out and placed over the original hemline.  Her script paper skin and dark hair were colored with Prismacolor pencils. I gave her dark hair for dramatic contrast. As a finishing touch, a headband was stamped (inking only the head of the doll stamp), cut out and added to Lorrena's up-do.

All dressed up . . . so where does Lorrena go? To the prom, of course. Meet Adam, Lorrena's date for this special occasion.  Notice she has put on some jewels - earrings and a long glitzy necklace - recently released self-stick bling accents from Prima.

The first adult-looking male doll, Adam is part of the most recent Prima doll stamp group that was unveiled at the Craft & Hobby Association merchandise show in January.  He arrives in his underwear - his jacket and trousers are a set and a separate purchase. However, the "business casual" suit is his only wardrobe choice - guess he's a suit kind of guy.   :-)  FYI Adam has a coordinating gal, Marisol, who arrives in a slip - her wardrobe stamps are also a separate purchase. Marisol has not moved into my house as yet . . . but give her time . . .

Back to Adam  . . . he was stamped on ledger paper - his skin and hair were colored with Prismacolor pencils.  His jacket and pants were stamped on smooth 65# black cardstock using VersaMagic Cloud White chalk ink. The black stamped shirt and tie were snipped away from the jacket and replaced with the same neckline stamped on white cardstock with black ink.  Prismacolor crimson red was used to color his tie. Nice looking pair, n'est-ce pas?

Speaking of the CHA show  . . . I would love to go there someday . . . but unfortunately I am not a "brand" and I don't own a craft store . . . I grabbed a few pictures from the many that were posted online  . . .

Here is Julie Nutting relaxing in the Prima Marketing booth at CHA

Fabulous wedding party display showcasing Julie Nutting doll stamps

Bride and Groom - Marisol and Adam

Imagine being paid to create these samples? It would be a dream job! (I'm sure there is a downside - there always is . . .)

Next time you'll meet Miss Riley  . . . and she'll be wearing an interesting outfit . . . 

Cheers!

Chiara: Paper Doll of the Day

There have been eight groups of Julie Nutting Mixed Media doll stamps released  . . . I haven't bought many since release two . . . but in a visit to Papercraft Clubhouse in Westbrook last weekend, this gal was calling to me.  I tried to ignore her but was pulled back to that endcap. Sigh, must be fate. Her name is Chiara and I love her hair, stylish waist wrap and flippy skirt.

She had been stamped and dressed (twice!) before I went to bed that night. 

Chiara in the stripe dress is the original stamp image - I had this paper with a chevron design so took advantage of it. Chiara with the plaid leggings (love them) has trimmed hair and wears a slimmer skirt (snipped off the flip) which is more in keeping with a legging look.  The waist wrap is great . . . I made one to add as a neckline accent on one of the jointed gals . . . dresses up the pink tunic, I think.

I plan to draw up some trousers and bermuda shorts for Chiara - I think she would make a great golfer. :-) Most of the Julie Nutting doll stamps are in dresses or skirts and are "striking a pose" in the fashion sense. Their legs aren't trouser ready, so to speak, but Chiara is one who is.  

I'm beyond excited to be going to an all day "Painted Paper Collage" workshop on Sunday at Papercraft Clubhouse  with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer (whose blog I've been following forever). INFO  I have done very little with paints so this will be a true learning experience for me. 

 An art journaling workshop is Julie's Saturday offering but that didn't call to me.  Journaling daily is way too much pressure in my life. Do a set task every day?  I'm not even good at taking vitamins!  The man of the house says I never do anything the same way twice. Lol. And I forgot to put my FitBit on today after my shower. Sigh.

Still to come - making a jointed paper doll (as soon as I take the right photos).

Cheers!

Paper Doll Tags with Julie Nutting Stamps

So what to do with these fabulous paper dolls once they are created?  Most of the paper artists I see online are making tags with the dolls. No surprise . . . Prima Marketing sells Tag Pads . . . 48 tags in a pad cut to just the right size (8.75" x 3.5") for the Julie Nutting doll stamps. There are several different backgrounds available now, but mine was purchased when the pad available had a script background, which I do like.

These were my first attempts (sorry . . .  pretty awful picture) . . .

Making the dolls with the doll stamps takes as little or as much time as one chooses to spend, depending on the particular stamp and the detail of the outfit. 

The process goes something like this: Stamp the doll onto the card stock chosen for the body -  white, off-white, text, script or whatever tickles your fancy and cut it out. Decide what papers to use for the clothes, ink the stamp for each part of the outfit and stamp onto the chosen papers. Cut out the clothing pieces and ink the edges if desired (white paper edges look unfinished to me now). Then it's time to put it all together. Ink the edges of the body or color the skin if desired; color the hair with pens, markers, or colored pencils.  Then glue the clothing pieces onto the base and voila! You have a paper doll to add to a tag, a package or a greeting card.

The green ballgown worn by the princess (above on the right) is a good example of a simple pieced dress.  Stamped once onto two shades of green paper, the bodice and hem were cut from the darker color paper and glued onto the light green dress.  Over time, I have become a better "partial inker" and I waste a less paper.

For a quicker paper doll, you can color the base doll with markers and not have to cut out any clothes. Copic markers are all the rage right now in the paper crafting world, but at $7.00 each, I'm not going there. FYI  I have made just two dolls that I colored with markers I had on hand, and decided I prefer the look of dresses cut from printed papers.

The doll pictured on the tag below was stamped onto a page from a telephone book.  I cut outside the stamped lines because the paper was so thin. The outfit was pieced using both sides of a sheet of double sided scrapbook paper and accented with Stickles glitz. I decorated the tag background using a doily that was inked, a strip of washi tape and some blooms punched from paper on a hand-drawn stem. 

A few more  . . . all of the dolls below were stamped on script paper and dressed with paper dresses. The headbands were stamped and cut out and some were embellished with punched shapes. Julie Nutting apparently likes headbands because most of her doll stamps have them. Some shoes are colored with Prismacolor pencils or black markers, others were cut from paper to match a dress.

  

  

You can see I was into the green and white checked paper.  :-)  The dress on the stamp used for the two younger gals (on the right) actually has only two tiers - I added the third tier because I liked the look.

The full collection of Julie Nutting stamps can be seen online on the Prima Marketing site.

If you are interested in seeing paper dolls made by other paper artists, I have collected my favorites on my Pinterest board HERE.

Or venture forth and search on "Julie Nutting" or "mixed media doll stamps" using any search engine such as Google or Bing.  There are literally thousands of  examples made by some very creative people out there.

And, if you are interested in giving paper doll making a try, we can do that, too.

Next time - making a jointed paper doll.

Cheers!

S.

Collage Couture and Paper Dolls

Several years ago I happened across a book by Julie Nutting titled Collage Couture: Techniques for Creating Fashionable Art and was so struck by the cover, I just had to thumb through it.  Collage dresses! With book pages. Needless to say, it came home with me.

I love collage and book pages, and the idea of combining these into great looking paper dolls and doll clothes appealed to me.  A treasure trove of illustrations and instruction, Collage Couture covers every facet of creating contemporary paper gals  - from proportioning a figure to drawing hair and sketching clothing. How to combine colors and patterns in clothing, techniques for creating backgrounds on canvas to show off the gals, and ideas for using them on cards and gifts are all described in detail. You can see the book on Amazon HERE.

Published in 2010, but as I discovered it, Prima Marketing had released a Julie Nutting stencil for making paper dolls as well as some doll rubber stamps.  I ordered the 12x12 stencil right away, since it meant I didn't have to draw anything (I'm not much of a draw-er). And I started making some gals.

 Stencil and dolls from Prima Marketing website

After getting inspiration from Julie Nutting's videos on the Prima Marketing website and looking around at what other paper artists had made with Julie's stencil on Pinterest, the gal below was my first creation. Made to accompany a christening gift for my friend's granddaughter, I arrived at the party and realized I had forgotten to take a picture of it. With Jane's voice resonating in my head, I propped the orange dotty gal on the seat of my car and preserved her for posterity just few minutes before I gave her away.  I liked how she came out so  . . .

Avery's paper doll

So I made a few more . . . and a few more . . .  gave a few away . . . . a couple went in the garbage because I didn't like their hair or dress or had mucked it up somehow. Drawing hair is a challenge for me . . .

 

By then I had purchased many of the first release of  Julie Nutting doll stamps . . . well, actually, all of them . . .

I liked the jointed dolls so decided to stamp the heads on the script or text paper and then use the template to draw the body to fit the head. Here's two examples. Oops - the head on the gal in the black dotted dress is from a stamp in the next release (yes, I bought more).

 

I have a few jointed gals waiting for garments . . .

Julie Nutting likes to use text or script paper for her dolls and I have followed her example.  In one of her videos Julie mentions she had been a fashion illustrator so she was focused on the garments, rather than the faces. She says she never learned to draw faces to her satisfaction.  Prima Marketing has since released a set of face stamps, but they aren't my cup of tea (below). See what I mean? FYI, that's the Prima Marketing logo over the middle face.

Next time -  a look at the tags I made using stamps from the first release.  Fun!

Cheers!