If you are still hunting for ideas for you Xmas dioramas have a look at this great tutorial for miniature crackers, I still remembered how I loved them the first Xmas I spent in UK ( we don’t use them in Italy), your dollies will love them as well!

Here instead are the instructions and printies to make a miniature advent calendar (ok, here we are a bit running out of time).

Or what about this adorable munchkin santa pattern from Linda Walsh site? Or the lovely couple Santa and Mrs Claus, from melodiesplus site. By the way you can find here tons of delightful dolls patterns, check out for example the nursery rhyme ones.

If instead you prefer paper dolls, check the Sally paperdolls available on lair2000 site, all the downloads look great. But if you fancy something more “conventional” here are some Betsy McCall Christmas paper dolls. If you love Betsy McCalls dolls like me go to the main page of Terry Pettit wonderful site, you can have a look and save all of them, included Little Kiddles pd.

So, I hope I gave you some ideas and if you have some nice links to share with me please do so, I would love to see them.

And remember, tomorrow is wednesday, weekend is getting closer

Have a look at the beautiful site from Magdalena Babinska!!! I love her paper dolls, her baby Matylda is amazing but everything there looks superb. You can find Matylda on the downloads page. Check also her blog, there the artist has more sets to dress the little cutie, like this one for example. The blog unfortunately is not in english but the illustrations speak for themselves

Since I saw the trailer for the movie I cannot wait to watch it in February. It looks great. As I think you understood by now I love stop motion movies and the story seems enchanting. The password to enter the site is “buttoneyes”, but you will need more of them, read the great post from Toycutter blog to find them out. Waiting for it I will most probably buy the book.

The first thought that came to my mind when I saw the trailer was actually how to get hold of some dolls, ok…I admit I’m a bit single minded I would have loved for the moment some paperdolls or even better a papermodel but I couldn’t find any of them. If anybody knows where I can find a papermodel please let me know! I found though the italian trailer for the book

thanks to JacketFlap site, thank you

I saw Forbidden Planet will sell some figures starting in february but to be honest they look more like static figures rather than dolls. I found though these interesting serie of articles on Mary  Robinette Kowal journal on how she created three OOAK dolls commissioned by Subterranean Press. I just browse quickly through 2 of them but I plan to read them well and carefully after I’ve done the boring bit of the day (AKA ironing)

Here I found pictures of the Neca’s puppets and then again a great article about the set of the movie from Animation World Network site.

I still want some papermodels though

I really like traditional japanese dolls but for the moment I keep myself happy by buying, by time to time, a fashion doll dressed in a kimono or a kimono for a doll I already have. Said so I still love to look on the net at beautiful collections of traditional japanese dolls and related crafts.

If my sewing and crafts skills were up to the task I would try to make this beautiful Kimono cloth doll, the pattern is from the nunodolls site and the finished doll looks great, but as I said, not enough skills here

I also find very nice this kimono pattern for superdolfie dolls from the trimline site, the fabric are so charming and they fit the dolls beautifully, but again not my piece of cake.

What actually looks like something I could give a try at are “simple” Kimono paper dolls. I had a look at many tutorials but this is the one I like more, it is really clear! In the other ones I checked there was always at least a step I didn’t understand. This I think I can handle…well sort of. For the clothes of the doll I plan to print these stunning oriental patterns from the ming-ling site, have a look, it is really an interesting page and the owner generously shares with all his readers many patterns, not just oriental ones.

Who knows…perhaps in many years I will be good at it

Last but not least a paper-craft! As you all know I love paper-craft and today I finally bought the right tools for this crafts (scissors, cutters, rulers etc etc). Have a look and download this delightful Hina Matsuri paper diorama. Did you ever see something so cute?

That’s all for now. Hopefully in the future I will share with you all my kimono paper dolls and tons of other nice links I found. Have a nice evening, or a  nice morning, wherever you are

Still surfing …like usually, still hunting for paper dolls. Have a look at these paper dolls from the “Girl Genius” comic characters, I love them. The costumes are just amazing and by way the comic is super-duper great!!!I’m hooked, I’m reading since 6 in the morning, it is really addictive (thanks to Ursula for showing it to me).

I subscribed to few feeds from papercraft blogs (I love this stuff!) and today I saw on PaperCraft Paradise a post regarding a cute Doctor Office diorama, if I understood correctly it is even 1/6 scale since they mentioned it could be used also for Gi Joe. The office set is avalaible here, and then on this page you can get the equipment. A full history  and origins of the diorama paperset can be read on Paper Bonanza blog.

I’m not sure when and if I will have a go at it but I saved all the pdf files, I hate when I bookmark something absolutely nice and months afterwards it is gone. I have a large harddisk and I can always get a bigger one LOL.

As you all know by know I love paper dolls but till now I managed to restrain myself from collecting them, well…sort of

Last evening while surfing my time away I read “Making Paper” on “the Root” , a fascinating article by Arabella Grayson about black paper dolls.

Ms Grayson is a very well known collector and freelance writer and if you didn’t read the article yet, take the chance now, I even printed it! Just to be on the safe side (old habits are hard to die). I read there about  the upcoming exhibition of her collection (“Paper Cuts: Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls”), at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. It will be hosted at the museum starting in January 2009 and I wished I was there to be able to visit it but unfortunately I’m in Europe.

I wrote a short mail to the press office of the museum asking for a couple of pictures, if possible, or even just a short press release. Ms Sonja Cendak, the Gallery manager, was absolutely great, she sent me some beautiful pictures and the press release, I was delighted!

Here is just a short extract of the press release:

“Opening January 25, 2009 in honor of African American History Month, Paper Cuts: 200 Years of Black Paper Dolls documents the evolving cultural images of African Americans throughoutthe last 200 years: from Little Black Sambo to Jackie Robinson; from Josephine Baker to Beyoncé. Drawn from the extensive collection of researcher Arabella Grayson, the exhibit will feature some of the first black paper dolls produced—the family of characters from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin—and the rise of one of the most recognizable African Americans in advertising, Aunt Jemimah. Using paper dolls as social and historic markers, the exhibit travels from the civil rights movement to present day sports and entertainment figures while illuminating changing cultural images of African Americans.”

And here below the pictures, enjoy them, but please remember these were very generously shared by the owner and the museum at the condition that they will not be reproduced or utilized for any other purpose than educational/non commercial.

Sally Hemings

Artist: Donald Hendricks

Legacy Designs, circa 2000

Paper doll with three fashionable outfits with two page biographical narrative on

Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson and their relationship

I'se Topsey Doll C&H Sugar Recipe Booklet, 1930s
A character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the bestselling novel of the mid-1800s,
the young slave girl Topsey is the first black American paper doll.

Gone With the Wind – Part One Artist:
Bob Harman Bob Harman Publications, 1988 (Illustrated 1975)

Aunt Jemima Paper Doll Advertising premium, Whitman Publishing Co., 1938

So, we are almost half through the week, starting to get a bit tired but the weekend is still far away…

Yesterday we went together around museums, but today I just wanted to sit comfy and enjoy something funny, if you love paper dolls and intelligent humourism, you will adore this one:

This is the best video I watched in quite a while!

So, as I already said, I really would like to make a quick Halloween Diorama this year. I’m still not sure about the doll but I think  I will use my cute  Bratz  witch from the Bratz Costume Party line. Absolutely not scaring at all

On the other side the first rush of bills for this month stormed trough our bank like a tsunami and I already splurged on 2 chinese pieces of furniture in 1/6 scale  (pictures to come)so the sad truth is : no dollies funds left till next pay day

The only logical and wise decision at this point was a browsing trip, looking around for some additional free goodies to be used in my diorama.

As usually tons on stuff on the net, mostly in 1/12 scale but lot of them will work fine also with the 1/6 scale dolls. I found for example some nice Trick-and.Treat bags from the Hitty Print Mini, delightful site. The printies are intended for Hitty dolls but in my opninion will work fine in other scales as well.

What I really loved though was this skeleton paper doll !!! I bet it is a nightmare to cut it out but still looks very good. I found it on My Small Obsessions Site, a truthful name.

On the same site by the way you can also find the link to an absolutely lovely page full of mini printies for an italian restaurant. I know, I know…not Halloween-related but too good not to mention it:-)

So, that’s all for today and for my german readers: have a nice long weekend I will be working tomorrow

Growing up in Italy I don’t remember to have ever seen Sindy in the shops, on the other side I was a Barbie Barbie girl  when I was a child At the time I started to collect dolls though I was living in UK and there she’s a queen. Sindy has been produced by many companies (I think 4 up till now) and has undergone many transformations but what I really love are the big headed Pedigree Sindy. They have such a sweet face and even if they look all similar I find each single doll is slightly different from the other ones. Here are some of my Sindy (mainly Pedigree and a couple of early Hasbro) to give you an idea in case you never saw the doll:

I will not go into the history of the doll since there are plenty of good sites about her but two nights ago I was surfing the web (surprise, surprise) and googled Sindy up after a long time I didn’t do it. I found few wonderful sites I never saw before and I want to share them with the Sindy’s fans out there.

Here you can download some beautiful Sindy paperdolls and comics, the drawing are really vintage-looking and even if you don’t care for the doll itself you should love them if you are collecting paperdolls . I think even printed and framed they would be a delightful decoration for a dolls or children room.

If you are looking for some repro vintage outfits for example, much more affordable than the original ones, sindyclothes looks the perfect site to check out. The really cool sections though is the DIY one, the owner very generously shares with her readers and customers not only tons of patterns to do Sindy hats and shoes boxes and other printables,  but she even uploaded copies of instructions sheets for all the main furniture sets in case you lost yours or never had them. Really a site to bookmark!

And then if all these talking about Sindy made you hitch to dug your childhood doll out or buy a vintage one, here you can find plenty of chance to ID her. Club-Sindy site offers on the other side beautiful pages dedicated to the Hasbro dolls. Here one of the most beautiful Sindy dolls produced by Hasbro (and no so easy to get hold of): Soiree Magnifique. The picture is not so clear because the doll is NRFB:

So, what can I say more? Have a go, happy Sindy collecting!