Showing posts with label paper doll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paper doll. Show all posts

Sunday, February 8, 2026

Paper Doll Hearts

 Welcome!

All kaleidoscopes by inkspired and KaleidaCam

Can you believe it? Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! What happened to January? What happened to 2025 for that matter! No matter if I am ready or not, time marches on. I better get with it, and share some Valentines with y’all.



These are the outside and inside of a card I made recently. The Cupid has been made with an Iris Folding technique. Just type that into the search engine and you should find many examples and directions on that technique in past blogs.

The bow/arrow was cut with my Cricut (pronounce it just like the little critter). The inside was cut using metal dies with my Spellbinders Platinum.


Today however I want to share some heart-felt paper dolls with you. I have chosen ones that can be printed on one page and sent/given to the Valentine of your choice. Many of them are vintage.

Children’s PLAY MATE magazine; 1929-1935

Unknown, most likely magazine

 There was a time when sending paper doll valentines was very popular. Electronic games and hand held devises had not been invented yet. Cutting out paper dolls, making props from things around the house and writing little scripts for puppet plays was a common pastime for both girls and boys.


Vintage Valentines

These paper doll valentines are very collectible now, especially if they are uncut. A brief look on eBay found uncut paper dolls Valentines for sale anywhere from $17 for one 1940’s pre-owned, to 2 uncut ones for $45.50. A 1978 Joan Walsh Anglund one page Valentine was listed for $20.

1993
Joan Walsh Anglund, 1987

I do admit, however, the ones from the 1940’s or so are my favorites!





Here are a couple more modern Valentine-themed paper doll pages:



While animal paper dolls remain a steady favorite, there doesn’t seem to be as many Valentine animal paper dolls as there are little girls. I did find this cute little bear however:

If you are wanting to draw your own paper dolls for a fun Valentine’s Day card, why not try a simple cat, dog or bear shape? The clothes would be much more forgiving to draw and color. Here’s a Dolly Dingle style dog, Fido, for inspiration-

Artist Grace Drayton

And a cute piggy-


Both of these sets have simple shapes with no hands you have to draw, or funny feet. Don’t forget to always add tabs to hold the costume in place.

The next 2 pages are by Lydia Fraser, a well-known Canadian illustrator and artist from the 1930’s. I believe these paper dolls were from Canadian Home Journal.


By Lydia Fraser

This next page is from the artist Hilda Miloche. This popular paper doll artist had the Cherub Valentine published in 1948 in 
The Story Parade Magazine for Boys and Girls.


The next paper doll is by popular artist and illustrator Mary Engelbreit.



Here is a Valentine you can print out and color yourself, or let your recipient color it. It is drawn by Melissa Pepe.



Missmissypaperdolls.com

Can’t have a paper doll blog without including the iconic Betsy McCall-

1957

Here are 2 more vintage paper doll cards-



The next black and white paperdoll is by Laura R. Brock. She drew for a Los Angeles newspaper and this one is from a series from 1933-1934.

Laura R. Brock, 1933-1934

About ready to go find your paper scissors, fire up the printer, and grab some white cardstock?
No cardstock? Then just print on regular copy paper. Glue the sheet onto the back of a box, like a cereal box. Now is the time to color, if it needs it. Draw in the clothing tabs and a paper doll stand if needed. Now cut out, and let your imagination fly!

Let’s close with another vintage paper doll Valentine, from around the 1940’s perhaps-


‘Til next time,
inkspired

A few sites I checked out while writing this blog:

Papergoodies.com
eBay 

Pinterest

worthpoint.com










 

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Red, the color of…

 Welcome!

All kaleidoscopes by inkspired and KaleidoCam 



The rose is red, the violet’s blue,

The honey’s sweet, and so are you.

Thou art my love and I am thine,

I drew thee to my valentine:

The lot was cast and then I drew,

And fortune said it should be you.

- 1784

Red:

Passion

Intense 

Dominant

Primary

Brilliant


A Lady red - amid the Hill

Her annual secret keeps!

A Lady white, within the Field

In placid Lily sleeps!

The tidy Breezes, with their Brooms -

Sweep vale - and hill - and tree!

Prithee, my pretty Housewives!

Who may expected be?

The Neighbors do not yet suspect!

The Woods exchange a smile!

Orchard and Buttercup, and Bird -

In such a little while!

And yet, how still the Landscape stands!

How nonchalant the Hedge!

As if the “Resurrection”

Were nothing very strange!

- 1879, Emily Dickinson


Red Maple tree


rooi - Afrikaans

rood - Dutch

rojo  - Spanish

ado’m - Hebrew

Summer Tanager; photo cred: Tara Tanaka


rouge - French

bomvu - Zulu

rot - German

czerwony - Polish



hongse` - Chinese

crven - Croatian

ppalgan - Korean

sur - Pashto

Mermaid’s Night on the Town’ recycled junk mail collage by inkspired



dearg - Irish

aka - Japanese

d’o - Vietnamese

cherven - Bulgarian 





Vestiaire Collective

1920’s evening gown

Build-Your-Own-Art; Mercuri


ahmar - Arabic
merah  - Indonesian
nyekundu - Swahili
rasu - Romanian
Robert Vivier, Nordstrom’s 


Sandra Oh, Screen Guild Actor’s Awards

ghermez - Farsi
krasny - Russian
laal - Hindu
sarkans - Latvian

Barbie paper doll



‘My love is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my love is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune…’

- Robert Burns, possibly adapting an existing folk song







1937 Cord 810 Beverly 

punainen - Finnish
lal - Bengali
raudonas - Lithuanian
daeng - Thai

NYC Dance Project; photo cred: Ken Browar & Deborah Ory

Recycled postage stamp art by inkspired

Godinger, Macy’s

vermelho - Portuguese
sivappu - Tamil
sur - Pashto
rout - Luxembourgish







kirmizi - Turkish
chervonyy - Ukranian
pula - Filipino
rato - Nepalese

Virtual Paperdolls

Red Dragon Beta; credit: Jirawat Plekhongthu


The Red Wheelbarrow

‘so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens’

- William Carlos Williams
1883-1963
one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement

by inkspired




Vintage advertisement 



Vintage advertisement 

merah - Malay
coch - Welsh
casaan - Somalian
piros  - Hungarian




Chinese cinnabar 

‘Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font.
The firefly wakens; waken thou with me…’

- Lord Alfred Tennyson
A Persian form of poetry called ghazal,
a form of love poetry usually sung.

Ali Express

Zappos




Painted rock cottage by inkspired





BagForLove



Painted rock by inkspired

I hope you have enjoyed this little venture into the color red as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.

‘Til next time,

inkspired


A few of the websites I visited for this blog, in no particular order:

Pinterest

interestingliterature.com

Reddit.com

lexiglobe.com