Ever since I can remember, I have had a LOVE for PAPER! Some of my first and fondest memories of childhood involved paper....reading, writing, drawing, cutting, folding, and creating.
When I was a little girl, I had a pretty typical bedtime routine...bath, books, bed. Almost every night after bath time, I would grab a stack of storybooks to read. I distinctly remember the joy I felt looking at the beautifully hand drawn illustrations and the wonderful feeling of the crisp pages in my fingers. Many hours were spent flipping through the pages, reading and dreaming about the places and people in my books.
My love of hand drawn illustrations and stories was not limited to children's books. I loved comics too! Every Sunday morning my Dad would get the newspaper and read it at breakfast. I can recall the wonderful inky smell of the paper, and how I would quickly flip through the pages to find the comics section. Some of my favorite comics were Peanuts, Garfield, and Frank & Ernest. I would practice drawing these characters over and over again until I could finally draw them from memory. To this day, my Dad has kept many of my first comic strip drawings.
As I grew older, I developed a real love for paper dolls. I had many different types of paper dolls...Barbie, The Ginghams and Holly Hobbie to name a few. I also loved making my own paper dolls. Each season, my mom used to get the big JCPenney and Sears catalogs. I eagerly anticipated the arrival of those catalogs, because I would page through them and find models that I could cut out and create fashions for. I spent hours drawing and designing outfits and prints for those models...thus began my lifelong passion for creating paper dolls and patterns.
 |
| Pretty Changes Barbie Paper Dolls |
 |
| The Ginghams Paper Doll Sets |
 |
| Holly Hobbie Paper Dolls |
So, for all of you fantastic readers out there hopping through this super fun blog hop, I wanted to personally share a bit of my paper doll passion with you. So, I designed a sweet paper doll named Ginger that has a bit of vintage flare. Her outfits are patterned with designs that I developed too. I have made her available as a free download, so just click on the link below, download file, and print off on heavy card stock paper at home. I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!
Click HERE for free download of my Ginger paper dolls.
 |
| My Ginger paper dolls are for personal use only. Please no selling, copying, or profiting from it. Copyright 2014 Holly Helgeson Designs. Please link back to my page when possible. Thank you. |
Thanks so much for stopping by to read about why I love paper! I would love to know why you love paper too, so please feel free to leave a comment below. Please hop on over to Claudine Hellmuth for more paper love!
Here is a list of all the wonderful bloggers participating in the Paperlove Blog Hop. Please click on each bloggers link below to discover why they all love paper!
Majo Bautista / Tona Bell / Louise Best / Cathy Bluteau / Jennifer Bomgardner / Giova Brusa / Lindsay Buck / Beka Buckley / Joanna Caskie / Jonathan Chapman (Mr Yen) / Halle Cisco / Sarah Clare / Cathryn Clarge / Dawn Clarkson / Rhiannon Connelly / Jenny D'Fuego / Molly Dhiman / Ian Dudley / Ayisatu Emore / Akmal Farid / Monika Forsberg / Claire Fritz-Domeney / Louise Gale / Chrissy Gaskell / Julie Hamilton / Emma Hawman / Rachel Hazell / Holly Helgeson / Claudine Hellmuth / Kim Henkel / Sarah Hoffman / Joanne Hus / Paula Joerling / Beth Kempton / Julie Kirk / Eos Koch / Katie LaClair / Kristy Lankford / Michelle Manolov / Doreen Marts / Rosie Martinez-Dekker / Tori Mears / Maria Mederios / Lise Meijer / Debbie Miller / MaryJane Mitchell / Suzy Naidoo / Grace Noel / Hannah Nunn / Camilla Olsson / Jo Packham / Rachelle Panagarry / Monette Pangan / Melanie Paul / Nicole Piar / Jen Pitta / Liz Plummer / Julie Reed / Michelle Reynolds / Lisa Rivas / Angee Robertson / Natalie Ryan / Aisling Ryan / Elisabet Sapena / Kyrrha Sevco / Jamie Sprague / Elizabeth Steele / Terri Stephens / Juniper Stokes / Mary Tanana / Maike Thoma / Linda Tieu / Gabrielle Treanor / Tammy Tutterow / Deborah Velasquez / Jordan Vinograd Kim / Cat Whipple / Brooke Witt / Katie Wood / Amelia Woodbridge
The PaperLove Blog Hop is a celebration of all things paper! Follow the links to discover more bloggers who love paper and use it to inspire and delight. And if you want to explore a whole world of paper, and stretch your paper passion further with a host of creative projects, why not join the innovative new online course PaperLove (starts March 31). Led by book artist Rachel Hazell, PaperLove is a five week creative adventure for paper lovers. Find out more HERE.
I loved paper dools too. I so love doing this blog hop. So nice to read about every once love for paper. Thank you for sharing yours.
ReplyDelete/Camilla Olsson - also in the blog hop www.camillaolssonart.wordpress.com
I had a fun time designing my 'Ginger' paper doll and writing about my love of paper! I am looking forward to sitting back and reading everyone's blogs. Thanks so much for visiting! I am gonna hop over to yours too! :)
DeleteI love the paper dolls...I really like Ginger. I identify with her!! She is me. Brilliant {*}
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for visiting Louise! I am thrilled you like Ginger! She was so much fun to create, and I too identify with her.
DeleteOh my goodness... the similarities between your childhood and mine is uncanny! I remember my Mom bought me a package of paper dolls when I was sick once and I was completely obsessed. I then began drawing my own dresses in hundreds of different sketchbooks.... so fun! Enjoyed your post... thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI love to that we are able to connect in such a fun way! I even had Barbie fashion plates and would make all kinds of outfits for my models. Did you ever have those? Can't wait to read your blog Jen. Thanks so much for visiting!
DeleteHello Holly Your original paper dolls are wonderful. Thanks for stopping by my post today too.
ReplyDeleteMaryJane Mitchell
Thank you Mary Jane! I had so much fun with this bloghop!
Delete...how funny! Your post has reminded me of one of my most favourite things to look forward to when going on family road trip vacations (aka driving across the south of England to the Devon coast): the purchase of a paper doll! I wasn't allowed to take my own 3D dolls on holiday in case they got left behind, or such such other parental 'wisdom', so a paper doll was the doll for the trip. I was really sad when I found they had begun to go out of popularity and became hard to find. It was the end of an era... So sad.
ReplyDeleteNow I find it quite curious that the popularity of paper dolls has become quite the renaissance once more, at least among the adult crowd. Thank you for offering your sweet paper doll. How wonderful! Thank you :)
What a fun story Beka! Thank you so much for sharing. I am so glad you enjoyed my post and paper dolls! I do love them! It is so much fun to hear that other people still love them too. ;)
DeleteI haven't thought about paper dolls in years. I loved them so much growing up. Thanks for sharing and taking part in the blog hop!
ReplyDeleteYay...I am so glad you enjoyed my post! I had so much fun participating and reading all the wonderful posts! ;) Thank you for sharing your comment!
DeleteLovely blog post Holly - I had paper dolls as well as a child !
ReplyDeleteThank you Maike! I am so happy you liked my post, and it brought back memories of your childhood for you too. :)
DeleteLovely paper dolls! And Ginger is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI also had them when I was little, but I never liked that their dresses were always falling ;)
Loved your post!
Thank you Giova for your sweet comment! HAHA...I too did not like having to adjust their dresses all the time. ;)
DeleteJust last week I shared a scrapbook page on my blog on which I'd used some Jane Austen themed paper doll clothes - I've always been a lover of dolls + fashion ... and paper ... so they're pretty much perfect for me!
ReplyDeleteI've shared this post on my Facebook page as I think some of my readers would love your printables.
Wanting to wish a fellow Paperlove hopper well. Julie :-)
http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk
Oh Julie, you are so very sweet! Thank you for sharing my blog! I am going to hop over to your blog and Facebook page too! Jane Austen paper dolls sounds wonderful! Love connecting with other wonderful people who share my passions! ;)
DeleteIt was such a thrill to be a part of this blog hop. I loved sharing my love of paper and the craft of decoupage with everyone. and even more excited to read about everyone else’s. #paperlove #bloghop In the blog hop – http://www.designfivestudio.blogspot.in/2014/03/for-love-of-paper.html
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for stopping by my blog! I too loved sharing my passion for paper! I really enjoyed your lovely decoupage items...so pretty! :)
DeleteFab designs, fab paper dolls, fab post... really enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteThank you Dawn! I am so glad you enjoyed my post! ;)
DeleteThanks for visiting my blog, this bloghop is so much fun. Thanks for sharing your love of paper from childood and your paper dolls, it brings back my own childhood memories :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jenni! I had so much fun being a participant/reader of the bloghop. :)
DeleteLove the paper dolls and meeting so many new people on this hop. I recently rediscovered the Betsy McCall paper dolls and almost went lost my mind.
ReplyDelete