Art Paper Dolls

Did you ever play with paper dolls when you were young?  I always found them to be quite fascinating but only had a few opportunities to try them out.  I think there will be more chances to do so in my future, though, after I attended a demo yesterday at Bizzy B called "Doll-a-mania", which was taught by Laura Haviland.  What a lovely lady she is! She brought several samples of her creations with her and she gave us a brief demonstration on how she puts the dolls together.  She starts with stamps made by Character Constructions and then decorates the stamped images with paint, ink, fabric, ribbon and whatever other embellishments might be on hand. 

There were about 20 of us in the classroom area of the shop, eagerly listening to and watching Laura's presentation.  She also brought several items for us to cut up and decorate to make our own dolls, with the help of various supplies provided by Bizzy B (many thanks to both for their generosity!).  You can see more pictures from the class here on Laura's blog.

Here is a picture of Laura holding two of her own creations:

and here she is again with my friend Marilyn and the doll she made as her "make and take":

Laura will be teaching classes at Bizzy B in the very near future, giving more specific instruction on how to make these delightful paper dolls. I will be sure to be signing up!