Tried out the magnet dolls today

So I finally got around to printing and cutting out the magnet dolls.  Here's what I've noticed about them so far:

• The skin color turned out a little yellow.  Thankfully it's still on the side of tan instead of spray tan.
• Cutting most of the hair styles and dolls can be done with just a pair of scissors, but I recommend using a nice sharp exacto for the tighter bits and most of the curly hair.
• The curly hair is annoying to cut out.  I'm sorry.
• The round bits with tighter corners should be cut with scissors where possible.  The exacto makes the turn alright, but tears the paper more for some reason.
• If your kids are rough on toys, this probably isn't worth the effort.  There are some thinner spots that lend themselves to bending or tearing.  Don't worry too much though, my 3 year old niece is doing just fine with it.
• Cutting it all out is going to take a little time and patience. 
• The very tips of points don't stick, but if you bend them back slightly, you shouldn't be able to tell.

Overall, I'm pleased with how they turned out.  We got a tin lunchbox to place the dolls in, which works nicely.  The magnet paper was thinner than I was expecting, but it works well enough, and thinner is easier to cut.  My niece is enjoying playing with it so far, even though it doesn't have clothes yet.  My brother has requested a saddle for the horse, which I told him would have to wait until I did a horse set.  I guess I'd better get back to work and get that water clothing set done!

Jack and Jill Magnet Dolls

The base is done for my magnet dolls!  Here are Jack and Jill as well as a few pets.  You'll need magnet paper which you can find at stores that sell office supplies.  Margins are built in, so make sure to turn off "fit to page" or whatever your printer calls it.  Here's the black and white version if you'd prefer your own colors.

I really hope you enjoy it!  I'll be releasing some clothes soon.

The part where I need to be stubborn

This is the hardest part of any project, where I've put lots of work into something, but there's enough left to do that a good push of effort won't get me to the finish.  I get ideas for other projects or annoyed at the one I'm working on.  I start to wonder if there's any worth in what's been done so far.  Sometimes taking a break helps, but most of the time I just need to buckle down, be stubborn and work on it anyway.

Taking longer than I thought

I was hoping to put up something finished on my magnet dolls today, but getting a full sheet is more work than I realized.  Still, I have some stuff to show.

I've got a little over a half sheet for the twins, who now have names.  They'll have pets, more hairstyles and I'm not sure what else.  I've started with the coloring, though I haven't decided if these are the colors I'll go for or not.  I'll be making the uncolored version available as well.

These are for water inspired sets.  I'll be splitting the boy and girls clothes onto different sheet, which means there's a lot of drawing still to be done.  There will be some nautical and tourist inspired clothing as well, so it won't just be swimwear.  I won't be doing any bikinis or speedos, it's just not my thing.

I'm still deciding things, so feel free to comment on what you'd like to see or if there's anything needing changing.

Magnet Doll has a Brother

I've been working on my magnet doll again today.  I decided that 150 dpi was much too small for something I wanted to work on for a while, it would be better to fix the problem now and make something I was proud of.  Live trace didn't work though, I lost too many details and it kept trying to do odd things with it like make a white background and color the lines grey.  I finally gave up and just increased the size, then ran a sharp filter and touched up the lines.  Took a while, but you can't tell it was once half this size.  I've also made a twin brother for her.  There should be more guy dress ups.

New Magnet Doll

I've always loved paper dolls.  I keep meaning to make them too, but I never have settled on a theme or character or base.  I've even done a few KiSS dolls, which are like paper dolls but electronic.  I really couldn't tell you why I like them so much.  Possibly because I like clothes!