Kitty Antoinette

Our latest Design Kit from Alphastamps was dedicated to paper dolls and associated paraphenalia, and I should perhaps admit from the outset that paper dolls, and in fact all dolls, really are not to my taste and if it was entirely up to me I would definitely not dedicate any of my time to them.

So this kit proved to be a bit of a challenge and I can't honestly say I'm that mad about my finished pieces but at least I did manage to complete my 4 projects before the deadline came up.

Although this was not the first piece I made, I thought I would start by showing you this one. The doll was made on a background of a Maya Road chipboard doll shape (for those of you in the U.K. this is actually cardboard and not what we call chipboard, very confusing!!). This shape and others are available from Alphastamps. I covered the doll shape in gesso and then sprayed it with Moonlight Shadow spray (Silver). It ended up by making the shape look very tanned!

The face, hair, corset shape, boa and boots came from Alphastamps Get Dressed and Doll Parts sheets and were glued on (yes, you read that right, for once I actually used glue). I added a purple feather to her hair and gave her a skirt made from Mexican oilcloth (also available from Alphastamps). After I finished she reminded me of Marie Antoinette (must have been the hair!) so I looked for a background to go with that theme. I found some vintage wallpapers in my stash, scanned them into the computer and printed them out and then glued them onto thick card and distressed them with inkpads and gesso, to make them look old again. I also outlined the edges with a Krylon gold pen. Marie Antoinette associations also made me add the text (by Dymo writer): Let them eat tuna! A little sparkly flower was also added to her corset to make her look more regal.

The doll shape was added (dare I say it, with glue again!) to the background, and the title Kitty Antoinette just came to me then and there. She does make me laugh whenever I catch sight of her! I will admit that I haven't taken these dolls as seriously as I should perhaps have done but I had a lot of fun making the samples!