When I was a little girl, I used to play with paper dolls a lot. My father was an antique dealer and always had vintage toys for me to play with and there was always ample amounts of vintage paper dolls on hand! I also used to make my own paper doll clothes; it's really easy to do. Your children can use paper dolls to have a creative playtime, or print them out and use them to create art such as greeting cards or collages for a unique project.

This article will discuss how to create your own paper dolls (creating the base and clothes) as well as telling you where and how to print FREE paper dolls online, including vintage and modern paper dolls. 

Whether you are looking to make your own from hand or print vintage dolls of the computer, you've come to the right place!

Making paper dolls by hand is really easy. It's a great activity for girls of all ages. I'd recommend that if your daughter is really young, that you let her color in the designs and you cut them out.

What You'll Need:

• Heavy duty paper (white cardstock works great!)
  
• Graphite pencils
• Fine tip black marker
• Colored pencils
• Imagination and creativity!

Directions:

1. Hand draw an outline of a body shape with a pencil on cardstock. You can include hair, or just make a "bald" doll.
2. Once you're happy with your outline, trace over the outline with your fine point marker.
   
3. Draw on a face and underclothes.
4. Now carefully cut out around the outline.
5. You're doll is done!
6. To make clothes, put the cut out doll over another piece of cardstock and trace with pencil.
   
7. From the outline on the new piece of paper, draw with pencil a shirt and pants (or skirt or dress).
   
8. If you didn't make hair on your doll, also draw a 'wig'.
9. Once you've drawn outlines of clothes that you're happy with, trace with your fine point marker and carefully cut them out.
   
10. Now, have your child color in patterns and designs on the clothes and affix to the doll!
11. Repeat the process as many times as you want to create various tops and bottoms to outfit your doll in.

If you're not up to handdrawing your own paper dolls on cardstock, there are always tons of free resources online to use that will allow you to print your own base doll and more outfits and acessories that you can ever imagine!

Some sites have black and white images (so your child can color them in) and others have them already in color. All you have to do is print and cut!

You'll need:

• Heavy printing paper (make sure your printer works ok with cardstock...laser printers don't)
• A color printer
• Colored pencils (if you need to color in the outfits)
• Scissors

Directions: It's really simple! Just find your image sheets, print them, cut out, color and play!

http://www.allthingschristmas.com/web/kidzone/printables/printgirls2.html - tons of bases (girls & boys) and lots of clothes, including a hobby theme

http://www.funorama.com/dolls.html - This page has b&w print-outs; great for coloring! Traditional dolls as well as a "young girl doll".

http://www.angelfire.com/games2/icypole/ - "barbie" type dolls (in color)

http://www.geocities.com/akgrgators/index.htm - all sorts of celebrity paper dolls (there are no clothes; just bases. You can print them out and cut and trace their bodies to make clothes.)

http://www.paperdolls.org/ - this lady has drawn TONS of different paper dolls for you to print and use (not for re-selling). All sorts of fun themes are available!

As I said earlier, even though I was a child of the 80's I grew up playing with my own vintage dolls! It's a lot harder to find antique vintage doll books, but a lot of folks have scanned the pages online and you can now print and play with them for free. Some of them are in full color, while others are in black and white (not greyscale) and you can color them in with colored pencils or markers to customize your own outfits!

Here are several great vintage paper doll links!

http://alteredartfun.blogspot.com/2009/02/vintage-paperdolls.html -classic vintage paper dolls!

http://community.webshots.com/album/9563082PpuOLKRdvo - more 'cartoony' type of vintage dolls...great for kids.

http://www.origamibears.com/PaperDolls1/paperdolls1.html - tons of vintage 1950's celebrity paper dolls...very cool resource! Some of the print-out sheets are in black and white so your child can be more creative and color them in with colored pencils!