Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

Carousel Outfit by Bitter Lilly and Fan-Made Dresses from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

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Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.
The drawing on the far left was done by Bitter Lilly for Valentine’s Day. (I’m sorry it took me so long to put it up!) I don’t know the image that inspired her that she refers to on her original post, but I love how soft and ethereal it looks, especially the turtleneck — you can almost feel it, and if I had a turtleneck like that I would always keep petting my own arms and people would look at me strangely.

Bitter Lilly has also colored some of the black and white gowns I have up, as well as drawn a couple more original outfits; check out her DeviantArt page, specifically the “Liana” gallery (although there are some lovely photos on her main page as well!)

These days I don’t get too many fan submissions of outfits that fit my dolls; I suspect a lot of that energy has gone into people creating their own paper doll blogs, as a glance over my blogroll can attest. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my little subculture? I have high hopes of us landing on the xkcd Map of Online Communities someday, on a little island right near “Diary Blogs” and “Writing/Poetry”.) But back when I did the Boutique, I did have some people send in some great outfits.

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The blue gown and the yellow jacket with a white skirt are actually by my cousin Becky; if you’ve been paying attention you may remember her from this purple gown and this fairy dress. The pink and green hoopskirt was by someone who wanted to be called “Anonymous” and of course, I’ve lost the original e-mail so I can’t credit her properly ten years later. I had to go back through my files to place a name on most of these, but the geometric blue evening dress is evidently by Emily. Jedi Guinastasia did quite a few for me, particularly a number of dresses from Titanic; the layered dress from Titanic and the blue gown are by her.

Now, how is that for a really lazy post? I didn’t draw a single part of it! Well, I will be back from my trip soon, so look for a new dress in a couple of days!

March and May Birthday Gowns from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

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For those of you who haven’t been following my site for a couple of years (or a decade, depending on how you look at it), allow me to explain why today’s dresses seem rather different from usual: they’re from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique, which was my first paper doll-centric website. I drew outfits for it from December 1998, my sophomore year of high school, to May 2000, partially through my first year of college. It’s no longer online in its entirety, but from time to time I’ll put up some of the old content as filler for anyone with an interest in how my drawing skills developed, and it’s also a thrill to hear from people who followed the old site from time to time.

I’m not sure why it seemed like a good idea in the first place. I had been drawing paperdolls for my own amusement for a few years beforehand. I wish I knew where some of those old ones were, but I distinctly remember doing some for my cousins and a black-and-white historical set for my own amusement. As I imply above, it wasn’t my first website; I was a geek and put up all sorts of webpages about things that interested me – video games, music, interactive stories. In terms of attention received, it was my most successful, but my future husband e-mailed me after reading my video game site, so I can’t necessarily call my paper doll boutique my favorite project I did as a teenager! In any case, I suppose it was only natural to combine my two interests.

At some point, the site’s host vanished, or I had migrated it to my University of Michigan webspace and that vanished, I don’t remember, but either way it was gone. My mom tried to get me to put it back up online somewhere, but by then I was embarrassed at how childish the drawings seemed. But I don’t mind now, they seem cute to me, so I’ll let you all see them too! As you can see, I always did like the concept of the birthday dresses. It is a little sad, though, that after all this time, I haven’t ever done a whole set, much less a whole set in just one year. Hopefully this will be the year to change that…

poll by twiigs.com

Two Mermaids from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

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Here are two mermaid outfits from my site back from when I was in high school, Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique. Sorry there’s nothing new today… I tried, I really did, but there are just some days where everything I do goes wrong. On those days when I can’t seem to draw, sometimes I’ll print out a black and white outfit and at least have fun coloring that, but I guess there are some days I can’t either! If I get in such a sad state, it is just better for everyone if I put down the Prismacolors and pick up my DS. Which I do believe I’ll be doing now. But look forward to tomorrow!

December Birthday Dress and February Birthday Dress from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique

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It wasn’t so much that I was uninspired today as it was that I spent a couple of hours on trazy’s requested coloring of the 1700s dress and then screwed it up, and even though I took some stabs at doing something easy after that, nothing quite seemed to work. So here are two dresses from Liana’s Paper Doll Boutique, which was the paper doll site that I ran around ten years ago, when I was in high school. This is the December birthday dress, with turquoise and white poinsettias, and the February one, with amythests and violets.