DIY Paper Dolls with Handmade Collage Papers | Harvesting The Abundance of Midlife & Beyond

Key Points

• Dr. Minette Riordan introduces the Orchard Doll, a symbolic figure representing harvest, abundance, and wisdom during midlife. The project uses handmade collage papers, lace, and vintage materials to create expressive art dolls that invite reflection.
• The episode blends creative process with soulful journaling prompts, encouraging viewers to honor the ripening gifts of their lives. Riordan emphasizes midlife as a season of richness—where lessons learned, dreams still forming, and inner wisdom all converge into meaningful self-expression.
• By weaving fabric, paper, and intuition, this video shows how art journaling and doll-making can become tools of self-discovery and empowerment for women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond.

This September, we’re stepping into a season of harvest, abundance, and wisdom. Join me in this creative, soulful exploration of September’s gifts.

Our first archetype of the month is The Orchard Doll—a soulful reminder that just like an orchard, our lives take time to blossom, and midlife is the season when so many of our gifts finally ripen.

In this episode, we’ll:

• 🌿 Create an Orchard Doll using our hand-painted collage papers from last month
• 🌿 Explore what it means to gather the fruits of your life so far
• 🌿 Reflect on your ripening gifts through guided journaling

Symbolism

The Orchard Doll symbolizes abundance, nourishment, and self-worth. She invites you to pause and notice all that has come to fruition in your life, while also reminding you that not every gift ripens at once—and that’s perfectly okay.

Supplies You’ll Need

• Paper doll body or face template (or create your own)
• Painted collage papers (from last month or any scraps you have)
• Scissors ✂️
• Glue stick or matte medium
• Pen/markers for details
• Journal + pen for reflection

Journal Prompts for The Orchard Doll

• What fruits of my life are ripening now?
• Where do I feel abundant and richly nourished?
• What dreams are still waiting on the branch, not yet ready?
• If my Orchard Doll could speak, what wisdom would she share about enjoying this season?

Transcript

Video title: DIY Paper Dolls with Handmade Collage Papers | Harvesting The Abundance of Midlife & Beyond
    
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/live/LqPrKGQVkhs
    
Video language: English (auto-generated)
    
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[0:01] : Good morning my creative friends and welcome back to the paper doll chronicles. I'm Dr. Manette Ryarden.
[0:07] : This is painting in your PJs with Manette. Got my cozy fleece on this morning. It's starting to have that
[0:14] : little bit of a hint of fall in the air. Couple of random trees already starting
[0:21] : to get some color here in northern Colorado where I live. We are continuing
[0:28] : our exploration and journey through the Paperd Doll Chronicles this year.
[0:34] : And I'm going to get back to my notes over here. I want to talk about where
[0:41] : we're going in September. September is such a interesting really like a
[0:47] : threshold month. It's a a time of sort of taking stock. It's a time of starting
[0:55] : to harvest so many of the gifts of the year. There's also often kind of an
[1:02] : uptick in sort of that back to school energy. Got to get busy. It's cooling
[1:09] : off. So, we're in between the playtime of summer and the energy of fall.
[1:18] : And we're gonna call this the orchard doll today. and she is all about
[1:23] : harvesting the abundance and wisdom that we have gained so far in our lives. So,
[1:29] : if you're here, you probably know that I work with women in midlife and beyond
[1:34] : and really love using art as a creative process and practice for self-discovery.
[1:40] : And this year, we're doing that through extended paper doll play. And so this
[1:47] : idea of an orchard doll is all about how can I harvest the gifts of my own life?
[1:53] : How can I look within and notice what are the fruits of my
[1:58] : life that are ripening? Where am I feeling abundant and nourished?
[2:04] : What dreams perhaps are still waiting on the branch and not yet ready? And if my
[2:10] : orchard doll could speak, what wisdom might she share for me? These are all
[2:15] : same. A thank you, Miss Lorraine. Glad to be back after a wonderful week away
[2:21] : attending an art retreat called Spellbound in Talos, New Mexico. I love
[2:27] : New Mexico. It was a wonderful time away with some of my closest girlfriends.
[2:34] : and I came back with just a touch of a cold, which is just more annoying than anything, but excited to be here
[2:42] : gathered with you with this new collection of dolls. So, September,
[2:48] : we're going to have four different dolls. We'll make a new doll each week. I want to use some of the hand painted
[2:54] : paper and fabric that I created over last month's videos and as part of these
[3:02] : dolls. And I was sort of taking a sneak peek back through some of the beauty.
[3:07] : Good morning, Ivonne. And it was so fun to have walked away from my studio for
[3:16] : about a week and then to come back and see what we created. And I've also created a new set of faces, black and
[3:25] : white fa faces that you can color or that you could trace or use as
[3:30] : inspiration for making your own dolls. There's way more than four to choose from and I sent those out by email. So
[3:37] : if you're on the Paper Doll Chronicles email list, you got those in your inbox this morning. And if not, you can thank
[3:44] : you Lorraine. If not, you can sign up for our email list and we will make sure
[3:50] : you get a colored set of dolls right away, but then we're going to be replacing that with these beautiful
[3:56] : black and white dolls. So, here's kind of a sneak peek at those doll faces.
[4:04] : And I have a lot of fun. I use a tool called MidJourney to design all of these
[4:11] : faces in a style um that feels really fun and
[4:17] : exploratory. Asked for different ethnicities. It doesn't do a great job. It either
[4:23] : makes everybody young or everybody old and not a lot in between. But there were a few in here like this one that it's
[4:30] : like, "Oh, that one feels a little bit like me. I didn't print out all of them.
[4:36] : I think there's seven pages of them." But here are some of those pages to get
[4:43] : us started. And I often like to start with the face. And I was trying to
[4:50] : decide, did I want to do whole body dolls, but I'm really loving making the dolls on
[5:00] : collaged cards on tags. Um they're they I've been able to really use them in
[5:05] : other art journals. They feel really fun. Oh, I love love her um face. Like I
[5:12] : look down and it's like, oh, this face right here really pulled me in. So that
[5:17] : might be the the face the face for today. None of them have glasses. They
[5:23] : definitely need some glasses added.
[5:29] : And a friend was here visiting earlier in the summer and we were at a little
[5:36] : sort of one of those vintage flea market shops, you know, with all the different
[5:42] : stalls and there was this box. I love it. It's all taped up with old duct
[5:49] : tape, but they're old multiplication flashcards. And I love using stuff like this to
[5:56] : create on. It's a great way to recycle it or play with. But I loved kind of this long skinny shape as well. So, I'm
[6:06] : thinking that this month I'm going to work on some of these flashc cards to
[6:11] : create my dolls. And you can make your dolls any way you want, but if you want
[6:16] : to do something similar, you can use a large tag, a manila tag, or simply take
[6:22] : a recycled manila folder and cut it up. It makes a great nice stiff substrate
[6:29] : for making your dolls on. And as I was flipping through and thinking about this
[6:36] : theme of an orchard doll of abundance, this was a a piece of lace that I had
[6:41] : painted up on one of the August videos. And lace always has that little bit of
[6:49] : abundant feel to me, right? Lace was added uh to dresses often as a sign of
[6:57] : like decoration, but also wealth and abundance. And so something about this
[7:03] : and even though the theme is orchard and where my head went right away was the
[7:08] : apples um something about the color purple also felt rich and luxurious.
[7:16] : and this theme again. And this is uh again one of those pieces of watercolor
[7:22] : paper that I painted up which will be really fun to cut out and make into
[7:30] : a dress or some clothes. And then here's some of the other things that we created
[7:36] : from last month. This was some of the the fabric, some of which might become
[7:41] : parts of journal covers. This was a pretty heavy fabric. This was some photo
[7:47] : paper. Look, there's some more. So, I can feel that already. There's like a color palette emerging. And I was
[7:54] : thinking also with this idea of abundance about weaving and um what it
[8:01] : might be like to do a little those are stuck on there. A little paper weaving
[8:08] : to represent some of the different threads and the harvest of gifts that I
[8:13] : want to pull forward. So, these are all painty things created
[8:19] : last month. Okay. Being very drawn to these sort of
[8:26] : pinks and purples. And I love the sound of the crinkly
[8:31] : paper. All right. I have more than enough paper
[8:37] : and fabric than I could possibly use in one setting. And even this is
[8:45] : leftover paper from the the play time. I'm kind
[8:50] : of loving those polka dots and those solids
[8:56] : and maybe just some little these kind of maybe represent some of that um
[9:01] : harvesting that abundance of gifts. And so as I'm making this doll, what I'm
[9:08] : thinking about, and I want to encourage you to think about also is this idea of
[9:16] : an abundance of gifts, lessons learned, wisdom earned, and how in this second
[9:26] : half of life or third quarter or whatever you want to call it in your,
[9:31] : you know, 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, ond when you think back to
[9:39] : all the things that you've done and I'm taking an inner child class and doing some inner child work which will
[9:45] : probably bleed over into some of our paper doll making over the next couple
[9:51] : of months as well is thinking about what are the the through
[9:58] : lines or the threads the things that
[10:04] : were seeds that were planted as a child that are start starting now to
[10:10] : um show up again on repeat or come full
[10:15] : circle. For me, it's my love of animals. Good morning, Lisa Wells. Good to see
[10:21] : you, my friend. Um, the things that when I think about the through lines, connection to nature,
[10:28] : connection to animals, I don't have any furry babies at the moment in real life,
[10:34] : but they are showing up in all of my art everywhere
[10:41] : abundantly. I was looking at my studio this morning. I just finished a stag
[10:47] : painting and a mountain lion painting and it feels like this live managerie.
[10:55] : But I think about all the different opportunities I've had to lead, to
[11:01] : teach, to create, to write, how much I love teaching and facilitating.
[11:08] : All these things are on my mind is I'm going to create this doll today that really represents this abundance of
[11:17] : gifts. And I'm going to start with her face. And I'm feeling very drawn to this
[11:23] : face in the center. I still had my watercolor pencils and crayons.
[11:33] : These are all I think watercolor pencils out um from last week's play.
[11:39] : And so I thought I would start with the face
[11:44] : and just get some little bit of color down on her. Get her cut out and then
[11:51] : let her kind of start to tell me
[11:56] : what does she want to look like, right? What does like what is sort of the visual
[12:03] : expression of the abundance of gifts that I'm feeling.
[12:13] : And I love having these pre-done faces because they just make this uh process
[12:19] : just go a little bit faster. I love drawing my own faces as well.
[12:27] : And sometimes I will use these faces um as an as a way to uh I will
[12:36] : trace them right and get them down and use them more as a template for creating my own faces.
[12:46] : There's got to be some brown in here somewhere.
[12:55] : Deep indigo. Okay. She's like, I want to have some blue hair. That may not even
[13:01] : show, but we'll give her some blue hair. When I was in
[13:09] : grad school working on my masters in Austin, my hair was kind of this fun
[13:14] : deep uh cranberry color.
[13:21] : And I printed these on card stock, just a thin card stock because that's what
[13:26] : would work with my printer. If you don't have a printer, you can
[13:33] : take these to a Staples, Office Depot, uh a FedEx
[13:39] : store, and have them printed out on card stock. And I would have a few different
[13:48] : copies of them printed. You can print them in different sizes.
[13:57] : Going to leave some of that paper showing through just to give her a little bit of shine. I'm not trying to
[14:03] : make those colors too realistic.
[14:12] : I love my Karen de Ash tools for creating faces. I feel like I can really
[14:19] : get some of the the color and depth.
[14:26] : Just needs a little bit more shadow. And when she's dry, I'm going to come back and I think draw some
[14:35] : glasses on her, too.
[14:44] : And just keeping her really simple. I'm going to cut her out. She feels like a
[14:50] : This feels like a a fun beginning here.
[14:59] : And you can see I'm using my paintbrush right on my Derwent Inktense pencil. is
[15:05] : a great way to play with those uh Derwents. You don't always have to put
[15:11] : the color directly down onto the p onto the paper, but you can also come in and
[15:19] : simply tap that brush, get a wet brush right on
[15:24] : that pencil. You can also dip the pencil directly into water and color with it.
[15:29] : They're one of my favorite tools. I love how vibrant and intense the colors are.
[15:39] : Yeah, she just wanted a little more intensity and vibrancy.
[15:48] : Let's see if we can get a little bit of that blue to come out on top of that black. Maybe not, but that's okay.
[15:56] : I don't care if I color outside the lines because I'm going to trim her up.
[16:08] : And I'm thinking I want to also seal the colors in so the colors stay put. So I'm
[16:15] : going to let her get good and dry and then I'm going to seal her face with a coat of matte medium. That way if I
[16:22] : wanted to draw over the top or add some paint at some point, right? like I have
[16:28] : the um a little more flexibility and this card stock, you know, I can't
[16:34] : keep painting layers on it. It won't uh it'll start to peel up. So, by painting
[16:40] : over it with some matte medium, that'll seal the surface, the color in that I
[16:45] : have and allow me to draw or paint over the top of her as well. Me find my
[16:52] : scissors here.
[17:08] : And I'm going to let her get nice and dry before I get my fingers all over it. And then I will do some fussy cutting.
[17:15] : But already I love how she looks. Like it definitely feels like she needs some
[17:20] : flowers in her hair. And this was just the under paper from where I dropped
[17:26] : some paint when we were doing the painty fabrics and peepers
[17:32] : last month. But I also have that polkadotted paper. So I'm going to start to think about how
[17:39] : do I want to create her? Does she need to have kind of a full body?
[17:46] : Does she want to be kind of that more abstract? And I love that it says multiply on the top of the card. We're
[17:52] : talking about the the gifts of abundance and you know having um those gifts
[17:58] : multiply throughout our lifetime. So that feels appropriate here as well. I'm
[18:05] : looking at her noticing that this one has no neck. She definitely needs a neck.
[18:13] : But somehow I'm sensing the ones that I did in July were very
[18:19] : abstract and didn't have bodies, but she's feeling like she wants to have
[18:25] : more of a body. So, I'm thinking I just pulled some
[18:32] : new magazine images. I have a whole box of magazines that I
[18:39] : want to uh clear out and
[18:45] : pull out what I want and get rid of them and including a Goodran Sodren catalog.
[18:53] : So, I'm thinking that one of these might give me that nice base, that kind of
[19:00] : right size, so she has a little bit of a body. So, you know, I can use the
[19:06] : magazine as a as a template for making the the doll my own.
[19:13] : That pose is kind of fun and not a pose
[19:20] : um not a pose that I would normally necessarily choose. I know, right,
[19:25] : Ivonne? Like, how appropriate is it? I'm also looking for a body that kind of
[19:32] : matches like her shape. Let's see what else we got in here.
[19:40] : That kind of feels like the the right size.
[19:48] : Kind of like this pose, too. Doesn't quite fit. I'm sort of feeling
[19:54] : drawn to this one where she's sitting being a little more contemplative.
[20:01] : [Music] Love that very glamorous pose, but that doesn't fit my theme of sort of
[20:07] : harvesting the gifts of my abundance. She's so beautiful.
[20:17] : You can tell I was pulling images. There's somebody in my local little library always uh leaves copies of
[20:25] : Cowboy and Indian magazine, which is not something I would ever read, but has great collage images in it.
[20:33] : Okay, I think we're just gonna These are all landscape ones.
[20:45] : I knew there was a few more of these in here. Let's see.
[20:50] : I thought I had pulled out a bunch of these. I kind of like that one as well.
[20:57] : And I'm looking for something that, you know, feels proportionate even though I can change the the size at will.
[21:08] : I love her. I love this catalog because they always have a beautiful variety of
[21:18] : ages of women and ethnicities of women.
[21:27] : Okay. I felt like I needed to look through them and I had already decided. So I can
[21:35] : let go of that. And I'm like, "Oh, what is this that's
[21:43] : in my color palette here?" Oh, look how fun that is.
[21:49] : Maybe she wants to be part of something bigger that would actually go in a
[21:55] : journal page. I love how as we start to intuitively
[22:01] : flip flip through images and ideas,
[22:06] : things begin to take on a life of their own.
[22:12] : So, let's cut her out. Let's put you guys away.
[22:28] : I love her little black and white polkadotted pants.
[22:35] : And I'm thinking I might even use her
[22:40] : as a template for the for the body.
[22:46] : And I can either collage right over the top of her or
[22:53] : I can trace her so that I can use her for something else because I really like
[22:59] : that image.
[23:05] : I don't care about the car, but something about that. We're coming up on the full moon in a few days. So,
[23:13] : definitely lots of full moon energy circling.
[23:18] : I want to use some of my own fabrics on here, which may get lost when
[23:26] : I start to have too much of the same color palette.
[23:32] : and bring that tag back. And I'm fine if she
[23:40] : flows over the edges of the tag. The tag is just to give her a little bit of
[23:46] : solidity, but I'm wondering. Yeah, maybe not the tag. Okay,
[23:53] : I might even go get my I just started working in a bigger
[23:59] : collage journal and it feels like this might want to end up being a whole page.
[24:05] : And sometimes paper dolls don't want to Thanks, Anna. Sometimes paper dolls
[24:12] : don't want to get glued down and they want to move. But there's something
[24:17] : about this idea of harvesting the gifts that is feeling like she's digging in, right? She's
[24:25] : sitting into the to the roots of things and that she
[24:31] : needs to have a little bit more permanence. And this is what I love
[24:36] : about working intuitively with expressive arts
[24:42] : is never staying attached to an idea. I came in with an idea this morning and I
[24:49] : could stick with that idea, but it would feel constrained and it would feel maybe
[24:56] : a little bit artificial. And so for me, there's something really
[25:03] : important about listening to those little nudges because it's where
[25:10] : we build self-rust, where we connect to our own intuition.
[25:19] : Oh, yeah. She's very cute.
[25:24] : Okay. Still loving the face. Still loving this background. Now I got to
[25:30] : think about and I love that she's sitting very grounded on the trunk of a
[25:36] : tree as well in this very relaxed pose
[25:42] : with the sort of weather energy and magic here behind her.
[25:51] : And now I want to start to think about where do I want to go?
[25:56] : So, I'm feeling like maybe she's going to be wearing this
[26:03] : lace on her pants or her skirt and
[26:10] : still feeling like, and it's funny, I picked a a pattern here that has that little bit of a woven pattern.
[26:19] : So, I'm wanting to maybe weave a little bit of this fabric. So, I think I think
[26:27] : I think I'm actually going to Do I want to cut her apart?
[26:33] : Not yet. But I am going to turn this over because it's all pretty.
[26:40] : I'm going to grab a pencil.
[26:45] : I am going to cut her hair. I want her
[26:51] : neck and shoulders because my doll does not have that neck and shoulders.
[27:41] : We're going to start to build her up here.
[27:53] : She may need a different neck for that head.
[27:59] : Might just turn that a little bit. Yeah, I think she's going to need So, I'm going to want to make a
[28:06] : neck for her. I don't want her head sitting, you know, on the top of her shoulder. She'll feel kind of silly.
[28:17] : Oh, I did that backwards. I'm like, why? Because I drew it backwards. I'm going to have to trace it on the front.
[28:24] : Although, it may not matter if I'm because I think I want to do a little bit of paper weaving
[28:31] : on here and bring in when I'm thinking about abundance and harvest, bringing in
[28:36] : maybe some of these other colors.
[28:44] : Okay. Think, think, think. Try this one more time. I'm gonna trace
[28:50] : it on this side.
[28:55] : And I think what's bugging me is that we got to get our hands in there. So, she's
[29:02] : going to get cut apart
[29:10] : and just used as a model.
[29:16] : And that's going to make my life easier.
[29:21] : And I like her her pants and how she's sitting. So I might even keep those or
[29:30] : add a little bit of color over the top of the pattern here.
[29:45] : This way I can make sure that the I'm capturing all the parts of the
[29:52] : clothing. Maybe I want some of this mixed up
[29:57] : colors up here. And everything is figure outable, right? Like this is about just making it up as
[30:06] : we go. It doesn't have to be perfect, right? This is about, well, let me try
[30:13] : this. It's just paper and paint. Letting go of perfectionism again. Letting go of
[30:20] : needing it to look a particular way.
[30:37] : And when I think about this idea of kind of harvesting gifts,
[30:45] : I've always had kind of that, well, let's just try it and see what happens, right? Like always been
[30:52] : that little bit of a risk taker
[31:00] : that kind of just willing to make mistakes.
[31:08] : I used to be, you know, even I would say more that way, more of a risk taker and
[31:15] : adventure. And sometimes I wonder, you know, what happened to her with work and
[31:22] : parenting and growing businesses,
[31:27] : moving across country a few times? Like what happened to that more adventurous
[31:36] : spirit.
[31:48] : All right. Starting to come together a little bit more.
[31:54] : We gave her a colorful neck.
[32:02] : Maybe she's just going to get painted up. So then we can come back over here.
[32:11] : We can start to see how we can use anything as a pattern
[32:16] : for our dolls. And I'm trying to get the base doll
[32:22] : done. And then I can think about adding those elements that really represent uh
[32:28] : the abundance part like she definitely needs maybe some stuff in her hair, maybe some
[32:36] : stuff in her blouse. Maybe I want to get some of that lace
[32:44] : glued down so that she has some nice lacy pants that feel kind of rich and
[32:50] : playful.
[32:56] : And I'm trying to decide, do I still want to do
[33:01] : I think I'm going to let go of the idea of weaving for now.
[33:06] : But somehow it feels like we need some of this fun yellow sparkle spiral
[33:14] : energy.
[33:25] : This is from one of the watercolor paintings that we did. And I love the uh
[33:31] : shimmer in that watercolor paint.
[33:38] : Oh, so maybe she is harvesting the abundance of those gifts.
[33:44] : Let's make this just a little bit smaller.
[33:52] : And as soon as I put that down there, it felt like this very radiant heart energy,
[33:59] : like the seat of my passion and vitality,
[34:05] : right? That sort of magic orb that is glowing right out of the center of her
[34:12] : that's mirrored by this full moon energy over here.
[34:28] : Yeah, she's starting to come together. And I don't know, maybe this is gonna
[34:35] : become her own. So maybe this was just that symbol of
[34:44] : what's glowing and what's blooming. And she's gonna come back over here. I love how things just sort of change and
[34:52] : evolve.
[34:58] : And maybe from here she's just going to have a skirt.
[35:04] : Okay. I need to get some parts glued together and then it will start to be so
[35:09] : it's interesting this it's the shape of that orb that feels important more than
[35:14] : this fun image here which I love this image
[35:20] : and I loved this image and then she just needs to have her long
[35:25] : flowy skirt which feels like that kind of fabric weaving part that I was being
[35:33] : drawn two. It's my glue stick.
[35:49] : And when we're working with these dolls, you know, one of the the questions that I always ask is,
[35:59] : "What are the gifts that you have for me?" Right? What is this orchard doll
[36:04] : that represents harvest abundance
[36:13] : the uniqueness of my own gifts
[36:21] : there she's starting to come together and take on a life of her own. See if we
[36:28] : can brighten her up a little bit. There we go.
[36:38] : do a little now that I have her know where I'm going. Do a little fussy
[36:45] : cutting there. And it feels like she wants some.
[37:07] : Just need to give her a little bit of shape and dimension here.
[37:19] : She's got kind of these different layers of sleeves
[37:30] : and then this needs to get attached. And I love just piecing things to together
[37:37] : in this way, right? Like it's just glue and paper. It's all and
[37:43] : When you're working with the glue stick, you know, things can move.
[37:51] : Definitely want to keep some of that shimmer shimmer.
[38:04] : The other thing I love about working on a tag or a card like this is that I will
[38:11] : often turn it over and do my journal writing right on the back. You know,
[38:18] : this is patterned up. There's really not a lot of space for writing, but there's plenty of space in here to come in and
[38:26] : answer some of the journal prompts, which are in the description of the video, and they're also uh in the email
[38:34] : that I sent out to the email list this morning. So, the numbers are kind of interesting.
[38:42] : So, let me think about probably going to want some something
[38:48] : some color or pattern underneath this piece of lace
[38:54] : and not the number.
[39:01] : Yep. Definitely going to want Do I want to have it continue to be
[39:08] : Feels like it needs some of those brighter
[39:15] : colors. Something to kind of maybe mirror the yellow. Yeah, that feels a little
[39:22] : better. All right. So, this we're just going to make it up. And I'm going to let go of
[39:29] : her sitting and have her be more standing instead.
[39:44] : And we want to kind of have a sense of
[39:50] : the length here. So, it's not going to be a super Let's see.
[40:02] : Again, we're just, you know, we're fiddling fiddling, fiddling.
[40:11] : And it's okay if it's longer than the tag.
[40:25] : More of those little sparkles in there.
[40:30] : I'm probably going to want some of this. some more of this. The yellow something about the light, right? And I
[40:38] : love the the light of fall and September. Also,
[40:46] : I also love using my own handmade painty papers. This doesn't need to be perfect
[40:53] : underneath. Thank you, Avon. I'm glad you like the journal prompts. You know, it's it's that important
[40:59] : piece of the process. to come back to that journaling after
[41:07] : working with the doll
[41:15] : to see what it is that she has to say. To me, it's the the piece where
[41:22] : the making of the dolls themselves is delightful and fun.
[41:28] : And what we learn about ourselves and the process of creating is important.
[41:33] : But there's something about that final step of returning to the journaling
[41:39] : that is so important.
[41:45] : There she is. Look at her. all coming together. Okay, now she needs her
[41:53] : purple skirt and that can kind of flow over the edges
[42:01] : a little bit.
[42:09] : And I love combining the fabric and paper in my artwork. It's
[42:16] : also, like I said, I felt like it was weaving, but it might be some stitching
[42:22] : that gets added to her or maybe some beads that want to get attached.
[42:37] : And I'm thinking a stapler would make this really easy or some tape. And I
[42:45] : don't have my double stick tape right here.
[42:51] : I'm going to go grab my stapler. I'll be right back.
[43:11] : So, don't be afraid to just staple things together, right? So, this part of
[43:17] : her skirt up here is going to get hidden. And I mean, staples can add a fun look
[43:25] : to things also, but they're a great fast way. Plus, I don't necessarily So, the
[43:31] : lace you can glue it down, but it can be a little bit tricky to glue. And uh the
[43:38] : staples can just add a look. Oh, she's feeling very festive. Perhaps
[43:45] : a little formal, but I'm kind of digging her. I kind of like that word multiply there.
[43:56] : And So now it sort of feels like she's
[44:01] : dancing in the moonlight as she's harvesting the wisdom and abundance,
[44:06] : right? Like maybe she's walking among the trees
[44:13] : of an orchard in the moonlight expressing gratitude for her gifts and
[44:21] : abundance. Okay, I'm going to glue the top of her
[44:27] : down. Feels like she definitely wants to. And I kind of even like the color of
[44:34] : the card stock. You know, a lot of time I would paint that or add other things
[44:40] : to it.
[44:45] : Trying to figure out how long do we want her to be.
[44:50] : Probably trim up this bottom a little bit. The other thing about just stapling this to the paper is I'm going to glue
[44:56] : the paper down, but then I can leave that fabric nice and flowy on there.
[45:10] : Get that nice and stuck down. Oh, and there she is. I love using my
[45:18] : own handmade papers. in the doll making as well. Love that
[45:26] : her hands are sort of sticking out a little bit like and the way the skirt is kind
[45:33] : of flowing feels like she's in motion even though she's you know sort of
[45:39] : attached here. So now if I wanted she could still be part of this scene or
[45:46] : another scene in an art journal. She feel it's interesting. She feels
[45:52] : sort of very motherly, very loving.
[45:59] : Not that scene. It's too much the same color, but she needs to be like walking
[46:05] : through a landscape. Um, let's see. What might that look like? I just pulled
[46:11] : apart some old uh calendars that someone had given me. And you know, look what
[46:18] : happens when we start to place them into
[46:24] : different settings, right? Like then all of a sudden maybe that story changes
[46:32] : like here if this is she's standing in this cornfield, right? There's another
[46:38] : season of abundance being represented there. So, we can start to
[46:44] : figure out what is the story that she's telling, right? Like I I'm not the one
[46:50] : telling the story here. She's the one telling the story. Put a piece of clean
[46:56] : paper behind her so I can see her. And I'm really feeling
[47:02] : like I want to use some of these little painty bits and pieces for a little some
[47:09] : little flowers in her hair. maybe along her waistline here
[47:18] : to just kind of represent some of the the sort of the symbolism of that
[47:23] : harvesting of the apples of wisdom. No, that's not what I want. Or maybe
[47:30] : they just have to be cut out and I have to be a little more patient. I like these kind of partially
[47:37] : painted ones.
[48:04] : Maybe she needs to be holding a basket full of apples.
[48:12] : I do like the little decorative bits there.
[48:22] : And then I get to have fun going on a hunt through all of my collage images
[48:29] : for a basket. Right. So, it just feels like this needs to represent some little
[48:35] : bit of flowers in her hair there.
[48:59] : So now that feels a little bit better like the all the circles feel
[49:06] : and the lace feel representative of the gifts and the abundance. um feels like she needs a little pop of
[49:14] : green up there in her hair.
[49:20] : There's an actual little bit of a flower. We'll just see if we can cut
[49:26] : that out.
[49:36] : A little pop of green up there. Oh, there she is. Her It feels like her
[49:43] : story is starting to emerge. There's still lots of journal
[49:50] : writing to be done. I'm going to refocus this. Give me one second.
[50:02] : Come in just a little bit closer on her face. I so love these paper doll faces.
[50:09] : They feel so magical
[50:14] : and such a fun, quick, easy way to kind of make the dolls
[50:20] : my own a little bit faster.
[50:26] : Get all these little bits and pieces on here.
[50:35] : Maybe add a little bit of yellow to the center.
[50:50] : And then as I go about the day today, I will let her just sit here on my art
[50:56] : table. I will come back to her.
[51:04] : to do that journaling after I let her just rest here for a
[51:11] : bit.
[51:16] : Let's see. Kind of want this to lay down just so that it doesn't get ripped off.
[51:24] : See if it'll stick to that lace.
[51:34] : So, I'm loving her. I'm loving using these fun painty papers.
[51:46] : And I get to think about where to go next with her, right? the to the this
[51:52] : idea of harvest, to this idea of abundance, to this idea of really owning
[51:59] : and honoring my gifts, but it also feels like the basket would be such a fun
[52:06] : symbol to add. One of the journal prompts is, "What dreams are still waiting on the branch, not ready?" And
[52:13] : another one is, "Where do I feel abundance?" And it feels like the apples in the basket are where I feel abundant
[52:20] : and nourished already. So maybe there needs to be a tree in the background
[52:27] : with some apples on it that are still holding the the gifts to be harvested in
[52:35] : this season. So, there's a beautiful story emerging here, and she feels
[52:42] : complete for now, and she feels like part of a bigger scene. So, I'll have fun flipping through collage image
[52:50] : imagery to figure out what's that next piece going to be. And all these colors
[52:55] : are just making me so happy today. So, thank you as always for joining me for
[53:03] : our orchard doll and are really honoring
[53:08] : our own process, our own wisdom, the gifts of everything that we have learned
[53:15] : on the journey that we've been on in our life so far. Glad to be back with all of
[53:21] : you live or thank you for those of you that are watching the replay. Much appreciated. Have a beautiful rest of
[53:28] : your day and I will see you all back here next week. Thank you so much
[53:33] : everyone. Bye-bye.