Mary Engelbreit's Paper Dolls

Every last bit of the Christmas and New Year's decorations have been packed away now-- in a storage closet that looks like a jig-saw puzzle. I'm always amazed at how much I can pack into this closet, as long as I do it neatly enough. I had to fill more boxes this year so I could stack them all right to the ceiling. I used to have the Santas and angels lined up on the shelves, and they'd smile at me when I opened the closet door... but with all the extra holiday plates and mugs (and Santas) I found at the consignment shop in November and December, those figurines have to be content in boxes now. Hey, Santa-- can you breathe in there?! (I doubt they're smiling now.)

We usually have our Valentine's party on the second Saturday of February, and this year, our party falls right on the 14th. Originally, I thought that our friends might want to go out for dinner on that night, but so far, everyone I've talked to about the party date is thrilled-- not to have to make reservations for dinner on such a busy night. So the 14th it will be, and I've been getting the invitations ready.

I tried to think of something different to do with the usual Valentine party cards, and I came up with a great idea. With all my back-issues of Mary Engelbreit's "Home Companion" magazine, I have a box filled with sheets of her wonderful paper dolls. I took all the paper doll pages out of the magazines to keep them from getting folded or bent, since I page through all those issues looking for good party ideas and decorating hints. Her artwork is fun and whimsical, and very colorful-- you might call it busy, which it is, but it's soothing and serene just the same. And whimsical-- the world needs more whimsy than ever these days.

So out came the box of paper doll pages, and there I was this afternoon, cutting out paper dolls with blonde hair, brown hair, curly hair, straight hair-- matching the paper dolls as best I could to the women in our Charades group who come to our parties. After matching the dolls to the ladies, I went through the pages again, looking for red and/or pink outfits. I found a Valentine-y paper outfit for each of the dolls, and also cut out tiny red and pink hearts-- one heart for each dress, so it looks like a brooch.

At a yard sale long ago, I found a small box of tiny clear plastic envelopes-- crisp and new, and I figured I could use them for something along the way. And those cute little envelopes were just the thing I needed to hold each paper doll and her Valentine clothes-- the dolls are standing in the clear envelopes up to their waists. I used double-sided tape to stick the envelope to the left side of the invitation, then wrote out the party information on the right side of the card. At the top of the left side, near the paper doll's envelope, I wrote Wear red! Wear pink! Pin a little heart on yourself!

The invitations look more Valentine-y than ever. Not only was I able to match up the paper dolls to the person, but with all the paper doll pages, I was able to pick outfits to match their personalities. I can't wait to see the look on our friend K's face when she sees her blonde paper doll (complete with glasses) wearing a "hippie" outfit from the 1960s.... so perfect for her! And for our friend J, I found an angel costume-- she collect angels, and I'm betting that she will put her little angel paper doll on her angel-filled Christmas tree in December.

What I should do is send an invitation to Mary Engelbreit herself...... to show her what I've done with her paper dolls. There is an artwork page in quite a few of ME's magazine which says "Yes, we play with paper dolls. Want to make something of it?!" To go along with that quote, I can see one of ME's characters standing there with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her cute little face.

I think the ladies are going to enjoy getting the paper dolls in the invitation cards. We are all old enough to have played with paper dolls when we were kids-- before "Colorforms" were invented (those thin-plastic clothes for those cardboard dolls didn't tear easily) and before the Barbie doll was introduced to the world. Paper dolls were prized possessions, and we all had a shoe box filled with pages from McCall's magazines, and movie-star paper dolls cut out of Life and Look.

Mary Engelbreit's paper dolls are the best... they make little girls smile, and they make older girls remember.