Paper Doll Travel Room + 2 New Outfits!

Mercy and Victoria are visiting a charming villa.
Can you guess where that villa is located?

Victoria and Mercy have each acquired new dresses to wear for special outings. Today's outing will be in a charming countryside villa. I will let you guess where.
;)

Please observe and follow all credits, copyrights and red letter Guidelines here at this blog, including the ones listed below.
Thank you.

The last time that I posted a new travel set here at PPS, the dolls were enjoying the fresh breezes and pretty view along the River Rhein. The basis for the scene was a very old painting.

This time, the basis for the scene is a pretty nook in a charming Villa. This was an interior design plate from an antique book. Notice the charming summer furniture and the pretty wallpaper. The original picture had to be added to, updated, and often painted over using Photoshop. I hate to say it, but it was in need of much tender loving care.

I have changed the colors a little bit, including the colors depicting the countryside outside of the windows. I added some sun at the window in order to justify some shadows underneath the furniture. I also added some carpet, as the original picture showed no flooring of any kind.

Mercy's Outfit or Ensemble
I hope to dazzle guests with the two new paper doll outfits this time. Which one of the two do you prefer? Mercy's is an updated and upgraded Photoshopped version of an old antique paper doll outfit. This needed a complete overhaul, along with a better fitting hat. For Mercy's hat, I had to comb the archives in search of an old magazine fashion picture of just the right angle and design. Even that has had to be reshaped and updated a lot. Despite the time that I've put into this project, I do hope that you will agree with me that the yellow dress is  a fashionable and pretty addition to Mercy's wardrobe.

Victoria's Outfit or Ensemble
For Victoria's new ensemble, I used just fashion plates from her era of the 1890's. This one is a French design, as is the design of her hat. I have to say that I really do like that hat! (But then, I've always enjoyed hats and have even collected some on occasion.) The pleated organza would have been both very expensive and very tough to keep looking nice, and so this will be a rare treat for Victoria as she and her cousin stay for a visit at the countryside villa. 

More New Scenes and Rooms to Be Added Soon!
The outfits for both dolls could certainly be played with using a number of scenes and rooms. I will soon be able to offer at least one more before the autumn weather. After that, I already have others in the works for you. As for a paper doll of Mercy's husband, that is turning out to be a rather difficult project. Please be patient with me about that. Most fashion plates from Victoria's era do not involve any men at all.

Today's Set:
I will begin with a Display of the Room, followed by the 4 separate downloads. { For complete instructions and a few hopefully helpful hints, guests may follow the link HERE. }

Next, you will find the displays of the doll's outfits, followed immediately by their downloads. Below those you will be able to see first the Credits and then the red letter Guidelines.

If you've enjoyed this set, please feel free to click on the heading "Paper Dolls" in the Menu bar located just beneath the banner above.

Happy Travel Playtime!

PPSPlaytime™: A Lovely Nook in a Pretty Villa

Display version

(lower quality than the downloads)

ROOM DOWNLOADS

Download Upper Left HERE

Download Upper Right HERE

Download Lower Right HERE

Download Lower Left HERE

Mercy's New Outfit

Download the outfit HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Victoria's New Outfit

Download outfit HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Credits:

original images of the room

and Victoria's fashion plate

nypl.org

©RHMcGuinn as are all of the rest of the Paper Dolls, outfits, rooms, Scenes and Accessories, including standards. 

Thanks for the courtesy.

Guidelines

You are free to:

use the above room and outfits

for playtime only.

You are not free to:

ever sell any of the items here

for any reason.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

A Special Gift + a Room for Victoria

A gift from a loving grandmother has just been delivered. Included below is also a new Room.

This gift had to be ordered in advance from a lingerie shop in Paris. Victoria's Grandmother Lacey wanted her to have something especially pretty and fashionable to wear in the evenings while on her travels

Please respect my red letter Guidelines here. Thank you.

This very special gift is something unexpected. Victoria's cousin Mercy has helped their grandmother with all arrangements so that delivery would be timely. This had to be a well guarded secret for weeks. The pretty peignoir is that gift. (For a quick lesson in the French pronunciation of that word, along with its actual meaning, you may follow this link HERE and click on the little speaker symbol beside the word) 

I am offering this sweet night robe in two colors, magenta and blue. The choice is yours. Either color will work nicely with every hair color that is being offered with the New Look style of paper doll, available HERE.  The Instructions and hopefully helpful hints for assembling the room that goes with this outfit may be found HERE. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask with a comment. I will do my best to respond. (please forgive this problem with sudden changes in font sizes here. It is an ongoing problem I've faced since earlier this year)

The Room is, of course, Victoria's room at a rather grand and spacious hotel in Paris. It has antique furnishings, tall walls, and a fancy plastered ceiling. The rug underfoot is very soft and comforting. In fact, this is the most elaborate room in which Victoria has ever stayed. She sees her visit to this fine hotel as a gift, too. After all, without the generosity of her family, no such special treat as she is experiencing would ever have been possible for her. It is her grandmother's family who have so generously all worked together in order to offer her this wonderful and educational time abroad.

But the fun for Victoria is only just beginning!

Below, I am offering the peignoir (or robe) first, followed by each of the 4 separate sections of the Room. 

Notes on Some Quality Issues with this Room:
Now, I am not altogether pleased with the quality of this Room. I do hope that guests will forgive its lower than normal quality. I actually have had a very tough time trying to find just the right images that will not only work to scale or size for the doll but that would make sense within the story line. I've faced quality issues ever since I first began blogging here in that I tend to choose and offer mainly higher quality images wherever possible. 
I actually prefer 300dpi resolution images for use with each doll, especially in Room images. However, this simply has not always been possible for me. For some reason, paintings of interiors from the right decade that are in good enough condition have been extremely difficult to find or use. I've often faced some of my tougher challenges with Rooms and Scenes for my paper doll collection.

That being said, here is the pretty new robe, followed by the new Room ~

Happy Playtime Creativity!

PPSPlaytime™: Room and French Robe Set

for Victoria

Download Blue Robe HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Magenta Robe HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Room (in 4 sections)

Download Upper Left HERE

Download Upper Right HERE

Download Lower Right HERE

Download Lower Left HERE

Display version with outfit

shown below

Image credit for room:

nypl.org

©RHMcGuinn as are all of the rest of the Paper Dolls, outfits, rooms, Scenes and Accessories, including standards. 

Thanks for the courtesy.

You are free to:

either play with or give or trade

the images being offered within this post.

You are not free to:

sell any of them for any reason.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Butterfies in Flight

From an old full color plate illustration.

I was in the mood for something light, airy and pretty. I hope this suits your mood, too.

Please see the Guidelines below for more information. Thank you.

I've cleaned and cleared this one up a little, plus brightened it somewhat, as it was looking a bit drab and tired. And butterflies need to be full of light and loveliness, don't they?
:)

Thank you for stopping by with your ~
Happy Creativity!

PPS™ Butterflies in Midair 

Download HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

I'd appreciate credit and a link back

to this post. 

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

An 18th Century Coloring Page

A lady stays at home with her little bird.

In this quiet scene, a fairly affluent home is depicted, one refined in taste enough  for some fine furnishings. A lady sits alone with her bird. There is sun in the window, and we can almost make out the landscape painting that hangs on her wall.

She sits in her parlor, dressed rather informally for a quiet time alone. She is wearing a wrap of some sort over what appears to be a set of stays and a long skirt of some sort. It is hard to tell exactly how she is dressed here, but it hardly matters.

She is holding a very special and costly item on her lap, a music box of some sort. This lovely object is being used like a prompt in order to teach her little caged bird a tune to sing.

Despite a few quality issues, I've decided to offer this image for free and to keep it in the Public Domain. It seems to me that such an image might be hand tinted using watercolors. That is, once it's been adhered securely enough to watercolor paper first. Alternatively, colored pencils might be just the thing--or maybe pan pastels. Crayons of any sort might work nicely as well.

Happy Coloring Creativity!

PPSColorMe™: A French Lady 

Teaches Her Bird a Tune

Download Black and White version HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Sepia version HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

These 2 versions

of the same illustration

are free and in the Public Domain.

Enjoy!

:)

Spring Garden Goes French Country

Celebrate spring's arrival with frills, lace, French style fabric and a rare antique buckle !

Last time, I used a digital brush in order to create my chosen lacy look. This time, it was a Photoshop pattern, one made by babypink (name is a link) over at Brusheezy. The copyright for the Lace pattern (entitled, "Spetts") is as follows: "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. You may redistribute, remix, tweak, and build upon this work even for commercial reasons, as long as you credit this artist by linking back."

Thank you for honoring those terms for both babypink and myself.
Please observe the red letter Guidelines at the base of this post. Thank you.

Other important credits include the trim for the brand new style of belt. The central daisy motif and scalloped trim are both from a pretty and useful digital brush collection that was created by MelsBrushes.

The new button design is a remake of an antique one from a free image that I found. The white silhouette on it was cut quite small, and is very fine in every detail, so of course it simply had to be used for the set! The buckle is actually a very old brooch made of special caned, dual colored striped glass and paste "diamonds." I just love how glitzy it looks, don't you? By all means, let's celebrate spring with a little bit of bling!
:)

I really enjoyed the design process of this set. It seems that for every single design project, I always do learn something more about what digital artwork can do.

I hope that you will enjoy this new set with your~
Happy Creativity!

PPS™ Spring Garden Collection: French 

Countryside in Green

Display Example:

Download Set HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Vertical Lace Background HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Horizontal Lace Background HERE

(Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Please see Credits in the first and third paragraphs above.

You are free to:

use the Photo Corners shown above

in art and crafting projects

that may be either given or sold.

If you sell, please give credit to 

www.plushpossumstudio.blogspot.com

You are not free to:

ever sell items from this set in sets of your own.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Frosty Blue Collage Pages

Frosty Morning Blues!

I awoke feeling chilly yesterday morning and again today. After the adventures with the color Pink, I felt like taking my color wheel for a spin, and when it landed on a lovely deep sky blue, I was ready to sing those blues!

Please see all red letter Guidelines and credits for every post, including this one. Thank you so much.

Today's first item is the original Background. I really liked the way that it looked, and so I went a step further by making a diamond pattern using it plus a richer tone.

Next, I simply had to add a page of tags. These come as a threesome, so in keeping with the musical theme, they are now a Trio!
:)

The Extras come next, followed by frames with some snow motifs.
Brrrr! I'm chilly already, just looking at all of the cool, icy blues!

Happy Wintertime Creativity!

PPS™ Frosty Morning Blues Collection

Download Background No. 1 HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Background No. 2 HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Blues Tag Trio HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Blues Extras HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Frames etc. HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

Download Background 3 HERE

Display version

(lower quality than the download)

CREDITS:

Digital brushes used are all from

www.obsidiandawn.com

except for

one mystery brush

which couldn't be located at the source.

The filigree pattern had 

to be significantly altered by me.

You are free to:

use this set for fun or for profit.

If for profit,

please include credits for

Plush Possum Studio

AND

www.obsidiandawn.com

Thank you 

for helping me to

keep free things free!

For the Harvest: a Free Illustration

A Free Harvest Graphic of Old Alsace

Isn't this an interesting taste of the world's past? Most people were farmers only a century or two ago. Then heavy industry was introduced, and mining became more of a concern so that metals could be had for the use of industrial machines. (This led to more coal mining, as well)

We have mainly forgotten some of the simpler joys of bringing our harvest in from the fields, as a personal "harvest" would appear to happen nearly every time that there is a new paycheck.

I respect the farming peoples of the world, as I do all working men and women. This old print will hopefully teach us a little history about the region of Alsace, along with their harvesting season. The woman with the rake is a favorite of mine, yet they all look interesting to me.

Alsace would later become a hotly contested area during two World Wars, during which times much history was lost due to the vagaries and ugliness of war.

Let's bring our Harvest in today with love and concern for our neighbors! And let's share the bounty with those less fortunate than ourselves as well.

Happy Harvest Creativity everybody!

PPS™Harvest Ephemera: Old Alsace

Download HERE

Display Copy 

(lower resolution than the download, unsuitable for printing)

You are free to:

use this graphic or illustration in art 

for either fun or for profit.

Let's allow free things to remain free!

Thank you.

Free Basket Graphic

Baskets for Sale!--in this case, free!

I love old graphics, especially when they are in the Public Domain and can be freely had by anybody who might happen to like them.

This one had to be enhanced a little bit for our modern printers. It has been modified slightly in order to allow for coloring, etc. 

I can only begin to imagine what this young Frenchman of the nineteenth century must have thought about his life and occupation. Times were difficult often in France during his era, as history shows us. (I actually am uncertain as to his nationality, but am guessing) 

From his slightly crumpled hat to the ordinary way his clothes look, he was most likely trying hard to keep a roof over his head at the time. Many of us can no doubt relate to just such a struggle.

Today's graphic is being offered two ways, in sepia tone and in black and white. This is now in the Public Domain, free for anybody interested in it. (Please see red guidelines, below)

Happy Creativity!

PPS™ A Basket Full of Hope

Download the version below HERE

Download the same in Black and White HERE

The Sepia Tone Version is shown Below 

(lower resolution than our downloads)

You are free to:

use this graphic in art for fun or for profit.

Please do not sell this graphic as is.

Let's keep free things free!

Thank you.

New Free Images to Harvest

Free Harvest Image for Digital or Print

This was in the PPS archives, and it actually is more interesting to look at than I'd at first assumed. I love the mottled paper and the lovely artwork, don't you?
:)

This image was in the Public Domain when first found. It has been stretched only slightly to keep its resolution better, and then repaired a bit here and there, in order to make the colors appear more crisp and alive. This was done using Photoshop brushes along with some opacity settings and a few other techniques I won't bore my guests by mentioning (I probably cannot recall everything that was done to it anyway!). I see this image as a pleasant reflection on the harvests of the past.

Please see the red letter Guidelines below the image. Thank you.

Have fun harvesting this free vegetable image with your 
Happy Creativity!
:)

PPS™ Fresh for the Harvest: French Vegetables

Download Digi PNG version HERE

Download JPG For Print version HERE

Display Copy Below (lower resolution)

I'm leaving this in the 

Public Domain category, even though 

it's been repaired a bit.

Have a Happy Harvest time!

:)

Free Accessories for Book Artists #3

Book Artist Accessory Set #3: Buckles, Trim, Buttons & Ribbon

This new set is actually a combination of ideas, eras, and prior creations. The vintage trim was scanned in years ago; likewise our wee little buckle, now offered in more than one color way and more than one size. Both trim and buckle were found on various shopping trips here and there. I just can't resist a good flea market or antiques mall, can you?
:)

All of this is copyrighted, of course, so please read our red letter guidelines below.

The buckle is from the first part of the twentieth century. The embroidered buttons, as mentioned previously, are from the eighteenth century. The cloth is also from the eighteenth century. It's a favorite era of mine. The cloth buttons are all faux or fake, made using Photoshop processes. These were fun to make!

The pocket flap is actually the way most pockets did look at one point in the eighteenth century, when even shoulder seams were cut in a different way. I love the embroidery on the pocket flap, including all of the colors used. 

The lace in the Example (fist image below) is actually a digital brush. No credits may be added for that one, but it most likely came from the Brusheezy website. Simply go to Brusheezy.com and type into their search window the word, "lace." (I tried looking for it but without success) They have some lovely free things there. Obsidiandawn.com likewise has some refined lace brushes if you're into digital art making. That's a favorite place online for me personally, by the way.

Guidelines are listed in red below the following images.
Happy Creativity!
:)

PPS™ Accessory Set for Book Artists #3

Example Image

(lower resolution, not fit for print)

Download the following Set in Digi PNG version HERE

Download For JPG For Print version HERE

You are free to:

Use the images in this set for the purposes of art making

either for fun or for profit.

You are not free to:

sell any one component of this set

in any sets of your own making.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Free Scrapping Set: "Brown Paper Packages"

"Favorite Things"

This offering is all about a few favorite things as a set, offered for both Digital Scrapbooking and Print purposes.

A thunderstorm might make one think of the wonderful song from the musical, "The Sound of Music," wherein the main character, Fräulein Maria sings about how to get over upset and fear by recalling favorite things. Our Studio experienced more than one such storm here recently, forcing a complete shut down of all computer functions. But this helped to inspire us!

"...Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things." I actually do love brown paper, twine, thread, and stitching. I also have been known to collect old sewing and thread notions. 

Favorite things used in our design this time:
Antique books
Sewing Notions
Brown Paper
Twine
Buttons
Things from foreign places (everywhere from London to the Netherlands to France to Italy to as far away as possibly old Russia of the early 1900s as well as Japan was used to make our designs).

Our idea is to prepackage sets from time to time in order to give freely a few items that our guests might enjoy. We really do hope that you'll be able to have fun with our ideas this time!

Digital collage was used as the main medium, as per usual. Add to that one of our own in-Studio "Pretty Papers" in sepia tone, along with a few surprises along the way, and our gathering of objects and ideas began to fit together nicely.

Most of the buttons were made digitally from images of old manuscripts, all found online at Wikimedia Commons in the Pubic Domain section. That being said, we attribute wherever possible. One button's design (see the "Le Secret" button) would include page edges from an interesting image we found online there. Please see Pergamentmakulatur at Wikimedia Commons or that person's lovely old book image, in its entirety, HERE. This is where we found page edges for our one button design. Please attribute that artist's name in your work, but never sell.

Our thread card, marked "Artsilk" is in the Public Domain worldwide, as far as we have been able to determine. The mother-of-pearl buttons used on the same frame we scanned ourselves quite a while ago. In fact, it is safe to say that we have been playing with buttons in our designs for years, but seldom have used any in offerings here at PPS. The lower left button in the same design was likewise scanned, and is an old celluloid button from my own private collection. It was a common enough button during the early part of the 20th century. The sheet music used for the flower is also of PPS origin.

The old map of London, often used by us here before, offered us yet another opportunity to use its beautiful look in this design. It, too, is in the Public Domain, as are the rest of the remaining documents being used here today.

In other words, Please attribute our Studio in your work, as well as that of the Wikimedia artist mentioned above with your
Happy Creativity!
:)

PPS™ Favorite Things Set

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download JPG Version HERE

Display Copy 

(at lower resolution for display purposes only)

Other Credits:

ObsidianDawn.com for French Handwriting digital brush

Dezinaworld for some inspiration

You are free to:

use the above set in artwork for fun 

or profit, except the "Le Secret" button included in the set.

That button may be given or traded, but never sold,

if we are to be fair to the person providing the main image for it.

You are not free to:

repackage our designs for sale in any way.

This is our gift to you.

Please respect our gifts for the public's use.

Thank you.

Free Frame in Antique Rose

Antique Rose Stone and Mother of Pearl Frame

We here at Plush Possum Studio really enjoy giving away free things to the public. We do hope that our guests will choose to stay and take a deeper look into our long roster of Categories, just for fun. Please read and follow the red letter Guidelines at the foot of this post, as some copyrights apply in this case. Thank you.

As our frame collection has grown lately, it's a fun category to browse through. Today's offering will be a different color way from the malachite frame of a few days ago. Even the tone of the mother of pearl accents has been shifted so as to look right within its rosy toned setting.

For our original look of malachite and marble, you can go directly HERE.

We hope that you'll enjoy using our frame collection, but please protect our copyrights as well as the rights of the photographer whose picture we're using for this frame by crediting both us and that person. We list credits below our Display picture, as always. That person, who goes by the name of Sakko over at Wikimedia Commons, has been kind enough to supply the public with a very lovely picture which we've tried to use fairly enough. We do hope that you'll join us in that effort of fairness with your own credit or attribution, and likewise by never selling that artist's work. Thanks so much for cooperating with your
Happy Creativity!
:)

Antique Rose Stone, Marble & Mother of Pearl Frame

Download Digi PNG Version HERE

Download JPG Version HERE

Display Copy (Lower resolution)

Credits:

Malachite photo by Shakko HERE

This person has licensed the image used in specific terms. 

Please read the licenses at any free image website prior to choosing and 

using any images there.

That would include here.

Thanks so much.

Marble Paper used is in the Public Domain.

Mother of Pearl clipped from a photo by Brocken Inaglory HERE.

All other work by Plush Possum Studio with a little help from Photoshop!

:)

You are free to:

use any of the above Frame

in personal artwork and/or crafting

that is to be either kept or given away freely.

You are not free to:

ever sell this Frame

under any circumstances

for any reason whatsoever,

even if you try and alter it first.

Thank you

for helping me to

keep free things free!

Free Swimming Graphic

Let's go swimming today!

Here is an old swimming graphic from 1890's France. It's been altered somewhat in order to make it hopefully a little more usable than before. The original was a bit messy, and so needed cleaning up and freshening.

It may well be that this was considered a slightly bawdy cartoon in its day, but we will never know, as jokes do change through time.

I love to look at all of the fashions that they wore! But would we be comfortable wearing such outfits today? Believe it or not, they were mostly made of knitted worsted wool. That must have been an itchy and very warm experience indeed. I actually was once able to closely observe a man's swimming suit from the very early 1900's and, while it had been cleverly constructed, it looked very uncomfortable to my modern eyes. But then, most modern day clothing frees our bodies and most nineteenth century clothing was extremely confining.

I think that today we'd all much prefer our modern cottons with stretchy spandex or latex to those old "bathing costumes," don't you?

But no matter. Let's all enjoy today's swimming lesson with our

Happy Creativity!

1890's French Swimming Graphic

Download HERE

You are free to:

Use the above graphic in artwork for fun or for profit.

You are not free to take the credit for our processing of this item

by repackaging it for sale in any way.

Please respect our copyrights and those of others.

Likewise

please respect our gifts for the public's use.

Thank you.

Plush Possum Studio