March 29th: Happy Birthday, Julia!

Recently I was cleaning out some closets and came across this old 'paper doll' that I made many years ago to surprise my niece & god-daughter, Julia, for her birthday - - which is today (March 29th). Happy Birthday, Julia! These pictures show a laminated copy of the 'paper doll' that I drew based on a family vacation photo of her in her swimming suit. 
 
I had to Google when Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame came out to figure out what year I made this *Julia Paper Doll* because I remember that same year Julia dressed as the "Esmeralda" character from that Disney movie for Halloween. ~ Evidently that version of The Hunchback of ND was released in 1996; and I'm pretty sure anyway that it was in March of 1997 when I gave my niece this gift which would have been for her 5th birthday.
 
To fit with the times and to fit on Julia's doll, I made a paper "Esmeralda" costume where I added a tambourine ( ...which now reminds me of even earlier days when I used to play the tambourine in my brother's high school/college band - - yep, there were younger days for us all :) ) Also to fit on the paper doll I made a Dorothy outfit (and Toto too!) and a Clara holding a Nutcracker outfit since both Julia & I were dancers growing up. I also drew her a paper outfit of her Christmas dress from the holiday season that year as well as a summer sundress that she used to wear.

A picture of Julia's big brown eyes from the summer of 1997:

Me painting Julia's face for her cousin's birthday party at the beach: