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If you thought you were never again going to buy a paper doll to call your own, to paraphrase a song the Mills Brothers sang decades ago, you may have been wrong. Paper dolls, and surprisingly complex paper models of all sorts of things, are making a modest comeback, and they appeal to the creative in kids and adults.
What's old is new. What goes around, comes around. No matter how you put it, paper dolls and paper crafts popular in decades past are becoming popular again.
In the age of the Internet, high-speed computers and video games, increasing numbers of people are turning away from modern technology, at least for an occasional respite, and rediscovering old-fashioned fun.
These days, there is more to paper dolls and crafts than just cutting and folding, however. Some exercise the imagination by requiring the creator to design clothing and make accessories. In addition to standard two-dimensional dolls, several books have patterns that allow ambitious types to make a variety of other items. There are American Indian dioramas, vintage airplanes that fly, bird houses and clocks that tick. Appropriately for the Halloween season, there's one called "Scary Masks."
"I think part of the resurgence in paper dolls is that people are going back to the basics," said Abbey Rutchick, of Creative Kid's Stuff, a children's toy and art specialty shop with four Twin Cities locations. "It is all stuff we grew up with."