Make Doll School Cafeteria Lunch Trays

Our doll has eraser food on her school lunch tray for now: french fries,
 a hot dog, an ice cream pop and an orange.

       We decided that our doll school needed lunch trays for the doll's favorite subject, eating!

Supply List:

• cardboard
• ruler
• white school glue
• pen or pencil for marking and measuring
• masking tape
• acrylic mint green paint or any color you like

       First, you will need to cut a rectangle-like shape from the cardboard to be the bottom of your doll's cafeteria tray. 

       Take a ruler and marking pen to measure and draw where you would like the shallow pockets of the tray to positioned. You may put these pockets anywhere you like. I included a long narrow one on the far right for my doll's eating utensils and another at the top for her drink to sit on top of. I based my tray design on one from my own childhood in the early 1970s.

Left, cut cardboard to the size you want the bottom of the tray to be. Center, measure out the pocket
sections of the food tray with a pen and ruler. Right, shape together the walls of the inside pockets using
 white glue, thin strips of cardboard and masking tape.

       Cut long strips of cardboard the same width to paste and tape around the outside edges of you cafeteria tray. Cut and paste these strips to also make the inside pockets of the tray. Use the masking tape to help support the shallow cardboard walls while the glue dries.

       Wrap the edges of the cardboard with masking tape after the glue has dried to eliminate the corrugated openings. This is only necessary if you have elected to use this kind of cardboard, of course.

       Paint or decoupage the cardboard cafeteria tray with a color of your choice. I chose this pistachio green color because it was the color of the cafeteria trays from my childhood elementary school.

Left, I cut a round shape from a egg carton to emphasize the place for a drink in the upper left hand
corner of my trays. Right, I finished the cafeteria tray in pistachio green because it was the color of
the lunch trays used during my childhood.