The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 (the exact year is uncertain), in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard,
which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down
or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the
hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a shortened form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from gravicembalo col piano e forte and fortepiano. The Italian musical terms piano and forte indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively,
in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness)
produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the
greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer
hitting the strings, and the louder the sound of the note produced and
the stronger the attack. The name was created as a contrast to harpsichord,
a musical instrument that doesn't allow variation in volume. The first
forte pianos in the 1700s had a quieter sound and smaller dynamic range. Read more...
Click directly on the image to download the largest available size.
These are the color versions of Jessie Louise Taylor's Dutch Twins Paper Friends.
Directions For Making Fold-A-Way Dolls:
Mount the dolls on an old magazine cover, letterhead or perhaps even
discarded clean cereal boxes. Any stiff, clean cardboard will due.
When thoroughly dry, cut out all around the dark outlines and cut
into lines on base to make th e locks, also cut slits in bodies where
the dress tabs fit.
Fold over directly on the dotted lines at the top of the heads and
the dotted lines at the feet, but in the opposite directions, as shown
on the tiny figures.
Bring haves together and slide locks from one side into the slats on the opposite side. Doll will then stand alone.
The clothes need not be mounted, but will last longer if mounted on light weight paper before cutting out.
Cut into the slits and fold directly on the dotted lines, clothes will then go on and off almost like your own garments.
The hats should be folded, cut out and tipped with paste so that the back will stick to the front part below the slits.
In cutting out the goose follow same method as for the dolls.
This little paper doll named Dell made her debut in 1921 with a set of Winter clothes for school, play, parties, outdoor occasions and for pajamas for sleeping in.
"Dell is a very lucky little paper doll. Do you remember all the nice
new clothes she had in the Winter? Well, above are some more new ones
that her mother has just mad for her from the latest Butterick designs."
These Fashionistas carry white leather, couture bags made from recycled materials.
I picked up a few worn leather handbags for a dollar each at resale, intending to use them again in a craft or two. The couture bags shown here were made from a recycled white leather purse that was too damaged to do much with.
Your discarded and broken costume jewelry can be reused to trim couture
purses for a fashion doll.
Supply List:
recycled leather bag or purse
hot glue and hot glue gun
tacky crafter's glue
discarded chains
gold bead for clasp
extra leather trim
cotton fabric scraps for bag bottom and interior
embroidery floss
cotton balls
thin cardboard
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut the recycled leather, faux or real into a length measuring approximately 2"x3".
Hot glue the side edges together to make a cylinder shape. You can use a bit of cardboard tubing to help hold the shape of your bags until the glue has dried.
Trim off the excess glue with a tiny pair of scissors once it has dried.
Measure and cut cardboard circles to fit the bottom end of each bag.
Using tack glue, attach the cardboard circle to a piece of coordinating scrap fabric, leaving 1/4 inch of excess material to turn over the edges and paste in place. Making a neat finished edge for the bottom of your bag once you've glued it into place.
Stuff the miniature bag with a cotton ball after removing any cardboard you have put into the purse to hold it into place while the hot glue sets up.
At this point I finished the top edges of my leather with an embroidery stitch.
Then I folded a small rectangle over twice and thread this through a small jump ring attached to a chain for the purse and glued it inside one end of the purse opening. Repeat the same step for the opposite side of the purse as well.
I then glued the bag shut with hot glue. However, if the leather had been in better shape I would have chosen to line the bag so Barbie could actually put thins inside it.
Next I cut a strip of leather to hot glue on top of my back seam and then to wrap over the top of the purse "opening" and down just a bit for the fake clasp of the bag.
Then I glued a tiny brass bead to this brown strap to mimic a clasp on the doll's bag.
Far left, Hot glue the side edges together to make a cylinder shape. You can use a
bit of cardboard tubing to help hold the shape of your bags until the
glue has dried. Left center, Using tack glue, attach the cardboard circle to a piece of coordinating
scrap fabric, leaving 1/4 inch of excess material to turn over the edges
and paste in place. Right center, Making a neat finished edge for the bottom of your bag once you've glued it into place. Far right, Then I folded a small rectangle over twice and thread this through a
small jump ring attached to a chain for the purse and glued it inside
one end of the purse opening.
These paper dolls have costumes to wear to a ball! Cut along dotted lines, and slip doll's head
into slits thus
made. To make the dolls stand...paste a narrow strip of cardboard
at
waist line, which will form an easel stand.
Description of Coloring Page: masquerade costumes for a ball, pirate costumes, boots, sword, gypsy costume, coin edging, masks, hats, feathers, tambourine, policeman, lady with a fan
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. Chaplin became a worldwide icon through his screen persona "the Tramp" and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy. Read more...
Directions for Assembly:
Paste the page upon cardboard and cut out the circles.
Place the one with the cut-out piece on the side over the other one and push a brass fastener through the button on Charley's vest and the small circle in the center of the piece containing the heads.
Turn the under circle by means of it's paper handle.
Charlie is drawn having several nationalities.
The original pattern is by Harvey Peake, restored by kathy grimm.
"Pinocchio, the wistful puppet created by Geppetto, the wood carver, in Walt Disney's second full-length production, is an inviting subject for either a homemade puppet or an amusing and companionable little doll. The accompanying illustrations show how to go about making one patterned after the original, which was created by the Disney model department as an inspiration to the animators drawing Pinocchio.
If you are an expert wood carver yourself, the head might be fashioned from a solid block of soft white pine and the nose inserted (Fig. 1), but a surer way to achieve a fair likeness is first to make a clay model. From this a plaster-of-Paris mold is taken, and the head is cast in plastic composition wood (Figs. 2, 3, and 4). The hat is made in the same way as the head and glued on.
The casting process will be found simple if the steps are carefully carried out as illustrated. Note, however, in the step marked Fig. 4E it is not necessary to fill the mold with watery plaster. Just pour a little inside and swish it around to form a coating and prevent the wood composition from drying and shrinking. The joint where the two halves of the head come together should be filled and the whole sandpapered before painting.
The torso is carved from a solid block of soft white pine (Fig.
5), and holes are drilled as indicated for the thongs to which arms and
legs are attached, and for the elastic in the neck. The latter is a sort
of ball-and-socket joint so that it may be turned and twisted within
reasonable limits.
The Casting Process for Pinocchio.
String the marionette.
Legs and arms are of maple, although if they are to be painted flesh color, white pine will do. These pieces are slotted and jointed as in Fig. 6. For a doll, make the slots fit snugly so they will remain in any desired position, but for a marionette the joints should be very loose.
Hands and feet are cast in the plastic composition like the head, and the shapes are given in Fig. 7.
The assembly is illustrated in Fig. 8. Rawhide thongs are driven into holes in the upper arms and thighs, and fastened with glue or thin wedges. Costume and coloring are shown in Fig. 10.
There are various methods of attaching strings to a figure of this kind if it is to be used as a marionette, but one of the simplest is shown in Fig. 11. The wire extensions for the shoulder cords have the advantage of giving better control and hold the strings clear of the stiff white collar.
Geppetto, the indefatigable wood carver who made Pinocchio,
filled his shop with all manner of unique cuckoo clocks. This one can be
adapted to serve as a desk ornament. A hand-carved background of rushes
supports a dollar watch, and in the foreground is a painted pool with a
pair of ducks, one of them ‚"headin' south." Jig-saw the back wall from
white pine and carve in the design. The watch is set in a circular
opening, being held in place by a brass spring. If a lathe is available,
turn the retaining ring of hardwood; otherwise carve it out. The ducks
are whittled from white pine." Modern Mechanix
Douglas Fairbanks (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro but spent the early part of his career making comedies.
Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. He was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood", a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable.
Though widely considered as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood
during the 1910s and 1920s, Fairbanks' career rapidly declined with the
advent of the "talkies". His final film was The Private Life of Don Juan (1934). Read more...
First cut out the page so that you can handle it conveniently. Then cut out the figures carefully on the outlines,
with scissors. Use a sharp knife point to cut along the dotted lines. Letters indicate which figures may
be used together.
Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress.
Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Hiram and Amelia Ferguson. Her father was a successful attorney. Raised and educated in Manhattan,
she became interested in the theater at a young age and made her stage
debut at 17 as a chorus girl in a musical comedy. For almost two years,
from 1903 to 1905, she was a cast member in The Girl from Kays. In 1908, she was leading lady to Edgar Selwyn in Pierre of the Plains. By 1909, after several years apprenticeship under several producers, including Charles Frohman, Klaw & Erlanger, Charles Dillingham and Henry B. Harris, she was a major Broadway star, starring in Such a Little Queen. In 1910, she spent time on the stage in London. Actresses Evelyn Nesbit and Ethel Barrymore were friends of hers. Read more...
First cut out the page so that you can handle it conveniently. Then cut out the figures carefully on the outlines,
with scissors. Use a sharp knife point to cut along the dotted lines. Letters indicate which figures may
be used together.
The original by Dan Rudolph, restored for coloring by Kathy Grimm.
Description of Coloring Page: text "Oscar the Owl", tuxedo, top hat, large eyes, moving parts,
This is a mechanical paper doll and requires tiny brass fasteners,
brads or paper fasteners for it's assembly.
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
The original by Dan Rudolph, restored for coloring by Kathy Grimm.
Description of Coloring Page: text "Tommy Tiger" checkered pants, bow tie, striped tiger, moving parts,
This is a mechanical paper doll and requires tiny brass fasteners,
brads or paper fasteners for it's assembly.
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
The original by Dan Rudolph, restored for coloring by Kathy Grimm.
Description of Coloring Page: text "Tom & Jerry" cat and dog, moving parts,
This is a mechanical paper doll and requires tiny brass fasteners,
brads or paper fasteners for it's assembly.
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
Click directly on the image to download the largest available size.
These are the color versions of Jessie Louise Taylor's Eskimo Twins Paper Friends.
Directions For Making Fold-A-Way Dolls:
Mount the dolls on an old magazine cover, letterhead or perhaps even
discarded clean cereal boxes. Any stiff, clean cardboard will due.
When thoroughly dry, cut out all around the dark outlines and cut
into lines on base to make th e locks, also cut slits in bodies where
the dress tabs fit.
Fold over directly on the dotted lines at the top of the heads and
the dotted lines at the feet, but in the opposite directions, as shown
on the tiny figures.
Bring haves together and slide locks from one side into the slats on the opposite side. Doll will then stand alone.
The clothes need not be mounted, but will last longer if mounted on light weight paper before cutting out.
Cut into the slits and fold directly on the dotted lines, clothes will then go on and off almost like your own garments.
The clothing should be folded, cut out and tipped with paste so that the back will stick to the front part below the slits.
In cutting out the puppies follow same method as for the dolls.
Click directly on the image to download the largest available size.
These are the color versions of Jessie Louise Taylor's Puritan (Pilgrim) Twins.
Directions For Making Fold-A-Way Dolls:
Mount the dolls on an old magazine cover, letterhead or perhaps even discarded clean cereal boxes. Any stiff, clean cardboard will due.
When thoroughly dry, cut out all around the dark outlines and cut into lines on base to make th e locks, also cut slits in bodies where the dress tabs fit.
Fold over directly on the dotted lines at the top of the heads and the dotted lines at the feet, but in the opposite directions, as shown on the tiny figures.
Bring haves together and slide locks from one side into the slats on the opposite side. Doll will then stand alone.
The clothes need not be mounted, but will last longer if mounted on light weight paper before cutting out.
Cut into the slits and fold directly on the dotted lines, clothes will then go on and off almost like your own garments.
The hats should be folded, cut out and tipped with paste so that the back will stick to the front part below the slits.
In cutting out the lobster follow same method as for the dolls.
The fact that children make living things out of their toy horses, dogs and the rest is known to every observer of their ways. To the natural unsceptical eye the boy on his rudely carved "gee-gee" slashing the dull flank with all a boy's glee, looks as if he were possessed with the fancy that the rigid inert-looking block which he bestraddles is a very horse.
This breathing of life into playthings is seen in all its magic force in play with dolls. A doll, broadly conceived, is anything which a child carries about and makes a pet of. The toy horse, dog or what not that a little boy nurses, feeds and takes to bed with him has much of the dignity of a true doll. But adopting conventional distinctions we shall confine the word to those things which are more or less endowed by childish fancy with human form and character.
I read somewhere recently that the doll is a plaything for girls only: but young boys, though they often prefer india-rubber horses and other animals, not infrequently go through a stage of doll-love also, and are hardly less devoted than girls.
Endless is the variety of role assigned to the doll. It is the all-important comrade in that solitude a deux of which the child, like the adult, is so fond. Mrs. Burnett tells us that when nursing her doll in the armchair of the parlor she would sail across enchanted seas to enchanted islands having all sorts of thrilling adventures.
Very tenderly, on the whole, is the little doll-lover wont to use her pet, doing her best to keep it clean and tidy, feeding it, putting it to bed, amusing it, for example, by showing it her pictures, tending it with fidelity during bouts of sickness, and giving it the honors of a funeral when, from the attack of a dog set on by an unfeeling brother or other cause, it comes to "die"; or when, as in the case of little Jane Welsh (afterwards Mrs. Carlyle), the time has come for the young lady to cast aside her dolls.
The doll-interest implies a deep mysterious sympathy. Children wish their dolls to share in their things, to be kissed when they are kissed, and so to come close to them in experience and feeling. Not only so, they look for sympathy from their doll-companions, taking to them all their childish troubles. So far is this feeling of oneness carried in some cases that the passion for dolls has actually rendered the child indifferent to child-companions. It is not every little girl who like little Maggie Tulliver has only "occasional fits of fondness " for her nursling when the brother is absent.
Not only in this lavishing of tenderness and of sympathy on the doll, but in the occasional discharge on it of a fit of anger, children show how near it comes to a human companion. The punishment of the doll is an important element in nursery-life. It is apt to be carried out with formal solemnity and often with something of brutal emphasis. Yet tenderness being the strongest part of the doll-attachment, the little disciplinarians are apt to suffer afterwards for their cruelty, one little girl showing remorse after such a chastisement of her pet for several days.
I have talked here of " dolls," but I must not be supposed to be speaking merely of the lovely creatures with blue eyes and yellow hair with which the well-to-do child is wont to be supplied. Nothing is more strange and curious in child-life than its art of manufacturing dolls out of the most unpromising materials. The creative child can find something to nurse and fondle and take to bed with it in a bundle of hay tied round with a string, in a shawl, a pillow, a stick, a clothes-pin, or a clay-pipe. Victor Hugo, with a true touch, makes the little outcast Cosette, who has never had a "real doll," fashion one out of a tiny leaden sword and a rag or two, putting it to sleep in her arms with a soft lullaby.
Do any of us really understand the child's attitude of mind towards its doll? Although gifted writers like George Sand have tried to take us back to the feeling of childhood, it may be doubted whether they have made it intelligible to us. And certainly the answers to questions collected in America have done little, if anything, towards making it clear. The truth is that the perfect child's faith in dolldom passes away early, in most cases it would appear about the age of thirteen or fourteen. It is then that the young people begin clearly to realize the shocking fact that dolls have no "inner life". Occasionally girls will go on playing with dolls much later than this, but not surely with the old sincerity.
That many children have a genuine delusion about their dolls seems evident. That is to say when they talk to them and otherwise treat them as human they imaginatively realize that they can understand and feel. The force of the illusion, blotting out from the child's view the naked reality before its eyes, is a striking illustration of the vividness of early fancy. Perhaps, too, this intensity of faith comes in part of the strength of the impulses which commonly sustain the doll-passion. Of these the instinct of companionship, of sympathy, is the strongest. A lady tells me she remembers that when a child she had a passionate longing for a big, big doll, which would give her the full sweetness of cuddling. The imitative impulse, too, prompting the child to carry out on the doll actions similar to those carried out on itself by mother and nurse, is a strong support of the delusion. A doll, as the odd varieties selected show, seems to be, more than anything else, something to be dressed. Children's reasons for preferring one doll to another, as that it can have its face washed, or that it has real hair which can be combed, show how the impulse to carry out nursery operations sustains the feeling of attachment. A girl (the same that wanted the big doll to cuddle) had dolls of the proper sort; yet she preferred to make one out of a little wooden stool, because she could more realistically act out with this odd substitute the experience of taking her pet out for a walk, making it stand, for example, when she met a friend.
Of course, the child's faith, like other faith, is not always up to the height of perfect ardor. A child of six or seven, when the passion for dolls is apt to be strong, will have moments of coolness, leaving "poor dolly" lying in the most humiliating posture on the floor, or throwing it away in a sudden fit of disenchantment and disgust. Scepticism will intrude, especially when the hidden inside comes to view as mere emptiness, or at best as nothing but sawdust.
Children seem, as George Sand says, to oscillate between the real and the impossible. Yet the intrusion of doubt does not, in many cases at least, interfere with an enduring trust. Dr. Stanley Hall tells us that "long after it is known that they are wood, wax, etc, it is felt that they are of skin, flesh, etc.". Yes, that is it; the child, seized with the genuine play-mood, dreams its doll into a living child, or living adult. How oddly the player's faith goes on living side by side with a measure of doubt is illustrated in the following story. A little girl begged her mother not to make remarks about her doll in her (the doll's) presence, as she had been trying all her life to keep that doll from knowing that she was not alive.
The treating of the doll and images of animals, such as the wooden or india-rubber horse, as living things is the outcome of the play-impulse. All the imaginative play of children seems, so far as we can understand it, to have about it something of illusion. This fact of the full sincere acceptance of the play-world as for the moment the real one, is illustrated in the child's jealous insistence that everything shall for the time pass over from the everyday world into the new one. " About the age of four," writes M. Egger of his boys, "Felix is playing at being coachman; Emile happens to return home at the moment. In announcing his brother, Felix does not say, 'Emile is come;' he says, 'The brother of the coachman is come '." It is illustrated further in the keen resentment of any act on the part of the mother or other person which seems to contradict the facts of the new world. A boy of two who was playing one morning in his mother's bed at drinking up the cat's milk from an imaginary saucer on the pillow, said a little crossly to his mother, who was getting into bed after fetching his toys: "Don't lie on de saucer, mommy!" The pain inflicted on the little player by such a contradictory action is sometimes intense. A little girl of four was playing "shops" with her younger sister. "The elder one (writes the mother) was shopman at the time I came into her room and kissed her. She broke out into piteous sobs, I could not understand why. At last she sobbed out: "Mother, you never kiss the man in the shop." I had with my kiss quite spoilt her illusion."
But there is still another, and some will think a more conclusive way of satisfying ourselves of the reality of the play-illusion. The child finds himself confronted by the unbeliever who questions what he says about the dolls crying and so forth, and in this case he will often stoutly defend his creed. "Discussions with sceptical brothers (writes Dr. Stanley Hall), who assert that the doll is nothing but wood, rubber, wax, etc., are often met with a resentment as keen as that vented upon missionaries who declare that idols are but stocks and stones." It is the same with the toy-horse. "When (writes a mother of her boy) he was just over two years old L. began to speak of a favorite wooden horse (Dobbin) as if it were a real living creature. "No tarpenter (carpenter) made Dobbin,' he would say, 'he is not wooden but kin (skin) and bones and Dod (God) made him.' If any one said ' it ' in speaking of the horse his wrath was instantly aroused, and he would shout indignantly: 'It! You mut'ent tay it, you mut tay he.' "
While play in its absorbing moments, and even afterwards, may thus produce a genuine illusion, the state of perfect realization is of course apt to be broken by intervals of scepticism. This has already been illustrated in the case of the doll. The same little boy that played with the imaginary mice was sitting on his stool pretending to smoke like his grandpapa out of a bit of bent cardboard. Suddenly his face clouded over; he stroked his chin, and remarked in a disappointed tone, "I have not got any whiskers ". The dream of full manhood was here rudely dispelled by a recall to reality.
A measure of the same fanciful transformation of things that has been illustrated in make-believe play, a measure, too, of the illusion which frequently accompanies it, enters, I believe, into all children's pastimes. Whence comes the perennial charm, the undying popularity, of the hoop? Is not the interest here due to the circumstance that the child controls a thing which in the freedom of its movements suggests that it has a will of its own? This seems borne out by the following story. A little girl of five once stopped trundling her hoop and said to her mother she thought that her hoop must be alive, because "it is so sensible; it goes where I want it to." Perhaps the same thing may be said of other toys, as the kite and the sailing boat.
Nothing says welcome to our home like a cheerful, festive wreath wired to the front door of your dollhouse! Wreaths are so simple to make, you'll want to make more than one.
Take time and care to attach a tiny hook permanently to your dollhouse door so that you can change out the decorations according to the seasonor holiday.
Supply List:
furry chenille stems in green or red
Mardi-Gras beads or any beads
ribbon
wire for a hook attachment
hot glue gun and hot glue
Step-by-Step Directions:
Twist the chenille stem into a wreath shape. Hold the initial shape up to the door or wall that you would like to decorate it with. Then you can reshape the wreath larger or smaller if need be.
Twist the Mardi-Gras beads around the wreaths and hot glue these to the chenille stems as needed.
Shape the ribbons into bows and hot glue these onto the top of each wreath.
Shape and hook a small wire to the back of the ribbon for hanging.
More Ways To Craft Christmas Wreaths for Your Doll's House:
Left, shelves for books and a small vase and toy. Center, our
babysitter doll is taking good care of Barbie's son. He loves
several bedtime stories before settling down for the night. Right, included on our bookshelf is a flat screen T.V.
The simplest way to make a bookcase for a doll, is to upcycle a small box. If you choose to use a box without compartments, the work is a bit more detailed and I will include a project later with the instructions for that method.
However, if you are lucky enough to find just the right box to use for a bookcase, you may not need to add the shelves on your own. Below is a prime example of a project such as this one.
Adding cupboard doors to your bookcase is optional here. Simply cut rectangles from cardboard that
fit neatly over the shelf openings. Cover them with decorative paper and hot glue on two beads for handles.
Tape these in place with a durable duct tape and then cover the exposed areas with more decorative paper.
Supply List For The Bookcase:
cardboard box
cardboard box with compartments (optional)
Mod Podge
scissors
decorative papers
ruler
white school glue
a soft, clean paint brush for applying Mod Podge
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Clean off any dust or dirt that may have attached itself to the box.
Carefully measure and cut out decorative shapes that fit neatly into the compartments of the box.
Use a soft brush to cover each shelf with Mod Podge and then stick the papers down to the surfaces.
Be careful to rub the surfaces with your clean, dry fingertips. Smoothing out the air bubbles that get trapped beneath the paper.
Then layer with the paint brush, another coat of Mod Podge on top of the new decorative papers.
Repeat this process for the outside of the box as well.
I left the edges and some of the walls of my doll's bookcase their original color. You do not need to cover every surface of the bookcase if you don't want to change all of it. I found the original fuchsia appealing, so I chose a different set of papers to compliment some of the original color.
You will probably need to fill your doll's bookcase with a few books and there are many ways to craft small volumes. I will demonstrate with photos below just one way to make miniature doll books for now...
Glue additional titles and decorations
to the outside of the doll book.
Supply List for Miniature Books:
corrugated cardboard
scrap magazine pages
glue stick
scissors
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut the cardboard into the size pieces you wish your books to be. You can estimate this by putting a few different sizes of cut cardboard squares into the hands of your dolls to determine the scale you want the books to be. Also make sure that the books are not too large for the doll's bookcase.
For this particular method of making a miniature book, you will only need to collect scrap magazine paper to cover the volumes with.
Glue like sized cardboard squares side by side, leaving only a small gab so that the book will shut neatly on the shelf after it is finished.
Now cut around both cardboard shapes leaving approximately 1/4 inch of paper around all four sides.
Smear a bit of glue to each end and fold the magazine paper over the edges on top of the glue. Repeat this step around every side.
Now cut paper having words printed on it and glue it to the inside covers of the miniature book. The dolls will be able to open these small volumes and pretend to read the text.
Glue additional titles and decorations to the outside of the doll book. Now you have a few books for the doll bookcase!
Left, glue like sized cardboard squares side by side, leaving only a small gab
so that the book will shut
neatly on the shelf after it is finished. Center, Smear a bit of glue to each end and fold the magazine
paper over the edges on top of the glue. Right, The dolls will be able to open these small volumes
and pretend to read the text.
The television depicted on the left below, has a picture pasted directly to the monitor and is much easier to craft. The television shown on the right includes an additional cardboard covered frame so that you can replace the picture by sliding it between the layers of cardboard.
Both flat screen T. V.s are weighted down with washers, carefully glued into each television's base.
Two versions of a foam covered flat screen T.V. One includes an optional
dowel rod attached to the base, the other is attached with a small foam
covered rectangle.
Supply List:
thin cardboard (from cereal boxes)
corrugated cardboard
hot glue gun and hot glue
washers
masking tape
sheets of craft foam (black)
pictures cut from magazines
black acrylic paint
ruler
white school glue
dowel rod for larger flat screen
Step-by-Step Directions:
Cut three rectangles from cardboard, two from the corrugated cardboard and one flatter piece from the cereal box. All rectangles should be identical in size.
Glue the two corrugated pieces together and paint one side with black acrylic paint. Let this side dry before continuing.
Take the third rectangle cut from a cereal box, and measure approx. 1/4" from the outside of each edge. Use a ruler to draw the lines marking the measurement. Now cut out the inside of the flat screen T.V. monitor.
Left, washers are for the television's base. Center, cut rectangles any size you like for your doll's screen.
Right, I've measured 1/4 inch from outside edge of my third layer of cardboard in order to cut a narrow frame.
This third layer is glued on top of the bottom two after these are painted, creating a kind of pocket.
Only glue three edges of the third rectangle to the other corrugated rectangular pieces, leaving the top edge of the flat screen T. V. open (see photo below). Leaving a gap at the top of your doll's television will allow you to slip pictures in and out of the screen to change what the doll's are watching. All of these should be neatly stacked on top of each other when you are finished. (see photo)
Left the painted cardboard and the top cardboard frame. Center, now the three are stacked and glued,
however, the top edge is left without glue. Right, here you can see, I've left the opening at the top
part of my screen, so that I can slip in an alternative picture when I want to change out the screen for the dolls.
Cut a long narrow base for your T. V. from the corrugated cardboard. This base rectangle should be slightly shorter in length than the actual screen.
Trace around a washer at each end of the stand and then carefully poke around the tracing with the tip of your scissors or get an adult to cut away this top circular layer with an Exacto knife.
Crush down the center cardboard filler with the washers and glue so that these metal pieces are level with the top layer of cardboard. Layer masking tape across the washers to keep them firmly in place. (see photo below.) Set aside the stand to continue with later, while it dries.
When you glue washers into the base of your television stand, you give the stand a heavier weight.
This allows the little toy to stand upright without any support.
Now trace around the flat screen television screen on top of the black craft foam twice. Cut out the tracing and hot glue these foam pieces to the front and backs of the toy T. V.s. If you have the kind of flat screen television where you can change out the pictures. You will need to repeat measuring and cutting out the frame 1/4" from the edges before gluing this piece of craft foam on top of the screen. If you have a simpler flat screen without the frame, like the one shown just below, you will only need to cover the front and back of the screen before pasting on the television's picture.
Left, Cover the screen with a picture. You can find something nice in a magazine that your parents intend
to recycle. When you get tired of this picture, glue another on top if you have the simpler version of the
flat screen T. V. Center, Cover the stand's base the same way that you covered the screen by layering the
top and bottom between craft foam. Far right, Cut an additional strip of cardboard to glue between the
screen and base.
Now you are ready to attach the stand to the flat screen monitor. Cover the stand's base the same way that you covered the screen by layering the top and bottom between craft foam. Cut an additional strip of cardboard to glue between the screen and base.
Carefully attach this small piece with hot glue at each end. For a larger flat screen, you may wish to attach these two elements together with a cut dowel rod.
Now cover any remaining cardboard with the same black craft foam.
This rug craft is so simple, even a very young child can produce marvelous results.
However, an adult should do the spray painting.
Above you can see that I have produced two examples. One of them has brown lace and the other white. You can make so many color combinations depending upon the paint you have on hand. These examples have floral motifs at the center of each but you can use plaids, paisleys, stripes etc... to create an infinite variety of combinations!
Supply List:
paper doilies
decorative scrap papers
spray paint (optional)
Mod Podge or white school glue
Step-by-Step Directions:
If you desire color on the lacy edge of these doily rugs, you can spray paint them in a outdoor work area. Use a cardboard box or newspapers to cover an area large enough to keep the paint from spreading on to other surfaces. Let the doilies dry.
Find an object with the same or close to the circumference of your doily's center part. You can leave however much of the lacy cut-away showing as you wish.
Trace around this object on the backside of a piece of decorative scrap paper.
Cut out the tracing and then glue the scrap circle on to the center of your paper doily.
Layer Mod Podge to the top of the rug to protect it from some wear. Let the rug dry.
Our dolls need a toy chest to help keep the nursery free of clutter!
But a toy trunk doesn't need to be just an
ordinary box shape; you can
use your imagination to come up with something different. Our family dolls fill
this truck chest with all kinds of plastic toys that have been collected over the past twenty years.
Barbie's little boy loves cars and trucks, so I decided to replace a missing trailer from a small replica of a John Deere big rig with a toy chest. Now our doll can pretend to haul the toys away after an exhausting fun filled day!
Supply List:
front end of a toy truck (big rig)
foam sheet (any color)
recycled plastic container
stiff wire
masking tape
hot glue gun and hot glue
white school glue
scrap fabric for lining interior
snaps, button, small parts (for wheels)
toothpick or wooden skewer (wheel axle)
black tape (optional)
light weight cardboard (to hold the wheel axle)
Step-by-Step Instructions:
In order to make this playscale toy box, you will need to first acquire the front end of a semi-trailer truck. If you have small children this will not be difficult. If not, take a trip to your local Goodwill or resale and you will surely find one of these in no time at all.
Next, you will need to recycle a bit of plastic trash or a small box for the back end of the big rig toy chest. Choose something that looks in the correct proportion to your truck parts.
Fortunately my semi-trailer truck has a hole between it's wheels where I can easily fit a small wire to attach the toy chest. You can see this hole through the plastic recycled box above.
After covering my toy chest with masking tape, I simply poked a small, stiff wire through the bottom of the box and bent it into place so that the chest would attach to the back end of the truck. The bent end of the wire is held in place with glue and tape.
Then I lined the inside of the toy box with scrap fabric and white school glue. The out side of the truck trailer is wrapped with blue foam attached with hot glue and the bottom with black tape.
I made a set of back wheels for the trailer by hot gluing two buttons to the ends of a wooden skewer through a small cardboard tube. Then I hot glued a metal snap to the white buttons to mimic tiny hubcaps.
A spiral patterned rug made with rainbow colored variegated yarn, close-ups of color and finished edge.
The clean side of the finished rug that was protected by the
sticky side of the masking tape.
Here is a simple way to make a rug for a doll house. It requires no weaving or braiding. The design made from this process reminds me of natural patterns found in agate stones.
Supply List:
masking tape
cardboard
variegated yarn
white school glue
embroidery floss and needle
felt for backing
Step-by-Step Instructions:
First you will need to decide how big you want your doll's rug to be. Then make a cardboard template in the shape of the rug to use as a guide. I traced around a large circular plate on top of my cardboard to make my own template.
Next, you will need to cover the top surface of the cardboard with masking tape, sticky side up. This can be a little tricky at first. Lay the tacky part of the masking tape face up and wrap it around the edges of the cardboard using a small bit of tape to secure it on the backside of the cardboard template.
Now start laying your yarn down on top of the surface template at it's center point, butting the yarn up next to it's sides as you create a swirl pattern. The masking tape will hold the yarn strands in place while you press the yarn into a simple rug design. It is very important that you leave no gaps between the application of the yarn rows. Every yarn strand needs to have it's sides touching a yarn strand. (see photo)
When you have reached the edges of your cardboard template, the rug design is finished!
Smooth a generous amount of white glue on top of your rug design with your finger tips and let the yarn rug dry overnight.
Carefully pull the dried yarn rug from the sticky cardboard. Hopefully it can be removed in one piece. However, you may need to apply a bit more glue to the back side of the rug again, in order to get the entire rug to stick together.
I backed my rug with additional glue and a piece of felt cut to the same size as my rug. But this step is optional.
Then you can finish the edge of your rug with a blanket stitch using a variegated embroidery floss.
I also reinforced my finished rug with additional stitching across the design.
Left, cover the top surface of the cardboard with masking tape, sticky side up.
Center, lay your yarn down on top of the surface template at it's center point.
Right, Smooth a generous amount of white glue on top of your rug design with
your finger tips and let the yarn rug dry overnight.
Child's play is a kind of creation of a make-believe but half-real world. As such, it has its primal source in the impulse to act out and embody in sensible form some interesting idea; in which respect, as we shall see by-and-by, it has a close kinship to what we call art. The image, say of the wood, of the chivalrous highwayman, or what not, holds the child's brain, and everything has to accommodate itself to the mastering force.
Now since play is the acting out of some interesting and exciting fancy, it comes at once into collision with the child's actual surroundings. Here, however, he finds his opportunity. The floor of the room is magically transformed into a prairie, a sea, or other locality, the hidden space under the table becomes a robber's cave, a chair serves as horse, ship, or other vehicle, to suit the exigencies of the particular play.
The passion for play is essentially active; it is the wild longing to act a part; it is thus in a way dramatic. The child-adventurer as he impersonates Robinson Crusoe or other hero becomes another being. And in stepping, so to say, out of his everyday self he has to step out of his every-day world. Hence the transformation of his surroundings by what has been called the "alchemy of imagination". Even a sick child confined to his bed will, as Mr. Stevenson tells us in his pretty child's song, "The Land of Counterpane," make these transformations of his surroundings:
And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes through the hills;
And sometimes sent my ships in fleets,
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.
The impulse to act a part, which is the very life-breath of play, meets us in a crude form very early. Even an infant will, if there is a cup at hand, seem to go through something like a pretense of drinking. A little boy of about eighteen months who was digging in the garden began suddenly to play at having a bath. He got into the big bucket he was using for digging, took a handful of earth and dribbled it over him, saying, " 'Ponge, 'ponge," and then stepped out and asked for " Tow'l, tow'l ", Another boy less than two would spend a whole wet afternoon enjoying his make-believe "painting" of the furniture with the dry end of a bit of rope.
There is no need to suppose that in this simple kind of imitative make-believe children know that they are acting a part. It is surely to misunderstand the essence of play to speak of it as a kind of conscious performance, like that of the stage-actor. A child is I one creature when he is truly at play, another when he is bent on astonishing or amusing you. When absorbed in play the last thing he is thinking of is a spectator. As we know, the intrusion of a grown-up is very apt to mar children's play, by calling them back to the dull world of every-day.
This impulse to get away from his common and tiresome self into a new part will often carry a child rather far. Not only does he want to be a prince, or a fairy, he will even make an attempt to become an animal. He will greatly enjoy going on all fours and making dreadful noises if only he has a play-companion to be frightened; and possibly he does get some way towards feeling like the bloodthirsty lion whom he fancies himself.
It is worth noting that such passing out of one's ordinary self and assuming a foreign existence is confined to the child-player. A cat or a dog will be quite ready to go through a kind of make-believe game, yet even in its play the cat remains the cat, and the dog the dog.
Such play-like transmutation of the self is sometimes carried over longer periods. A child will play at being something for a whole day. For example, a boy of three and a half years would one day lead the life of a coal-heaver, another day that of a soldier, and so forth, and was rather particular in expecting his mother to remember which of his favorite characters he was adopting on this or that day.
In a good deal of this play-action there is scarcely any adjustment of scene : the child of vigorous fancy plays out his part with imaginary surroundings. Children in their second year will act out a scene purely by means of pantomimic movements. Thus one little fellow not quite two years old would, when taken out in his perambulator, amuse himself by putting out his hand and pretending to catch "little micies" (mice), which make-believe little rodents he proceeded to cuddle and to stroke, winding up his play by throwing them away, or handing them over to his mother. In like manner he would pretend to feed chickens, taking imaginary food with one hand out of the other, and scattering it with an accompaniment of "Chuck! chuck! chuck!"
This tendency of the little player to conjure up new surroundings, and to bring to his side desirable companions, is, I suspect, common among lonely children. One little fellow of four passed much of his time in journeyings to Edinburgh, "London town," China and so forth in quest of his two little boys who roved about with their "mamsey," a "Mrs. Cock". They paid him visits when he was alone, always contriving to depart "just two tiny minutes" before any one came in. (1) Mr. Canton's little heroine took to nursing an invisible " iccle gaal " (little girl), of whose presence she seemed perfectly assured. (2)
If only the young imagination is strong enough there may be more of sweet illusion, of a warm grasp of living reality in this solitary play, where fictitious companions, perfectly obedient to the little player's will, take the place of less controllable ones. Yet this kind of play, which derives no support from the surroundings, makes heavy demands on the imagination, and would not, one suspects, satisfy most children.
The character of the little player's actual surroundings is, for the most part, a matter of small concern to him. If only he has a dark corner and a piece of furniture or two he can build his play-scene.
What he does want is some semblance of a living companion. Whatever his play he needs somebody, if only as listener to his make-believe; and when his imagination cannot rise to an invisible auditor, he will talk to such unpromising things as a sponge in the bath, a fire-shovel, or a clothes-prop in the garden. In more active sorts of play, where something has to be done, he will commonly want a living companion.
In this making of play-companions we see again the transforming power of a child's fancy. Mr. Ruskin speaks somewhere of "the perfection of child-like imagination, the power of making everything out of nothing". This delightful secret of childhood is illustrated in its fondness for toys and its way of behaving towards them.
Later on, I think, children are apt to grow more sophisticated, to pay more attention to their surroundings, and to require more realistic accessories for their play actions. This, at least Dr. Stanley Hall tells us, is true of doll-plays.
(1) From a paper by Mrs. Robert Jardine.
(2) The Invisible Playmate, p. 33 ff.
Watch how imagination is better in real life from Action Movie Kid.
