30 Vintage Labels for Crafting Doll Foods

The finished doll canned goods made for our American Girl Doll's food pantry.

        Here I have pictures of how I used my vintage labels to make canned goods for our American Girl Doll kitchen. You will need the following supplies to make the miniature doll foods: Mod Podge, white school glue, a printer, some thin cardboard (like cereal boxes), masking tape and silver acrylic paint.

       First you will need to print out the labels. These labels are very old, some of them date from as far back as 1915! I have cleaned, colorized and taken some of their elements out and improved some of the graphics. You may use them for your child's own doll food collection but, do not redistribute the labels from your own website. Read the terms of use here.

Left, cut out the labels. Center, cut long strips of cardboard to fit each individual canned food label
 after you have printed them out. Right, roll up the strips and tape the sides down once you have
 determined how tight these roll must be. It is not necessary for the rolls of cardboard tube to be as
 dense as you see them above here. These miniature cans are quite durable enough for play if they
 have much thinner interior walls.

       Next, cut a strip of cardboard for each canned food label measuring approximately sixteen inches in length and the width of the label's height. It is very important that you use relatively flimsy cardboard for this project. Because next you will need to roll it into the shape of a tube.

       You can 'soften' the cardboard up a bit by crushing it against the edge of a table. This will help it to curl up easier. Roll it up tight and then hold it between the tip of your index finger and thumb while wrapping the label around the cardboard form to see the size ratio of the cardboard can. If it is too small and the label overlaps too much, simple release the grip of your finger tips gently to let the cardboard spring out a bit. Use a piece of masking tape to stick the sides together once you have determined how thick the can shape needs to be.

       Set the tube on top of a piece of cardboard scrap and then drip white school glue down inside the tube. Allow the glue to dry. When it is dry, trim the bottom of the can and turn it over to glue a top piece of cardboard onto the remaining open end.

       Now apply the labels with Mod Podge. Let the glue dry and repeat several more layers of Mod Podge. If you don't have anything but white glue, you can use this to seal the labels as well. The Mod Podge just dries clearer.

       To give your canned food a professional look, paint the tops and bottoms of each can with grey or metallic silver paint.

Left and Center are the canned foods tubes lined up and waiting to dry before I trim the cardboard,
flip them over, and glue on a top for each. Right, is a photo of how the label will fit around the rolled
 tube once I apply the Mod Podge.

       Some of my food labels are for products that come in bags and frozen box food stuffs. I will post how I turned these into miniature groceries on a separate blog post and link it up below.

• DIY Durable Boxed Doll Foods for Play

Food labels for asparagus, dill pickles, pineapple, cat food, strawberries, and pears.

Food labels for coffee, a sugar cured ham, a large sack of flour, spinach,
 apple sauce, pumpkin and peaches.

Food labels for cake flour, dried peas, evaporated milk, yams, 
dog food, loaf of artisan bread and tuna.