Build a butterfly net and bug house for 14 inch dolls...

        If you have Wellie Wisher dolls, Hearts 4 Hearts dolls here is a special summertime craft you can make for these 14inch dolls to enjoy. Gather the following supplies: a sheet of butterfly stickers, light weight cardboard like an empty cereal box, a bit of recycled plastic from a grocery container, some decorative paper, and white school glue. You will also need one tiny brad for the door of the bug house.

This butterfly house for a doll is made with a sticker, simple cardboard cut-outs and a 
recycled piece of plastic sheeting cut from a grocery-store cake container. The
butterfly is glued to a stick from our garden. 

Instructions for The Bug House:

1. Now cut a rectangle from the scrap cardboard in the size you would like the bug house to be. Round off the top corners making the rectangle into an arched shape. Place this cut-out on top of a second piece of cardboard and trace around it with a pencil. Cut the second shape out to match the first. These two pieces will be the walls of the bug house. 
2. Paste on some decorative paper to cover the walls.
3. Use a hole punch to make a door for the butterflies on one end. 
4. Cut a small roundish door to cover the hole punched into the side of the bug house. Attach it using a tiny brad.
5. Cut a third rectangle from the cardboard to make the floor of the house. Also cut and paste a decorative covering for the floor of the construction.
6. Position the walls at either end of the floor and tape these in place. 
7. Cut long half inch stripes of cardboard to attach on the inside edges of the walls and floor of the bug house; see photograph. 
8. Before taping a window to bend up and over the arched walls, glue inside of the house a twig from outside and glue onto that stick a butterfly sticker. 
9. Now cut and bend on the plastic sheet to make a window for the butterfly home. You can use a clear Scotch brand tape to hold this window in place. 

       In order to make the butterfly net, collect a clean net bag from your parent's groceries. Often times garlic is sold in the small white bags. This is where our version came from. You will also need masking tape, a wooden skewer and a hot glue gun for this craft. Adults need to help young children use a hot glue gun, however.

Use recycled netting that comes from the store. This 
netting once cradled a pear; not it has new imaginary
 life in a clever child's toy.

Instructions for The Butterfly Net:

1. Carefully cut off one end of the white net.
2. Gather this new opening up using sticky masking tape. 
3. Fold over the tape to seal the ends of the netting inside. 
4. Use more tape to stick a wire onto the ends so that these may be bent into a circle. 
5. Glue together the ends. 
6. Cut a skewer the length your dolls would prefer and then hot glue it to the opening of the net. Just do this for one place on the wire. You can pinch the end of the skewer between two edges of the  wire with a bit of hot glue. Ask an adult for help if you are too young to use hot glue.
7. Paint the masking tape edges and wooden skewer if you like to match the decorative paper used on the butterfly house. 

More Backyard Fun for Dolls:

• Make a simple doll tent using very basic materials...
• Each of your dolls will need their own sleeping bags to keep cozy and warm when sleeping in their backyard!