Villains Serve An Important Purpose In Children's Literature

       Sometimes teachers may avoid reading books with villainous characters in them because they are afraid of offending parents or choosing an inappropriate topic for a particular age group. These are important considerations when one's audience is a bit young.  But, when a child reaches a more mature age, it is a mistake to avoid the portrayal of villains in their literature selections. Students need to feel a sense of self empowerment when fighting an enemy. They need to be taught that with outside help from their family and community leaders, they can fight injustice and should not be afraid to do so. 

      Children should also be made aware of their own tendencies to act a villainous part towards others, so that they may learn what is proper conduct and what behaviors are unacceptable. They must be taught the difference between correct conduct and incorrect conduct. Villains inside of story books provide for the "safe" observation of normally "unsafe" circumstances. Books with villains afford parents and teachers the opportunity to teach right from wrong without putting children in actual realistic danger. Religious leaders, the government, community educators, police officers etc... are candid about who we are, where we come from and how we should behave. Below I've listed a collection of books that I've used with my own children to teach them "how" to discern evil from good and also to teach them to laugh at villains so that they can choose not to be afraid of what can be changed. 

• "Sukey and the Mermaid" by Robert D. San Souci, Illustrated by Brian Pinkney - Within the context of a fairy tale, a little girl finds courage to defeat an abusive home environment. She also discovers that she has friends who will help her defeat the villains in her environment.
• "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" by Linda Williams, illustrated by Megan Lloyd - a wonderful book to read at Halloween time to very small children. This story teaches children to manipulate "scary things" (not evil, but scary) for a productive purpose on a very simplistic level.
• "Piggie Pie!" by Margie Palatini, illustrated by Howard Fine - One of my favorite books ever to read aloud. This story is about just "how" creative pigs can get when threatened by a silly, old witch.
• "Judy and the Volcano" by Wayne Harris - A story about how an enemy can be transformed. Judy wants to be everyone's hero, but, first she must learn how to be a friend to the girl she envies, Madeleine Corsy.
• "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury - Consider what you may look like to your enemies.
• "A Flower for Ambrose" by Anna and Edward Standon - When I was small, my father brought this book back to me after taking a short trip to Chicago. It is about an elephant named Ambrose who struggles to preserve a beautiful flower but he fails. (death is the villain of this story) Ambrose's many tears serve to water a dying plant and not long afterward the entire desert blooms because Ambrose has watered it with his very own tears. Little did I know as a child that this would be a story I would relive over and over throughout my entire life. But, my earthly and heavenly fathers knew it very well. The book is probably out of print. You will need to contact a book dealer to find it. (Delacorte Press, New York, 1964)

Make an old-fashioned penny wool rug for a doll's house...

A rectangular penny wool rug
for a doll's house. See another
kind here.

This miniature sampler of a "penny" rug provides young sewers opportunity to practice their embroidery skills. 

Supply List: 

• 4 felt squares from a hobby shop or scrap woolens (4 colors minimum) 
• penny "templates" (below) 
• contrasting embroidery floss, three colors 
• embroidery needle 
• scissors 
• pins 
• black permanent ink marker 

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Print and cut out the penny template provided below. 
2. Draw around the circle templates with a permanent ink pen after placing these on top of your felt or woolen scrapes. 
3. Cut out your penny design and pin it down onto a rectangular felt or woolen shape according to your own tastes. 
4. Use a blanket stitch to assemble the sample penny rug. 
5. Use all wool or all felt scraps for your project. Once you have mastered the technique, design a larger version to cover a tabletop or bedroom dresser.

Template for a variety of "penny" shapes.

All Kinds of Puppets

       Types of Puppets – Puppetry by its nature is a flexible and inventive medium, and many puppet companies work with combinations of puppet forms, and incorporate real objects into their performances. They might, for example, incorporate “performing objects” such as torn paper for snow, or a sign board with words as narrative devices within a production. The following are, alphabetically, the basic and conventional forms of puppet:

Black light puppet – A form of puppetry where the puppets are operated on a stage lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which both hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colours of the puppet. The puppeteers perform dressed in black against a black background, with the background and costume normally made of black velvet. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets under the light, while they position themselves unseen against the black unlit background. Controlling what the audience sees is a major responsibility of any puppeteer, and blacklight lighting provides a new way of accomplishing this. Puppets of all sizes and types are able to be used, and glow in a powerful and magical way. The original concept of this form of puppetry can be traced to Bunraku puppetry.

• Brilliant and Moving Puppet Theatre
• Black Light Theatre of Jiri Srnec

Bunraku puppet – Bunraku puppets are a tyrepe of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago and formalised and combined with shamisen music at the end of the 16th century, the puppeteers dress to remain neutral against a black background, although their presence as kind of ‘shadow’ figures adds a mysterious power to the puppet. Bunraku traditionally uses three puppeteers to operate a puppet that is 2/3 life size.

• Japanese Bunraku puppets

Carnival or body puppet – usually designed to be part of a large spectacle. These are often used in parades (such as the May day parade in Minneapolis, USA) and demonstrations, and are at least the size of a human and often much larger. One or more performers are required to move the body and limbs. In parades, the appearance and personality of the person inside is not relevant to the spectator. These puppets are particularly associated with large scale entertainment, such as the nightly parades at various Disney complexes around the world. Similar puppets were designed by Julie Taymor for The Lion King.

• Nottingham Light Night 2010
• Giant Puppet Street Parade, Siem Reap, Cambodia 2012
• Little Girl Dancing – Sea Odyssey Liverpool 2012
• Rudolf Nureyev at Muppet Show
• 4 Legged Stilt Costumes
• Walking With Dinosaurs visits Urban Rush
• 2008 Tony Awards Lion King Circle of Life

Finger puppet - An extremely simple puppet variant which fits onto a single finger. Finger puppets normally have no moving parts, and consist primarily of a hollow cylinder shape to cover the finger. This form of puppet has limited application, and is used mainly in pre-schools or kindergartens for storytelling with young children.

Sock Puppet – A puppet formed from a sock and operated by inserting ones hand inside the sock. One then moves his hand up and down to give the impression of speaking. Sometimes eyes and other factors are added to the sock in order to make the puppet more realistic. Sock Puppets are also popular in many puppet performances, as they are simple to make and easy to use. They are mostly used in satirical or childish works, as they are not very professional.

Hand or glove puppet – These are puppets controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet. Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples of hand puppets. Larger varieties of hand puppets place the puppeteer’s hand in just the puppet’s head, controlling the mouth and head, and the puppet’s body then hangs over the entire arm. Other parts of the puppet (mainly arms, but special variants exist with eyelids which can be manipulated; the mouth may also open and close) are usually not much larger than the hand itself. A sock puppet is a particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock.

• Make a Winter Glove Puppet
• Punch & Judy May Fair – “clowning around”
• Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey

Human-arm puppet – Also called a “two-man puppet” or a “Live-hand puppet”; it is similar to a hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers. One puppeteer places a hand inside the puppet’s head and operates its head and mouth, while the other puppeteer wears gloves and special sleeves attached to the puppet in order to become the puppet’s arms, so that the puppet can perform arbitrary hand gestures. This is a form of glove or hand puppetry and rod puppetry.

• Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors”

Mechanical Extensions for Body Puppet Anatomy:

• Centaur Costume for Chronicles of Narnia

Light Curtain puppet presentations use specifically focused light to highlight small areas of a performance, allowing the puppet to be seen while the manipulators remain invisible. The puppets stand on a stage divided into an unlit background and a well-lit foreground, meeting to form a “curtain” of light. The puppeteer dresses in black and remains hidden in the unlit background of the stage while the puppet is held across the light curtain in the lit foreground of the stage. “Light curtain puppet” is an umbrella term, and any puppet which is extended into a well-lit area where its handler remains separated from the puppet by a division of light may be called a light curtain puppet.

• Funky Fingers
• Silhouettes – America’s Got Talent

Marionette or “string puppet” – These puppets are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer. The control bar can be either a horizontal or vertical one. Basic strings for operation are usually attached to the head, back, hands (to control the arms) and just above the knee (to control the legs). This form of puppetry is complex and sophisticated to operate, requiring greater manipulative control than a finger, glove or rod puppet. The puppet play performed by the Von Trapp children with Maria in The Sound of Music is a marionette show.

• Salzburg Marionette Theatre
• Amsterdams Marionetten Theater – ‘De Toverfluit’ and still shots
• Puppets in Praque Marionette Carving Workshop
• A Book of Marionettes by Helen Haiman Joseph

Marotte - A simplified rod puppet that is just a head and/or body on a stick. In a marotte à main prenante, the puppeteer’s other arm emerges from the body (which is just a cloth drape) to act as the puppet’s arm. Some marottes have a small string running through the stick attached to a handle at the bottom. When the handle is squeezed, the mouth opens.

Pull String Puppet – a puppet consisting of a cloth body where in the puppeteer puts his/her arm into a slot in the back and pulls rings on strings that do certain tasks such as waving or moving the mouth.

• Mr. Punch
• Punch and Judy: free paper theater for student's journals
• Three-Dimensionaland Fully Assembled Paper Muppets

Push puppet – A push puppet consists of a segmented character on a base which is kept under tension until the button on the bottom is pressed. The puppet wiggles, slumps and then collapses, and is usually used as a novelty toy.

• Jungle push puppets

Push-in or Paper puppet, or Toy Theatre – A puppet cut out of paper and stuck onto card. It is fixed at its base to a stick and operated by pushing it in from the side of the puppet theatre. Sheets were produced for puppets and scenery from the 19th century for children’s use.

Rod Puppet – A puppet constructed around a central rod secured to the head. A large glove covers the rod and is attached to the neck of the puppet. A rod puppet is controlled by the puppeteer moving the metal rods attached to the hands of the puppet and by turning the central rod secured to the head.

• What are Hand and Rod Puppets?

Shadow puppet – A cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen. Shadow puppets can form solid silhouettes or be decorated with various amounts of cut-out details. Colour can be introduced into the cut-out shapes to provide a different dimension and different effects can be achieved by moving the puppet (or light source) out of focus. Javanese shadow puppets (Wayang Kulit) are the classic example of this.

• Hand shadow puppets
• Round – Hand Shadows Video by el Mago Serpico
• Free Resources Online

Supermarionation – A method invented by Gerry Anderson which assisted in his television series Thunderbirds in electronically moving the mouths of marionettes to allow for lip-synchronised speech. The marionettes were still controlled by human manipulators with strings.

Ticklebug – A ticklebug is a type of hand puppet created from a human hand to have four legs, where the puppet features are drawn on the hand itself. The middle finger is lifted as a head, and the thumb and forefinger serve as a first set of two legs on one side, while the ring finger and little finger serve as a second set of two legs on the opposite side.

• Amazing Hand Art

Table Top Puppets – A puppet usually operated by rod or direct contact from behind, on a surface similar to a table top (hence the name). Shares many characteristics with Bunraku.

• Raggedy Ann by  Alissa Hunnicutt
• Uninvited by Allissa Hunnicutt
• Pinokenstein – You Made Me

Ventriloquist dummy – A puppet operated by a ventriloquist performer to focus the audience’s attention from the performer’s activities and heighten the illusions. They are called dummies because they do not speak on their own. The ventriloquist dummy is controlled by the one hand of the ventriloquist. Such acts aren’t always performed with a traditional dummy, occasionally using other forms of puppetry.

• ABC Collectors – Ventriloquist Dummies
• Teen Ventriloquist, Megan

Water Puppet – a Vietnamese puppet form, the “Múa rối nước”. Múa rối nước literally means “puppets that dance on water”, an ancient tradition that dates back to the tenth century. The puppets are built out of wood and the shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers to control them. The appearance is of the puppets moving over the water. When the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using this puppet form.

• Vietnamese Water Puppet Show
• Water Puppet Show Hanoi, Vietnam
• A Traditional Water Puppet Show in Vietnam

  Return to the Doll Guide Index Page 

Craft Seed Pod, Sweet Gum Snowmen

       Sweet gum balls are easily found in many people's yards and parks during the fall. Because of their abundance, this craft will cost young ones little pocket money to craft with. 

       Where we live, in the midwest, some city and suburban areas are beginning to outlaw Sweet Gum trees because of the trouble folks have cleaning up after them. However, Sweet Gum are not only very beautiful in the fall, these trees produce excellent pods for both restoring and maintaining soil erosion, so they are well worth any discomfort they may cause when stepped upon! So plant those Sweet Gum trees in the corner of your lawn or an out-of-they-way place...

       And . . . if you have a dollhouse to decorate, why not make a few snowy friends to display on a mantle, tabletop, dresser, or counter this winter?

Snowmen made from pods off of
a Sweet Gum tree.

 Supply List:

• seed pods from sweet gum trees
• white, black and orange craft paint
• red or green ribbon
• oven-bake clay
• hot glue and hot glue gun
• scrap cardboard
• tacky white glue
• a couple of cotton balls

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. After collecting seed pods from a Sweet Gum tree, brush them clean.
2. Cut little 'bean' shapes from the scrap cardboard for the seed pods to be hot glued to. Ask an older person to help with this part of the craft.
3. Carefully stack the seed pods on top of each other between using hot glue to keep them in place. 
4. Use white paint to brush on enough color to cover the surfaces of these seed pods. 
5. Layer on unraveled cotton balls to represent 'snow.' Use the tacky white glue to apply this, not the hot glue. Let the cotton batting covered surfaces dry before continuing.
6. Shape the oven-bake clay into small balls to represent 'coal' and pointed cones to represent 'carrots.'
7. Bake the clay in the oven according to directions on the package.
8. Shape cotton batting into tiny faux knit caps for the seed pod snowmen and glue these on using tacky white glue
9. Cut and tie on ribbon for faux scarf details.
10. Glue on the baked coal eyes and carrot noses last. Paint them black and orange.
11. Now your dolls will have cute little snow people to decorate the dollhouse with during the holidays and winter as well.

A Wiser Snowman

       The poor snowman was so cold!

       The children patted his cheeks and rubbed his arms, but they could not get him warm.

       "Would you like to wear my cap? asked Don.

       "Yes," said the snowman.

       "Would you like to wear my scarf?" asked Nancy.

       "Yes, " said the snowman.

       "Now you ought to be warm enough," said Don, and he and Nancy went in to lunch.

       When they came out after lunch, they saw what looked like tears rolling down the snowman's cheeks. His head was bent over.
       "What is the matter?" asked Nancy. "Aren't you warm enough?"
       "That is the trouble," said the snowman. "I did what would have been right enough for you, but it was wrong for me. A man must know his own needs."
       "Never mind," said Nancy, "you will be all right in a minute." She took off the scarf and cap, and Don straightened the snowman's poor, wobbly head. Then the children brought more snow and patted it onto his head and neck where they had melted away. by Marion LeBron

Playing In The Snow:

• What the children did on a snow day . . .
• "S" is for sled coloring and writing practice and Snow buddies coloring page

"The Snowy Day" animated storybook 

hosted by the EKJ Foundation

Queen Anne's Doll House, December 1879

        Just facing the turn-stile through which one passes into the first hall of the South Kensington Museum, in London, stands a large doll-house, about eight feet high by six wide, an object of great interest to all little girls and most mammas who visit there. The baby mansion, with its doll master and mistress, children and servants, was given originally to a daughter of the Archbishop of York.

Queen Anne's Doll House, called "baby house" was one of the original English dollhouses
recorded in history from that period. It was passed down from Princess Anne to her goddaughter,
 Ann Sharp. The house is said to date from 1691. Unlike Queen Mary's dollhouse, it was made
 for play and filled with handmade play items. It is referred to as the "Heydon Hall Doll House."
and here again.  The Last Stuart Monarch Part 1.

       The donor was Queen Anne, generally known as "good Queen Anne," probably because the chief desire and aim of her life seemed to be the making others happy. Queen Anne was the last of the unfortunate line of Stuarts, who occupied the English throne, and was, like the present good queen, queen regnant, a term which means one who reigns in her own right. Her husband was Prince George of Denmark, they lived together in perfect happiness for twenty years.

       She was the mother of seventeen dear babes, of whom sixteen died in infancy, only one, the Duke of Gloucester, living to the age of eleven. There is a portrait of him at Hampton Court, which represents a bright and handsome boy, dressed in blue velvet and diamonds. There are many stories told of this young prince, such as his telling King William (his uncle) that he possessed two dead horses and one live one (his Shetland pony and two little wooden horses), and the king's saying that he had better bury the dead ones out of sight, and his consequently insisting on burying his playthings with funeral honors and composing their epitaph.

       His tutor one day asked Him, "How can you, being a prince, keep yourself from the pomps and vanities of this world?" To this the child gravely responded: "I will keep God's commandments, and do all I can to walk in his ways."

       When only ten years, he was so forward in his studies that he was able to pass an examination four times a year on subjects which included jurisprudence, the Gothic law, and the feudal system! But on his eleventh birthday the little duke was taken ill, and five days after (July 30th, 1700), died at Windsor Castle, in the arms of his grief-stricken mother, who had loved him as only a mother can love who has seen her treasures taken from her, one by one.

       We can all fancy how sad her life must have been, though she lived in a palace, and had wealth and splendor at her command, and how sorely she missed the baby voices and baby fingers which mothers always hear and feel, no matter how great the din of life about them. Perhaps this very loneliness and longing made her more thoughtful for other little ones, and caused her to have this house prepared for the tiny maid, whose home was away off in bleak Yorkshire. I can see the little girl now in my "mind's eye," on that Christmas morning nearly two hundred years ago, when she received the royal gift. There she stands, in the great hall of the archiepiscopal palace, the huge logs snapping in the open fireplace, the carved oak chimney-piece surmounted by stag's antlers, the walls in their holiday dress of ivy and holly, and a thick bunch of mistletoe berries over the door (do you know what for?) -- there she stands, this bright-eyed maid in her scarlet merino frock, her yellow hair tied back with colorful ribbons, looking not unlike the robin redbreasts which twittered and chirped then, as now, in the Cathedral Close, picking up the crumbs scattered over the crisp snow for their daily feast.

       What fun she and her little friends had over their doll families when lessons were ended, what fasts and feasts, what weddings and funerals, mimicking all the events of this mortal life. And doubtless, when she grew up and put aside her childish toys, the house, grown somewhat shabby with age and use, still found favor in her eyes, not only for the sake of her who gave it, but because of the fair memories which the sight of it conjures up, of the days when:

"She had life like flowers and bees
In betwixt the country trees;
And the sun the pleasures taught her
Which he teacheth everything."

Printable Doormats for Dolls

        Two sizes in doormat printables here. One is for 18 inch dollhouses and the other for 11 1/2 inch dolls like Barbies. Print them out on your home computer and then decoupage these to a thick piece of matboard or cardboard to display at the front or back door of your doll's dollhouse. 

Remember to wipe your feet before
entering another doll's house!

Top, "Wipe Your Feet" and Bottom, "Welcome" texts for 
printable dollhouse doormats.

Ads from old comics, 1930s

        A few sample digital papers from very old comic books. I've left a bit of age on each for those of you who like a vintage/retro look.  Click on the images to download the largest file sizes and make something creative!

color newsprint ad for novalties

color newsprint ad for prizes

color newsprint ad for magazine subscription

Travel the world with Flat Stanley . . .

The original "Flat Stanley"
 by Jeff Brown published 
by Scholastic here.

        The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1995 by Dale Hubert, a third grade school teacher in London, Ontario, Canada. It is meant to facilitate letter-writing by schoolchildren to each other as they document where Flat Stanley has accompanied them. Dale Hubert received the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2001 for the Flat Stanley Project.

       The Project provides an opportunity for students to make connections with students of other member schools who have signed up with the project. Students begin by reading the book and becoming acquainted with the story. They create paper "Flat Stanleys" (representative drawings of the Stanley Lambchop character) and keep a journal for a few days, documenting the places and activities in which Flat Stanley is involved. Each student's Flat Stanley and its respective journal are mailed to other people who are asked to treat the figure as a visiting guest and add to his journal, then return them both after a period of time. The project has many similarities to the traveling gnome prank except, of course, for the Flat Stanley Project's focus on literacy.

       Students may find it fun to plot Flat Stanley's travels on maps and share the contents of the journal. Often, a Flat Stanley returns with a photo or postcard from his visit. Some teachers prefer to use e-mail for its quicker travel time.

       In 2005, more than 6,500 classes from 48 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project.

       The project was featured in a 2004 episode of the animated TV series King of the Hill, in which Nancy Gribble receives a Flat Stanley in the mail. Peggy Hill and Luanne Platter photograph it in a number of dangerous situations, resulting in the school's Flat Stanley Project being cancelled.

       According to the February 26, 2009 broadcast of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Flat Stanley was on board US Airways Flight 1549 which landed safely in the Hudson River. He was carried to safety in the briefcase of his traveling companion.

       In early 2010, Darren Haas, a huge Flat Stanley advocate and applications architect, approached Dale Hubert with the idea of turning the Flat Stanley Project concept into an app for the iPhone.

       Also in 2010, fans of the baseball team the St. Louis Cardinals were asked (via the team website) to petition US President Barack Obama to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial. A "Flat Stan" downloadable cutout figure was made available to encourage Cardinals fans to take a photo with Musial's caricature and send them in as petitions.

• Flat Stanley Books
• The Flat Stanley Project
• Flat Stanley in Jerusalem
• This show is part of the Broadway Junior Collection:
• Flat Stanley at Pinterest
• Flat Stanley at I Can Read

 a project by Micah Gray

Be A Friend

 Be A Friend Be a friend. 

Be a friend. You don't need money; 

Just a disposition sunny; 

Just the wish to help another 

Get along some way or other;

 Just a kindly hand extended 

Out to one who's unbefriended; 

Just the will to give or lend, 

This will make you someone's friend. 

Be a friend. The pay is bigger

 (Though not written by a figure)

 Than is earned by people clever

 In what's merely self endeavor. 

You'll have friends instead of neighbors

 For the benefit of your labors;

 You'll be richer in the end 

Than a prince, if you're a friend. 

— Anonymous.

Guest Check Printables for Dolls

        Make miniature guest check pamphlets for your doll diner. There are two versions here; the one on top is for 18 inch dolls. However it is too small for many young ones to write on so I have included one that is slightly larger. 

       Cut out along the black lines and then staple the stack of papers together at the top. Your dolly waitress can take as many orders using these printables as he or she needs to. Do not sell them as they are property of this blog and are intended for student or home use only.

Smaller version of guest check printable.

Larger version of guest check printable.

Would you give your doll a Christmas present?

"Big Susan" book cover.

        I've read about a little girl who goes by the name "Big Susan" and she gave every single one of her dollhouse dolls a gift for Christmas one year! 

       Everyone loves to receive gifts that is true but Susan had an even more important reason to give presents to her little family of dolls than most children. It was because her dolls came to life only once a year on Christmas Eve! Yes, from twelve midnight to the dawn of Christmas morning, none of Susan's dolls needed her to help them speak, move or even to feel. And it was for this specific reason, her doll family enjoyed dreaming and talking about Christmas on that very special night more than any other. 

       Are you curious about what kinds of treasures a little dollhouse doll could possibly want? I shouldn't spoil those surprises before you have a chance to read all about their lives in the dollhouse. 

       Once you read this entertaining little chapter book, you should be able to fill in the blanks with a listing of every gift the dolls in Susan's house receive!

Before Christmas dinner the dolls opened the following presents:

Little Susan's gift was a brand new _ _ _ _ and a baby _ _ _ _ _!
Mrs. Doll's gift was a shiny gold _ _ _  _ _ _!
Mr. Doll was given a brand new  _ _ _ _  _ _ _.
Jane received _ _ _ slippers.
George opened up a _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _.
Ann's gift was a _ _ _ _.
Tommy got a birch-bark _ _ _ _ _.
Mary opened up a toy _ _ _ _ _ _ and Freddie a _ _ _ _.

After Christmas dinner the dolls opened even more presents:

The little doll sisters: Jane, Ann and Mary opened gifts of  _ _ _ _  for their hair.
Tommy's second present was a white candy called a _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _  and George unwrapped
 a toy _ _ _. Freddie finally recieved a _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _. He was so happy!
Mrs. Doll opened a bottle of _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and Mr. Doll a _ _ _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _ _.
The doll children opened a gift from Susan for all of them together to play with. 
It was a _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _. 
The Baby, little Susan was given a _ _ _ _ _ _ to play with made from a collar button.
The whole family of dolls also recieved three gifts from Big Susan altogether. The gifts were
a gold _ _ _ _ _ with a picture of Susan inside. 
A small box of real cinnamon _ _ _ _ _ and a tiny pack of _ _ _ _ _.
The nurse doll opened a gift of Indian _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and the cook doll a  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ with a real penny inside! 

Printable for those of you who wish to use paper and a pencil.

The gifts Big Susan brings...

Read about more parties for dolls:

• "The Best Loved Doll" Doll Birthday Party
• You can host a "Best Baby Doll Party'' - either for a Birthday or just for fun...

How to make a jack-o-lantern with paper pulp...

I use battery operated candles inside of these jack-o-lanterns when displaying them inside
 of our large dollhouse.

       To make the old-fashioned paper mache pulp jack-o-lanterns you will need: scrap cardboard, newspaper or newsprint, masking tape, paper mache pulp, acrylic paints, Mod Podge and battery operated votive sized lights.

Step-by-Step Instructions: 

1. Crush the shapes and sizes of the jack-o-lanterns you desire. 
2. Use nominal masking tape to hold everything in place because this will be pulled out of the outside 'skin' once the container has hardened with drying.
3. Cut a flat bottom for the smiling pumpkin from scrap cardboard and tape it firmly in place.
4. Mix the paper mache pulp with water and add a Tablespoon of white school glue to the mixture to give it more strength. 
5. Using a permanent ink marker, draw the shapes and of facial features directly on top of the last layer of newsprint. Give your animated pumpkin eyes a nose and big grin. 
6. Also draw an opening on the top of the shape so that you can add a battery operated candle once the jack-o-lantern is finished.
7. Now shape this pulp over the newsprint forms to make toothless ghoulish expressions! Be careful to avoid the inner spaces of the eyes, nose, mouth and opening at the top.
8. Shape also the ridges on the pumpkins as well. Let dry.
9. Once the pulp has hardened and this could take several days, gently pull out the newsprint. 
10. Paint the interior black.
11. Paint the exterior several dry brush layers of yellow, orange and red.
12. Mod Podge all of the surfaces.

Left, crush the shapes and sizes of the jack-o-lanterns you desire. Use nominal masking tape to
hold everything in place. Center, cut a flat bottom for the smiling pumpkin from scrap cardboard.
Right, the pulp has been mixed with water and shaped over the newsprint forms to make toothless
ghoulish expressions!

Once these jack-o-lanterns have dried, gently pull the newsprint out of their insides and paint.

• Read about the pumpkin children!
• See how to make easier jack-o-lanterns without all the fuss here
• Photos of how we decorated our dollhouse family room several years ago.

Felt and Pom-Pom Wreath Craft

Doll sized felt pom-pom wreath.

       Soon it will be time to 'deck the dollhouse halls' with all kinds of pretend boughs of holly...

Supply List:

• green and red pom-poms (Tiny ones are best!)
• green felt sheet
• tacky white craft glue
• wire for hanger
• large curtain rod ring or something similar

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Measure the width of the curtain ring you intend to recycle for this project. 
2. Triple this measurement and cut the width of this from dark green felt. 
3. To make an accurate measurement of the length of the felt, run a bit of twin around the circumference and then lay this twine along the length of a ruler to see how long the felt cutting should be.
4. Fold the dark green felt lengthwise and cut a ruffle through both thicknesses using sharp sewing scissors. Only cut approximately 1/4 inch into the edges.
5. Once these steps are complete, use tacky glue to sandwich the ruffled felt around the curtain ring. Let dry.
6. Now squeeze glue dots on top of ruffled side of the curtain ring between the ruffles. Press tiny pom-poms on top of glue dots. Make a pattern of different greens and reds.
7. I used even tinnier red pom-poms glued on top of the larger ones to represent holly berries. After everything dries, add a loop of ribbon to hang it from a dollhouse door or wall for the holidays.

More Pom-Pom Crafts for Christmas:

• Two Rudolf Socks, Two Warm Hats!
• Craft a cozy pom-pom rug for cold winter nights in the dollhouse...
• 'Bake' pretty pom-pom cakes for doll Christmas parties here.

Child-Life Prints for Dollhouses

        The prints for your dollhouses below come from an antique children's book written at the turn of the last century. These children were born in the Victorian era. The themes include: riding ponies on the beach, reading in the garden, feeding pug pets, praying before bedtime, hanging doll clothes up on the clothesline, playing peek-a-boo, and talking with children outdoors. The smallish prints would look just as good in a larger dollhouse as inside of a miniature one and the topics are appropriate for little children. These are intended for personal use only. 

Printables are restored by kathy grimm.

Here is a cute little baby paper doll!

       This little paper doll comes from the Betty Bobb's Family paper dolls. It was originally printed in full color but I have redrawn it in black and white for those children who love to color in their own paper dolls. It is not for resale, only private home use. 

This paper baby has four changes of clothes, one diaper, one rattle,
a bottle, a bathtub with a duck, one bottle, and a wig.

The Four Flower Sisters

        I redrew and added additional gowns to these four sister paper dolls, each named after a specific blossom: hyacinth, lily, violet and rose, long ago. However, I still believe little ones will love to color and cut them out anytime of the year, even if it's not spring.

Sister "Hyacinth" paper doll

Sister "Lily" paper doll

Sister "Rose" paper doll

Sister "Violet" paper doll 

• Make a little blossoms summer camp in your own backyard next Summer...
• Visit The Flower Children index page to find even more floral sisters for reading and crafting on your own.