How to make a Zebra succulent for dolls...

Left, the succulent sculpted from newsprint and cotton 
batting. Right, the zebra plant painted with green
and white stripes, of course.

       The common name for this plant is a "zebra plant'' named for the obvious stripes that surround it's spike like leaves. In America, many folks grow this succulent in pots outside during summer months and then move it inside near a window during winter.

       You can make your own version of this plant for dollhouse decorating if you wish using the following craft supplies: newsprint, masking tape, 5 to 6 white cotton balls, green and white acrylic paints, one tea bag (unused), Mod Podge and a tiny pot for displaying the plant.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. I cut a pot for this succulent from a paper pulp egg carton. However, you may wish to use an alternative container. Egg cartons make for convenient, inexpensive craft supply when nothing else is available. Use masking tape and school glue to shape this recycled egg carton into seamless looking pots. I also cut 'drain trays' for pots from the same egg cartons as well.
2. To shape the stiff pointed leaves use newsprint and masking tape. 
3. I covered the surface of the leaves with a thin layer of cotton and glue in order to give this plant a subtle, consistent looking 'bumpy' surface.
4. Once the surface of my zebra plant leaves dried, I then painted them dark green. 
5. Then use white paint to make the stripes. 
6. Cluster the leaves together just as these grown in real life.
7. Using more masking tape, position the plant inside of the container and fill in the space surrounding the outer-most leaves with more wadded paper and glue.
8. Finally, to make the top soil use a layer of glue to adhere a dusting of ground tea leaves (found inside a tea bag.) to it's surface. 

DIY a Fairy Garden for Your Dolls

The dolls admire the fairy garden they have built for the back porch.

        Your dolls can play and pretend among fairy gardens even smaller than the versions you make for your own play outside. This fairy garden pictured below is so small that it fits inside of a three by six inch pot! 

The fairy garden before the clay items and cotton
batting toadstools are painted.

Supply List:

• a few cotton balls 
• thin wire
• green felt
• cardboard scrap
• Sculpey oven bake clay
• tiny pinecones
• pebbles
• hot glue and hot glue gun
• a tiny plastic frog
• a ceramic pot 

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Aquire a small decorative pot to use in the craft. You may have one already in your possession. These are often sold for a few coins at thrift shops and garage sales. Make sure that it is large enough for a vignette. The pot shown on this post is 3 inches tall and widens at the mouth to a 6 inch diameter opening.
2. Turn the pot upside down and trace around the lip on top of a stiff corrugated cardboard with a pencil.
3. Cut the shape out to fit just inside of the lip of the pot. 
4. Stuff the inside of the pot with recycled papers until the cardboard cut out fits on top of the papers just an inch shy of the lip of the pot. 
5. Now decorate the doll-sized fairy garden with all kinds of materials. First I glued a rocky edged pond on top of the cardboard using very tiny gravel. This may be purchased at a craft shop or a pet store. This supply is commonly used in fish tanks.
6. Fill the pond with hot glue 'water.'
7. Use a nail to poke holed through the cardboard wherever you would like to stick a plant or toadstool.
8. Shred faux grass using fine cuts of green felt.
9. I shaped a tiny fairy hut from a curl of bark and used a pinecone for the roof. This was hot glued into place.
10. I then sculpted tiny plants and stones from oven-bake clay and glued these in place.
11. The toadstools were shaped from chenille stems and cotton batting. Go here to see this craft.
12. Paint the remaining plants and toadstools using acrylics.

Left, clay sculpted rocks for fairy path and some sculpted plants. Right, toadstools and
 tiny plastic frog for this display.

Left, the vintage decorative pot from the 1970s. Right, the fairy garden being assembled.

Left, polished mini gravel purchased from dollar store. Center, lovely brown and ivory
glazed pot; perfect for an 18 inch doll's fairy garden! Right, see cardboard insert
with holes for plants and mushrooms, plus the rock wall for our tiny pond.

Above, details of fairy garden, felt ground cover, pond and
 pretend water made from hot glue.

More Mini Gardens:

• Assemble a garden pond for your dolls!
• How to craft a doll size bird bath for her garden...
• Make a mirror duck pond for a picturesque table decoration
• Learn how to craft a little wire fairy doll . . . 

Craft Creeping Phlox in A Pot For A Doll Garden

Potted tissue phlox craft.

        Phlox are in the family, Polemoniaceae. Most of these grow in North America in a wide variety of habitats; you can find them in the woods or on the prairies or in gardens of flower lovers everywhere. I love phlox so much because of their lovely purple to blue colors and delicate petals. 

       This dolly version of potted phlox is made using lavender tissue papers. I purchased the pot to plant the faux flowers in from a second-hand shop. The terracotta clay pot is ordinary enough but the decorative wire basket surrounding it is exceptionally attractive. 

       The supplies you will need to collect for this garden pot craft include: masking tape, a recycled lid, newsprint, white school glue, a Styrofoam ball that fills the entire opening at the top of your acquired pot, green acrylic paint and some lovely colorful tissue paper in purple, pink, white or blue; it's your choice!

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Crumple several pieces of newsprint to fill the void in the bottom of your chosen pot. Push the newsprint down on top of a bit of wadded masking tape. The amount you will need depends upon the size of your pot compared to the size of Styrofoam ball you will be using. 
• Wad up additional masking tape to sandwich between the ball and the newsprint beneath it. You will need a nice snug fit of all items crushed inside of the pot.
• Paint a ring of green around the outer edges of the Styrofoam ball only. Let this dry completely. Only a very small amount will 'peek through' once the phlox have been crafted.
• Next fill a small lid or dish of white school glue and set it off to the side of your project so that you will have it handy during the tissue flower process.
• Cut many many circles from the tissue paper. Stack it to cut and get this step done quicker. The circles do not need to be perfect and the edges may be left ragged. 
• Take the eraser end of a pencil and place it in the center of the tissue circle.
• Crush up the sides of the circle around the pencil, while dipping the end in a bit of white school glue in the side lid.
• With glue side facing down, press the tissue into the Styrofoam ball. Fill in the top of this foam ball surface with the tissues until the phlox are formed. Let dry and display in your doll's house or garden setting.

More Tissue Paper Crafts:

• Embellishing a headboard and footboard for Barbie using tissue paper
• Make pretend hot cocoa using tissues!
• Decoupage a mountain for a dinosaur using tissue paper

How to pot faux daffodils for your American Girl Dolls

I used two decorative laces combined to craft
the small, pretend daffodils seen below.

       Once you acquire the laces for these lovely Springtime flowers, they will be easy to assemble! Because hot glue is used to craft them, you may need adult supervision while making the craft, depending upon your age. Although, I'm an adult and still burn my fingertips from time to time while making stuff...

Supply List:

• a small, decorative pot made of any material, 2 to 3 inches in diameter
• foam block to stick the flowers inside of the pot
• skewers or toothpicks
• lace daisy chain
• yellow lace trim (see photo)
• green acrylic paint(s)
• green craft paper
• white school glue
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• Styrofoam beads for flower centers

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut and glue foam to fit inside of the container you have chosen to display the crafted daffodils in.
2. Paint the foam dark green or brown or the color of the container.
3. Measure and cut skewers to the length you wish your flowers to be. 
4. Paint the skewers dark green.
5. Cut out the lace flowers and mount these to the tops of the skewer stems using hot glue.
6. Clip and roll the yellow lace around itself and then hot glue it to the top of each lace flower in the centers. 
7. Glue a darker yellow foam bead in the center of each flower using white school glue.
8. Cut long leaves from green paper and glue them onto the skewers approximately 1/4 inch from the bottom of each skewer stem. 
9. Poke the daffodils into the foam at the bottom of the pot or cluster them together inside of a vase for your dollhouse.

Craft More Gardens For Your Dolls:

• Learn how to craft another version of a daisy flower garden with a white picket fence...
• Make a veggie garden for summer planting for your 18 inch dolls
• Assemble a doll garden pond inside of a tin pie plate for your dolls to play with...
• See our fairy garden dining set at Thrifty Scissors!

Left, the size of my decorative pot is just right for an American Girl Doll to use on her patio or
inside of her dollhouse. Right, see the faux daffodils from above; these are glued to a wooden
skewer and then 'planted' or poked inside of a block of foam to hold these upright inside of
the decorative container. These may be removed and put inside of a vase alternatively.

Craft miniature plant stands for a doll's garden or home...

Two miniature plant stands
 for the dollhouse garden areas.

   Plant stand tables may be cut to fit any space where these are needed inside of a dollhouse or garden space. I made these plant stands to sit beside metal chairs and so ours are painted in similar colors to go with the doll's outdoor funishings. 

   The potted plants are made using tiny beads and plastic plants glued inside of the bead openings.

Supply List:

• scrap cardboard
• paper wrapped wire 
• transparent ornamental black line stickers
• green teal and black acrylic paints
• two fancy beads
• tiny plastic plants
• white school glue
• bit of tissue paper
• tiny pliers (optional)
• Mod Podge

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut a tiny tabletop from cardboard to match the size of the decorative stickers.
2. Paint the table top and then stick the sticker on top.
3. Cut a narrow slice of cardboard to glue around the tabletop for the edge of the table. Glue this on.
4. Turn the tabletop over and attach the wire stand underneath with tape and glue. Let dry
5. Paint the table legs black to look like cast iron.
6. After everything dries, you may opt for gluing on the "potted plants"permanently or not.

The wire legs are constructed from recycled wire that comes from the market.
The stickers are "see through'' with black decorative images only.

Left, here you can see that the wires are attached underneath with glue.
Right, after the glue has dried, I shaped the ends of the legs into tiny curled feet.

How to Craft Pond Plants

finished pond grasses and cattails

       We made three dimensional pond grasses and cattails to enhance our doll-sized pond diorama. Place them in the ''shallow'' paper mache waters where ducks may build their nests and lay eggs during the warm summer months.

Supply List:

• recycled milk bottle caps
• paper: dark green, light green, brown and tan
• white school glue
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• cotton ball
• thin wire
  

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut four to five lengths of 3 to 4 inches of the thin wire for each grassland ''cap.''
   
2. Unravel a small amount of cotton and wrap this around one end of thin wire. Smooth it into a cattail seed head. 
3. Paint these brown and set aside to dry.
4. Cut papers into two to three inch strips then cut grass tips all along each length. It is not important to do so uniformly as these appear random in nature anyway.
5. Apply white glue at the bottom of each paper strip and wind these together, one after another, inserting the bottom tips of each cattail inside the grasses. Space out the placement of the cattails as you repeat the process using three to four colors of grass-cut paper as you go. 
6. Squeeze a generous amount of glue into the cap and stand the grass upright inside of it.
7. Tuck unraveled cotton around the empty parts of the cap interior. Let the grasses and cattails dry.
8. Tear off pieces of brown paper and dab these with glue. Apply this paper to the outside surfaces of the cap to cover both the cotton and plastic caps. Let the caps dry and harden.
   

Left, cut paper grasses in four colors: lime green, brown, Kelly green and gold.
Center, the paper tufts stand freely on their own, once wrapped and glued about
themselves. Right, cattail seed heads made using cotton batting
and white school glue.

''Grasslands'' crafted from paper and wire and then glued inside of caps
 may be moved about our paper ''pond'' during play. These will provide
 places for our ducks to swim around and build nests for their young.

Plant in the shallow waters of our pretend pond.

 

Research More Native Plants for Toy Ponds Online:

• Beneficial Buffers: Native plants for ponds and lakes in the midwest

The Family Farm

        Pablo, his brother Jose, and Papa are up early. The boys are singing. They are going to help in the fields and are happy. Mama has breakfast ready: black coffee, tortillas, and warmed-over beans from the night before. The boys and their father sit down to eat while their mother waits on them. Then they shoulder their farm tools and trudge off to their farm, which is a long way off.

       ''When I am older I am going to be a farmer like Papa,'' says Pablo.

       Already he has been useful. For two years he has been looking after the cattle, taking them to the pasture in the morning before school and driving them home at night. Often he has done it alone, but sometimes his cousin Juan has worked with him and of course that was more fun.
       Papa sighs. ''If I weren't so poor I could buy land close to town, and they would be better fields too.''
       But he is poor, and he has to use poor land. It is covered with great boulders and volcanic outcroppings. We can't even use a plow, Pablo thinks to himself. All the work has to be done by hand, chopping away at the soil with a hoe. To walk between the big stones is hard enough without trying to pull a plow around them.
       "Your uncle's fields are fine this year. He can grow much corn because he doesn't have to dig his field with a hoe as we do,'' says Papa.
       "His new plow is very fine,'' says Pablo, ''and he doesn't have far to walk either.''
       "But he doesn't own his ox team,'' Jose points out. ''He rents it for three months and pays for it out of his corn crop.''
       "That is true,'' says Papa. ''All the same he can use his land over and over and we must clear new land every three years because poor land wears out fast.''
       Last January Papa had started to clear a new field. First he cut down the trees. Then with a machete (large knife) he cut down the bushes and shrubs. He worked fifty days. Every night when he came home he was exhausted. "I ache all over," he groaned.
       By April the trees and bushes were dry enough to burn and Papa saved the ashes for fertilizer. After that he and the boys built a stone wall to protect the field from grazing cattle. It had been the hardest kind of work, but looking at his field now Papa is proud. "Not a bad job," he says.
       Every bit of land has been used. The corn plants are not in rows but are scattered about wherever there is a place for them between the great boulders. It is a special kind of corn with very strong roots that spread in every direction and force their way down through the rocky soil. Between the corn are squash and beans. Not a scrap of ground has been wasted.
       At noon they stop work. "Build a fire," says Papa, "and we will heat our dinner."
       At home no one would think of cooking‚ "that is woman's work." In the fields it is different. Papa and the boys heat their dinner and squat down upon their heels to munch their food.
       "There's a mouse!" cries Jose suddenly and chases it. It disappears among the corn plants.
       "Tonight we will set off firecrackers to scare it away," says Papa.
       Pablo and his brother smile happily. Like all boys, they love firecrackers.

Back to The Index

Small Family Farming in Modern Mexico:

• Fair chances for small farming in Mexico
• Mexico: Sustainable farms for biodiversity
• Chinampas of Mexico: Most Productive Agriculture EVER?

"Little Blossoms" Doll Summer Camp

Sample crafts for the "Little Blossoms" Doll Summer Camp: flower crown,
daisy flower bed, backyard pond, and watering can.

 

Lessons For "Little Blossoms" Doll Camp: Our flower camp for dolls includes lessons below by Chandler a teacher who lived and taught and wrote several science readers for the Primary Grades based upon the flora and fauna of California.

1. Buttercup: Lesson 1  - Ranunculus californicus, commonly known as the California buttercup, is a flowering plant of the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It is a native of California, where it is common in many habitats, including chaparral and woodlands.
2. Buttercup: Lesson 2 - You can also find California buttercups in Oregon and on islands between British Columbia and Washington.
   
3. Parts of the Flower - A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. Identification chart, parts of a flower.
4. California Poppy - Eschscholzia californica, the California poppy, golden poppy, California sunlight or cup of gold, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae, native to the United States and Mexico.
5. Cream-Cup - Platystemon is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the poppy family containing the single species Platystemon californicus, which is known by the common name creamcups.
6. Baby-Blue-Eyes: Lesson 1  - Nemophila menziesii, known commonly as baby blue eyes or baby's-blue-eyes, is an annual herb, native to western North America
7. Baby-Blue-Eyes: Lesson 2  - ''Baby-Blue-Eyes has several sisters, natives of California...''
8. Wild Hollyhock  - Iliamna is a small genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, endemic to North America. It is related to the bush mallows of California.
9. Filaree  - ''The Filaree gets its green rosette placed early in the year. Then, it can send out its flowers early...''
10. Miner's Lettuce  - Claytonia perfoliata, commonly known as miner's lettuce, Indian lettuce, or winter purslane, is a flowering plant in the family Montiaceae. It is an edible, fleshy, herbaceous, annual plant native to the western mountain and coastal regions of North America. How Native Americans cooked this plant.
11. Wild Portulaca  - ''Some people call Wild Portulaca, Red Maids‚ because she wears such a beautiful red dress, but I think more people know her by the name I use..."
12. White Forget-Me-Not  - This flowering plant is native North America, Alaska, Canada and the United Kingdom.
    
13. Wall Flower - ''If you wish to study a flower that looks like a party and smells like a party, just take a wild Wall Flower...''
14. Shooting Star  - Primula hendersonii is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae.
15. Trillium - 'Trillium was called the Wake-Robin in the East because soon after it blossoms there, the robin begins to sing..."
16. Iris: Lesson 1 - Some people call this flower the Flag, but as Iris, she is known to all the World.
17. Iris: Lesson 2 - "What an odd flower Iris is! She has caught the curves and the colors of the rainbow and has brought them down to earth...''
18. Blue-Eyed Grass  - ''"Blue-Eyed Grass'' we call these plants because their leaves seem so grass-like...''
19. Fritillaria - The flowers are usually solitary, nodding and bell-shaped with bulbs that have fleshy scales, resembling those of lilies. They are known for their large genome size and genetically are very closely related to lilies. 
20. Soap Root - Botany facts and how this unique plant was once used by minors, pioneers and Native Americans...
    
21. Azalea - Wonderful odor but toxic to eat...
    
22. Johnny-Jump-Up: Lesson 1 - ''Every boy I have ever known, whether his age was seven years or seventy, seems to have a tender spot in his heart for this golden beauty...''
23. Johnny-Jump-Up: Lesson 2 - ''Not many insects visit Johnny-Jump-Up. Perhaps they find her honey too hard to reach...''
24. Farewell to Spring - pollinated by butterflies
    
25. Wild Cucumber  - Root system the size of a man!
    

Flower/Garden Themed Doll Crafts:

• Craft a Doll's Flower Crown (and the child too...) - fit it to any doll or child!
  
• Craft a Daisy Flower Bed for Dolls - Fill it with your doll's favorite flowers, if not daisies.
• 30 Tiny Floral Embroidery Ideas for Doll Clothes -Use these designs to decorate an apron, dress etc. for a child and her doll's clothing.
  
• DIY American Girl Doll Potting Bench - An important piece of furniture for your doll to store her garden tools in and also to learn how to prepare her plants on before transplanting them.
• Daisy Gives a Paper Doll Garden Party - Cut and display lovely paper dolls in a garden setting as long as the wind doesn't carry these away.
• How to craft felt roses for your doll doll camp activities - Every doll wants a garden filled with flowers so that she may display them inside her dollhouse.
• Craft a Watering Can for Your Doll's Garden - Even pretend flowers and plants need fake water to keep them happy and growing day by day...
• Assemble a garden pond for your dolls... - This craft can look new everyday if the children wish to plan it that way.
  
• Antique Floral Postcards for The Dolly Mail  - Dolls can send their friends and family news about the progress made in their lovely gardens through the dolly mail.
  
• How to craft felt carnations for your doll camp activities - Take the Spring flowers into the dollhouse to give it that special gardener's touch.
  
• Learn how to pot faux daffodils for a doll's patio garden - these are just the right size for AGD dolls...

The Flower Children Garden Crafts and Flower Dolls - Miniature pages for young ones to download and print out a book for their dolls to read aloud, in simple verse. Plus new crafts, poems and stories about flowers are also included among these posts as I find them in the archive.

More Flower Poetry:

• Little Spring Verses - Short and sweet little rhymes for young students to recall and recite.
• Welcome, Little Seed! - ''Welcome, little seed,’’ said the sunshine ray, “You must burst, burst, burst, from your coat today.”
• Buttercup Land by Rose Henderson - ''Come, little girl in the new blue frock...'' and illustrated as well
• Rose, When You're Bored With Blooming  - ''I'm glad that there are roses, Roses, Are you glad there's me?'' and illustrated
• The Little Garden - "There is a little garden that I love . . . " by Gordon, illustrated by Rose O'Neill 
• "If you were a flower..." - poem and sheet music to a face washing song
  

Flower Songs for Young Children:

• "I love tulips song" CBCKids
• evokids sing "Daisy, Daisy Daisy Bell" - about a girl named after a flower
• Here is The Beehive Song from Super Simple Songs

More Youtube for The Young Gardener:

• Let's plant a garden by SciShow Kids - Young students can learn the basics for growing their very own veggies to eat.
• ''The Tin Forest'' brought to you by Reading Rainbow - Gardens or even forests can grow with dedication and hope in places you least expect...
• ''A Flower for Ambrose'' read aloud by A Book Outside - One of my favorite books to read from my childhood.
• ''Flower Garden'' read aloud by Karen Dzwoner - How does a little girl make a garden grow in the middle of her city?
• What's Inside A Flower? read aloud with author Rachel Ignotofsky - from Brightly Storytime
• Growing a Greener World - Crafting a meadow for children to observe wildlife daily!
• Transform Your Lawn Into a Wildflower Meadow -  Your backyard can become a classroom.

Go Delve in the Garden

by Dora Reade Goodale

Not here, the thick sown plot of ground

That knew me once as warden,

But childhood bliss may still be found

Deep buried in a garden!

Oh, now, as then, the lap of spring 

Is heaped with daffodillies--

June comes with many a rose to fling,

And August crowned with lilies. 

Brave hyacinths, how sweet they smell

When April dawns propitious!

The valley lily's bell

Makes the bright air delicious.

Full many a mile behind me lies,

Full many a bleak December,

Yet Nature dons before my eyes

The robe I first remember.

Is youth a vanished fairy ground

Where Innocence was warden?

The morning gift may still be found:

Go seek it in a garden!

DIY Doll Farmer's Market Stand

Above is our families Farmer's Market Play Set. The rocker was handcrafted using cedar.
I do not know who made this; it was purchased at resale. At the stall is also a real mini
scale and doll sized calculator that we use to add up the cost of the produce.  

 

        I honestly think this doll market set is more adorable than those sold in toy stores today. Which is a good thing, given the prices toy companies charge for them. Most all of the fruits and veggies shown on this post  were made by hand using Sculpey and then painted using acrylics. The cast iron stand and rocker were purchased at a flee market.  

"An abundance and great variety of vegetables and fresh green lettuces are flooding our
 doll's farmer's market. Fine homegrown corn and peppers for roasting are just a few our
 featured vegetables on display."

"Soon a delectable crop of peaches will arrive and every doll knows how marvelous
these taste with homemade ice cream during the summer months."

"Don't forget our berries make the very best fruit preserves for canning and no doll's
breakfast table should lack for blue berries served on top of their morning cereal!"

Our dolls market stall made from recycled crates.

 

     I've included from our crafted vegetable and fruit selections, the typical food items sold at a Mid-Western farmer's market during the summer months of June, July and August in the United States.  If you live abroad or in a Southern state or on an island, the selections you might include in your own toy market could look quite different from ours!

Edible Family Groups at Our Farmer's Market: veggies, fruit, nuts, legumes, herbs, grains, etc...

1. Rose - Peach, Apricot, Nectarine, Apple, Pear
2. Mustard - Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussels sprout, Cabbage, Bok choy, Radish, Turnip, Red cabbage, Mustard greens
3. Lily/Onion - Asparagus, Onion, Garlic, Leek, Green Onion
4. Nightshade/Potato - Tomato, Potato, Sweet potato, Peppers (all varieties)
5. Cucumber/Melon - Cucumber, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Squash, Chayote
6. Carrot - Carrots, Parsnips, Celery, Cilantro, Coriander, Fennel, Anise, Caraway
7. Sunflower/Daisy - Artichoke, Lettuce, Sunflower
8. Legume - Beans, Peas, Bean sprouts, Snow pea, Lentil, Jicama, Peanuts
9. Goosefoot/Beetroot - Swiss chard, Spinach, Beets
10. Palm (tags) - Coconut, Dates
11. Mallows - Okra
12. Zingiberaceae- Ginger root, Turmeric, Cardamon, Galangal
13. Rhubarb - Rhubarb root

Left, heritage tomatoes. Center, chip wood baskets full of berries etc... Right, fresh basil.

Left, the Swiss Chard, mushrooms and butternut squash. 
Center, three kinds of potatoes: sweet, red and Idaho.
Right are the giant shallots.

Left, details of pears. Right, details of cauliflowers.

Left, one of our larger doll crates made using big tongue depressors. Right,
the watermelons are painted wooden eggs.

Left the sign details up-close. Right, the back side of our market sign left unfinished
for now... Wew! we are tired!

 Additional Crafts for The Doll's Farmer's Market:

1. How to Craft Crates for a Doll's Farmer's Market Booth
2. Building an 18" Doll's Wooden Market Stall/Booth
3. Faux Chipwood Market Baskets for Fruits and Veggies
4. Antique honey jar labels for your farmer's market product...
5. Printable garden clip art for more signs if you need it....
6. Printable Garden Seed Packs for Dolls
7. Sculpting and painting a rainbow of farm fresh eggs!
8. Craft crates for your doll's market produce and make them look fuller with a crate lid transformation.

We had so many fruits and vegetables to play with that we needed extra tables! See
how to make the larger one in the back here.

  More Market Stalls for Dolls:

• DIY American Girl Farmers Market Stand
• Visit The Farmers Market (Our Mini Harvest) by Doll It Up
• Our Generation - farmer's market and hot chocolate review
• Lea's Fruit Stand Review
• Kit's new garden accessories from American Girl
• A review of American Girl's garden accessories for Kit by Rave & Review
• Stock the market stall with tropical varieties of fruits . . .

What's cool about the farmers market? by Foodwise

More About Farmer's Markets:

• Healthy eating for kids by Oliver and Lucas
• From the field to the farmers market
• Food, Plants and You! - articles about food for kids

Watch more dolls go to market at YouTube:

• American Girl Doll Opens My Life As Farmers Market 

"On the way to our farmer's market."

Sew a Waldorf Garden Bed for Your Dolls

A finished photo of our 18" doll's Waldorf garden bed with veggies.

       Your dolls can pretend to plant and harvest veggies from this garden bed. What is a farm without a garden? Moms and older siblings can help younger ones sew this basic construction for a doll house or a farm camp. 

Supply List:

• one regular size brown bath towel
• scrap green fabric several inches larger than the circumference of your garden bed assembled
• green embroidery floss
• large needle (a curved needle if you have one on hand.)
• stuffing 

Left, include a few baskets and lots of veggies with this toy.
Right, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage and tiny clay turnips are
 tucked between the rows for play.

       I made this version of a garden bed by cutting lengths of a brown towel 3" wide, stuffing them with a soft cotton filler and sewing them shut. Then I whip stitched the terry cloth rolls together at the bottom edge of each roll. After that, I attached an additional green fabric bottom and edging using a strong embroidery floss, trapping the terry cloth rolls together inside of a soft fabric frame. You can make your garden bed any shape or size you wish; our's measures 12 x 24 inches, with an approximate depth of 2" to 3." I used nearly all of my brown terry cloth towel to make this project.

Left, the tops of our doll leeks peeking through the terry cloth soil. 
Right, see the embroidery stitched edges of the soft green frame.
This "frame" holds the garden bed together. 

Our Garden

"In my little garden bed

Raked so nicely over,

First the tiny seeds I sow,

Then with soft earth cover;

Shining down, the great round sun

Smiles upon it often;

Little raindrops pattering down

Help the seeds to soften;

Soon the little plants awake

Down their roots go creeping;

Up they lift their tiny heads

Through the brown earth peeping;

High and higher still they grow,

Through the summer hours,

Till some happy day, the buds

Open into flowers."

More Builds of Waldorf Toys & Puppet Shows:

• DIY Waldorf Treehouse by Niños & Nature
• The Little Gnome Who Had to Stay Home by Emily Lalande
• Winter Waldorf Story by www.Earthschooling.com
• Wool Playscape by Our Wild Way