Craft a Felt Swedish Tea Ring for Christmas

Finished and plated doll-sized Swedish tea ring.

       When I was a young girl, my mother loved to bake. One of her favorite things to bake for Christmas was a Swedish tea ring. This took nearly all day to make because it needed to rise several times before baking. This little craft brought back positive memories for me; I hope you will enjoy making one for your own 18 inch doll friends...

Supply List:

• a variety of four shades of felt sheets
• sharp scissors
• needle and threads
• metallic beads

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Roll four colors of brownish felt together starting with one of the long horizontal side. Make certain the felt sheet on the bottom of the stack is the warm brown color of the outside the Swedish tea ring after baking. 
2. Use a tight binding stitch to keep the roll intact all along the inner edge of the tea ring.
3. Stitch together end to end of the felt roll to make an "O" shape.
4. Now score the felt every half inch along the outer edge using sharp scissors without cutting all the way through to the inside center of the tea ring. You should see a spiral on the inside sliced cuts. This will make the tea ring look like it has cinnamon inside of the fancy bread roll.
5. Cut some curvy shapes from a cream colored felt to make it look like icing. Sew this on to the top of the tea ring using matching thread.
6. Then sew on beads green and red to represent Christmas candied fruits.
7. Purchase a decorative plate to display your doll's fancy felt tea ring at a party during the holidays.

More Special Christmas Treats for Dolls:

• Doll Plum Pudding
• Chocolate and Caramel Dipped Apples
• Christmas Popcorn In A Tin

Miniature Mouse Cider House

       This miniature cider house or cider shack was built by my daughter to put into a larger seasonal display. She made it very quickly in my opinion: she wiped it together inside of an hour! Later she added the mice and a few more details that I talk about at the bottom of this post.

Finished cider shack minus the mice.

Supply List:

• decorative fall or harvest themed papers + print of wooden plank flooring
  
• Sculpey for mini pumpkins
• white card stock for signs, basket of apples and award
• recycled lid for framed print
• straw scraps for loft
• corrugated cardboard for faux "metal roof"
• tray of watercolors
• Mod Podge
• small cardboard box for the tiny pub
• two spools for the table + scrap cardboard for the top
• scrap fabric for table linen
• tiny mugs for the cider (purchased)
• acrylic paints for the signs and roof details

Step-by-Step Instructions: 

1. Select and shape the roof of a shallow box. This one has an arched shape. The faux corrugated metal is actually made from a well defined interior corrugated cardboard insert. It was painted with additional shades of brown to make it look even more extreme. 
2. Next the interior walls and floors with decoupaged with decorative papers. The outside side walls of the shack were already decorated with the apple print that you see in the photo below.
3. Then the back oval window with glued in mullion was cut out and painted. 
4. A small simple print of flowers was cut from scrap paper and glued inside of a shallow lid to make it look framed. This was then glued to a side wall for further decoration.
5. My daughter then made little signs for the mouse cider house, one with a menu another for the outside of the display labeling what it was intended to represent.
6. She then used her watercolors to paint a basket of apples for the attic storage room. 
7. She sculpted the 3 dimensional pumpkins from Sculpey oven-bake clay and followed the directions for baking it posted on the package. 
8. She then painted the pumpkins orange and their stems green. Let these dry and brushed on Mod Podge to seal them.
9. She glued two large wooden spools to the bottom of a table top cut from cardboard. 
10. Afterwards she cut a scrap of plaid fabric for the tablecloth and set the table using store bought mugs.
11. Lastly, she made the 1rst place award ribbon for best squeezed cider and hung it above the table with mugs.

Left, the window cut out from the back and given a cross shaped mullion. Center, the side of the
original recycled box had this apple print on it. Right, just a few details make for a cozy shack for
 tiny mouse dolls to eat and drink the delights of the Fall seasonal harvest!

One month later . . .

Left, the barrel of "popcorn", the donuts and caramel apple, an old-fashioned apple press and
finally the cotton batting mouse were later added to the miniature display items. Center see all
of the things together. Right, details of her little cotton batting mouse with overalls and freckles.

See my daughter's mouse sized Christmas market here.

DIY Doll Sized Candied Apples

These faux candied apples are approximately one inch in diameter; perfectly sized for our 18" American Girl dolls.

       Every doll lover should have a sweet, candied apple selection for her dolls to enjoy during the holidays. Ours are made from small, turned wooden apples and popsicle sticks. Just cut the sticks to the length you prefer and glue them into the centers of each apple. Let the glue dry and stiffen over night before painting the apples with red, gold or green acrylic paints. Then dip your apples into your choice of caramel, white or brown chocolate colored paints. 

       Place the wet apples on top of wax paper and let the dipped paints settle and dry so that the apples are supported by a small amount of paint pooled beneath them. This is how real caramel or candied apples are allowed to dry too! It should take several days for the paint to dry. Carefully peel away the wax paper after the paint on the apples has hardened. 

       Give the apples even more decorative surfaces with colored puff paints, glitter glue and beads that look like small hard candies, if you'd like.

Left, small 1" diameter wooden apples with flat bamboo skewers glued into the top where stems would
originate from. Right, I've painted half of my apples green and the other half red.

Left, apples drying upside down inside of a plastic egg carton. Right, apples dry on top of brown paper.

Left, Caramel Candied Apples. See a real recipe here.
Right, Jolly Rancher or Red Hots Candied Apples. See a real recipe here.

Left, White Chocolate Dipped Apples with Drizzle. See a real recipe here. 
Right, Chocolate Dipped Apples. See a real recipe here.

More Candy Apple Crafts:

• DIY American Girl Candy Apples!
• Miniature Candy & Caramel Apples - Polymer Clay Tutorial