Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress.
Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Hiram and Amelia Ferguson. Her father was a successful attorney. Raised and educated in Manhattan,
she became interested in the theater at a young age and made her stage
debut at 17 as a chorus girl in a musical comedy. For almost two years,
from 1903 to 1905, she was a cast member in The Girl from Kays. In 1908, she was leading lady to Edgar Selwyn in Pierre of the Plains. By 1909, after several years apprenticeship under several producers, including Charles Frohman, Klaw & Erlanger, Charles Dillingham and Henry B. Harris, she was a major Broadway star, starring in Such a Little Queen. In 1910, she spent time on the stage in London. Actresses Evelyn Nesbit and Ethel Barrymore were friends of hers. Read more...
First cut out the page so that you can handle it conveniently. Then cut out the figures carefully on the outlines,
with scissors. Use a sharp knife point to cut along the dotted lines. Letters indicate which figures may
be used together.
The original by Dan Rudolph, restored for coloring by Kathy Grimm.
Description of Coloring Page: text "Oscar the Owl", tuxedo, top hat, large eyes, moving parts,
This is a mechanical paper doll and requires tiny brass fasteners,
brads or paper fasteners for it's assembly.
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
The original by Dan Rudolph, restored for coloring by Kathy Grimm.
Description of Coloring Page: text "Tommy Tiger" checkered pants, bow tie, striped tiger, moving parts,
This is a mechanical paper doll and requires tiny brass fasteners,
brads or paper fasteners for it's assembly.
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
The original by Dan Rudolph, restored for coloring by Kathy Grimm.
Description of Coloring Page: text "Tom & Jerry" cat and dog, moving parts,
This is a mechanical paper doll and requires tiny brass fasteners,
brads or paper fasteners for it's assembly.
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
Click directly on the image to download the largest available size.
These are the color versions of Jessie Louise Taylor's Eskimo Twins Paper Friends.
Directions For Making Fold-A-Way Dolls:
Mount the dolls on an old magazine cover, letterhead or perhaps even
discarded clean cereal boxes. Any stiff, clean cardboard will due.
When thoroughly dry, cut out all around the dark outlines and cut
into lines on base to make th e locks, also cut slits in bodies where
the dress tabs fit.
Fold over directly on the dotted lines at the top of the heads and
the dotted lines at the feet, but in the opposite directions, as shown
on the tiny figures.
Bring haves together and slide locks from one side into the slats on the opposite side. Doll will then stand alone.
The clothes need not be mounted, but will last longer if mounted on light weight paper before cutting out.
Cut into the slits and fold directly on the dotted lines, clothes will then go on and off almost like your own garments.
The clothing should be folded, cut out and tipped with paste so that the back will stick to the front part below the slits.
In cutting out the puppies follow same method as for the dolls.
Click directly on the image to download the largest available size.
These are the color versions of Jessie Louise Taylor's Puritan (Pilgrim) Twins.
Directions For Making Fold-A-Way Dolls:
Mount the dolls on an old magazine cover, letterhead or perhaps even discarded clean cereal boxes. Any stiff, clean cardboard will due.
When thoroughly dry, cut out all around the dark outlines and cut into lines on base to make th e locks, also cut slits in bodies where the dress tabs fit.
Fold over directly on the dotted lines at the top of the heads and the dotted lines at the feet, but in the opposite directions, as shown on the tiny figures.
Bring haves together and slide locks from one side into the slats on the opposite side. Doll will then stand alone.
The clothes need not be mounted, but will last longer if mounted on light weight paper before cutting out.
Cut into the slits and fold directly on the dotted lines, clothes will then go on and off almost like your own garments.
The hats should be folded, cut out and tipped with paste so that the back will stick to the front part below the slits.
In cutting out the lobster follow same method as for the dolls.
The fact that children make living things out of their toy horses, dogs and the rest is known to every observer of their ways. To the natural unsceptical eye the boy on his rudely carved "gee-gee" slashing the dull flank with all a boy's glee, looks as if he were possessed with the fancy that the rigid inert-looking block which he bestraddles is a very horse.
This breathing of life into playthings is seen in all its magic force in play with dolls. A doll, broadly conceived, is anything which a child carries about and makes a pet of. The toy horse, dog or what not that a little boy nurses, feeds and takes to bed with him has much of the dignity of a true doll. But adopting conventional distinctions we shall confine the word to those things which are more or less endowed by childish fancy with human form and character.
I read somewhere recently that the doll is a plaything for girls only: but young boys, though they often prefer india-rubber horses and other animals, not infrequently go through a stage of doll-love also, and are hardly less devoted than girls.
Endless is the variety of role assigned to the doll. It is the all-important comrade in that solitude a deux of which the child, like the adult, is so fond. Mrs. Burnett tells us that when nursing her doll in the armchair of the parlor she would sail across enchanted seas to enchanted islands having all sorts of thrilling adventures.
Very tenderly, on the whole, is the little doll-lover wont to use her pet, doing her best to keep it clean and tidy, feeding it, putting it to bed, amusing it, for example, by showing it her pictures, tending it with fidelity during bouts of sickness, and giving it the honors of a funeral when, from the attack of a dog set on by an unfeeling brother or other cause, it comes to "die"; or when, as in the case of little Jane Welsh (afterwards Mrs. Carlyle), the time has come for the young lady to cast aside her dolls.
The doll-interest implies a deep mysterious sympathy. Children wish their dolls to share in their things, to be kissed when they are kissed, and so to come close to them in experience and feeling. Not only so, they look for sympathy from their doll-companions, taking to them all their childish troubles. So far is this feeling of oneness carried in some cases that the passion for dolls has actually rendered the child indifferent to child-companions. It is not every little girl who like little Maggie Tulliver has only "occasional fits of fondness " for her nursling when the brother is absent.
Not only in this lavishing of tenderness and of sympathy on the doll, but in the occasional discharge on it of a fit of anger, children show how near it comes to a human companion. The punishment of the doll is an important element in nursery-life. It is apt to be carried out with formal solemnity and often with something of brutal emphasis. Yet tenderness being the strongest part of the doll-attachment, the little disciplinarians are apt to suffer afterwards for their cruelty, one little girl showing remorse after such a chastisement of her pet for several days.
I have talked here of " dolls," but I must not be supposed to be speaking merely of the lovely creatures with blue eyes and yellow hair with which the well-to-do child is wont to be supplied. Nothing is more strange and curious in child-life than its art of manufacturing dolls out of the most unpromising materials. The creative child can find something to nurse and fondle and take to bed with it in a bundle of hay tied round with a string, in a shawl, a pillow, a stick, a clothes-pin, or a clay-pipe. Victor Hugo, with a true touch, makes the little outcast Cosette, who has never had a "real doll," fashion one out of a tiny leaden sword and a rag or two, putting it to sleep in her arms with a soft lullaby.
Do any of us really understand the child's attitude of mind towards its doll? Although gifted writers like George Sand have tried to take us back to the feeling of childhood, it may be doubted whether they have made it intelligible to us. And certainly the answers to questions collected in America have done little, if anything, towards making it clear. The truth is that the perfect child's faith in dolldom passes away early, in most cases it would appear about the age of thirteen or fourteen. It is then that the young people begin clearly to realize the shocking fact that dolls have no "inner life". Occasionally girls will go on playing with dolls much later than this, but not surely with the old sincerity.
That many children have a genuine delusion about their dolls seems evident. That is to say when they talk to them and otherwise treat them as human they imaginatively realize that they can understand and feel. The force of the illusion, blotting out from the child's view the naked reality before its eyes, is a striking illustration of the vividness of early fancy. Perhaps, too, this intensity of faith comes in part of the strength of the impulses which commonly sustain the doll-passion. Of these the instinct of companionship, of sympathy, is the strongest. A lady tells me she remembers that when a child she had a passionate longing for a big, big doll, which would give her the full sweetness of cuddling. The imitative impulse, too, prompting the child to carry out on the doll actions similar to those carried out on itself by mother and nurse, is a strong support of the delusion. A doll, as the odd varieties selected show, seems to be, more than anything else, something to be dressed. Children's reasons for preferring one doll to another, as that it can have its face washed, or that it has real hair which can be combed, show how the impulse to carry out nursery operations sustains the feeling of attachment. A girl (the same that wanted the big doll to cuddle) had dolls of the proper sort; yet she preferred to make one out of a little wooden stool, because she could more realistically act out with this odd substitute the experience of taking her pet out for a walk, making it stand, for example, when she met a friend.
Of course, the child's faith, like other faith, is not always up to the height of perfect ardor. A child of six or seven, when the passion for dolls is apt to be strong, will have moments of coolness, leaving "poor dolly" lying in the most humiliating posture on the floor, or throwing it away in a sudden fit of disenchantment and disgust. Scepticism will intrude, especially when the hidden inside comes to view as mere emptiness, or at best as nothing but sawdust.
Children seem, as George Sand says, to oscillate between the real and the impossible. Yet the intrusion of doubt does not, in many cases at least, interfere with an enduring trust. Dr. Stanley Hall tells us that "long after it is known that they are wood, wax, etc, it is felt that they are of skin, flesh, etc.". Yes, that is it; the child, seized with the genuine play-mood, dreams its doll into a living child, or living adult. How oddly the player's faith goes on living side by side with a measure of doubt is illustrated in the following story. A little girl begged her mother not to make remarks about her doll in her (the doll's) presence, as she had been trying all her life to keep that doll from knowing that she was not alive.
The treating of the doll and images of animals, such as the wooden or india-rubber horse, as living things is the outcome of the play-impulse. All the imaginative play of children seems, so far as we can understand it, to have about it something of illusion. This fact of the full sincere acceptance of the play-world as for the moment the real one, is illustrated in the child's jealous insistence that everything shall for the time pass over from the everyday world into the new one. " About the age of four," writes M. Egger of his boys, "Felix is playing at being coachman; Emile happens to return home at the moment. In announcing his brother, Felix does not say, 'Emile is come;' he says, 'The brother of the coachman is come '." It is illustrated further in the keen resentment of any act on the part of the mother or other person which seems to contradict the facts of the new world. A boy of two who was playing one morning in his mother's bed at drinking up the cat's milk from an imaginary saucer on the pillow, said a little crossly to his mother, who was getting into bed after fetching his toys: "Don't lie on de saucer, mommy!" The pain inflicted on the little player by such a contradictory action is sometimes intense. A little girl of four was playing "shops" with her younger sister. "The elder one (writes the mother) was shopman at the time I came into her room and kissed her. She broke out into piteous sobs, I could not understand why. At last she sobbed out: "Mother, you never kiss the man in the shop." I had with my kiss quite spoilt her illusion."
But there is still another, and some will think a more conclusive way of satisfying ourselves of the reality of the play-illusion. The child finds himself confronted by the unbeliever who questions what he says about the dolls crying and so forth, and in this case he will often stoutly defend his creed. "Discussions with sceptical brothers (writes Dr. Stanley Hall), who assert that the doll is nothing but wood, rubber, wax, etc., are often met with a resentment as keen as that vented upon missionaries who declare that idols are but stocks and stones." It is the same with the toy-horse. "When (writes a mother of her boy) he was just over two years old L. began to speak of a favorite wooden horse (Dobbin) as if it were a real living creature. "No tarpenter (carpenter) made Dobbin,' he would say, 'he is not wooden but kin (skin) and bones and Dod (God) made him.' If any one said ' it ' in speaking of the horse his wrath was instantly aroused, and he would shout indignantly: 'It! You mut'ent tay it, you mut tay he.' "
While play in its absorbing moments, and even afterwards, may thus produce a genuine illusion, the state of perfect realization is of course apt to be broken by intervals of scepticism. This has already been illustrated in the case of the doll. The same little boy that played with the imaginary mice was sitting on his stool pretending to smoke like his grandpapa out of a bit of bent cardboard. Suddenly his face clouded over; he stroked his chin, and remarked in a disappointed tone, "I have not got any whiskers ". The dream of full manhood was here rudely dispelled by a recall to reality.
A measure of the same fanciful transformation of things that has been illustrated in make-believe play, a measure, too, of the illusion which frequently accompanies it, enters, I believe, into all children's pastimes. Whence comes the perennial charm, the undying popularity, of the hoop? Is not the interest here due to the circumstance that the child controls a thing which in the freedom of its movements suggests that it has a will of its own? This seems borne out by the following story. A little girl of five once stopped trundling her hoop and said to her mother she thought that her hoop must be alive, because "it is so sensible; it goes where I want it to." Perhaps the same thing may be said of other toys, as the kite and the sailing boat.
Here you can see how I recycled Mardi Gras beads for a doll Christmas wreath craft. There are many ways to recycle unwanted holiday items into something new!
Nothing says welcome to our home like a cheerful, festive wreath wired to the front door of your dollhouse! Wreaths are so simple to make, you'll want to make more than one.
Take time and care to attach a tiny hook permanently to your dollhouse door so that you can change out the decorations according to the seasonor holiday.
Supply List:
furry chenille stems in green or red
Mardi-Gras beads or any beads
ribbon
wire for a hook attachment
hot glue gun and hot glue
Step-by-Step Directions:
Twist the chenille stem into a wreath shape. Hold the initial shape up to the door or wall that you would like to decorate it with. Then you can reshape the wreath larger or smaller if need be.
Twist the Mardi-Gras beads around the wreaths and hot glue these to the chenille stems as needed.
Shape the ribbons into bows and hot glue these onto the top of each wreath.
Shape and hook a small wire to the back of the ribbon for hanging.
More Ways To Craft Christmas Wreaths for Your Doll's House:
In our dollhouse, we decorate the sofa table and bookcase with festive, old-fashioned doll-sized Christmas magazines and you can too! Below I have created a whole page of winter fun for your dolls to pretend to read. This cover clip art is for personal use only; so do not sell it...
Popular Christmas covers from many years gone by: Harper's Weekly, The New York Herald, The Saturday Evening Post, The original American Girl Magazine, Collier's, House Beautiful, The Ladies Home Journal and Family Circle covers restored and lovely to craft with for the 18 inch dollhouse.
Left, shelves for books and a small vase and toy. Center, our
babysitter doll is taking good care of Barbie's son. He loves
several bedtime stories before settling down for the night. Right, included on our bookshelf is a flat screen T.V.
The simplest way to make a bookcase for a doll, is to upcycle a small box. If you choose to use a box without compartments, the work is a bit more detailed and I will include a project later with the instructions for that method.
However, if you are lucky enough to find just the right box to use for a bookcase, you may not need to add the shelves on your own. Below is a prime example of a project such as this one.
Adding cupboard doors to your bookcase is optional here. Simply cut rectangles from cardboard that fit neatly over the shelf openings. Cover them with decorative paper and hot glue on two beads for handles. Tape these in place with a durable duct tape and then cover the exposed areas with more decorative paper.
Supply List For The Bookcase:
cardboard box
cardboard box with compartments (optional)
Mod Podge
scissors
decorative papers
ruler
white school glue
a soft, clean paint brush for applying Mod Podge
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Clean off any dust or dirt that may have attached itself to the box.
Carefully measure and cut out decorative shapes that fit neatly into the compartments of the box.
Use a soft brush to cover each shelf with Mod Podge and then stick the papers down to the surfaces.
Be careful to rub the surfaces with your clean, dry fingertips. Smoothing out the air bubbles that get trapped beneath the paper.
Then layer with the paint brush, another coat of Mod Podge on top of the new decorative papers.
Repeat this process for the outside of the box as well.
I left the edges and some of the walls of my doll's bookcase their original color. You do not need to cover every surface of the bookcase if you don't want to change all of it. I found the original fuchsia appealing, so I chose a different set of papers to compliment some of the original color.
You will probably need to fill your doll's bookcase with a few books and there are many ways to craft small volumes. I will demonstrate with photos below just one way to make miniature doll books for now...
Glue additional titles and decorations
to the outside of the doll book.
Supply List for Miniature Books:
corrugated cardboard
scrap magazine pages
glue stick
scissors
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut the cardboard into the size pieces you wish your books to be. You can estimate this by putting a few different sizes of cut cardboard squares into the hands of your dolls to determine the scale you want the books to be. Also make sure that the books are not too large for the doll's bookcase.
For this particular method of making a miniature book, you will only need to collect scrap magazine paper to cover the volumes with.
Glue like sized cardboard squares side by side, leaving only a small gab so that the book will shut neatly on the shelf after it is finished.
Now cut around both cardboard shapes leaving approximately 1/4 inch of paper around all four sides.
Smear a bit of glue to each end and fold the magazine paper over the edges on top of the glue. Repeat this step around every side.
Now cut paper having words printed on it and glue it to the inside covers of the miniature book. The dolls will be able to open these small volumes and pretend to read the text.
Glue additional titles and decorations to the outside of the doll book. Now you have a few books for the doll bookcase!
Left, glue like sized cardboard squares side by side, leaving only a small gab
so that the book will shut neatly on the shelf after it is finished. Center, Smear a bit of glue to each end and fold the magazine paper over the edges on top of the glue. Right, The dolls will be able to open these small volumes and pretend to read the text.
The television depicted on the left below, has a picture pasted directly to the monitor and is much easier to craft. The television shown on the right includes an additional cardboard covered frame so that you can replace the picture by sliding it between the layers of cardboard.
Both flat screen T. V.s are weighted down with washers, carefully glued into each television's base.
Two versions of a foam covered flat screen T.V. One includes an optional
dowel rod attached to the base, the other is attached with a small foam
covered rectangle.
Supply List:
thin cardboard (from cereal boxes)
corrugated cardboard
hot glue gun and hot glue
washers
masking tape
sheets of craft foam (black)
pictures cut from magazines
black acrylic paint
ruler
white school glue
dowel rod for larger flat screen
Step-by-Step Directions:
Cut three rectangles from cardboard, two from the corrugated cardboard and one flatter piece from the cereal box. All rectangles should be identical in size.
Glue the two corrugated pieces together and paint one side with black acrylic paint. Let this side dry before continuing.
Take the third rectangle cut from a cereal box, and measure approx. 1/4" from the outside of each edge. Use a ruler to draw the lines marking the measurement. Now cut out the inside of the flat screen T.V. monitor.
Left, washers are for the television's base. Center, cut rectangles any size you like for your doll's screen.
Right, I've measured 1/4 inch from outside edge of my third layer of cardboard in order to cut a narrow frame.
This third layer is glued on top of the bottom two after these are painted, creating a kind of pocket.
Only glue three edges of the third rectangle to the other corrugated rectangular pieces, leaving the top edge of the flat screen T. V. open (see photo below). Leaving a gap at the top of your doll's television will allow you to slip pictures in and out of the screen to change what the doll's are watching. All of these should be neatly stacked on top of each other when you are finished. (see photo)
Left the painted cardboard and the top cardboard frame. Center, now the three are stacked and glued,
however, the top edge is left without glue. Right, here you can see, I've left the opening at the top
part of my screen, so that I can slip in an alternative picture when I want to change out the screen for the dolls.
Cut a long narrow base for your T. V. from the corrugated cardboard. This base rectangle should be slightly shorter in length than the actual screen.
Trace around a washer at each end of the stand and then carefully poke around the tracing with the tip of your scissors or get an adult to cut away this top circular layer with an Exacto knife.
Crush down the center cardboard filler with the washers and glue so that these metal pieces are level with the top layer of cardboard. Layer masking tape across the washers to keep them firmly in place. (see photo below.) Set aside the stand to continue with later, while it dries.
When you glue washers into the base of your television stand, you give the stand a heavier weight.
This allows the little toy to stand upright without any support.
Now trace around the flat screen television screen on top of the black craft foam twice. Cut out the tracing and hot glue these foam pieces to the front and backs of the toy T. V.s. If you have the kind of flat screen television where you can change out the pictures. You will need to repeat measuring and cutting out the frame 1/4" from the edges before gluing this piece of craft foam on top of the screen. If you have a simpler flat screen without the frame, like the one shown just below, you will only need to cover the front and back of the screen before pasting on the television's picture.
Left, Cover the screen with a picture. You can find something nice in a magazine that your parents intend
to recycle. When you get tired of this picture, glue another on top if you have the simpler version of the
flat screen T. V. Center, Cover the stand's base the same way that you covered the screen by layering the
top and bottom between craft foam. Far right, Cut an additional strip of cardboard to glue between the
screen and base.
Now you are ready to attach the stand to the flat screen monitor. Cover the stand's base the same way that you covered the screen by layering the top and bottom between craft foam. Cut an additional strip of cardboard to glue between the screen and base.
Carefully attach this small piece with hot glue at each end. For a larger flat screen, you may wish to attach these two elements together with a cut dowel rod.
Now cover any remaining cardboard with the same black craft foam.
This rug craft is so simple, even a very young child can produce marvelous results.
However, an adult should do the spray painting.
Above you can see that I have produced two examples. One of them has brown lace and the other white. You can make so many color combinations depending upon the paint you have on hand. These examples have floral motifs at the center of each but you can use plaids, paisleys, stripes etc... to create an infinite variety of combinations!
Supply List:
paper doilies
decorative scrap papers
spray paint (optional)
Mod Podge or white school glue
Step-by-Step Directions:
If you desire color on the lacy edge of these doily rugs, you can spray paint them in a outdoor work area. Use a cardboard box or newspapers to cover an area large enough to keep the paint from spreading on to other surfaces. Let the doilies dry.
Find an object with the same or close to the circumference of your doily's center part. You can leave however much of the lacy cut-away showing as you wish.
Trace around this object on the backside of a piece of decorative scrap paper.
Cut out the tracing and then glue the scrap circle on to the center of your paper doily.
Layer Mod Podge to the top of the rug to protect it from some wear. Let the rug dry.
Our dolls need a toy chest to help keep the nursery free of clutter!
But a toy trunk doesn't need to be just an
ordinary box shape; you can
use your imagination to come up with something different. Our family dolls fill
this truck chest with all kinds of plastic toys that have been collected over the past twenty years.
Barbie's little boy loves cars and trucks, so I decided to replace a missing trailer from a small replica of a John Deere big rig with a toy chest. Now our doll can pretend to haul the toys away after an exhausting fun filled day!
Supply List:
front end of a toy truck (big rig)
foam sheet (any color)
recycled plastic container
stiff wire
masking tape
hot glue gun and hot glue
white school glue
scrap fabric for lining interior
snaps, button, small parts (for wheels)
toothpick or wooden skewer (wheel axle)
black tape (optional)
light weight cardboard (to hold the wheel axle)
Step-by-Step Instructions:
In order to make this playscale toy box, you will need to first acquire the front end of a semi-trailer truck. If you have small children this will not be difficult. If not, take a trip to your local Goodwill or resale and you will surely find one of these in no time at all.
Next, you will need to recycle a bit of plastic trash or a small box for the back end of the big rig toy chest. Choose something that looks in the correct proportion to your truck parts.
Fortunately my semi-trailer truck has a hole between it's wheels where I can easily fit a small wire to attach the toy chest. You can see this hole through the plastic recycled box above.
After covering my toy chest with masking tape, I simply poked a small, stiff wire through the bottom of the box and bent it into place so that the chest would attach to the back end of the truck. The bent end of the wire is held in place with glue and tape.
Then I lined the inside of the toy box with scrap fabric and white school glue. The out side of the truck trailer is wrapped with blue foam attached with hot glue and the bottom with black tape.
I made a set of back wheels for the trailer by hot gluing two buttons to the ends of a wooden skewer through a small cardboard tube. Then I hot glued a metal snap to the white buttons to mimic tiny hubcaps.
