bodner072

       Most people, perhaps, can recall from their childhood the pleasure of cloud-gazing. The clouds are such strange-looking things, they change their forms so quickly, they seem to be doing so many things, now slumbering lazily, now rushing wildly on. Cloudland is safe away from the scrutiny of fingers, so we never can be sure what they would be if we got to them. Some children take fright at their big, strange forms and their weird transformations: but a happy child that loves day-dreaming will spend many delightful hours in fashioning these forms into wondrous and delightful things, such as kings and queens, giants and dwarfs, beautiful castles, armies marching to battle, or driven in flight, pirates sailing over fair isle-dotted seas. There is a delicious satisfaction to young minds in thus finding a habitation for their cherished images. (To project them in this way into the visible world, to know that they are located in that spot before the eye, is...

       Covering doll furniture with cotton and fabric is not as difficult as it looks. However, it does take a bit of practice and patience! After awhile you will get used to the process and improve greatly as you go. Start with something simple, like a tiny bed for Barbie's pets. Barbie and Ken have many pets, so they need to have pet beds for both dogs and cats. These little cats sleep in the utility room so we've trimmed out their bedding with yellow calico to match the decor of the doll's utility room. Supply List: Calico scraps and matching felt colors cardboard hot glue and hot glue gun needle and thread oval sponge (one cut in half or two separate) masking tape four beads of equal size for each bed Step-by-Step Directions: Purchase your round sponge first before cutting or measuring any of the materials for this project. I cut my sponge in half to make two beds. However, you may decide to use two separate sponges for each bed instead. Cutting a spong...

       I am crafting some furnishings for Barbie and Ken's doll house. The dining room will tastefully decorated in neutral greys with just a pop of bright color. Below is the tile table craft which was so easy to make. However, it is important to collect just the right supplies in order to make a table like this one. You will need the help of an adult when cutting into styrofoam core with a sharp blade and when mixing grout. Read all of the directions carefully when working with the supplies. Make sure mom or dad are helping you while putting this table together! Above you can see that this unique mosaic table is the perfect size for our 12 inch dolls by Mattel. Supply List: four printed tiles hot glue and hot glue gun Styrofoam core for table base self adhesive grey grout candle holder (metal with intricate cut pattern) acrylic sealer black acrylic paint Exacto knife (Sharp objects such as these need to be used by an adult.) paper mache pulp Step-by-Step ...

       My kitchen stove top and oven at home is gas, so I chose to craft a similar model for Barbie's family and friends. The example below is just the right size for 12 inch fashion dolls; I have listed the exact measurements just in case you can not find a box with similar dimensions. You may like to visit Lena Wiese at YouTube to see a similar DIY of a modern stove for Barbie . Her stove is made from a plastic box. Imani and Rachel love this gas range and oven. What fun they will have baking and cooking for all the other doll family members! Imani thinks this oven has plenty of space to bake a large turkey for Thanksgiving. Supply List: aluminum tape black acrylic paint a variety of buttons for oven temperature dials black rectangle bead for digital temp. display wooden tooth picks Velcro tabs (black if possible, or dots) recycled plastic sheet for oven window  hot glue gun small cardboard box the shape and size of an oven with cook top for Bar...

Imani can't wait to get this bright yellow, front loading washer and dryer set home! Each have digital panel features and tiny dials made from buttons!        Barbie's laundry room at our blog home is growing daily, so as you may well guess, the doll's are eager to use this newly crafted, washer and dryer set.         You can make a set just like ours but you will need to wait for mom and dad to bake quite a few pancakes, cakes and pies in order to recycle  containers like ours! Perhaps you can convince them to save the cornstarch in a different plastic container? Supply List: two identical Argo Corn Starch containers cardboard masking tape aluminum tape (or grey duck tape) two identical tin lids from frozen juice cans an assortment of buttons hot glue gun and hot glue pictures of water and tumbling cloths from a magazine Mod Podge  white school glue Step-by-Step Directions:   Wash out the contents of each p...

These dolls not only look clean, but they smell clean too, just like fresh mint!         Try cleaning your dolls the way you clean your teeth! After purchasing these cabbage patch kids at a local resale shop in my area, I decided to give them a good brushing. These little figurines were so dirty and dingy, I thought that using a toothbrush would be just right for getting into those hard to reach areas. Then I used a dish washing soap for their yarn hair. I think that this experimental cleaning was quite successful don't you? Now my dolls look almost as clean as they were when first purchased! What a dirty little doll; I hope that she can be restored!

Above left, You can see how I have shaped ordinary plastic forks and spoons into shovels and a leaf rake using tape and paper mache pulp. Above right, a Barbie or Ken doll would  be the appropriate size for the use of tools like these.        The lawn care tools that I have made here are for a twelve inch doll. Later, I will include a craft about the making of a storage shed or tool shed to keep your doll's tools stored away. Until then, you can put them in a doll garage. Supply List: plastic forks and spoons masking tape white school glue aluminum foil tape paper mache pulp sturdy scissors acrylic paints: green and black scrap corrugated cardboard clear acrylic sealer or Mod Podge Step-by-Step Directions: For the snow shovel, cut the handle from a plastic spoon, but leave enough of the spoon's lip to sandwich it between a corrugated cardboard cut out of a shovel shape along with a few drops of glue.  Then tape this attachment firmly in place and let it dry...

Trash cans in the United States have decorative lids similar to the ones pictured above. I also found an additional grey, plastic container that also looks very much like a trash can to go inside my doll's garage. You can find all kinds of containers to clean and recycle that will look like miniature versions of things you find around the house in real life.         I crafted these realistic looking trash cans for a twelve inch doll's garage. (Barbie and Ken dolls) However, you can use larger or smaller recycled tin cans for larger or smaller dolls if you prefer. A tiny tomato paste can will suit a six inch doll's home and a larger 20 oz. recycled can will fit an American Girl's Doll house. Supply List: 15 oz. tin cans foil tape or silver packing tape (Get this in a hardware store.) can opener (kitchen appliance) plastic juice bottles sturdy scissors masking tape cardboard plastic trash bags: white and black cotton batting box cutter or razor blade (On...

       The play of young fancy meets us in the very domain of the senses: it is active, often bewilderingly active, when the small person seems busily engaged in looking at things and moving among them.        We see this fanciful "reading" of things when a child calls the star an "eye," I suppose because of its brightness and its twinkling movement, or says that a dripping plant is "crying ".         This transforming touch of the magic wand of young fancy has something of crude nature-poetry in it, This is abundantly illustrated in what may be called childish metaphors, by which they try to describe what is new and strange. For example, a little boy of nineteen months looking at his mother's spectacles said: "Little windows". Another boy two years and five months, on looking at the hammers of a piano which his mother was playing, called out: "There is owlegie" (diminutive of owl). His eye ha...

       Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt knew the puppet-play with small images or puppets representing the dramatis personoe. Herodotus mentions them and later writers frequently speak of them, but according to Richard Pischel, it is to India, that old wonderland from which we have received so many blessings, that we must go to find the home of the puppet-play and perhaps the origin of the first doll.        In an admirable address delivered by him on assuming the office of rector of the Konigliche Vereinigte Friedrichs University, Halle Wittenberg said: "The birthplace of fairy tales has long been recognized to be India. They wandered from India to Persia, and thence the Arabs brought them to Europe. But the origin of puppet-plays still remains quite obscure. The problem is also more difficult to solve because the sources flow but feebly. The art of the puppet-player has always been more or less of a mystery, receiving no substa...

       Old dolls are among the things that are taking on new values in this day and generation. Battered and bruised almost beyond recognition, various dolls that were once fondled affectionately, loved beyond their deserts, have been brought from that limbo to which are relegated forgotten and disused things and restored to as much of their pristine beauty as possible.        They are respected and revered for their great age like women who have reached that period of life when they prefer to add a few years to their age rather than to subtract them as they did when younger.        That queens were not above playing with dolls, even when they were quite grown, we have abundant evidence.        "Mary Stuart brought with her to Scotland from Paris lovely French dolls, which she set apart for ornament rather than use, but her chief delight was in the dolls she and her Ma...