When August arrives, the frenzy of summer activities starts to relax. The summer checklist is beginning to fill up … vacation — check; summer camp — check; pool parties, sleepovers and playdates — check, check, check. August is the perfect time to relax a little with some good old-fashioned paper crafting at home.
Paper dolls are something I enjoyed as a kid, and with a little updating, they are still a guaranteed success with little girls (or little boys) today. Begin by taking a photo of your child wearing a bathing suit, with hand placement on their hips and legs slightly apart. This pose will ensure the clothing can be successfully placed on the doll. Print out the photo, back it with a self-adhesive magnet (available in business card size at any office supply store) and cut out the subject.
Pull out your bins of paper scraps and let your kids cut out dresses, shirts, skirts and pants that will fit the doll’s body. Some kids will even want to add boots, hair bows and other accessories. After embellishing each article of clothing, attach a piece of self-adhesive magnet to the back. The magnet eliminates the need to cut tabs on all the clothing and offers a much simpler solution for attaching the clothing to the doll.
If your kids are like my nieces, they will want to create a booklet to hold the doll and all the clothing. Simply trim a sheet of cover stock and fold it into thirds. Attach narrow strips of magnet to both sides, which will become the fasteners that hold all of the clothing and place a vertical magnet strip in the middle section to hold the doll. If your kids really get into it, it’s easy to expand the doll wardrobe and the dolls by simply making more tri-fold booklets to hold them.
If your kids like playing dress-up with your clothes, this may be the perfect project to get them out of your closet and into designing doll-size clothing for their own.
