Paper dolls!

It all started last Sunday. We sat behind a family with two adorable girls. They were playing with a set of magnetic dolls. They each came in a tin with a scene on the top and magnetic dresses, flowers, birds, shoes, hats etc. Emma was entranced and very excited when I told her that we had some sticky backed magnet sheets at home and we could make our own!

So I went searching for some paper doll patterns because I figured they would be perfect. I found a helpful page that has lots of links to free patterns. Most of them are eh - so, so. http://www.craftfreebies.com/paperdolls.html But these looked perfect! http://www.pattyreeddesigns.com/Pages/Dolls.html They do have a few quirks so let me know if you want to print them out and I'll share what I learned and spare you the aggrivation. lol

Here they are!


I laid out several colors and Emma put the doll on the color she wanted. Then improvised a stand and set to glueing them onto the cardboard.


Emma held out for quite a while waiting for me to get them finished after Daniel and Tuan went to bed but finally she fell asleep.


So I put on Stardust (haven't seen it? you must!) and got to cutting and pasting. I decided to set them all up and dress them so that when she got up in the morning she would see that they were finished. It is obvious that I dressed them because while the robes and pants are darling, she only dresses them in dresses! lol


The next day she chose a symbol for each doll and we color/shape coded the outfits. This is one of my tips! It is very frustrating for your child if they have no help figuring out which outfit fits which doll.


And now you are wondering - what about the magnetic dolls? Weeeeeell. . . . I used my magnet sheets to make Daniel a set of Berenstain Bears magnet dolls. And ran out of magnets before I finished so I am ordering some more magnet sheets. Best price I have found: Oriental Trading Co