I am an art teacher and have a group of 4th and 5th grade girls who stay in during recess once a week to make doll crafts. I am lucky enough to get to craft at work and crazy enough to give up my prep time to do it with kids! They call it 'American Girls Club' and it is a time for the girls to just be girls, working together, talking, sharing and helping each other out.  Not all the girls have dolls, but that hasn't mattered.  One girl said she was going to put a stuffed animal on her chair and another decided to make a pillow instead.  I am glad that they have fun and that they are staying young  and enjoying being girls! 

The idea for the chairs we made came from the My Froggy Stuff channel on YouTube.  My Froggy Stuff has clear video directions that are kid-friendly and easy to follow!  Check her out if you haven't already- I love her!

We began with an oatmeal container, removed the paper and cut it into the desired shape.  We used paper towel to fill the seat. Simply tuck in the fabric of your choice.

Then you can add a second coordinating fabric seat - just tuck it in around the edges.

 Some girls made tall chairs!

Others made the seat very low!

You can see that they even made no-sew pillows, also from My Froggy Stuff, to go with the chairs.

Here, two girls work carefully to glue the edge of the fabric to make a pillow.  Be careful when using hot glue and fabric!

It is always more fun when you can share your hobbies with friends! Thanks for sharing mine! 

Make Your Own Place Setting for a Valentines Day Party!

These cute little plates were made from left over Valentine's Day cards that I found at the dollar store!  I just cut the front off the card and that became the place mat!  To make the little plate, I cut a circle from the back of the cards, placed it on a towel and pressed a small glass into the center. This caused the edges to curve up, and made great little plates!  If you want, you could always use red and pink card-stock for this! To make the napkin, I took a party napkin, cut it into 4 pieces, rolled them and glued a strip of paper around it for the napkin ring!  These little cups were 50 cents each at the dollar store! Now we are ready for our Valentine's Day celebration! 

EASY Valentine Heart Shaped Candy Box

For this project, I found a pack of pre-cut heart shapes from Walmart for under$1.  It came with an assortment of sizes and patterns.  Or, you can just cut a heart from card-stock!  I saw on pintrest a craft where someone folded a toilet paper roll to make a heart stamp, and thought that a toilet paper roll would be perfect for this craft!  I began by slicing the toilet paper into rings approx 1/3" wide.  Then I pinched them into heart shapes.

 I used a hot glue gun to adhere the cardboard to the heart.

To make sure the lid would open, I folded a second heart and placed it inside of the one already glued down.  I left it sticking out, as you can see in the photo above.

Then I put some hot glue around the top edge, and pressed the 'lid' (another pre-cut heart) onto the hot glue. You have to work quickly or the hot glue will cool too much and not stick. I find the 'high-temp' glue works so much better than the low-temp, but my girls were helping with this, so we used the low-temp glue gun, and it seemed to hold just fine.

To finish the edge, where the cardboard was showing, I used a glue stick, and strips of metallic paper,  My girls embellished the tops of the candy box with some cute stickers!  WOW!  Soooo easy, and Julie can't wait for her friends to come over on Valentine's Day to share this special gift! 

If you want to place some mini-puffballs inside you could fill the box with candy too!

Making Valentine's Day Socks, Leg-Warmers and Hairbands From a Pair of Socks!

After making our Valentine's day dresses, I knew just what the dolls needed to complete the outfits!  Gracie, my 8 year old, loves myfroggystuff on YouTube and found a tutorial to make doll socks.  This was our inspiration for today's project.  I found two pairs of knee-high Valentine socks at Walmart for under 3$. 

Remember, I am not a seamstress, and am not one to actually measure when I craft- so I laid the sock under the doll foot to see how long to make it. I then cut off the top of the sock.

I turned the sock inside-out, and sewed 2 parallel lines down the center-close together. 

You can see the first seam is already on the sock and I am adding the second line.  I then cut between the 2 seams, and then sewed the toe shut. Or leave the toe open and you have leg warmers!  I found that the leg warmers needed to be a little shorter then the sock. 

The leg warmers on Kit are made from further down on the knee-high sock, so the top and bottom I just left unfinished and tucked under when I put them on her.  The headband was even easier! Just cut  a strip from the leg of the sock- look how cute Samantha is with her socks and headband!  You can also tie a little scrap onto the headband for a little extra cuteness!  If you come up with any cute Valentine socks, leg warmers, or headbands be sure to share them with us on facebook!

Making Valentine Dresses for our Dolls

We are planning to have a small doll play-date with two friends and their dolls to celebrate Valentine's Day this year.  My girls were dressing their dolls in anything RED or PINK, trying to make them look as festive as possible. I had been looking online at some of the cute Valentines dresses available, and didn't want to spend so much money on a doll dress (I had just picked up the cute Coconut PJ's for my girls, and wanted to do Valentine's on a budget)  I was sorting clothes in my girls dresser, when I came across this cute T-shirt that was too small for my older daughter and had a stain on the sleeve so I thought it would be perfect to use to make a doll dress.

 

I will begin by saying that I have NO REAL SEWING EXPERIENCE!  I do own an inexpensive sewing machine and am able to sew straight lines.  I do not measure or pin anything when I sew. 

I began by laying Julie on the shirt to determine how long and wide to make the dress.  I ended up cutting a rectangle from the corner. 

Here you can see how I cut a slit in the existing side seam, to make an armhole.

I then sewed a hem along the arm.  (You can skip this step! I ended up having enough fabric from the shirt to make 2, and on the second one I didn't sew a hem along the arm holes)  Repeat on the other side to make a tube.

To complete the dress, I sewed a seam along the top with room for a ribbon-similar to a pillowcase dress.  On the second dress (see Samantha below) I cut a small V in the front and back of the dress, then sewed the shoulders closed.  I added a flower pin we had for a little bling.  The V allowed the dress to slip over the dolls head. 

If you are not into sewing, experiment making a skirt or wrap dress-like I did for Ivy! No sewing at all! The T-shirt material is nice because you do not have to hem it if you want- just remember to leave long strips attached so you can tie the skirt or dress around your doll! If you create some cute Valentines outfits be sure to share your photos on our facebook page, we'd love to see what you have done!

 

Check it Out!

We have a special little craft featured on Doll Diaries today!  Be sure to stop on over and check it out!

American Girl Star Memory Book

Gracie is coming over today for a sleepover after school (the girls are so excited!) so I put together two little scrapbooks and printed a whole bunch of photos from their trip to the American Girl store (Zoey's first time) for them to put in the books along with some stickers and things...they turned out so very cute and I just had to pop on and share!  I will be sure to share the finished results once the girls fill them with their photos tonight or tomorrow and also share links to the product used and directions on how to make the album itself.

And don't forget...there is still time to enter into the giveaway for the matching girl and doll shirt and hair bow set from Kat-N-Ty Designs!  See the blog post here for more details, winner will be announced tomorrow!