Tiny Books

Last week I ventured away from sewing to try my hand at bookmaking...TINY bookmaking, to be precise.  These are perfect little dollhouse props, and they look incredibly realistic.

I found the covers on Jim's Dollhouse Pages (Jim also has a ton of other things you can print out.)  I printed them onto card stock, then glued them to pretty book-related scrapbook paper so the inside of the covers would look nice.

After the glue was dry, I cut them out with my X-acto knife.

To make the pages, I used an old dictionary I got at the local library.  (People donate used books and the library sells them, $1 for hardbacks and 50 cents for paperbacks.  I've gotten some amazing books that way!  A few of them are too good to craft with, and I save them for photo props.)

I measured the covers and cut the book pages just a little smaller.  Working in stacks of 10 sheets, I sewed them along the folded edge so the pages wouldn't fall out after gluing.

When I had enough of the page sections sewn to fit perfectly into the fold of the cover, I put a heavy line of glue in the cover and pressed the pages in place.

To keep everything from shifting while drying, I used a mini-clothespin.  (The bobbin is there so you can see how small the book is!)

And there you have them--books fit for a dolly! Now to make a bookcase...

Don't Forget to Vote!

Voting has just opened for the Shoebox Makeover Challenge on Craftster, and I urge you all to vote!  There are seven very interesting submissions in this community-wide challenge; it's worth a visit just to be inspired by the imaginative ways craftsters have transformed plain cardboard boxes into objects both useful and decorative.  You will recognize my Photo Backdrop for Dolls there.

If you are not a member of Craftster yet, signing up is quick and easy.  Do it!  Then you can vote for your favorite shoebox makeover!  Click HERE to go to the voting page.  Voting closes on February 19, 2013.

Inkjet Printing on Fabric

After my previous post in which I showed how I made doll "stuffies", a reader asked what kind of fabric I used. It is a commercial product which I ordered online, called Inkjet Fabric Sheets.  If you click on that link, you will see that the packaging has changed since I bought the product (pictured below) two years ago, but it's the same item.

It is just cotton fabric stuck to paper.  You feed it into your inkjet computer printer and print your image as if you were printing on paper.  After printing, you peel off the paper and--voila!--you have printed your picture onto fabric.  It is no different than printing on paper, except that it costs more (the cost of the product plus shipping makes it around $1.50 per sheet).

You can get the exact same result by ironing freezer paper to white fabric. There are several on-line tutorials explaining the process, such as the one at Craftionary.  It would be a little more work, but I'm sure it would be cheaper.  I hope you make something amazing!

A Doll for a Doll

I made some uber-cute fabric doll stuffies for my swap partner in a recent swap on Blythe Kingdom.  This idea could be used to make a "mini-me" for any toy, and it would surely delight a child to receive a mini-me of him- or herself!

The theme of the swap was "Dolls for our Dolls".  While browsing on Pinterest, I saw a picture of a Blythe holding a small copy of herself and I knew that was what I needed to do for this swap!  Read on to see how I did it.

First, I made two dresses that would be part of the swap package and put them on two of my dolls.  I photographed each doll, front and back, standing against a white background.  I wanted to put white hair on one mini doll (to match one big doll my partner has) but none of my Blythe's have white hair, so I put a white hat on Candy for the pictures.

On my computer, I edited and re-sized the photos until they would be right for the mini doll.  Then I printed the photos onto white fabric.  (I used commercially prepared fabric that was already stuck onto paper so it would feed into the printer easily, because I had that on hand.  Applying freezer paper to fabric yourself should work just as well.)

After peeling off the paper, I traced around the outline of the doll with pencil to mark my sewing line on the reverse side of the fabric .

All sewed!  I left an opening on top of her head for turning; the hair will be covering that up later.

Here she is, turned right-side out...

 ...and here she is stuffed and ready for hair.

I sewed the hair on by hand.  It was a learn-as-you-go process!  The one thing I was not happy with, was the way the white hat still shows around her neck.  If I did this again, I would use yarn to match the doll's actual hair color (as I did with the orange-haired Penny).

My favorite thing about these mini dolls is that they are complete on the back too!

I am very happy with how these mini dolls turned out, and my swap partner is thrilled with what I sent her! I wouldn't have tried this without the "push" the swap gave me.  That's what I like most about craft swaps!

Winner!!

There were so many good guesses in the previous post about what I was knitting, and the correct answer came from Gill:  yes indeed, it is a tiny shrug for my Blythe doll!!

Here again is the picture I showed you:

All you do is sew the corners of the long edge to the corners of the short edge, then roll the long edge back to form a collar:

It is a free pattern on Ravelry, called "Shrugs and Kisses" by Maggie Baird. I love it when designers share their patterns free of charge!  As a beginning knitter, I hesitate to buy a pattern that might turn out to be too complicated for me.

This shrug is the perfect little accessory with a sleeveless dress, and I'm making one for each of my dolls.  I'm also in a couple of Blythe swaps, and they are great for swap packages!

Gill, I have e-mailed you; your zippered pouch will be in the mail to you soon!!

THANK YOU to everyone who left a comment, I appreciate that you took the time to do so.  I thought waggonswest was going to figure it out, the way she was applying such logic to it!  And I need to give special recognition to Angie for the funniest guess:  she thought it looked a lot like a nose warmer!!

What Is It? Guess and Win! (Updated 1/29)

Tuesday Update:  Thanks for your great comments and guesses!  No one got it right yesterday, so feel free to keep guessing.  Also feel free to repeat someone else's guess if you are stumped, because everyone who leaves a comment will be entered in the drawing if there is no correct guess.
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It's been a while since my last giveaway, so let's have another one!  To contrast with the gray weather we are having in Virginia today, I'm offering a bright, sunshiny-yellow zippered pouch! (Key not included!  It is for size comparison only!)

This is one of my very popular pouches that I created for the Master Craftster Series on Craftster last year.  It measures 5.5" x 8", it is fully lined, and it can be used for lots of things--I'm sure you will find it quite handy if you win it!

This time, the winner of the giveaway will be the first person to guess what I am going to make with the little knitted piece in the picture below. (I won't be adding anything else to the piece, but I will do something with those dangling yarn ends to finish it.)  Leave your best guess in the comment section, one guess per person, per day (that's right...go ahead and guess again tomorrow if there is no winner today.)  The giveaway will end when someone guesses correctly (and the winning guess has to be exactly correct...not just close! There are two particular words I will look for in the winning guess.)  If no one guesses it by Friday, February 1st, I will choose a random winner from everyone who left a comment.

Be sure I have a way to contact you if you win...if you are not a registered Blogger user (and your comment shows up as posted by "Anonymous"), leave your email address too.

And this is just a little side note--I know a lot of you dislike the "captcha" verification thingy that you have to complete before you can post your comment; I actually turned it off for a couple of weeks, and the flood of spam became so overwhelming I had to turn it back on.  If you have trouble leaving a comment, just send me a message (leslieandersen4@gmail.com) and I will post your comment for you.

Good luck to all!  I can't wait to read your guesses!!!

Photo Backdrop

I've been working on a big project this week--actually, it's big time-wise, but not size-wise.  I turned this extra-large shoebox into a photo backdrop for my Blythe dolls.  The main thing I do with my dolls is make clothes for them and then take pictures of them in the clothes. Some Blythe owners are adventurous and go out in public to take pictures with all kinds of different scenery.  I tend to stay at home, so I have to get creative with my backgrounds.

On the inside of the box, I glued scrapbook paper to the sides, top, and bottom, to make it look like a pretty room.  The picture frames are actually pre-cut scrapbook paper embellishments, so I just printed some photos of my dolls to place in the openings, then glued them to the walls.  The bunting is also scrapbook paper, cut into triangles, and glued to baker's twine.

With the addition of a couple of props, it really looks like a house!

I want to live here!

For the outside of the box, I used more scrapbook paper to make a cartoon-y house on a hill.  You can see that I decorated the box lid too, to make a bigger area where the doll can stand.

I made 3-D grass, flowers and butterflies from polymer clay, to make the scene more interesting.  I glued them to little "islands" of the same green scrapbook paper, so I can re-position them in the scene.

It makes a great backdrop!

I covered the flip side of the lid is with this extremely realistic-looking wooden-plank paper.

It looks like Penny is standing next to an old barn!

To finish off the shoe box, I covered the sides with pages torn from an old dictionary (which I got at the library for $1.00!)  Then I added these wonky stick-on letters, spelling out "Blythe" on each side. I think I will give the sides a coat of mod podge to keep all the edges stuck down.

It happens that just as I was thinking about working on this project, Craftster announced a new craft challenge, "Shoebox Makeover." How's that for good timing?  I'm going to submit this box. The entry period is February 1-10, so if YOU want to enter too, there's still time!