My daughter and her two little friends that I watch during the day are loving our doll theme this week. Yesterday, we made collages using pictures cut out from the American Girl catalog and previously, we had made Princess paper dolls. So, today my daughter's one little friend asked, "What paper dolls are we going to make today, Miss Kristi?" I told her we were going to make "Bottle Dolls" and she was pretty excited (even though I am pretty sure she did not know what I meant at the time.) When it was art time, myself and the three little ones settled down at the table with the American Girl catalog and got to work on our "Bottle Dolls."
How to Make Simple Bottle Dolls:
Items Needed:
-plastic juice or water bottles (that have been cleaned, washed and allowed to dry completely.)
-duck tape
-pictures of American Girl dolls or other dolls from a catalog, internet, etc.
-scissors
-packaging tape
Getting to Work:
Step 1: Select your juice or water bottles to use for this project and clean/ wash and dry (Do this prior to the project so that the bottles have time to dry completely.)
Step 2: Pick out pictures of dolls from a catalog, etc. and trim to size to fit front of bottle.
Step 3: Wrap entire bottle in duck tape of your choice of color or pattern. (All three of the little girls picked pink because they LOVE that color.) Make sure to also wrap the lid, especially for younger children, to keep the bottle closed.
Step 4: Hold the picture of the doll in place on the bottle and use packaging tape to tape the picture down onto the bottle. Also, this serves as a type of lamination to keep the paper protected from ripping. That is why we used tape for this instead of glue. Using tape allows the "bottle doll" to stand up to more playtime.
Step 5: Trim any tape edges as needed.
Step 6: PLAY!!!!!
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| The girls took their bottle dolls for a walk in the stroller. |
The girls and I also read about the dolls as we were looking threw the AG catalog and discussed colors that they saw on the clothes, who the dolls looked like, etc. This could me a mini "lesson" in itself tailored to the age of your child. My little girls that I watch are 1 and 3 and my youngest daughter is 2, so their focus is more on recognizing basic colors, naming body parts, relating pictures to the people in their lives, and counting. For my older girls, who are 6 and 9, I would include a discussion on diversity, history, the differences between how we live now and the time periods when the dolls "lived."
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| My daughter, Gwenie, showing of her Ruthie bottle doll. |
As you can see in the stroller picture above, the girls treated the bottle dolls pretty much like any other doll they play with. They took the dolls on stroller walks, set the table and had a little "dinner," made them dance, and so much more. The littlest girl was even having her Emily or "Emmy" as she was calling her, act out the "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" song. This was a simple and cute project that the girls could accomplish (with some help with the tape) and then take into their play experiences. I hope you try it or pass it on to anyone with children that like dolls (or action figures)!
Please feel free to leave a comment or email me at leasekristis@yahoo.com!
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