It is a bonus craft day!! My friend Jen from 100 Directions has a super easy tutorial for making doll sandals for us today and if you follow the link at the bottom of the post she has a tutorial for an easy doll sundress on her site, too.

The girls need some fabulous footwear just in time for summer! Here’s a quick tutorial to help you make your dolls a pair (or 10) of cute sandals using recycled stuff from around the house. No worries, you don’t need to sew either, yay!

I made these sandals for an 18” doll, but you could do the same thing for whatever size doll you have.

Materials you need:

• Craft glue
• Recycled cardboard (like a cereal box) or you could use fun foam
• Scrap ribbon or rick rack
• Scissors
• Pencil

Steps to make your doll fun summer sandals

1.    Using your pencil, trace your doll’s foot on to the piece of cardboard.
2.    Cut out the shape and make sure it’s the same size or slightly bigger than your doll’s foot.
3.    Cut 3 more pieces of cardboard using the first as a guide. Make sure that two pieces are reversed so you have a right and a left shoe.
4.    Hold 1 piece of cardboard against your dolls foot, blank side against the bottom of the foot.
5.    Wrap ribbon all the way around the foot, leaving a little extra to overlap. Glue in place and let dry.
6.    Add glue all over the bottom of a second piece of cardboard and place it on the bottom of the shoe. This will give a little extra hold to the strap and cover the writing side of the recycled cardboard.

You can add extra sparkle to the shoes or even  paint to decorate… make a gazillion pairs! A girl’s gotta have shoes for every outfit, right? I also have a tutorial to show you how to make a no-sew sundress for your doll too!

If you make these sandals, I’d love to hear about it and see your fabulous creations!

Whoa! Nothing like waiting until the last day of April to share the spotlight sites for this month! Sorry for that – things have been a little busy around here. It is time to give a shout out to some of the new sites I have discovered in the last month that have that something special! Spotlight sites can be websites, blogs or You Tube channels. I typically choose sites that have been adding new information regularly, share something unique or I just happen to really like them.

1. live.life.create.art

Jen at live.life.create.art is one of our fans on the DollDiaries Facebook page and she has shared some super adorable crafts for American Girl dolls that she has made. Just this morning she added this tutorial for making a doll sized shopping or gift bag. How cute is that? Plus there are so many cute photos of her daughter, her dolls and the fun they have been having on her site, too.

2. My American Girl by Emma

Emma’s blog http://myamericangirl.blogspot.com/ has a fun mix of doll photography like this gorgeous photo of Felicity. She frequently features her dolls in different photoshoots, shares her favorite doll items and inspiration for posts.

3. AGOverseasFan YouTube Channel

AGOverseasFan has a TALENT! Not only is her photography just phenomenal, but she makes excellent YouTube videos, too! You have to check out her YouTube channel – so many videos from how-tos, to collections, to music videos and more.

Congrats to our Spotlight Sites!

Feel free to grab your badge using the code below.

Earlier this month I shared with you the new line of craft kits from American Girl Crafts that are inspired by the historical American Girl characters. The kits come complete with high quality materials to make the project shown in the box and instructions, too. We were sent two of the kits to review – American Girl Crafts Painted Memory Box Kit, Josefina Montoya
and American Girl Crafts Embroidered Pillow Kit, Felicity Sweet Heart. Over the weekend Natalie did Josefina’s project and I think it turned out very nicely.

These are the boxes of the two kits we received to review – Josefina’s Painted Memory Box and Felicity’s Sweet Heart Stitched Pillow.

Josefina’s Painted Memory Box kit came with the wooden box, 2 paint brushes (which are nice enough to keep for more projects), 9 mini tubs of paint (again, we had enough to keep for another project); stencils and an instruction booklet. Now that Natalie has done this project I am sure we could make additional memory boxes from the inexpensive wood boxes you can get at the craft store.

The instruction booklet is very well written and easy to follow. I love that it also gives the girls some design inspiration and painting techniques to try as well.

Natalie spent a lot of time planning out her design and tracing the stencil designs on to her box. She took her time and made the box something she would like to display in her room.

Here is her box almost done. She had to stop painting for the day as we were going out to dinner, but I think it looks great so far. Hopefully she will have time this weekend to put the finishing touches on it.

I love how she painted the heart on the inside of the box! What a sweet idea. This would be a great place to store all the little cards and instruction booklets that come with the historical American Girl dolls and the cards that the Innerstar U charms come on, too.

For  $20 (depending on where you get it), this kit is a good value – especially since most of the contents can be reused in other projects. You can purchase the Josefina kit and the other American Girl Historical Craft kits at Barnes&Noble, Amazon, and limited independent stores or at  AmericanGirlCrafts.com.  I would definitely recommend watching for store coupons and sales and picking up the craft kits to keep for a rainy day project, sleepovers or birthday party favors.

These are the contents of the Felicity Embroidered Pillow kit (the scissors and tape measure belong to us). This project is definitely more advanced and is taking more patience from Natalie and guidance from me. We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this project, too.

Every Friday we feature really cool things you can make for your dolls by Karen (who also has her own site full of doll craft goodness), but recently I have found so many neat projects that I just had to share them with you. Whether you actually make them or use them as inspiration for your own creativity, these are just too cute to keep to myself.

1. Make a mini table and chair set for American Girl Mini dolls or other 6″ dolls with these easy instructions from Miss Kristi
2. Make clothes for dolls from discarded or inexpensive socks using these guidelines from TLC Family
3. Make tiny treats for your dolls that you can actually eat – Emma’s Tiny Treats
4. Recycle soda bottles to make a floating adventure for your Barbies – if  you have other water safe dolls you could try this with different size plastic bottles, too.
5. Turn empty metal mint tins into the most adorable luggage for your dolls with this tutorial from Craftbits.
6. Is your doll ready for a sleepover? Jen at 100Directions show us how to make doll sized sleeping bags.
7. More mini purses made from empty plastic containers – the instructions are not in English but the photos are very good.
8. And my favorite today is the most adorable mini tent for dolls and stuffed animals!! This is certainly a more advanced project, but that is the cutest tent ever! Get the instructions at SewMamaSew.

Have fun and get creative!! And, if you make any of these projects, feel free to show them off to us by emailing me the photo at share@dolldiaries.com.

Today’s post is very close to my heart. Every year for St Patrick’s day I make Irish Soda bread. This year I wanted to make a realistic doll sized Irish Soda Bread for the Doll’s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. This craft is easy, inexpensive and fun. The best part is you should have all the items needed to make  today’s craft already at home!

To make your own Doll sized Irish Soda Bread you will need:

• My super easy small salt dough recipe (below) that makes ONLY enough to create 4 doll sized loaves of bread for your dolls! (I bet you never thought you would need fractions in the real world but I used them to create the easy salt dough recipe so you do not have too!)
• wax paper or parchment paper
• a measuring cup
• a butter knife or popsicle stick
• a small kitchen bowl for mixing
• a paint brush
• brown paint (can be just a paint box or acrylic, what ever you have will work)
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/4 cup of salt
• 1/2 cup of All Purpose flour
• one small oven proof pan ( I used a cake pan)
• a spoon
• A preheated oven to 350, a timer and a grown up for the putting in and taking out of the pan.

Step 1- Small Recipe for Salt Dough

• 1/4 cup of salt
• 1/2 cup of All purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of water

Step 2- In a kitchen bowl  place your flour and salt

Step 3- Add the water and mix your dough into a ball

Step 4-  kneed your dough into a ball over wax paper

Step 5- separate your dough into 4 balls

Step 6- Slightly flatten your first ball

Step 7- Using a popsicle stick or a butter knife make a cross in your dough as shown

Step 8- Place this ball aside and repeat the steps on two other balls

Step 9- Leave one ball whole. Take another and cut only one piece along the cross lines as shown, Cut the remaining ball in 4 pieces as shown.

Step 10- If you would like to make your doll another type of bread you can make a braided loaf like I have by using the remaining dough ball, breaking it in three, rolling out the pieces into “snakes” and braiding your dough, tucking the ends under.

Step 11- Place your dough onto wax paper in you pan (you can also use parchment paper)

Place in the oven at 350 Degrees for 45 minutes

Step 12- After about 45 minutes have a grown up remove the pan from the oven and check to see if the dough has a slight browning on the bottom and that the dough is dry to the touch. ***All ovens are different so you will have to get a parent to check on your dough while it is in the oven to make sure it doesn’t burn**** Let the dough cool completely

Step 13- Your Irish Soda bread is almost there! You can leave your dough plain or add a bit of watered down brown paint to give it a realistic finish.

In the next photo you can see the difference the paint makes:

Step 14- Add the paint to the tops of your Doll Sized bread loaves and let dry

Step 15- When your dough is dry  you can let your dolls enjoy! I have used a cupcake stand to display the dough and doll sized plates

I love how realistic this looks!

Step 16- Decorate your dolls table for St. Patrick’s day using your potted plant from last week as a centerpiece.

*I have used small green doll sized mugs from my dollar store (6 for $1.25) and a napkin as the table cloth. Olivia’s dress is one I made and Chrissa’s dress is a baby dress I bought last summer from the 99 cent store! They fit our dolls perfectly, with out the need to sew.

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be the only day where you show your dolls some love! Here are some fun projects for reusable Valentine goodies for your dolls.

Reusable Felt Valentine Envelope with Fun Foam and Sticker Card

You will need:

• Red felt
• White fun foam
• Mini stickers from American Girl ( like the American Girl Crafts – Sticker Pad)
• A ruler
• Craft glue, hot glue or needle and thread/sewing machine

Step 1 Measure your “envelope” out of felt making it 7 inches wide by 12 inches long, then cut out your felt.

Step 2-   Fold your felt so that you leave 1/2 inch. Add a line of glue to the inside edge and press closed or sew the sides shut.

Step 3- Measure a rectangle of 2 1/2 inches long by 1 3/4 inch wide, make sure it will fit inside your envelope

Step4 – Add your stickers and write a message on the fun foam.

Place inside your finished envelope and give to your doll!

*You can decorate the front of your doll’s envelope if you like, or leave it plain.

Valentine Treats for Dolls

Next using Fun Foam shapes and Fun Foam Valentine stickers you can create fun treats for your dolls with very little effort!

You will need:

• Fun Foam Stickers in heart shapes in various colors
• Valentine fun foam stickers in various sizes
• Doll size plates

These fun valentine small heart stickers make perfect sugar cookies with no effort at all, simply arrange them on a doll size plate and enjoy.

To create this very easy Valentines Heart Cake simply layer the same size heart fun foam stickers on top of each other.

Step 1- Start with one heart on the bottom, I started with Red on the bottom

Step 2-Remove the backing from a white heart and place it on top of the red heart, carefully remove the sticker backing from one heart at a time. Your bottom heart should still have the backing on.

Step 3-Repeat with another red heart, then white and finish with red.

Step 4- Using smaller foam stickers create the “cake topper”

Place on a doll size plate and serve to your dolly guests.

I hope you have enjoyed these easy Valentine crafts for your dolls! I look forward to sharing more ideas with you next week!

I am so thrilled to share with you today’s craft and show off my doll shirt collection at the same time.

I began collecting the red store shirts from American Girl in 2010, on my first trip to an American Girl Store. I went to Dallas first, started my collection and with the help of friends and some of my blog readers I was able to collect all the currently open stores shirts.

Here is how I made my T-Shirt Wall Art.

You will need:

• a foam core board
• push pins
• ribbon (as long as your foam board)
• a pencil
• a ruler
• American Girl hangers and outfits
• *optional hot glue gun or eraser pieces to secure the push pins

Step 1- Place your hangers with your outfits on the foam core board to see where you want to arrange your items. Make a light pencil mark where you want to put your push pin.

Step 2- Push your pins through your pencil mark. Depending on the thickness of your foam core you will want to either back your push pins on the opposite side of your board with a piece of eraser (I cut one eraser from a new pencil in three) OR using a hot glue gun coat your push pin metal with hot glue and push through your mark, let it dry and it will be secure.

Step 3- Using your ruler measure 7 inches in and 1 inch down along the widest top edge of your foam core board. Make a mark and push your pencil through. This is where your ribbon will go through so you can hang up your artwork.

Step 4- Measure your ribbon as long as the length of your foam core. Thread the end of the ribbon through the hole and tie a double knot. Repeat this step on the other side.

Step 5- Have a grown up help you put a nail in the wall where you want to display your artwork. Re hang your hangers and doll clothes and place your useable art on the wall!

Now I have great useable art for my office, I needed two boards and the best part is I have space for three more shirts! So when the new American Girl Store opens in St. Louis I will be all set!

I hope you liked today’s craft and that it inspires you to use items you already have to decorate your doll play spaces and rooms! Don’t limit yourself to just the t-shirts! With a little imagination you could use this idea to display your favorite doll dresses, hats, Barbie clothes, and the list goes on…

I can not wait to share more craft ideas with you next week.

For today’s doll craft we are having special New Years Pizza Party, but you could use this for a doll birthday party too. You will learn how to create doll sized pizza, boa’s, noise makers, and party hats for your dolls.

You will need:

• images of pizza ( I used an advertisement you can also print or draw your own)
• tape or glue
• scissors
• fun foam or construction paper
• fringe garland ( I got mine at Party City)
• paper
• crayons
• a side plate to trace
• a ruler
• balloons *Optional to decorate a handmade sign

I was inspired to make today’s craft from an advertisement from our favorite pizza place. They offer $1 sliced pizza so we go once a week. I also noticed that the, ad had perfect doll sized pizza.

• Step one- cut out a photo or image of pizza
• Step two- tape or glue it to a piece of fun foam or card stock
• Step three- cut out the pizza from your card stock and repeat so you will have as many pieces of pizza as you would like

The pizza fits well in your dolls hand!

Next let’s create the Boas for the dolls

• Step one- Measure 15-20 inches of garland and cut.
• Step two- Wrap it around your dolls neck like a scarf

We need Party Hats, too!!

• Step 1- trace a side plate onto fun foam or cardstock in any color you would like
• Step 2- cut out the circle
• Step 3- fold the circle in half like a taco
• Step 4- cut the circle in half
• Step 5- roll/fold each shape into a cone hat
• Step 6- tape into place
• Step 7- make a New Years sign out of paper, cut it out and attach to the front of the hat with a tape loop
• Step 8- place on your doll’s head

And we can’t forget to make the “Noise Makers”

• Step 1- measure a corner of a blank piece of paper with a ruler and make a line at 4 inches and cut out
• Step 2- measure 3 inches of the fringe garland and cut a piece
• Step 3- use a piece of tape and secure the fringe to the bottom edge of the triangle you created

• Step 4- roll and fold paper into a cone shape. Secure with a piece of tape
• Step 5- place in your dolls hand to enjoy

I hope you have enjoyed today’s post I look forward to sharing more ideas with you in the New Year. Happy New Year everyone!

This one is specifically for Karen!! One of our readers had so much fun with Karen’s craft last Friday – she made dinner for her dolls and I heard the dolls even had Christmas dinner with the family.

Madison’s dolls and their pets really enjoyed their meal inspired by Karen’s crafts. It looks good to me.

Here is another view of her doll’s table – even the pets are enjoying their dog treats. I love Madison’s creativity and it is so much fun to see how Karen’s craft idea has inspired her.

Another view of the picnic table without a tablecloth. The picnic table was made by high school students in a trades class at the school Madison’s Mom teaches at.

And another great Target find! Madison’s Mom found this set of mini tennis balls at Target for 94 cents and they make great toys for Pepper and Chocolate Chip.

We love seeing reader photos!  If you have photos of your dolls at play, something you have made for your dolls, a review of a product or similar, send it in! You can email them to share@dolldiaries.com.

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Today’s craft is one I am so happy with. I hope you will be too. Make your dolls their own holiday plates and meals using items you already have on hand.

You will need

• Fun foam or card stock for the plates
• Scissors
• Grocery flyers, magazines or photos of food you can cut out
• Markers for decorating the rims of your plates
• A juice glass for tracing
• A pencil

Step 1- trace the bottom of the juice glass onto card stock or fun foam

Step 2- cut out and repeat for as many plates as you need for your dolls

Step 3- decorate the rim of your plates any way you would like.

Step 4- cut out photos of food you can use for your doll plates. You do not have to find small photos you can cut larger photos down to fit on your doll plates

Step 5- arrange the cut out food on your plates. You can glue down your food if you like but I think it is fun to be able to change the food

Step 6-  create a platter for your dolls by cutting out an oval shape “free hand” from fun foam or card stock and decorate the edges as you did the plates

Step 7 – cut out of fun foam or card stock place mats for your dolls. Mine are 2 ½ inches by 3 inches (the size of a business card)

Step 8- Grab your dolls and set up a holiday meal they will not soon forget!

Don’t forget to offer a vegetarian dish!

If Christmas is a holiday you and your family celebrate Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I look forward to sharing more ideas with you next week!