Doll Giveaways

With the holidays right around the corner, dolls are on lots of Christmas wish lists. We have rounded up some of the best doll giveaways going right now!

• JUST ADDED!! Win a custom My Twinn doll here at Doll Diaries – hurry it ends December 4th.
• JUST ADDED!! Win a Maplelea Canadian Girl 18″ doll here at Doll Diaries – hurry it ends December 4th.
• Since you all know how much I love the myWallaby Doll Carrier, I’ll let you know that you can win one right now at MomGenerations. And by the way, myWallaby won a Dr. Toy Award for Best Toy this year! Congrats to them!!
• I love the Madame Alexander dolls being offered by Avon this year. You can win one at MomAdvice right now.
• Pink and Posh is giving away a 70th Anniversary Madeline doll.
• Steals and Deals has a My Twinn doll up for grabs too.
• I totally have a soft spot for Corolle dolls! Win a Corolle Bebe Charmers doll and Stroller at Classy Mommy.
• Win an adorable hand crafted Tygrlilies doll at Hoity Toity Baby.

Be sure to visit the respective sites for entry details and deadlines – don’t enter here.

PS – If you are running a doll related giveaway and want it mentioned here, email me at share@dolldiaries.com. If you would like to sponsor a doll related giveaway on Doll Diaries, again, just drop me a note at share@dolldiaries.com.

How to Pierce A Doll’s Ears

Let me start off by saying, DO NOT pierce your doll’s ears without first getting parental permission, and I highly recommend that you have parental supervision while doing this. Also, if you pierce your dolls’ ears, it is PERMANENT so think long and hard about taking on this project first.

Now that I got all that out of the way, TracAn posted a very detailed tutorial on piercing your doll’s ears in our forum and gave me permission to repost it here.

SUPPLIES NEEDED TO PIERCE DOLL’S EARS

• Pencil to mark the place to pierce
• Needle nose pliers to hold the pin or needle
• A thin pin or needle, make sure it is a thin one
• Lighter to heat the pin or needle
• Earring to put in the ears

Use the pencil to mark where you want to pierce the ear

Hold the pin with the needle nose pliers so that you do not burn your fingers when the pin is heated and it is easier to hold steady.

Do not try to push the pin straight in – it will bend.

If you work more from the front, you can see the earrings better and they fit their ear more securely.

Next hold the pin or needle and use the lighter to heat it up so that it will melt through the plastic (PLEASE use ADULT supervision with this part – I’m serious!!!)

Brace your hand on their shoulder and line the pin up where you want it.

Then you can slide the pin in and pull it back out immediately.

And the result:

Thanks TracAn (aka The Crazy Doll Lady – check out her cool store)!

Craft: Make Your Own Doll Shoes

One of our readers, Aunt Karen of North Vancouver, Canada has made some of the cutest shoes for her nieces dolls. She has offered to share her instructions for making your own doll shoes.

What you will need to make to make your doll a pair (or several pairs of shoes)

• 1 felt board (can be purchased at Michaels or other craft stores for about $1.29)
• Ribbons (I used ribbons I had left from Christmas and ribbon I bought at Michaels in the $1.29 bin)
• Glue  (I used a hot glue gun, if you are doing this as a party activity I recommend that you use craft glue or have a lot of adult supervision with the hot glue)
• paper (to trace your dolls foot or existing shoe)
• pencil
• scissors
• *optional small buttons, beads or accessories to decorate the shoes

How to make doll shoes to fit American Girl dolls

Step one – Trace your doll’s existing shoes or trace your doll’s feet on to a piece of paper.

Step two – cut out the tracing, this is your pattern for all the shoes you will ever need to make.

Step three - place the pattern on to your chosen color of felt board, trace two for each shoe and cut out.

Step four – cut 2 – 3.5 inch strips of ribbon, (I used ¾ inch wide ribbon)

Step five – using glue (I used hot glue as it is faster but white craft glue will also work) attach the ribbon approximately ½ inch from the toe, to the bottom side of the top part of the Shoe top. Then pull over the top and place shoe on dolls foot to measure tightness and angle of the ribbon, then attach with glue to the spot desired.

Step 6 – Once you have the ribbon in the spot you would like, apply glue all over the bottom and use the second felt piece to sandwich the ribbon. Hold and press down so that the felt pieces stick tight together.

Step 7 – make sure the shoe fits your doll and then if you wish to add more decoration then glue to the ribbon at this time.

Step 8 - repeat step 1-7 for the other shoe.

NOTES:

• For the sandals with two straps cut two pieces of ribbon for each shoe.
• The felt board will be enough to make about 12 pairs of shoes. With all the colors available the possibilities are endless. Fun and easy to make!

This is such fun craft idea and would be perfect for Girl Scout meetings, birthday parties, slumber parties or rainy day fun.

Doll Day Spa

I was just going through the Doll Diaries forum and came across this picture that agdanceprincess posted of her dolls’ Day Spa scene. How cute is this?

I love all the creative scenes my readers come up with! Feel free to share yours in the forum or by emailing them to share@dolldiaries.com. I will either post them in the Photo Galleries or as a post of their own.

Best Dolls for Girls Ages 3-6

Little girls, ages 3-6 love dolls. They are old enough to start role playing and have fun being “mommy” and caring for their dolls. My daughter has always loved playing with her dolls, pretending to take them to the mall, caring for them when they are sick, and setting up birthday parties for them.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when buying a doll for play is its durability. Dolls are meant to be played with and sometimes the more basic dolls are the ones that get the most play.

My recommendations for the best dolls for girls ages 3-6 are: Read more

Dolloween – Halloween Parade Day 4

Our friend Tari, who makes beautiful handmade doll clothes, is joining the Halloween parade today.

Here is JLY #6 revised (now retired I believe), Katie, in the retired Mermaid costume:

Here is Julie in the retired Hippie costume:

This is retired #20, Heather Noelle, in the Grecian Princess:

And finally Natalie #5 in a Battat ballet outfit:

It’s not too late to get in on the fun! Submit your dolls’ (American Girl, My Twinn, Build a Bear, Webkinz, Barbie, the works!) photos for our Halloween parade. You can submit them by joining the Doll Diaries forum and posting your photos in the Halloween Costume thread, or you may email them to me at share@dolldiaries.com.

Dolloween – Halloween Parade Day 2

Our Bitty Baby and one of the twins have joined the Halloween parade dressed as a puppy and a kitten.

Get in on the fun! Submit your dolls’ (American Girl, My Twinn, Build a Bear, Webkinz, Barbie, the works!) photos for our Halloween parade. You can submit them by joining the Doll Diaries forum and posting your photos in the Halloween Costume thread, or you may email them to me at share@dolldiaries.com. Check back each day this week as I add new photos.

Dolloween – Halloween Parade Day 1

It’s Halloween Week and time for the first dolls to show off their costumes!

Agfan4ever’s Molly dressed in an elegant red & gold gown.

Gale’s American Girl doll looks adorable in the Bee costume she made!

This is our Kit as a Grecian Princess from last year. Our dolls will be dressing up later today.

It looks like part of my original Halloween Parade post disappeared! Join us in the fun by submitting your dolls (American Girl, My Twinn, Build a Bear, Webkinz, Barbie, the works!) photos for our Halloween parade. You can submit them by joining the Doll Diaries forum and posting your photos in the Halloween Costume thread, or you may email them to me at share@dolldiaries.com. Check back each day this week as I add new photos.

We added some cute Halloween Games on our Games page – one is a Halloween dress up game and the other is a fun Halloweeen puzzle game. You can also head over to Printables4Kids and download Halloween word searches, word scrambles, coloring pages and more.

Win a Witch’s Costume for Dolls from EmilyRose

UPDATED with a Winner – the winner is Ginny of Scrappy Designs.

Our friend’s at Emily Rose Doll Clothes have got a special giveaway just for Doll Diaries readers! We are giving away this absolutely adorable Witch Halloween Costume for 18″ dolls like American Girl dolls.

Entering to win is EASY and you can even get bonus entries:

1. Visit Emily Rose Doll Clothes and look at all the fantasy clothes for dolls (perfect for Halloween). Then leave a comment on this post telling us which costume you like best.

2. If you have a blog or website of your own, write a post about this giveaway and you can get one more entry. Just be sure to leave the URL of the post in the comments below.

3. Get 3 more entries by joining the Doll Diaries forum and posting a picture of your doll (any doll will do) dressed up and ready for our Halloween parade. Entries have to be posted in the Halloween Contest thread.

So, how easy is that? You can get up to 5 entries into the giveaway. The giveaway will close at midnight EST on October 1, 2008. The winner will be drawn at random.

By posting your doll’s photo on the Doll Diaries forum, you are granting Doll Diaries permission to post the photo here on the main site at a future date.

The Five Best Doll Houses for Play

My daughters and I are captivated by dollhouses, the collector type dollhouses are just amazing with their detail and accuracy, but the most popular dollhouses are the ones made for play.

1. KidKraft Doll Houses

KidKraft doll houses come in a large variety of styles and are made to be played with by children of all ages and the designs stand the test of time! Read more

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