Decorating a Pair of Shoes

Today I will show you how to make a pair of cute decorated tennis shoes! Mine are themed for Valentine's Day, but could be for whatever you want.

 

You will need:

 

A pair of white tennis shoes for your doll

Sharpies in red, pink, or both

 

This pair of shoes I got from Hobby Lobby. They fit AG dolls perfectly and are a reasonable price for craft projects.

 

 

First, take out the laces.

 

I grabbed a few Sharpies I thought I might use, and tested their colors on a piece of paper. I ended up using the red, and the pink to the right of the right.

 

For the tongue of each shoe, I drew a Chevron pattern in pink.

 

On the sides, I drew a curly design with a couple tiny hearts in red.

 

 

I also colored the tips of the laces red.

 

Also, I colored the band around the sole of the shoe pink, and the top of the shoe red.

 

Hope you enjoyed!

Shrink Film Charms

For Christmas, I got some sheets of Shrink Film. ShrinkFilm is cool because when you bake it, it shrinks to about 50% of it's original size. This is great for making jewelry items, like charms.

 

 

I colored the things I drew with Sharpies, but the back of the package says you an other utensils as well.

 

I drew this butterfly and cut it out. The small box I cut with an Xacto knife, so I can put a jump ring through when I make a necklace. I put the butterfly on my ruler cutting board to show how big I drew it.



 

After baking for 2 minutes at 300F, the butterfly shrunk down to this size! When I took it out of the oven, it was kind of warped. I figured out that if I pressed a metal spatula on it as soon as I removed it from the oven, it would flatten.

 

 

I am excited to make more charms from the Shrink Film, as well as make doll sized utensils. These are the other things I made:

 

 

Have you ever used Shrink Film or made Shrinky Dinks?

 



How to Make a Doll CD Case!

Today I will show you how I made the AIO CD case that Beth got for Christmas! It's an easy craft that turns out super cute, and you probably have all the needed items already!

Tools I used:

- Xacto knife (to cut the cardboard, but you can also use the scissors to do this)
- Scissors
- Printer
- Paper
- Cardboard
- Glue Stick (or other type of glue, but this worked well for me)
- Masking Tape

 

First, find an image that you would like to use for the front cover of the CD case. I found mine by doing a quick Google search. I was able to find JPEGS of both the front and the back of the CD case. I printed the images to be about 2 inches wide.

 

Also, print a strip of solid color that matches the front cover image. I was able to get the exact color using the eyedropper in Microsoft Paint. The color strip should be 1" by 11", or 2" by 5.5" cut in half down the middle.

 

Cut out the images.

 

Next, trace the images onto your cardboard. I needed to do this three times, so that each piece glued on the next would make the CD case about 3/4 of a 1/4" thick. So, basically, almost 1/4" thick.

 

Glue the cardboard together so you get this:

 

 

Now take your strip of color. It should be about 1" by 11", but I had that was 2" by 5.5", so I just cut it in half down the middle.

 

The other images will cover up the front and back of the cardboard, but the color strip is to cover the sides. Glue the sides of the cardboard square and attach the paper, folded it carefully at the edges.

 

Do this all the way around.

 

The sides are covered!

 

Glue the front cover image to the cardboard.



 

And the back...

 

This is optional, but I had an extra copy of the front and back images (which I originally printed to test the size). Therefore, I cut out where it said the title of the album "Taking the Plunge" on the extra copy, and glued it to the side of the CD case to add detail. 

 



To give it a shiny CD case look, I covered the front and back with masking tape. I laid it sticky side up, then set the album on the tape. I then cut the tape, and then fit it to the size of the image with scissors. Or, you could just cover the sides too, but I just wanted to cover one side, the front, and the back.

 

Finished front with masking tape:

 

Finished back with masking tape:

 

The finished CD!



Making a Doll Fireplace

With cold winter days approaching, I was inspired to create an American Girl Doll sized fireplace! I had been thinking about doing it for some time, and am super happy I finally got around to it.

I took progress pictures of how I constructed that may help you if you decide to make a fireplace for your dolls. I apologize for any poor quality photos, I usually do crafts at night time :)

 



For the basic structure of the fireplace, I used a Christmas lights box that measures 8 1/2" by almost 9 1/2". I turned it sideways, so the longer side of the box would be the bottom of the fireplace.

 



I then cut out a section of the front for the opening where the "fire" would be. The completed opening measured about 5" by 6 1/2".

 

For the inside of the fireplace, I printed out a brick pattern on some paper. The brick is a little small for American Girl Doll scale, but that's okay to me. A link to the brick template can be found in the description box of the video by Deena and Beena here. I printed four of these sheets, but only needed to use three.

 

I used scissors to cut the paper so that it would fit on the inside of the box, then used a glue stick to attach the paper to the cardboard of the box. Here it is so far!

 

 

The black part is craft foam cut to the right size. I attached it with a glue stick. One could also use black construction paper, but I didn't have any on hand.

 

 

I used my X-acto knife to cut pieces of craft foam board to cover the design of the Christmas lights box. I covered the front and both sides.

 

 

I wanted to add a little decoration to the front of the fireplace, but I didn't want it to be overwhelming. I took some white Sculpey and rolled it out so it was flat and even. I have a small box made of stone with horses and interesting designs carved into it (picture above). I took this box and decided to use the triangle design. I impressed the box into the clay. When I removed the box, the clay showed the same triangle design indented into it. The first couple times I attempted this, the clay stuck to the box, making a rough looking design. I fixed this by putting a small piece of plastic wrap over the clay. After that, I was able to remove the box, peel away the plastic wrap, and I had a nice design.

 

 

I cut the clay designs to the shape I needed before baking for fifteen minutes.

 

 

For the wood of the fire, I found some small branches of a lilac tree. I cut them to smaller pieces, in order to fit into the fireplace. To make them look burnt, I used soft charcoal and hard charcoal, which is typically used for drawings, to color the sticks darker. I smoothed it out with my fingers and a tortillion. If you would like to read more about charcoal drawing/tortillions/charcoal, see my previous post here. 

 

 

I cut the foam board for the mantelpiece a slight bit larger than the actual size, so it would over hang a bit.

 

Final pictures!!

 

 

It's got a basic look and design, but I plan on decorating it with stockings and Christmas trinkets.

 



 

I glued the clay design to the foam board with some Tacky Glue. I had never used Tacky Glue before. The clay seems to be held quite well into place.

 

 

 

For size comparison I have Maggie in her winter pajamas!

 

 

I think Maggie is wondering if Santa will be able to get through it :)

 

Hope you enjoyed!