Happy Halloween - bendy doll witch!

Here is my teeny tiny, little bendy, bead head doll, inspired by the witch from the story Room on The Broom by Julia Donaldson - one of my favourite stories, complete with tiny, twiggy broomstick....perfect for supporting story telling!

 

PS....Don't use felt marker pen on the face as the inks bleeds on the wooden bead, which is why she has one eye slightly covered!  

If you want to try making bendy dolls there is a good tutorial here .

DIY Doll's House

I'm always reluctant to throw away cardboard shoe boxes as there are so many things you can reuse them for.  Recently I have been making a little bed for a tiny toy mouse - as yet unfinished, and at school I've been helping the children to make a treasure chest as part of our pirate topic.

But today I am sharing a little doll's house I just finished, made from two small shoe boxes and some scraps of paper.

Here it is with a rough guide to how I did it.

You will need:
2 shoe boxes (these are 'First Shoes' boxes) 
Scraps of paper
Glue
Sticky Tape



First I taped the boxes together with masking tape and lined the 'walls' with some patterned paper I got free with a magazine.  

Then I did the same on the 'floors'. 

You can draw around each side and the bottom of the box as rough templates for this.  

I just used a bit of clear (tube) glue to stick it all down as it's super sticky.

Then I cut up and taped the two lids together to form a roof shape which also created an attic room. 

I covered the outside with plain white paper and cut strips in red for the roof to look like tiles.

I've just used plain wooden blocks as furniture for the
moment.

If you want to make the bendy dolls too, they are just made from pipe cleaners and a large bead for the head.  

I found a great site here where you can learn to make these dolls.

These are the first I have tried so they are way from perfect but I can work on it!  

I can't decide if I want to give them faces or not yet, so the boy is without a face...and clothes too (so you can see what they look like and how easy they are to make).

Monty is too small to play with these yet - maybe the children in my class would like the house and dolls or maybe I will keep them safe for him until next year?  I could make loads more dolls by then and some furniture too!