DIY Dolls and Ivy Cottage Doll Books

My mom introduced me to these books when I was a little girl. She has an uncanny knack for finding books with AMAZING illustrations. An artist herself she knows great books when she sees them and my childhood was full of so many books that I'm still trying to track down to this day. 

If you have never heard of these books and you have a little girl of any age I would highly recommend finding a copy. The books are about a woman and a child who make a doll that comes to life. Many adventures ensue. The illustrations are memorable and charming and the stories quite cute. 

You can find some of them on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/ref=gno_logo

Although they are beginning to be collectibles so if you stumble up one that is $40 dollars please keep looking there are some still available for normal prices. 

I hope you get a chance to read and enjoy. I love reading these books even as an adult and am so glad I have 3 in my collection and am looking to add the rest!

The series called the Ivy Cottage series and that is also the name of the first book in the series.

Ivy Cottage

Goose Eggs

Rag Doll Press

The Thorn Witch (Halloween) 
Christmas at Ivy Cottage

DIY Doll Activities

• Make your own dollhouse with a cardboard box. Hold up joints with colored heavy duty tape. Then use scrap fabric to decorate the inside.

• Peg Dolls can be purchased at craft stores for relatively cheap and then decorated with paints, markers, or scraps of fabric. Use yarn or string for hair and glue it to the top of the heads.

• Make small houses out of shoe boxes for small dolls that you already have, or for your peg dolls that you made above. You could try and make an Ivy Cottage to match the books that you read from above.

• Paper Dolls with scraps of fabric for clothes. This would be a great gift or fun activity for little girls. Make copies of a basic girl patter and then attach fabric pieces of all kinds and the girl(s) can make their own clothes to clue onto the cards.

• DIY paper doll with skirt. This would be cute for valentines as the skirt body and wings are made from different sized hearts. You can use a doilie for the skirt or just a cut out heart. Add arms a head and legs.