How to Make Paper Dolls

Kids these days are missing out on a “real” childhood. Though I am only twenty-two years old, I remember the good old days when my cousins and I played outdoors or indoors without technology. Bizarre right? We used to play tag, red-light green-light, hide and seek, house, or some arts and crafts project. Kids now- a-days are so absorbed with possessing the latest technology and rather catch up with friends on Facetime than meet face to face. What catches their eyes are the “We have free Wifi” at restaurants and you can barely grasp their attention in attempts to have a family dinner. There is little appreciation for homemade gifts or board games anymore. Everything is an app and available in the palm of your hands. How can we shift kids’ interests into the simpler things instead of grandiosity of owning every single electronic device? Try something less traveled and creative.

Make your own paper dolls

                                                                                   Teaching your children how to make paper dolls is a fun project! Whether you’re spending quality time or are having a play date or sleepover, it is a great activity to partake in. Encourage them to make several dolls and give them an identity and background stories. It is inexpensive since you can use paper around the house. You no longer have to spend hundreds on Barbie and friends, Barbie dream house, and Barbie Glam convertibles.  Playing with paper dolls challenges your children to bring out their imaginative side and progresses their motor skills. Studies have shown that making kindergartners and special needs children cut out paper dolls poses as an effective occupational therapy practice.

Barbie vs. Paper dolls

[caption id="attachment_6418" align="aligncenter" width="635"] Barbie's proportions on a real woman[/caption] Sure you can buy a paper doll from Barbie, but where is the excitement in that? Paper dolls give kids the ability to create a true representation of what people look like. As parents you can help them see what realistic standards of beauty are instead of being misled by Barbie dolls and the media. Over the years, people have grown angry at Barbie for not creating a doll with practical proportions. Unfortunately, young girls who play with Barbies are inspired by her beauty and try to emulate her as they grow older. A solution to these misconceptions is by encouraging your children to make their own dolls and by making replicas of themselves. Hence, they won’t be spending hours playing with a doll that they have no relation to or idolizing features they may never have.

Convinced yet? Great! Let’s make our own.

What you’ll need: Paper Pencil Crayons, Colored Pencils, or Markers Card Stock Scissors Glue

Step 1:

Get a blank piece of paper to draw a person. Or find a sufficient sized figure to trace from a magazine, coloring book, or comic book

Step 2:

Paste the doll onto card stock to make it last longer

Step 3:

Cut out the shape.

Step 4:

Color the doll and fill in facial features and hair color.

Step 5:

Retrace on new paper to make clothes.

Step 6:

Draw the different clothing items: shirts, sweaters, pants, skirts, dresses.

Step 7:

Draw tabs around the edge of the clothes.

Step 8:       

Cut out the clothing pieces.

Step 9:

 

Decide on an outfit to dress your doll in.

Step 10:

Play pretend!