What Shall We Do Now? by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (books on motivation .TXT) 📖
- Author: Dorothy Canfield Fisher
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It is, of course, possible to make a house of several pieces instead of one. The walls and floors can be made separately and joined with linen strips; but this adds to the difficulty of the work and causes the houses to be less steady. Cardboard houses can also be made with two floors.
"The House That Glue Built"A novel kind of paper house has been gotten out in book form. It is called The House That Glue Built, and consists of pictures of rooms, without furniture, which is shown on separate sheets. The object is to cut out the furniture, arrange it and paste it in its proper place. The illustration shows the library, and the furniture for it. There is also a sheet of dolls to be cut out, who represent the owners of the house. Two other books on the same order are The Fun That Glue Made and Stories That Glue Told. They are all easily put together, and are lots of fun.
Paper FurnitureEverything required for the furnishing and peopling of a cardboard dolls' house can be made of paper; and if colored at all cleverly the furniture will appear to be as solid as that of wood. After cutting out and joining together one or two of the models given in the pages that follow, and thus learning the principle on which paper furniture is made, you will be able to add all kinds of things to those mentioned here or to devise new patterns for old articles, such as chairs and desks.
Glue and Adhesive TapeTwo recent inventions of the greatest possible use to the maker of paper furniture are fish-glue which gets dry very quickly and is more than ordinarily strong, and adhesive tape. Glue can be bought for very little, and adhesive tape, which is sold principally for mending music and the torn pages of books, is put up in inexpensive spools.
Home-Made CompassesA pair of compasses is a good thing to have; but you can make a perfectly serviceable tool by cutting out a narrow strip of cardboard about four inches long and boring holes at intervals, of a quarter of an inch, through which the point of a pencil can be placed. If one end of the strip is fastened to the paper with a pin you can draw a circle of what size you want, up to eight inches across.
MaterialsThese are the materials needed when making paper furniture:—
A few sheets of stiff note-paper or drawing-paper. Scissors. A penknife. A ruler (a flat one). A mapping-pen. A box of paints. A board to cut out on. Adhesive tape or stamp-paper. Glue.
TracingIf the drawings are to be traced, tracing-paper, or transparent note-paper, and a sheet of carbon-paper, will also be needed. To trace a drawing, cover it with paper and draw it exactly. Then cover the paper or cardboard from which you wish to cut out the furniture with a piece of carbon-paper, black side down, and over that place your tracing. Draw over this again with a very sharply pointed pencil or pointed stick, and the lines will be repeated by the carbon-paper on the under sheet of paper.
The furniture, for which designs are given in this chapter, can be made of stiff note-paper, Whatman's drawing-paper, or thin Bristol board. The drawings can be copied or traced. In either case the greatest care must be taken that the measurements are minutely correct and the lines perfectly straight. A slip of paper is a very good thing to measure with.
Enough designs have been given to show how most different kinds of furniture can be made. These can, of course, be varied and increased by copying from good furniture lists; while many little things such as saucepans, dishes, clocks, and so forth, can be copied from stores lists and added to the few that are given on p. 248.
(Facing page 244)
These small articles are cut out flat, but an extra piece of paper is left under each, which, when bent back, makes a stand.
General InstructionsThe front legs of chairs, the legs of tables, and the backs of furniture must be neatly joined together by narrow strips of stamp-paper or adhesive tape. To do this, cut a strip of the right size, crease it down the middle, and stick one side. Allow this to dry, before you fix the other.
Wherever in the pictures there is a dotted line, it means that the paper is to be folded there. It will be easily seen whether it is to be folded up or down.
Before the furniture is folded it should be painted. Wood, iron, brass, and silk can all be imitated in color.
In cutting out small spaces of cardboard—as between the bars of a chair—lay the card on a board, and keeping your knife, which should be sharp at the point, against a flat ruler, run it again and again along the lines you want to cut, until you have cut through. If your furniture is made of paper, the spaces can be cut out with finely pointed scissors, taking care to start in the middle of the space, for the first incision is seldom a clean one.
(Cut out the oblong parts marked AA.)
(A is turned up to form a shelf for saucepans; B is glued down over the back.)
(To be made of one piece of paper folded into three equal parts and cut out in accordance with the illustration.)
(Under part to be folded back for a stand.)
(The corners must be fastened to the sheet by very narrow strips of paper.)
(Join the sides AB and AB, and then bend the top down, glueing the flap C to the back of the wardrobe.)
(In the chair the lines AB and BA must be cut. In the cot the four pieces marked A are cut out on their sides and bent down to form legs.) Paper Dolls
Paper dolls are not as good to play with as proper dolls. One can do much less with them because they cannot be washed, have no hair to be brushed, and should not sit down. But they can be exceedingly pretty, and the keeping of their wardrobes in touch with the fashion is an absorbing occupation. Paper dolls are more interesting to those who like painting than to others. The pleasure of coloring them and their dresses is to many of us quite as interesting as cutting out and sewing the clothes of ordinary dolls.
Making Paper DollsThe first thing to do is to draw the doll in pencil on the cardboard or paper which it is to be cut from. If you are not good at drawing, the best way is to trace a figure in a book or newspaper, and then, slipping a piece of carbon-paper (which can be bought for a penny or less at any stationer's) between your tracing-paper and the cardboard, to go over the outline again with a pencil or a pointed stick. On uncovering the cardboard you will find the doll there all ready to cut out. It should then be colored on both sides, partly flesh color and partly underclothes.
The DressesThe dresses are made of sheets of note-paper, the fold of which forms the shoulder pieces. The doll is laid on the paper, with head and neck lapping over the fold, and the line of the dress is then drawn a little larger than the doll. A small round nick to form the collar is cut between the shoulders of the dress, and a slit is made down the back through which the doll's head can be passed. After the head is through it is turned round. (Of course, if the dress is for evening the place which you cut for the neck must be larger, and in this case no slit will be needed.) All the details of the dresses, which can be of original design, or copied from advertisements and fashion plates, must be drawn in in pencil and afterward painted. Hats, trimmed with tissue-paper feathers or ribbons, are made of round pieces of note-paper with a slit in them just big enough for the tip of the doll's head to go through. The illustrations on pp. 260 and 261 should make everything clear.
Other Paper DollsSimpler and absolutely symmetrical paper dolls are made by cutting them out of folded paper, so that the fold runs right down the middle of the doll. By folding many pieces of paper together, one can cut out many dolls at once.
Walking DollsWalking ladies are made in that way; but they must have long skirts and no feet, and when finished a cut is made in the skirt—as in the picture—and the framework thus produced is bent back. When the doll is placed on the table and gently blown it will move gracefully along.
Dresses can also be made of crinkly tissue-paper glued to a foundation of plain note-paper. Frills, flounces, and sashes are easily imitated in this material, and if the colors are well chosen the result is very pretty.
Rows of Paper DollsTo make a row of paper dolls, take a piece of paper the height that the dolls are to be, and fold it alternately backward and forward (first one side and then the other) leaving about an inch between each fold. Press the folds together tightly and cut out the half of a doll, being careful that the arms are continued to the edge of the fold and are not cut off. Open out and you will have a string of paper dolls.
Other articles to be made from paper and cardboard will be found on pp. 284-291.
PLAYHOUSES OF OTHER PEOPLES PLAYHOUSES OF OTHER PEOPLESIt is not in the least necessary to confine yourself to making playhouses that are like the houses you live
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