I have had a lifelong love of paper dolls.  But they are so easy to tear!!!  Here is a fun idea for simple paper dolls made from an old milk jug.  Get creative!  Make people, animal, houses, cars, and whole villages out of these plentiful, sturdy jugs.  They are sturdier than cardboard (we’ve made paper dolls from cereal boxes, too), and they can be painted with acrylic paint or decorated with permanent markers.  They are very hard to tear, and they do not bend easily.

These photos are from a post I made when my oldest three children were little.  (Where does the time go???)  We made the milk jug dollies, colored them with sharpies, and made some little clothes to go with them.  I made tabs on the clothes, but later we realized that sticking a little piece of folded tape on the back works even better than the tabs.  It is easier for little kids to get their clothes to stay on.

It’s obviously pretty self-explanatory, but this is how you make milk carton paper dolls.

1.  Rinse out your used milk jug.

2.  Cut off the top first to make it easier to cut some long strips of plastic.

3.  Draw the outline of a person on the plastic.  (You can draw it on paper first, cut it out, and trace around it if you prefer.  If you don’t feel that you can draw a good figure, print one out on the computer, or cut one out of a magazine and trace around it.)

4. Cut out your doll.

5.  Decorate with acrylics or colored permanent markers.

6.  Make clothes by placing another strip of plastic over your doll and using the outline as a guideline for the clothes you would like to design.

7.  Cut out your outfit and decorate it.

8.  Play!

Hope you enjoyed this day’s post from the Creative Family Idea Box.  Hope to see you tomorrow so we can keep making something every day together!