I hate to say this, but I found the miniature book that came with my miniature Josefina perfectly useless, and packed it away. The concept of giving the miniature book to my full-sized American Girl of Today seemed eerie. Does the miniature Josefina then also need a miniature doll who has a miniature version of the American Girl of Today book? And then does that miniature miniature doll need a miniature miniature miniature doll and book? It boggles the mind. ;)

Anyway, after having this put away for over half a year, I finally found a use for the book. I destroyed it! Before you think I sound like a maniac, let me explain. What I did was to turn it into a miniature replica of an historical book for one of my historical American Girl dolls. Think of the books available in the catalog. This is very similar. For example, Samantha has a Wizard of Oz book, and Molly has a Nancy Drew book.

What you will need for this project is as follows:

  • Scissors
  • Clear Contact Paper
  • School Glue
  • Scanner
  • Color printer
  • A book from the time-period of your historical doll (if you don’t have one, check with a parent, grandparent, or the library)

    1) Remove and discard the miniature book’s slipcover.

    2) Carefully rip out the original contents of the miniature book, including the pages directly glued onto the cover (inside). Keep the contents (for now) to use as a pattern for the inside pages.

    3) Open your full-sized book and lay it flat on your scanner, cover out. Open the book as flat as possible so that the spine with title will also scan.

    4) Scan the cover, and save it as a graphic file.

    5) Import the graphic file into your favorite word processing program, and resize it within that program into a few different sizes. I went “by eye” and got the right size on my second try. Print.

    6) Cut the new cover out, leaving a small margin which can be “folded over.” Check the inside of “normal” books to see how this is done (how the cover flows into the inside of the book). It gives the book binding smooth edges. Glue the cover to the hardcover "skeleton" book-binding.

    7) Now, scan pages from within the book (especially the front and end papers) and similarly cut them out from paper. The pages that go within the book should be slightly smaller than the cover. You can use the original inside pages of the book as a reference. I didn’t worry about printing pages in order whatsoever, as I’m not going to be reading the miniature book. I also didn’t print every page, and put in lots of blank sheets of paper. You can be as ambitious with this as you want. Just be sure to scan two pages at once, and don’t cut these two pages apart (you will fold them in a minute)!

    8) Glue the pages together in a “saddle binding” manner. This is where pages are folded in half, put inside one another, and glued down the middle, making booklets which are then glued together.

    9) Glue the frontispiece and back piece to the book pages, and then to the cover itself. Let dry.

    10) Cover in clear Contact Paper, making sure to go over the edges of the book, finishing off on the inside. This will make the cover and cover edges smooth and shiny…just like a real book!

    Now let your 18” Historical American Girl read all about The Bobbsey Twins, Raggeddy Ann, Nancy Drew, Uncle Wiggily – or whatever else you chose. You’ll be proud of your miniature book!

    Why Raggedy?

    Raggedy Ann was published in the twenties, so her books would have been around in both Kit’s and Molly’s time. But why did I choose a Raggedy book for my craft project? Raggedy Ann was very special to me. She was my first exposure to doll/book combos (like the American Girls). When I was around six or seven years old and we were on a trip to my mother’s childhood home she discovered a real treasure – her beloved book entitled Raggedy Ann Stories. She also discovered an original pattern, from which she later made me a Raggedy Ann doll, much more beautiful and true to the books than those you find in stores today. My grandmother (her mom) was in the hospital dying of juvenile diabetes at that time, and the stories were an escape for me. I treasured the stories for many years before discovering, in my twenties, that there were many other original Raggedy Ann books. Some have been reissued in their original form by Simon & Schuster. I would recommend that anyone who has a love for dolls and books read this wonderful series. It has been a family tradition of ours to pass down Raggedy Ann stories from generation to generation, and I hope it will be one in yours, as well.

    I am in no way attempting to infringe on copyright. The information here is just provided for reference and PERSONAL, craft use, not for resale or redistribution of material.

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