Fig. 63—Trees and flowers made of paper and spools.
Fig. 64—This is the way to make a tree.
The trees are easy to make and are very effective; they are simply fringed strips of paper rolled like a paper lighter with the large ends stuck into spools. Cut a strip of green tissue-paper fifteen inches long and five wide; then cut one-third of the strip narrow, about one inch wide, and fringe the remaining two thirds ([Fig. 64]). With the thumb and first finger of your right hand begin to roll the corner as shown at A ([Fig. 64]). Continue rolling, and the fringe, which forms the foliage, will stand out on the outside of the rolled part or trunk of the tree. When you reach the solid, narrow part of the paper strip it will roll into a smooth, round stick, forming the lower part of the tree trunk. Paste the last wrapped corner of the paper roll in place and clip the tree trunk off even across the bottom edge; then press it into a hole in the centre of an empty spool of ordinary size, and there's your tree! You can vary the foliage by crimping the fringe with knife or scissors before the strip is rolled into a tree and by having the fringe of some much longer than that of others. If you use different tones, tints, and shades of green, running from very light to dark, and make a lot of them varying in height, the trees will look very pretty and they can form a jungle where toy wild animals can live; or a number of the trees might form a playground or a grove where dolls may go for a picnic.
In the photograph of the group of trees you will see a number of pots of flowers. The flowers are disks and squares of different bright-colored tissue-paper, each one with its centre pinched together and twisted into a stemlike piece, which is pushed down into a buttonhole-twist spool. Around some of the flowers a smaller square of green may be used for foliage.
You could make an extensive flower garden by using a great number of these short, flat spools and bits of gay tissue-paper, and they can be arranged and rearranged in many different ways.
It is possible to make all kinds of toy furniture of spools. If you want
A Bedroom Set,
use four spools for the legs of a bedstead, place them in position and lay a piece of stiff white paper, bent up at one end, on top of the spools. The bed will then be ready for the doll ([Fig. 65]).