With the feasts of St. Therese coming up on Oct. 1st and 3rd (yes, we usually celebrate both her New and Traditional feast days, with our wedding anniversary in between the two on the feast of the Guardian Angels!), I thought now would be a great time to share some pictures of a fun little book I purchased for the girls a couple years ago: St. Therese and Her Family Paper Dolls!
This great little booklet, which helps the Little Flower and her amazing family come to life for little girls, includes 14 beautiful large paper dolls, approximately 10″ high: St. Therese as a child and as an adult; her parents, Blessed Louis and Blessed Zelie Martin; her sisters; her aunt, uncle and cousins; and even the Therese’s dog, Tom. In addition to the beautiful dolls, it also comes with 46 different authentic outfits, including little girls’ dresses, feast day outfits, traveling dresses, wedding gowns and religious habits for all 5 of the girls.
I loved the book and dolls so much when I first purchased it, that I didn’t even want to cut them out for my daughters, thinking they would ruin them (since they were just made of paper) and decided to save them until they were a little older… Then I received an email with some photos and a suggestion from a visitor here, sharing what she had done with her paper dolls – cutting off the tabs, laminating, and then using glue dots to attach the clothes! I loved the idea!!
I started with cutting all the dolls out (which can be a very time consuming task, unless you have older children that can help, considering all the pieces), writing little notes about the outfit and who it belongs to on the back, then the laminating (I purchased this laminator from Costco for less) and trimming went pretty quickly.
Instead of using glue dots, I have been giving my girls a little bit of poster tack for attaching the outfits, which works wonderfully, and they don’t get frustrated with the paper tabs falling off the dolls so easily, yet it is easy enough to remove and change outfits.
This book of dolls is available from Amazon or Sacred Heart Books and Gifts.
Now I am looking forward to eventually purchasing the other books in the series to do the same, including the St. Joan of Arc Paper Dolls and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Paper Dolls… Maybe for my girls for Christmas!
This is awesome, Jessica! I purchased this last year for the St. Therese's feast day. My girls loved them, but I, too, was concerned about how fragile they were. I'll have to do this soon. So far they have held up, but I would feel better about it if they were laminated. Thank you!
We were given the Blessed Kateri ones, kind of as a barely-used hand-me-down. (Only the dolls were cut out). I love the idea of laminating them first, taking the tabs off and using some removable adhesive to change the clothes. That is brilliant!
The glue dots or poster tack are great ideas! We have some Mary paper dolls from Illuminated Ink and the tabs are getting worn out, and it does frustrate my girls when the clothes won't stay on. Now I'll have to laminate them along with our Little House paper dolls!
Here is another great idea for paper dolls. Scan them onto your computer, then print them out on magnetic paper. Cut them out with out the tabs. Then use a baking sheet (painted to your color of choice) as your play area. You have less chance of losing the pieces and the originals are never used.
I have recently become devoted to St Therese and think you are wonderful to initate her parents which, to me, is the most important mission in the world today.
I have recently become devoted to St Therese and think you are wonderful to initate her parents which, to me, is the most important mission in the world today.