How To Make Books For Your Dolls

Can you believe it! The live action “Beauty And The Beast” movie will be available on DVD in just a few days!! And we are going to celebrate by making some “Beauty And The Beast” themed books for our dolls.

DIY Beauty And The Beast Books Themed Books For Barbie Dolls

Image of Belle doll holding a blank book

Yes, Belle definitely needs something more substantial to read!

How To Make Books For Your Dolls:

Supplies needed:

Printables—see image below
Cardstock or paperboard (like a cereal box)
Scissors
Glue
Mod Podge

This printable has two book options: a reading book and a coloring book:

To print out the printable, click on the image and it will open in a new window. Once it opens, right click on the image and choose to either save it to your computer or print it out. And you can use regular computer paper for this craft—no need for anything fancy.

For this tutorial, I am going to make the coloring book.

Once you’ve printed it, cut out the book cover and strips of pages.

Using scissors, gently score along tabs and spine of the cover, making sure not to cut through the paper.
Bend the cover at the tabs and spine.
Cut two squares of stiff cardstock or paperboard (cereal box) that will fit inside the front and back of the book cover, and one long skinny piece to fit inside the spine.
Glue the paperboard pieces to the cover, leaving a little space between each so that the book will open and close.
Glue the tabs down and set the cover aside to dry.
Gently score the lines on each strip of pages.
Then fold the pages along the lines.
Take the first strip of pages and apply glue to the middle pages only—do not glue the first or last page.
Refold the pages, gluing the white sides of the middle pages together. This will give you a book with images on each side of the page.

In order to have a nice full book though, we’ll need to add a few more pages.

To attach the next strip of pages, add glue to the last page of the strip you just finished folding and gluing, then stick the first page from the second strip to the last page of the first strip.
Apply glue to back of the second sheet of pages (middle ones only), then fold and glue the white sides together leaving the very last page free.

Now let’s attach the pages to the cover!

Apply a generous amount of glue to the front and back pages, cover, and spine of the book.
Then press the front page to one side of the cover, the last page to opposite side, and push the pages into the spine.
Set the book aside and let it dry. I like to use a clothespin to clamp it closed and make sure everything adheres.
Finally, add a little Mod Podge to the top and bottom of the book’s spine where the pages connect. This will make sure the pages are well attached and do not come loose.