Paperclips twisted into dolls' clothes' hangers. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Have you ever played the game, think of thirty uses for a brick? If you are creative, you can find lots of ways of creating a dolls house or play scene to amuse a child. Or to inspire yourself or other adults writing a play or pantomime or last night show for a conference.
The Dolls' House
The two walls of the corner of the room with a desk, table or bedside table can be used for the floor and two walls of your DIY dolls' house. (Or a play train shed, railway station, airport, bus or coach station, building site, playground, park, school, swimming pool, and gym, farmyard, Noah's Arc, zoo, hotel, hospital, dentist, doctor's, office, museum, toyshop, supermarket, street in summer or winter, ski slope, whatever takes your fancy or appeals to your child).
An upturned egg box can be used for a roof, or castle battlements. Or a wall, Or gateposts. Or guard boxes. Or tents.
Snow Scene - White
A white face flannel, small towel or pillowcase can make a snow scene or ski slope, or wavy sea or white sandy beach. The white wall can be the snow scene. You can't use nails, but you might use white or blue blu-tac to fix pictures.
Tiny smears of white toothepaste can make frost on a coloured rooftop, white hair on a doll, a white beard for Santa.
White nail varnish can be used to paint.
Clear nail varnish can be used for glaze, or glue.
Cotton Wool
Cotton wool or make up remover pads can make snowmen, or white hair on dolls.
Toothpicks can be ski poles, walking sticks, or crutches.
Blue Sky or Sea
A blue face flannel, small towel, or piece cut from an advertisement in a newspaper, magazine or holiday brochure can make the sea. Or the sky overhead or above the horizon. Or on the base as a river, pond, or lake. Put your picture in the centre, or in the background, or beyond the windows.
Drawn People
For a toddler, to get the people the right size, use a ruler or your finger as a silhouette to make several figures the same proportion. The child can add the faces or clothes for the parents, carers, teachers, hotel wokers, or workers.
Cork People
To make little 3D bodies, use corks from the wastebin at the hotel bar - just ask the staff - (or your own after a party). Cahmpagne corks make little figures with round heads. Corks with flat protruding tops make people wearing sunhats.
Banners, Washing Lines, Xmas Decorations
You can use white dental floss, any colour of sewing cotton, black ear phones, embroidery silk, straw colour string (whole or separated into thinner strands).
Tote bags and gift bags from shopping after have handles. You can use handles made of flat plastic, coloured cord, or flat ribbon.
If you wish to save the bag's handles, use just one cord for your project. Thread the other one digonally through the holes in the top of the bag, or experiement, depending on the size of the bag, to create a handle horizontally or diagonally. or arched vertically. Sometimes a long handle can be threaded through the four holes to create two short loops.
Round Items
The base of a small Brie cheese can be used as - a garden paddling pool, a pond, a circular table. A round bed.
Bottle Caps
Bottle caps can make stepping stones or paths for gardens and outdoor scenes.
Make a hole in the middle and insert a toothpick and you have a bus stop, traffic light, lamp standard, tree trunk, or golf tee.
Sliced Corks
Circles of cork make stepping stones on water, or paths through gardens.
Ribbons
Save ribbons from gift wrapping, birthday cakes, and chocolate boxes. Use it for pelmets, window drapes, tiny pillows and cushions, quilted bedspreads, seaat covers, sofas, tablecloths, covers for bedside tables (which Americans call night stands). Also doll skirts, dresses, hats and trousers.
String
A short piece of string makes a banister against the wall for a staircase. a line for suspending a curtain, a shower curtain or a banner.
Paper Clips
Just bend the two ends upwards into a trinagle and you have a tiny hanger.
Sticking and Sewing
You can buy a glue stick from a stationery store. Or use soap. Or borrow a sewing kit from hotels housekeeping.
Colours and Paints
Use food colouring.
Bring washable paints from home.
For older children who can be trusted to be careful and not make a mess, or to clear up immediately, you can use watercolours. Or face make-up and eye make-up pencils, nail varnish.
If you are self-catering or order room service, use salt and pepper for snow scenes or sandy beaches. Coffee capsules with the used coffee showing make plant pots, though if they spill, they make a mess. The green top cut off a strawberry makes a teeny plant. If you are using the toy just for one afternoon, then throwing it in the bin before moving out, you don't need to worry about the fruit going off and attracting insects. Colours can be added from coffee or tea or hot chocolate. Consider beetroot, and blueberries.
Supermarket Buys
If you are prepared to spend money, but don't have a toy store nearby, supermarkets often have stationery departnents and party supplies. Amazon and others supply overnight. A solid cardboard or fabric oblong tote bag can be bought cheaply from many supermarkets. It can be cut vertically and across the top to create a house.
Useful Website
Turning a paper clip into a hanger with pliers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS-w1er2-r4
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