September 24, 2024

I needed a gift for my writer friend, Sharon Wren. It was her birthday or some prize I owed her or something, and I wanted to make it special. I sell dolls and she had boys, so I asked her if she like dolls.

She said she only had one in a box on her desk and "The legs are broken."

So I told her to send the doll to me and I'd fix her. "Her name is Penny..." Sharon told me and her father had given her Penny when she was young. If I'm remembering correctly.

Since Sharon is a writer I bought a box shaped like a book that I could put Penny in.Penny was a wooden peg doll sometimes called dutch dolls. I wanted to make the cover unique, and then I remembered i had a Dutch doll book.

It was a book over a 100 years old. I bought it because I love Bertha Upton's art and Florence Upton wrote the story all in rhyme. It cost me $169, but i just love it.  

So I scanned a picture of the larger Dutch doll, Peggy, and I made a cover for my book box in MS Publisher. I thought my title was clever - Penny's from Heaven. I had her all fixed and tied into the box and then I thought - she should have her own book.

And being me...I had to make it readable, so when the doll came to life, she would have something to read. But first, I had to figure out how to make a miniature book.

So I bought some and took them apart and inspected them. I decided I could make accordion books. Having decided i made a template in MS publisher. The only problem was my book could only support 900 words or so, or it was too thick or the words were too ti y to read.

So since my book was out of copyright I changed Peggy to Penny and cut away at the story. It was hard tying it together in rhyme. I gained a lot of respect for Florence. Several edits later I had a mini story.

I cut and pasted it into my template and made the font a little smaller so it would fit. I scanned in some pictures and fit them in the pages 12 in all and pushed print.

I cut three straps out of the paper and started folding back and forth. Then I made a cover and printed it on heavier photo paper. Glued it all together and I had my first miniature book! 

So I took a look at it... and my brain said...I think I could sell these!

Now over 10 years later and over 33 titles, it's safe to say, I sell miniature readable books!