Craft Idea #2: a Tetherball Court!

Today, in this craft, your dolls are going to get a great tetherball court!
Anyway, for those who don't know what tetherball is (it is sort of a rare thing to see on a lot of playgrounds - but schools have them mostly), here is a stock photo (this is Google Images NOT mine):

 Does it look familiar?

Anyway, today we are going to make a craft off of that.

Here is what you'll need:

1 Empty Paper Towel Cardboard Roll (or tape 2 toilet paper rolls together!)

Tape

 Construction Paper (Color of your choice)

String (must be somewhat sturdy)

1 ball on AG sized scale (plastic, super ball, slightly blown up balloon, etc.)

1 square of cardboard

 

First, get out your cardboard paper towel roll.

As you can see, if you buy the paper towels I buy, the roll isn't as tall as the doll (tetherball nets that I've seen - while I've seen very few, have always been nearly 6 feet in the air). However, the smaller it is, the easier it makes for storage, so as long as it is about up to her shoulder at least, you are fine. You can always tape toilet paper rolls to it if you want extra height. (Anyway, who ever knew I'd be posing a doll next to an empty paper towel roll? XD)  

Take the roll and place it on the very tip of the red paper. As you can see, my construction paper piece is pretty long. I am only using the paper up to where the big crease is in the middle, so you don't need that much paper.

Tape your roll to the tip of the paper so that it will stay put somewhat. The tape may not be strong enough to hold it all the way down, so keep one hand on it at all times as your roll.

Take the paper towel roll and roll it down the paper until the roll is totally covered. (Sorry for all the shadows).

As seen here, I only used half of the paper.

Cut off any unnecessary paper, but try and leave a little excess paper on the side as you can see here, just to make taping a bit easier.

After taping the paper down to the paper towel roll, your roll should now look like the picture above.

Here it is standing up!

Next, get some string/ribbon. It has to be durable and sturdy enough to hold the ball that will be swinging around when your dolls play. I used simple ribbon I found in my craft room for this. I believe the ribbon is from Michaels.   

As far as measurements go, I'd just use about half the length of the tetherball stand or the full length if you want it extra long.

Next, tape the ball down to the string. You may need to use about three pieces of tape to get it all to stick and hold the ball correctly.

Tape another end of the string inside the tetherball stand. I taped mine a bit far down in there so that it will not be noticed as much.

Next, get some cardboard. If you are having trouble finding cardboard, take a "dumpster dive" in your recycling (we have a tiny recycling closet where the recycling waits the week for it to be taken out) so I just went in my recycling closet and found the perfect cardboard box. I have resisted having it recycled because I wanted to do something with it.

The box's cardboard was light and sturdy and easy enough to cut with regular kids scissors. I cut off this little square, as you can see (sorry it blends with the wood floor).

You should make it as big enough as big as the one shown (enough room for the tetherball stand in the middle with about an inch left on the sides).

Tape it down on all sides and maybe even put double stick tape on the bottom for more backup and durability.

Here is the tetherball court all finished!

Yay! Payton is ready to have some fun with friends!