What you need
- Braille font (you can download one for free here )
- piece of felt
- small nail
- paper
- computer and printer (optional)
- Microsoft Word or similar (optional)
How to write in braille
1. Download and install a Braille font, I used the one mentioned above2. Open Microsoft Word (this will be your work document)
3. Start typing all of your text (keep in mind that Braille needs nearly double the space)
4. Mark all your text and select Braille as font, size 20
(this will be really big but we will shrink it to 1/3 of the size later)
5. At the end of the Document (on a new page) create a Drawing Canvas
Insert -> Shapes -> new Drawing Canvas
6. Re-size canvas to be as large as the paper minus the margins
7. Select all braille text from first page and copy into Drawing Canvas
This will turn it into an image that we can flip
8. Right click into the Drawing Canvas and select Flip Horizontally to make a mirror image
9. After the text was flipped to a mirror image, copy the image
10 . Open another empty Word document which will be your final document
11. Paste the mirror image into the document
12. Repeat for remaining pages
13. Save final Word document, then also save it as a pdf file
14. Print pdf file with 9 pages per sheet (to shrink it to AG doll size), with borders
15. Cut out and lay first page on felt piece
16. Take small nail and dent each dot carefully (most of mine when through)
You can also download the sample I made. I took the description of the new Isabelle book
Download it here and save all the steps, just punch the dots with the nail.
You can also just hand write your own dots if you don't have access to Computer.
Just make sure you punch the dots in a mirror image !!!
I found this in
SO cool! I am going to try it for myself.
ReplyDeleteI love that you have items for dolls with disabilities. Too cool for girls who have disabilities themselves or know kids with disabilities. They want their dolls to reflect their lives. My daughter has several dolls with disabilities. Good job filling this gap in doll crafts!
ReplyDeleteikr i have a disability but its not major its just a learning disability and i like how the dolls can do that too if you want em too! Such a great idea! :)
DeleteOk I'm going to offer a bit of advice & a little lesson. Braille can be tricky & gets trickier the higher you go grade wise (1st grade braille has over 192 word contractions alone). Not everything is fully spelled out in braille (the pages & books would be 2x's as thick) & when you write braille, you write Right to Left (aka backwards) but read left to right. You don't actually need a nail, something a little less dull would work as you don't want to punch thru the paper, just make an impression. I would suggest going to BrailleBug to learn the finer points of braille.
ReplyDelete