Material Required to Make a Hotel Bandbox: one large bandbox with its cover, the cover of another square bandbox that is larger. These make the building and its roof. A shallow box cover will make the roof over the front door. Two long pencils are pillars. The hotel is furnished with furniture cut from small boxes. Spools, lace-paper, pinwheel paper, bits of wall-paper, and the glacine paper covers from books may all be used.

Did you ever before hear of a dolls’ hotel? If you look at the picture of Hotel Bandbox, you will see one that may be made from a square hat-box. Its porch is a large hat-box cover. The building is a hat-box, smaller than this cover. The roof of the hotel is the cover of the hat-box itself.

Windows and front door are cut in the rims of the bandbox.

In starting to make a hotel, begin by marking off windows. Each window must be two inches wide and three inches high. It will help you to place windows evenly if you mark a horizontal line around three sides of your bandbox about three inches from the top of the box. Use a ruler, and make all marks as light as possible. They are only intended to guide you, and must be rubbed out after you have cut out the window spaces.

Below the line you have drawn, make another, three inches farther down the sides of the box. This line forms the base of windows.

Next, make the windows that come nearest each corner of the box. Measure two inches from each corner. This gives the right spacing from the corner. Measure two inches more on your horizontal line at the top of the building, and this will give the width of a window. Make the end windows first. Then make the ones that come between. Space evenly, so that windows may come at regular intervals. Cut out each window on all four sides. (For cutting a window, see Diagram One, A, page 166.) Arrange your lower story windows as you have the upper ones.

At the center upon the front of your building outline a large double door four inches square. It should come at the very base of bandbox. (To cut double door, see Diagram Two, B, page 167.) Cut its top line. Cut its base line. Cut the cardboard between these two lines in half vertically to make the door.

When windows and door are made, then you may paste some three-inch squares of glacine paper back of each window inside the box. The window-glass is made this way. If you like, you may leave some windows open.

The building is ready, now, to stand upon the larger bandbox cover. As you see, this makes a porch.

Place the smaller bandbox cover over the upper part of your hat-box to make a flat roof.

Over the front door you may make a flat roof. (See Diagram Three, G, page 172.) Use for it a narrow box cover. Glue one long rim of this cover to the cardboard over your doorway. Press a pencil point downward through each forward corner of the cover to make a pillar. The pencil points may be secured in the holes of two spools and thus keep the roof upright. If you wish, you may glue the spools where they should go.

Cut a narrow strip of cardboard and write the name of your hotel upon it. Glue this over the doorway.

Flower-stands for the hotel veranda are simple things to make. One spool will be needed for each flower-stand. Press the stems of some artificial flowers into the hole of the spool. If you have gilt paint, you can gild the stands. I painted mine with black water-color paint.

Penny dolls make guests for the hotel. They come already dressed, but you can take one or two of yours and dress them like men dolls. I inked mine. You can see them in the picture.

How are you going to play inside the hotel? If you look at the second picture of the hotel, you will see that it is the back of the box, and that each corner at the back of the box has been cut. When this is done, the back lets down. You can cut your hotel building this way. As you see, it may be closed up again, when you are not playing inside.

Partitions for downstairs rooms are made with two shoe-boxes—just their lower half is used. Cut the ends off each box. Place each lengthwise inside the hotel so that there is a space between them. This space forms the hotel hallway.

Cut a piece of cardboard to fit into your box and put it over the top of these two shoe-boxes. It forms the floor for the second-story rooms. Another shoe-box—or two, if you prefer—makes partitions for second-story rooms.

Doors may be cut in these partitions. (For cutting a single door space, see Diagram Two, A, page 167.)

Samples of wall-paper make good carpet for the hotel. You may cut it into squares to make rugs.

Window curtains may be made from tissue-paper or lace-paper.

The furniture, itself, is cut from very small boxes. Tables are made with spools.

The lower half of a small oblong box may be cut to form a chair by removing its rim, half-way around—beginning to cut the rim at the center of one long side of the box. The part from which the rim is removed is the back of the chair. Press its cardboard upward. The part that has the rim left upon it is the seat of the chair, and legs are cut at its two front corners and in each side at the rear. (See Diagram Six, C, page 177, for making a chair.)

Place a pill-box over an upright spool to make a table. Round pill-boxes make round tables. Square boxes make square tables. (See Diagram Six, DD, page 178.)

An oblong pill-box rested on its side will form a doll’s bureau. Mark off the drawers upon its front, and glue a strip of cardboard, upright, at its rear. Paint a mirror frame on the strip of cardboard.

Beds for the hotel chambers may be made of small oblong boxes and their covers. To make the upper part of the bed, cut off the long rims on each side of the cover. This leaves headboard and footboard to be glued to the lower half of the box when this has been turned over to rest upon its rims. At each corner of the lower half of the box, cut a leg for the bed to stand upon. Remove the cardboard from between each. (To cut bed, see Diagram Six, AA, page 175.)

Little dolls touring through Hat-box County stop at the hotel overnight. Drummer dolls, on their business trips to Boxville General Store, find comfortable accommodations at Bandbox Hotel too. As soon as the toy train stops at Boxville Station, you may see them making a bee-line for the hotel.

There are splendid accommodations at Hotel Bandbox. The meals are always good. You only need to pretend what the dolls want and then give it to them. Some want their steak well done and are very particular about it, but the waiter always does right and everybody is always satisfied. After dinner the guests take a walk over to Mirror Lake and watch the man who is fishing on the bridge there. Or else, perhaps, they sit on the hotel piazza and watch the people come to the Village square to get water at the town pump.