Props for doll photography

This is an area where I'm still learning, but I still have some ideas to share for finding props for doll photography.

Obviously there is plenty of doll-sized furniture to be had. My mom has some of her childhood doll furniture from the 1950s, and I plan to use it as props in some of my shots. Nowadays there are all kinds of other things you can get, though, from Re-Ment rooms (little display rooms that you can decorate and furnish yourself) and Re-Ment miniature food, to every little accessory you can think of.

I personally like the free or homemade kind of prop, because I spend enough on my dolls that I don't really have much money to spend on accessories too. One source of props that I've found for bigger dolls (such as 16-inch Madame Alexander Elise) are gift card wrappings. For instance, this year Whole Foods has a miniature paper shopping bag for putting gift cards in, and a few years back Old Chicago had miniature cardboard pizza boxes. You can see both of these used as props in my last post.

Homemade props are good, too. See the bed in the last picture of my last post? I made the quilt and pillow for that bed (it had a really ugly quilt on it originally), and I plan to also make a dust ruffle and mattress for it. I've been recycling old clothese for these projects: the quilt and pillow are made out of old flannel pajama pants that ripped at the waist, and I'm planning to use a white eyelet lace blouse (also damaged) for the dust ruffle. A couple of my husband's old white T-shirts will probably be sacrificed for the mattress.

I've also been scouring free sources such as Freecycle.org for things I can use as props. Just the other day I got an 18-inch Christmas tree, which I will use for holiday photos with my bigger dolls. I'm also looking for things such as wallpaper, which I can use to create realistic-looking backgrounds for my dolls.

Like I said, I'm pretty new at this prop thing, but I'm getting some great ideas from other doll collectors and from my own imagination. I'd love to hear suggestions from my readers. What do you like to use as props?