Papa's Easy Chair

Dear Doll House Lovers,

You know me.  I cannot throw anything away without wondering:  what could this be used for?

So it was that I found myself holding an empty, clear-plastic clamshell case from which we had taken and used dust masks when we painted the kitchen.  The clamshell enticed me to pull out the scissors and glue gun. 

Enter Papa's easy chair.

I wish I had taken pictures of the process, but it was so spontaneous, I forgot!  Anyway, this is so simple, I think you can easily imagine the process as you see the pictures. 

The first step was to separate the clamshell into two pieces.  I only needed one side from it to make my chair.   I trimmed any edges that felt sharp or that stuck out beyond the simple round, concave piece that I needed.

I cut a rounded piece of quilted fabric from some scraps I had and did a large loop stitch around the outside edge of the fabric, just to help it lay flat and not look so untidy.

The piece of fabric was hot glued into the plastic shell.

Turning the chair over, there was a trough all the way around into which I hot-glued beads.  This gave a pretty trimming to the chair and also gave it sturdiness. 

What to do for legs?  Well, I keep a box of wooden "do-dads" including clothespins, and we have pulled from that many times to make our doll house furniture.  This was easy peasy!  Just attach the clothespins.  And they can be adjusted to let Papa recline or sit up taller!

I hope you enjoyed this most recent creation.  Now that I have a granddaughter here frequently, I am expecting the doll house to get lots of use.  And my daughter, Michaela, the little princess for whom it was all started, she is now 14 and able to pass along her making and playing skills to her little niece.

Don't forget to play!  And remember to keep things age appropriate and supervised.  Hot glue guns need supervision, and so do small pieces like beads, etc.

Lynn

Glad Greetings Cottage

I wanted to share with you the latest little house that's going to market.

Isn't it amazing, and fun, to see what can be made from old boxes and things that would otherwise go in the trash?

The cottage is called Glad-Greetings because of the little girl on the support column and her Glad Greetings.

Made from a cardboard box, this little cottage has wood floors, fabric walls and a beautiful lace "wall paper border." It comes with handmade furniture.

There's a fireplace in the corner, with a hearth and a little pot made from Sculpey and wire.

Cork and wire make for good curtain rods, and lace always makes pretty curtains.

The sleigh style bed boasts storage drawers underneath, of course covered in sparkles and with dainty wire-and-bead drawer pulls.




The little window sill is big enough for sitting things on, perfect for a little fairy who lives in the woods and collects things.


A chinese take-out container was cut in half and then covered in fabric to make two beautiful wingback chairs.





The containers were unused and probably would have ended up in the trash were it not for The Scrap Exchange.



I put in a little Kelly doll to illustrate the size of the furnishings.





A clock and little dishes made from Sculpey have started filling in the cupboard, made from a little gift box.




I hope you enjoyed your tour!

Enjoy this day.

Shoebox Dollhouse

This week I've worked on a really fun project as a gift for my mom. She makes the cutest little clothespin dolls ever, and I wanted to give her a place for them to "live" while we are selling at the farmer's market. Here are some of my mom's clothespin dolls. These are actually made from handmade "clothespins" that she carves from wood, so these are bigger than standard size, but she makes standard size too, just as cute!


Not long ago I purchased a pair of shoes for one of my sons. They came in a great shoebox! Sturdy! And the top was attached to the bottom so that it would open and close like a chest. I opened the box as far as it would go, so that the lid was sitting back on the bottom (still attached--I did not separate the top from the bottom) and it made a two-story doll house.

I hot-glued the top to the bottom so that I could then cover it with paper and decorate it!

I used color coordinated papers from my scrapbook supplies and glued on "wallpaper" and "carpet." To get the wallpaper just right, since the top had a curved edge (as you can see), I stood the box on end and traced around it to get the paper cut just right!

One of my favorite things about this is the Victorian feel and the very Victorian dresser! It has a mirror held up by two little cherubs and three little silk roses glued in front of the mirror.


Ahhh, the little fireplace. Michaela and I made a recent trip to The Scrap Exchange, and one of the items in the bins were a ton of these "leather" coasters. I cut some up in the shape of a fire place and hearth and hot-glued them on. The hearth portion of the fireplace is three layers deep to give it the appearance of a real hearth. The basket is made from Sculpey and filed with real wood. The fire is from a picture, Mod-Podged into place of course!


What an opulent little bed! I found that an herbal tea box is the PERFECT size to make a bed for a clothespin doll. The bed is actually made from two boxes, cut down and glued back to back so that it's open on the top and open on the bottom. The top got filled with old powder puff material from the scrap exchange. The headboard is made with heavy wire covered in bed and poked on each side through the box before hot-gluing on a pad, fabric, and a pillow.


There's even a seahorse watching over the little bed.

One of the finishing touches is a little key on the pretty Victorian dresser.


I had been turning over in my mind how to make a chair for a clothespin doll. Their legs don't bend, after all. I finally hit on an idea with something we found -- again -- at The Scrap Exchange.




You know the containers that things come in from gumball machines? The large containers? Well, I molded Sculpey around on to make a chair and then baked ONLY THE SCULPEY. Once the chair was baked, I pushed the little container down into the chair and hot glued into place. I trimmed the edges, one with ribbon and one with heavy cord.

So the dolls can truly sit IN their chairs! :)



The back of the box is Mod-Podged with pages from an old (falling apart) copy of Little Women. I can't wait to see what the shoppers think of the Clothespin Dolls' Shoebox Dollhouse.

Have fun creating!

Old Coupon Holder = New Doll House Bed

Michaela recently bought me a new coupon holder as a surprise and then together we cleaned out the old one. I was going to throw the old one away but Michaela wanted to keep it. My first thought was No! we have enough clutter already, but she said she could just picture something for the doll house. Well, that was enough for me!

When she took the dividers out of the old coupon holder and spread the coupon holder fully open, she pictured a fancy bed for the dolls! I could see it too.


As we are incorporating a Charlotte Mason education, this seemed the perfect opportunity to allow a personal interest to result in a handicraft. Michaela took the old coupon holder to her room and got to work.

She opened the holder and glued on support underneath to keep it open. She glued in very soft, furry fabric for the mattress. The dolls love it!

After the new bed was brought home, all the dolls went outside and got into formation for a family portrait. We think it turned out great.

Lynn and Michaela

Doll House Bookshelf

Bless their little hearts, my dolls are such book lovers! I knew I needed to find a way to make them a bookshelf for their doll house. When my husband tossed this into the trash can...

my mind raced to the doll house. This is the perfect size -- tall and narrow -- for making a bookshelf. I retrieved it and put it on my craft desk.



I cut it down to the size I wanted, making the depth and height the perfect size for our dolls and their doll house books. Some of the left-over pieces of the box were used to make shelves which were hot-glued into place.



I then used Mod-Podge to put into place some heavy pieces of scrap book paper, making a sort of veneer on the doll house bookshelf. One large piece, perfectly cut, slid in perfectly behind the shelves, on top of a layer of Mod-Podge, so that made the inside back of the doll house bookshelf.

To smooth the edges and give the doll house bookshelf more design I Mod-Podged little pieces of tissue paper around the edges.



I then started putting books in. Ooohh the little dolls had goosebumps when they heard about their new bookshelf!



See anything that appeals to you?


I think we would agree, this is the best corner of the doll house.

Making A Doll House Book

I've been wanting to make a little book for the dolls. One with actual pages. Thank you to Mommylion, a commenter who pointed out this mini book tutorial at Hitty Print Mini. It worked out great!

I printed the covers for the little doll house books from Hitty Print Mini and then used little strips of words cut out of a no-longer-useful book.

By the way, I am always looking for books at the thrift store that have beautiful pictures or words -- something that would be great for a doll house project, but is no longer readable. I would much rather reuse a book than to see it thrown away!

My children LOVED reading through these little doll house books. A word here or there that jumps out and makes them think of something historical!

Fun stuff. The little doll house bookshelf up next!

Lynn

The Beginnings of a Faery House

Faeries don't need huge houses, of course, being such tiny creatures. And faeries just love rustic, out-of-the-way places where no one would think to look for them, like this shelf I'm turning into a faery home for Princess of the Universe.

There is SO much more I've yet to add, but wanted you to see the first layers. A tree to hide under. Pink tissue paper Mod-Podged in for the base. A bird on each level. I'll post updates as I can. Princes of the Universe has not even seen this project yet. Shhh. It's a surprise.

I think this would be a great little shelf for her art desk -- to keep her inspired.

Lynn

Wall Papering The Doll House

Today my daughter and I wall papered the doll house (bookshelf) that had not yet been papered! This is something we have been wanting to do for a while. Yesterday we made a trip to the Scrap Exchange to pick up odds and ends, just perfect for doll house stuff. We left there with a roll of left-over wall paper. It's plain but fancy. You'll see what I mean.

First I measured the inside of each room: height and length around the three walls. Then I cut.

We used a paint brush to brush glue onto the walls inside the dall house, one room at a time, then we smoothed our wall paper into place.

The last thing we did was to draw beautiful doll house windows with our Prang colored pencils and art paper. We cut the windows out and "installed" one in each room of the doll house using Mod-Podge.

The window in the second picture is top is mine. I'll have to give you a close-up later. It's a delicate tree outside with a cardinal in it. My daughter's window, the one in the third picture, is lovely. I love it! There a "huge oak" outside, and a sunset.

Beautiful Baby Cradle

Not too long ago I found a sweet little baby cradle at the thrift store. There was no mattress, no veil -- just a plain plastic cradle. I knew we'd fix it right up! The picture above shows you the view from the baby's head end of the cradle. I cut this clear piece of material to fit loosely over, hemmed it, added some antique-looking ribbon trim and then put a snap closure so my daughter can close it snugly around the crib. Mosquitoes drive the dolls crazy sometimes.



When baby wakes up, the veil can easily be placed back out of the way.

The make this light, airy material hang down arond the cradle, we sewed on two pretty card decorations I had at my art desk.

The veil was placed evenly over the little post at the cradle top and hot-glued into place with just a small drop of glue. This little birdie was also hot-glued into place. The baby loves watching the little bird.

Baby, of course, sleeps in mommy and daddy's room. They want her close by.

Lynn

Homemade Doll House Dresser

I must say I am so pleased. I just had to share this. Sweet-pea and I sat down this evening and worked on a piece of doll house furniture -- a dresser. With a mirror and everything!



We used match boxes for the drawers. My husband carefully removed a mirror from a compact I had. Last night at work we had some excellent boxes that were going to be thrown out. They were heavy cardboard, but not corrugated. Very smooth and sturdy. Just right.

We cut out a "frame" from one end of a box, into which we could glue the drawers. Then we cut a piece of box to be glued onto the back. Finally, the mirror was glued into place. For the pulls on the drawers, we used a needle to punch holes (carefully now!) into two places on the front of each drawer. We took a little piece of raffia and drew it through and tied in the front.

Isn't it great?? ~:-D

Lynn

Fancy Doll House Vase

I have the best mom in the world. She just falls in and supports me and my sister when we decide to do something. A good lesson for me in raising my own daughter.



She found these cute little bottles and wrapped them up for my daughter for her doll house. The clear glass bottle looks like a great base for a doll house lamp. I am not sure about the other one yet. It looks like a lovely vase for foliage on a doll house hearth.

Looks good with guinea feathers, no?



Lynn

Doll House Fruit Bowl

Isn't this the most splendid fruit bowl ever? Thrifted. I think this was a cup of some kind. It probably went to some other type of toy set, but it makes a very royal-looking fruit bowl, and I am thinking that I can find some fruity-looking beads to go in it and make it look awesome.

Lynn

A Doll House Clock

Time flies. This adorable little thing I found for our doll house for 25 cents! And it reminds us of just how fast time flies!



This little item is supposed to be a Christmas ornament, but it makes a perfect doll house accessory. My daughter and I put this in the doll's kitchen (attached with some sticky tack like is used to hang posters). It gave us a chance to talk about how quickly time passes. She nodded as she played. I shared the thought that because time passes so quickly we need to be extra careful how we spend it.



Another little topic that came up was having enough blankets in the house. I said Oh, we need more blankets! We talked about having a blanket chest and plenty of blankets, in case you have company. I know that's certainly the case in real life. Now I suppose we need to sew some little quilts and put them in a shelf. I'll be on the lookout for a makeshift shelf.

Lynn