Getting Bigger...

Christmas Room

Time for a holly jolly dolly Christmas...
Minding my own business, strolling through the downtown outdoor booths in Santa Marta, I spotted some wooden doll furniture. Making Josh translate for me, I bought two little rocking chairs, a stool that I decided to use for a table, and two other little stools. We decided that these could be used in the Christmas room we were planning.
So- first we needed a fireplace. Folded poster board covered with handmade "bricks" of polymer clay. It's not really sturdy, and had I to do it over again, I don't think I'd do it this way...but we live, we learn. Next we, need a Christmas tree. How the heck?? I trash talk Walwart- I admit it- but I would've loved to just run in and buy a mini tree. But no sucha thing round this coal mine. So it's back to felt. I made a cone shape, sewed it together on one side, and stuffed it with wadded up toilet paper. (I'm here to tell you- there are no real craft supplies around here.)
A card sent from home had some confetti type stars and snowflakes, and those and some beads did an ok job for ornamentation.
A Christmas magazine from a elementary classroom pile provided some ads that worked as wrapping paper, and the paper store here had some tiny bows for the gifts. The "rug" in front of the fireplace is an ad for some sort of lip gloss.
Add a couple felt pillows- also stuffed with toilet paper- and a scrap of red for the rug- throw in a little stocking made of felt. Not such a bad little Christmas room. My fav so far.

Game Room

Dolls get bored. They start wandering around the dollhouse thinking, "What next?" So we decided for those moments- they needed a little recreation area. Our main inspiration came from a magazine advertising a hotel with a game room, using that and then using a advertising catalog for paint and decorating tips- purloined from Lowes back home in Indiana- we cut out the items for the back wall. The circles that decorate the walls are also from paint chip samples- useful...and free.
We decided on a small window for this room with a nice scalloped valance. And then see that picture framed on the right hand wall? One day the cable/telephone came to check out our line and this oblong plastic piece was left behind. I hold it up and say to Shea, "Does this look like a doll-sized picture frame to you?" To which she shrugged and looked at me blankly. Interpreting this as an affirmative answer, it became a picture frame. I like it. It adds dimension.
What else? Pool table- covered mac and cheese box. Maybe we eat too much pasta.
Also pieced together cardboard put together to look like a skee ball table. Let me just go on record as saying those circles were a bear to glue.
There was, in this room, for about an hour, a nice glittery disco ball hanging from the room ceiling. Just a styrofoam ball covered in silver glitter. Not attached well, and the disco ball crashed to the floor quicker than you can say "Bee Gees."
A couple of vintage pieces are also artfully installed in this room. The small brown dresser in the middle of the back wall and the teeny, tiny little table over to the side. We have several mismatched vintage plastic pieces in our extra pieces collection, none of which really work with the sizes of our dolls- but Shea doesn't seem to care, and none of the dolls have mentioned it, so I guess it's all good.

Sprawling Manor? I think yes.

Next photo shows our newly installed game room, small pool off the kitchen, and lovely garden balcony on the third floor.
We used a shoe box lid for the small pool and cut little pieces of pools and water scenes from mags to glue to the bottom. The garden is a felt tree and a scrapbooking sticker (sent on a birthday card from home) stuck to the outside of the boxes, posterboard fence and egg carton chairs- two cups, cut and glued back to back-painted white. We used a green felt bit for the floor of the balcony.
Also visible here, is a couple of windows on the sides of the rooms. I have a vague notion to add a roof someday, but I don't know if it will happen if we keep adding rooms.

Bath- HOT, HOT Pink

So our dolls have decided it is high time for a bath. We used the Styrofoam packing from an iron. It was a good find. We painted it the only pink we had, and added a felt pink towel for the side. The bathroom sink is a yogurt lid carefully inserted into folded cardboard. The toilet, again, masterfully folded cardboard and toilet tissue rolls. I have to admit, I am a little proud of the little tissue box- slitted and pink tissue from the birthday party paper, carefully pulled through. The perfume bottle and hair dryer are both left over Barbie pieces and everything else is magazine cutouts.

Ok, now we have a house that takes a whole corner of the room.
A couple of new things in it- a table, cardboard covered in felt and paper towel roll trimmed and painted white in the upper dining room. Also see a sleeping bag has been added to the living room floor- because we don't have enough beds???
Also in the purple bedroom- we have added a floor length mirror. Posterboard with a folded piece glued on back so it is free-standing, with a piece of aluminum foil for a reflective surface, and mini amethyst rhinestones (scrapbooking stickers from home) in a row at the top to give the room that little princess edge.
And we keep adding furniture to existing rooms- proof positive that I have hoarding tendencies that manifest in the miniature world. One day they will have one of those reality tv shows about the the cleaning out of Shea's dollhouse.

Bedroom #3

I can't find the original close-up photos of this room, so I'm using a pic from now. But this room, complete with twin beds made from juice boxes and poster board, is done in a shocking green and pink combo. It looks out on a lovely pool and neighboring home.
I found the dresser looking thing in a shop in Maico about 2 hours from the mine. It was a little art type shop that had unpainted items that you could purchase and paint there. This piece was intended to be a little jewelry type box. I painted the box in the shop and then decorated the rest of the room to fit the piece. The rug came later and I wove it together with little scraps of felt. The other pieces are odds and ends, a Tinkerbelle piece, Lalaloopsie, My Little Ponies, and Zoobles. (Note how furniture keeps moving from room to room.) The curtains are a cellophane bag and hung on a drinking straw.

Den and Living Room Loft

So, anyhoo, our next box was huge. Too big for one room, so I had the brilliant idea of trying to make it into two rooms by using a folded box lid and gluing it in. Not my brightest idea- but it sorta worked. I thought if we had a column it would support the weight- and it does, but it just gets in the doll's way. They don't like it. The column is a Shea-painted paper towel roll. The shelves, which were originally intended to be library-ish are a knock off Barbie box, and a mac n cheese box. Both covered in felt scraps. The shelves generally hold a hodge podge of toys and trinkets, often Squinkies. A few Puppy in My Pockets have come to check out the room.
The lamp is a folded piece of cardboard and Shea-painted bright blue. The lamp shade, a disposable plastic shot glass- which did not hold paint. We have a brown trash can looking thing from who knows what set.
Up in the loft, the carpet is a piece from the cardboard box back. It was the back of the fore-mentioned set bought for the kitchen...I used the heck out of that box. The purple couch- two pieces of Sytrofoam glued together and covered with felt. It is obviously a comfy couch- for we see the Lalaloopsie resting peacefully. Tiny blue treasure chest looking thing sits beside the couch.

Kitchen

The kitchen is not one of my favorite rooms. I'm not sure why. I found the set at a street vendor and managed to figure out my pesos and bought it for a birthday present. Maybe the color? I don't know. The wallpaper is wrapping paper from the birthday party. The table- made from a box top covered in pink felt and plastic forks for legs. Not terribly sturdy and has since been replaced. The white chairs- cut toilet paper rolls with felt covered circles for seat cushions. We have also accentuated the kitchen decor with a nice, traditional Little Tykes chair. Hot pink felt curtains, perfect for any doll kitchen.

Bedroom #2

Our dollhouse is ever-evolving. We change, restack, re-arrange. It's kind of a beautiful thing. I'd like to be able to do this in my real place- want the bed in the living room for a while? Sure thing. Want the kitchen moved closer to the bedroom for late night snacking? No problem.
Here is the 2nd bedroom- regal purple felt spread and rolled pink felt pillow. Made of a mac and cheese box.

Dining Room

Dining Room- Have I mentioned how much I liked the 2 page spreads in decorating magazines? They fit beautifully in the back of the box. A little minor trimming and presto- a little depth to your room. Automatic furniture.
Here we have chosen our Lalaloopsie chairs and a Little Pet Shop box of some sort for a pop of color. We selected royal blue felt drapes glued to a drinking straw and there ya go. Dine in style.

Bedroom #1

Not much to say about the mini bedroom. I do love the Lalaloopsie bed here. Who wouldn't want to sleep in this bed? It has candles for bedposts- how cool is that? The circle window was already there in the box, so we just went with it. And Shea picked the furniture, vase and flowers, and assorted decorations from magazines.

Living Room

First thing we have to have, obviously, is a living room. I brought some supplies with me, a couple magazines, a few ribbons, a stack of assorted felt (invaluable), some art paper. How many times did I wish I'd brought my glue gun? About 7637 times- but who counted.
We scavenged some Styrofoam. I used a Veranda magazine and picked some room backgrounds. Shea had a good time looking through some magazines for furniture bits and pieces and the gluing began.
The couch- way too long for the room, but we were just getting out feet wet here- out of the scavenged Styrofoam (from packing material I believe) and we chose a lovely orange felt and cut and glued and covered.
Shea used a campfire- something left from a Barbie? Moxie Girls? Bratz? camp set as an open pit fire place. And in this picture we have a blue smooshy chair- about Barbie size. She also added a cute little Lalaloopsie table. Our dollhouse is absolutely not built to scale. We aren't picky, we choose from all girl toy groups.

First pictures

So I learn to say box in Spanish (caja) and the very nice man in the office smiles and gives me paper boxes- the lovely useful, sturdy kind with a lid. And so it began.

Should have started sooner...

So, I've decided to create a blog about the dollhouse that Shea and I are slowly creating- mostly for Annie Ertel. We've had such a good time doing creating this doll house, and it has been such a hit with all Shea's friends, that I want to have a place to show it off. I'm a show-off, plain and simple. Plus Annie wants to see pictures. And I want to make Annie happy.
We started this project about 6 months ago when we moved to Columbia for a two year stint teaching. I promised Shea then, when faced with the dilemma of what toys to pack when we needed space for other things, that we would create this dollhouse. She left behind various and assorted Barbie houses, Fairy houses, Little Pet Shop Sets, My Little Pony sets- the big things simply couldn't come. Not when we needed sheets. The idea, we'd make this dollhouse out of things that were available, and just pitch it when it was time to come back to the States.
Therefore we searched her room for things that were small and would work for furnishings, packed some Pets, and Barbies, and a LaLaLoopsie or two, and away we went. After a week or two we were ready to start...