A handmade doll house. Not the beautiful dainty ones from kits you can find at craft stores...I know that even while Little Miss Corynn is a MATURE four, she is still only four and I want her to be able to play to her hearts content without me worrying that she might break something.
This doll house is going to be about 3 1/2 feet high and will look similar to a bookcase...except there will be doors in the front making it appear to be more like an armoire. My hope is that the doors will keep MY house looking less cluttered while containing HER house.
Matt is in charge of building the actual house and he hasn't yet started that project. SOON, I hope!
My end of the bargain is to FURNISH and decorate the inside of the house, furniture and people. I am going to be doing so by MAKING and CREATING lots...and hopefully buying very little.
I have been looking at all the dollhouse accessories available and mentally evaluating if I can recreate those things at home. I am still not entirely sure I can do some furniture but I have a good start on the accessories!
Since this is a crafty project and it just so happens to be Friday, I finally have all my ducks in a row to participate in Sew Crafty Friday. Since I am showing and telling, I thought I might also participate in Show and Tell Friday. The proverbial two birds with one stone. :-) To participate yourselves...just follow the links in the text.
Now, to begin...
A house just isn't a home if it doesn't have plants. That is what my mom always used to say and I have adopted the motto now that I am a Mama. So, for any house to be a home-even a doll's home-it must have plants!
Using a small wooden pot and some green felt and a dab or two of hot glue, I made a few DARLING plants. The best part is that they are tactile and durable...even the Panda can get in on the fun!
And a large house needs several, to be sure!
The family in residence is certainly going to have a lot of children, knowing Corynn's love of babies. What child's room is complete without a play table? Certainly a must in any home! ;-)
A thin wooden circle and some miniature letter blocks will do quite nicely for that.
Now, Mama's need certain little luxuries too! For Mama's dresser, I made a few bottles of perfume and lotion.
These were made simply by hot-gluing some small gold beads onto the tops of larger beads. Or in the tall ones case, a crystal. I would suggest (as I found out) that only wide ended beads be used-so they can be set up and stand fast! :-)
There are many more plans swirling about my head.
From Fabrics: crocheted rugs, pillows, blankets, curtains, lampshades. Sofa.
From clay: I am going to try my hand at making some doll food!
From wood: furniture. EEK. This is where is gets hard!
Paintings on the wall, a table and chairs, plates for the table.
These are the 'plans' I have and I will share my progress as it is made-on Fridays. Don't be surprised if you see lots of Future Friday postings on this subject!
Now I ask you a favor.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for things I could make for Corynn's dollhouse, I surely would appreciate anything you have to offer!
22 comments:
How absolutely charming! I love doll houses and minatures. What a wonderful surprised for your little one on Christmas morning.
I had quilled minature pots and plants for a tiny project I made for my folks years ago. I got the pattern idea from Lake City Crafts. If you go to their website, www.quilling.com you may find something you can use. Even though it's made from paper, it's actually pretty sturdy. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. BTW you were my 500th commentor. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Ginny
Love the 'pretties' for momma's dresser! That is just too clever, and very bright, cheerful and feminine.
I'm charmed by the entire idea! She will cherish this gift for MANY years to come, I am sure.
You could check at local stores for wallpaper sample books that are outdated. If I think of anything more, I'll let you know. I'll also consult Autumn, who is great in this area!
How awesome!
How clever! She will have such fun playing with this--I know I would!
Doll houses are so fun and special for the entire family. We made one of the large, 3 story kits, for our granddaughter years ago. Took us 3 years to make it!!! She will soon be 22!
Susan
There HAS to be a bunting somewhere in the house. Easy peasy...paper or fabric triangles glued to a thin ribbon?
Love your idea of the house. I have wanted to make something similar for the grands to enjoy at mimi's house.
Cool idea and the neat thing about it is you can add to it seasonally or yearly--whatever! My daughter had a old metal one that she displayed her bear collection in--but when she got older she didn't want it and we gave it away! I like the fact you are making yours so it won't look cluttery!!--good idea.
Oh, my...those are darling! I haven't the dexterity for little projects like those! Good job!
Momma
I'm so glad you're doing Sew Crafty Friday. Shereen is such a doll and I want to see this grow BIG for her!
Your little dollhouse doodle-dads are just too darned cute!
Very neat! My daughter sure enjoys playing with her doll house.
Oh how fun!! I always wanted to do a dollhouse. I never had a daughter but hopefully some day I will have a granddaughter to do this kind of thing with or for.
What a wonderful gift! Corynn is going to LOVE it! I haven't made any furniture for ours, but I made the curtains, bedspreads, rugs (fabric cut with pinking shears), art work (small pictures from magazines with ribbon trim glued around the edges for the frames). I even made a small kite for the little boy using scrapbook paper, toothpicks and embroidery floss!
Here are a few pictures!
http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/2006/08/our-victorian-dollhouse.html
I hope these ideas help!
Kelli
You are so incredibly creative! My daughter found the coolest doll house at a garage sale (here in Scottsdale) for...get this...$5. She and hubby and son (5 years) painted and touched up the whole thing for Ivana's BD. Here's the link to check it out..http://youthpastorsfam.blogspot.com/2007/11/home-makeover-dollhouse-edition.html
But...all this to say, I so enjoyed your recipe site, took a peek here and you have such hidden treasures! i'll definitely come back! blessings...
I love that you are making your DD a doll house. I love the plants and your other plans. I can't wait to see more.
Oh this is going to be precious! Precious and playable, of course.
Mari-Nanci
The cute plants and the perfume bottles made me think you could use similar shapes and make little lamps... Just invert the plant pots (not sure what size would work as it's hard to tell from the picture what would be to scale) and paint it. then you could use a large bead (glass, ceramic, painted wooden one) for the base of the lamp. Maybe even dangle down a little pull chain of some sort for 'turning on' the lamp.
Depending on your scale, matchboxes make nice little drawers and endtables, though not super sturdy...
I'll be thinking, I was always making dollhouse stuff when I was a kid. What are you doing for the family? No ideas, just wondering. Sponges( brand new never been wet) are good for couches, chairs and beds. I think for a fire place, we glued pebbles to macaroni and cheese boxes that were cut in half and painted brown. Oh, and hot glueing a screw on toothpaste cap to a marble, and gluing the marble to a button makes a good lamp.
I'll try to look through what doll house stuff I still have, and if anything looks helpful, I'll post pictures.
What Fun!
I should read more carefully, I missed that the furniture will be wood. That said, I have wooden doll house furniture that came from a kit, and even though it is put together, it should be pretty easy to trace the parts for patterns if you are interested. Some the pieces are out of proportion to each other ( i.e. sitting in the arm chair means the side table comes up to your chin), but it would be pratty easy to fix that with a copy machine buy resizing the paper pattern pieces.
Let me know if you are interested, or would like to see a picture of the pieces.
Mrs. Bonnie
So Far, So Very Good!!! Corynn is absolutely going to love this!
Hope all is ok, with no new entries here, in a while...
Happy Thanksgiving.
Mari-Nanci
Such a cool idea. I've seen giant, wooden dollhouses in upscale toy stores, but since we wouldn't have the money or the room (or if we did have the money, wouldn't be able to justify spending so much on a dollhouse), I've enjoyed window shopping instead.
What a blessing to have a husband who has woodworking knowledge, and what a blessing for Corynn to have a mama with a creative vision!
This will be a wonderful gift, and it's one that can easily be a work in progress, too-- one that you continue working on and embellishing as she grows.
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