bodner072

       Covering the floors of your doll house may seem a tedious prospect if you believe that these must always be handcrafted by yourself.         In truth, the successful decorating of a doll's house may have more to do with your ability to reinterpret the use of items that are already in your actual home, objects such as placemats for example. Placemats come in all kinds of textured surfaces and are produced in a wide range of color combinations. Some of them are woven from grass, others are printed on cotton. If purchased from a department store, placemats come with finished edges too. Find the perfect placemat and you've found a Barbie sized rug that you need not alter in the least, unless you want to.         I have even found smaller bath mats in dollar stores that look exactly like sophisticated area rugs when displayed inside a doll's house.       ...

       This old, discarded jewelry box will fit into our doll's dining room perfectly. Our twelve inch dolls will love displaying holiday dinner selections on this upcycled, sideboard for all their friends to admire. The grey distressed paint on this pretend sideboard looks classy in a formal dining room setting too! How do you best determine which jewelry box will fit into your doll's house? Take a tape measure with you on your  shopping trip. A real sideboard and/or buffet stands approximately four to five feet tall, depending on the age and style of the piece. The jewelry box pictured here is approximatly 5 1/2 inches. So, my 11 1/2 inch fashion dolls look just fine standing next to it. It is a bit wide for an actual sideboard but I don't mind the extra width; I will have more  room for the display of dishes and food items in the end.        A sideboard, also called a buffet, is an item of furniture traditionally ...

A glass and brass vintage display box in the shape of a hexagon. Sometimes these were used for jewelry or as miniature terrariums in the mid 1970s.         I picked this vintage glass display box from the 1970s at a local Goodwill. I thought it would make a lovely sofa table in our doll's house. Little ones can display whatever treasure they think their dolls would enjoy inside of it.        I cut a clear plastic sheet, the same size of my box/sofa table by tracing around the top of the box with a marker and cutting out the shape  slightly smaller. Then, I hot glued the shells onto this plastic hexagon in order to keep them in place. When the dolls tire of their beach themed living space, their child mothers may change out the displays for something else like flowers or holiday decorations.        Some parents may believe that the fragility of such a item will not suit for a younger girl or bo...

This inflatable, Barbie pool with solid colored pool floats dates from the mid seventies. It is in excellent condition. The straw float craft is an easy one, but like most of the crafts included here, children need adult supervision to complete it.         Now is the time for having some fun in the sun with your dolls! Above is an inflatable pool and blue floats from my childhood collection. The straw floats with alternating colors are easy to make at home. But you will need adult supervision because these are melted together using a hot iron. Supply List: drinking straws parchment paper (to protect the iron and other surfaces from melted plastic) iron and ironing board scissors clear plastic bags (this will act as a layer of glue) Step-by-Step Instructions: Choose a pattern you would like for the pool floats. I alternated purple and green straws for one pool float and teal and red straws for the other. Heat up your iron to it's highest temperature, an...

Right, I trimmed my retro Christmas trees with old Mardi Gras beads. Right, The silver tree is trimmed in purple, pink and silver Mardi Gras beads and the gold tree is trimmed in red, green and gold beads. These beads add a professional looking, decorative touch to finish off this DIY Christmas project for Barbie's house.        Adding both sparkle and glamour to your doll's surroundings for the holiday season doesn't need to cost much. You can create these retro metallic Christmas trees from cast off supplies that you can find in your home.        I purchased the silver and gold stems from a dollar store and made my cone forms from a recycled cereal box!        Finish them off by upcycling Mardi Gras bead necklaces and the caps from the empty spray paint cans.  Supply List: silver and gold metallic chenille stems (one full bag each) large discarded, clean cereal box masking tape silver and gold metalli...

       Wire frames like these are easy to find in thrift shops. I paid less than a dollar for each of mine. These are just the right size for standard sized 12 inch fashion dolls. Some of my packages have removable lids so that little ones can fill them with real gifts come Christmas! We don't have any snow on the ground here in Missouri right now, so my garden evergreens will need to suggest the season. Supply List: wire sleigh and wire reindeer forms (found at resale shop) Christmas wrapping paper or Christmas scrapbook paper cherry red spray paint red wire gold beads small cardboard boxes Christmas Washi Tape Step-by-Step Instructions: Wash the wire shapes, the sleigh and reindeer, with warm soap and water. Let them dry completely in the sunshine. Place both in a scrap cardboard box to keep your work place clean. I spray paint in the outdoors only. Read the directions on the spray paint can and follow them carefully. Spray an even coat of paint. Let it d...

       Most people, perhaps, can recall from their childhood the pleasure of cloud-gazing. The clouds are such strange-looking things, they change their forms so quickly, they seem to be doing so many things, now slumbering lazily, now rushing wildly on. Cloudland is safe away from the scrutiny of fingers, so we never can be sure what they would be if we got to them. Some children take fright at their big, strange forms and their weird transformations: but a happy child that loves day-dreaming will spend many delightful hours in fashioning these forms into wondrous and delightful things, such as kings and queens, giants and dwarfs, beautiful castles, armies marching to battle, or driven in flight, pirates sailing over fair isle-dotted seas. There is a delicious satisfaction to young minds in thus finding a habitation for their cherished images. (To project them in this way into the visible world, to know that they are located in that spot before the eye, is...