Making a nice shelf for your dollhouse

You will need to cut two pieces of wood, one for the back wall and one for the shelf.  The wood that I’m using came from a white wooden blind.  Just because the blind doesn’t work anymore doesn't mean you can't use the wood, you can use it for crafts.

I love this magazine, you can get so many pictures out of it. I’m going to cut some pictures out of this magazine.  Best of all the company will send you one of these catalogs for free all you need to do is ask for one. The request catalog button is just on the bottom of their site.

I saw this picture of pink flowers and thought, "I will use that".

In this picture you can see that using mod podge I glued the picture onto the back wall, then I used a black permanent marker to draw some black designs and a border around the picture.

Next thing you do is glue the shelf onto the back wall piece.

I glued on some small glass jars which you can find in the nail polish area of a store.  Inside the jars are sprinkles for your nails.  I also use these jars for making "spices" for in my dollhouses.  I have a post on how to make them in my blog too. In the middle is a small bunny glued down for Easter. 

Here is the shelf on the wall, I glued it to the wall.  The mirror above it used to be part of a cheap cameo necklace I took off the cameo, which I use for another project and use the back piece for a mirror.  Don’t pass up those cheap cameo necklaces, you can use them like this.  Use your imagination and it will soar!

Making a bamboo floor for your dollhouse

In this picture you will see a bamboo placemat. They are also sometimes advertised as sushi mats. When using a placemat like this, after measuring for the size you need. Tape on both sides of the mat, you will be cutting it else the placemat will fall apart.  So in the picture you will see the tape. I leave this tape on the item you won't be able to see it. It will be on the underside.  You can cut this with regular scissors.  Placemats make beautiful flooring and a lot of them look like real wood floors in a dollhouse.

In this picture you can see what it looks like once you glue it down with tacky glue.

Making a beauty and the beast themed room in a dollhouse

If you look at this picture you can see the attic, the room is very blah.  I decided to make it a beauty and the beast room.

I printed these pictures off the internet under google searching painted mural ceilings.  I am going to paint the ceiling a dark purple color and glue these on both sides of the ceiling.

I also looked up stained glass windows for beauty and the beast. I printed out a lot of these. I'm using them for the back wall in the attic area you will see this in the pictures.

In this picture you can see the purple ceiling and the picture that I mod podged on the ceiling.  After the mod podge dried I put a coat of mod podge over top of the picture to seal it.  I also used some chess pieces for statues that I lined up going down the sides of the attic area.  In beauty and the beast beauty was looking at statues down the hallway on the way to her room.  I also looked up what the floor looked like in the movie and painted a little different floor like the one in the movie.

This is the attic on the other side of the room.  As you can see I did the same thing on this side.  I also added some figures.  The purple decorative looking fence is from a plastic barbie dollhouse that someone threw in the garbage.  Never turn your back on any type of dollhouse that is broken there are many pieces you can take apart and use.

If you look at the back wall you can see how I used the stained glass panels. I mod podged them on the back wall spaced like windows.  I painted with black paint triangle looking designs to give the panels a different look.  I also added a little statue of a castle by the back wall.  You can make any room in a dollhouse a theme.  Use your imagination and it will soar!

Making beautiful wainscoting with playing cards and popsicle sticks

This is what the room looked like when I first started. A nice blank canvas to work on. I just gave it a quick coat of any color paint.

I then decided to use these playing cards, I liked the design.

In this picture you can see what the room looks like now.  I started next with the door and glued down one card on the bottom next to the door on the left side of the picture.  Next I use hot glue and glued down one popsicle stick next to it the same height as the card.  Then I lay a card down and used tacky glue, then another popsicle stick.  I did this all around the room, sometimes you might have to cut the cards to fit different areas. Like under the windows, I simply turned the cards sideways and also cut them to fit the area.  After I finished this part the next thing I did is to make a border around the top edges of the cards using popsicle sticks. After you make this border go all the way around, you then add one more border around the area where you can see the gap between the card and the top border.  Hopefully you will understand with the pictures.

Another view.

And another view. Use any playing cards you want, use your imagination and it will soar!

Making bottom trim for a dollhouse

This is the room that I need trim for on the bottom of the walls.

All you need are scrabble pieces and popsicle sticks. You can find old Scrabble games at garage sales or flea markets for cheap (usually missing a few pieces). 

 The first thing you're going to do is glue the scrabble pieces down around the bottom of the walls. When you get to an area that the whole scrabble piece won't fit you are going to need to cut it down. In the next photo I will show you the tool that I use.

This will be your favorite tool, it cuts fantastic, the best part is you can buy it online.  I cut the scrabble pieces down with this if I need to. It'll cut through quite a few materials and items that are otherwise difficult to cut.

In this picture I also added popsicle sticks over the scrabble pieces on the bottom touching the floor. It makes for pretty good bottom trim.  I then painted over the whole thing with paint that I mixed with crafting sand that children use at carnivals.  This way, it fills in small openings and gives texture to the bottom trim.  So if you don't have money for trim, make your own its cheaper. Use your imagination and it will soar!

Making an optical illusion floor for a dollhouse

The first thing you need to do is go on Google images and find a picture that you like for the floor this is the picture I found.

The next thing is to glue the picture down on the floor. Take note of the colors that are in the picture. Start blending colors together and make the colors lighter and darker, you can see in the next picture what I did.  There are many 3d looking images on Google check them out and remember use your imagination and it will soar!

How to make miniature records

First you will need some plastic, I will cut it to the size I need.  I like the plastic that you get pastry items in at ShopRite. The plastic can be seen in the photo.

I then use a poker chip to make circles for the records out of the plastic.  The picture shows a poker chip that I made perfume bottles on it.  I used it just to make the circles so I didn’t have to go to my craft room.

I am showing you the tool I used to make scratch marks on the records.  You can use anything that you can make scratch marks with.

Next you will see the plastic circle with the scratch marks I made on it.

I then painted it black, and after it dried I painted a circle in the middle with red paint.  Then you add a small black circle in the middle for where the record gets put onto the record player.

I used these records for on a wall in a music room I made in a dollhouse, it can be seen in this photo.

Just use your imagination and it will soar!

How to make curtain rod holder for dollhouse

All you need is two paper fasteners for one rod to hang up.  Best yet when you use these types of curtain rod holders you can change the curtains.

The first thing I did was take pliers and bend the paper clips into a shape that the curtain rod can be held into it.  You will be hot gluing these two paper clips to both sides of the window spaced to hold both ends of the rod.  You will be hot gluing the gold circle to the window.

In this picture you can see where I hot glued the paper clips on the window trim. The curtain rod will fit right into the u areas.  Then I bend the paper clip upward to make sure the rod stays in place.  This is easy to do and you can change the curtains easily.

In this picture you can see my curtains hanging up.  The valance part above the window, I just glued a piece of the material to a coffee stirrer stick and hot glued it on top.

Here is the link to the blog post where I make the curtains for the windows!

How to make beautiful shutters for a dollhouse from a magazine

This is the magazine that I found a beautiful stained glass hanging piece.  You can get this catalog for free, you can go on their site and sign up for one, here. The request catalog option is on the bottom right of their page.

This is the item I found and made copies of from the magazine.

Next, I took thin pieces of wood and cut out pieces the same size as the pictures.  Then I used mod podge to glue the pictures onto the wood pieces.

This is the mod podge I used as well as the thin pieces of wood. You can also use cardboard if you don’t have some thin wood lying around.

This is what they look like once they are glued down onto the wood. I also put on a layer of mod podge over the picture to protect it.

You can see in this picture how beautiful these shutters look on both sides of the windows.  These pictures were out of the magazine.  There are many things in this magazine and other magazines that you can make copies of the pictures and use the pictures for making framed pictures for in a dollhouse, shutters etc.  use your imagination and it will soar!

How to make fake bricks on dollhouse chimney

Here is the fireplace chimney I’m going to make into fake brick.

 The first thing I did was paint whites lines on the chimney making the lines as wide as I want my bricks to be.

The next thing is to draw lines going up and down for the length of the bricks.  Make sure you stagger the lines from one line to the next as you can see in the photo.

You do this all the way down the chimney and this is what it will look like. 

This is another view of the chimney.  You can use this technique for different items.  Use your imagination and it will soar!

How to make a "stone wall" for a dollhouse

You will need these types of egg cartons or any type of cardboard that resembles this cardboard.  I cut out the cardboard to make easier pieces to work with.  You need to cut out stone looking pieces out of this cardboard.  I cut out circles of different sizes and off shapes.

Using the tacky glue to glue the circles onto the areas that you want to texture like stone. On the left you can see what it looks like with them glued on and on the right after they are glued on and painted. The background color is a lighter gray than what the "stones" are painted.

In this picture you can see it all painted with the gray. Now for the detailing on the stones.

I use a piece of aluminum foil so I can mix the colors together, it also makes for an easy cleanup.

The first color I use is I mix the gray with a little dark brown.  Using a hard bristle paint brush, the kind you use for stenciling. I dab this color on the stones,  make sure you don’t put a lot on the brush use the amount that you would use if you were stenciling.  I smear the color on the aluminum foil to get it thin layer to dab.  Once that color is on the stones I add a little black to that color and do the same thing all over.  However dab the colors in different areas, not a lot small amount; you want it thin not thick.  Once you added this color in take your paint brush and wash it out.  I use the same paint brush for the next part.  Take the color white dabbing a small amount each time when your running out and using a small amount on your paint brush and in a circular motion blend the white over top of the colors on the stone to get that blended in stone look.  You can use different colors for different color stones use your imagination and it will soar!