Putting up the Christmas Tree

Fall Cleanup

Here's a look at the dolls cleaning up the fall leaves and getting ready to put up the Christmas decorations.

These darn lights!  Every year they're a tangled mess!

Happy Thanksgiving!

On a whim, I found a tutorial on how to make a Thanksgiving dinner.  Check it out at www.mysmallobsession.com.  It was super easy and fast!  It sure looked funny in the oven.

The incredible shrinking turkey
Ha ha, just kidding!   I made it for the dollhouse.

Gretel and Vivien fixing their Thanksgiving dinner
Mmmm.  Looks good!

Now the dollies have their very own turkey dinner!

Time to carve!  They also have a delicious looking pumpkin pie for dessert.

Fall Landscape

Just built!

This is a professional dollhouse building project I did for a client.  It's the Apple Blossom by Walmer which is very similar to the Cherrydale that I own.  The first floor was partially built so I completed the building and completely finished the inside to the owners specifications.  Here it is!

Hutch Makeover

 Michael's hutch BEFORE

Pie safe AFTER

Here are pictures of a Michael's Hutch that I made into an antique pie safe.  I entered it in a Trash to Treasure Hutch contest on my Yahoo group.  Everything is made from stuff laying around. I staged it to look like a picture of a real pie safe I saw online.  I hope I win!

Just Sold!

A true 70's dollhouse by Skil-craft, no longer in business

Needs some freshening up on the outside and the door needs to be built

I just sold this Williamsburg Dollhouse today.  Hope the new owners enjoy it!  This was a Freecycle item I got this spring that was already built.  Here are the before pictures. All of the furniture was included in this kit, so everything had to be built.  There is real tile in the kitchen.  As you can see, there was a lot of old contact paper that needed to be removed.
Here are the after pictures of the house with fresh paint, new wallpaper, curtains, all handmade furniture, and carpeting and floors installed.

Kitchen with "stainless steel" appliances, hanging cabinet and eat in dining space, living room with the couch I made from Jennifer's tutorial, bathroom has a condiment cup in the vanity sink (all the molded plastic pieces that originally came with the kit were missing...bummer), a shell for the toilet bowl, and a Victorian style tub made from a  detergent scoop, added a plant to the planter in the hall, added fabric, foam and pillows for the beds, kids play room upstairs has a play table, toy box and rocking horse

Ah, much better!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July from Gretel and Vivien!  As you can see, they had a fine barbecue on their new grill and even had sparklers on the sidewalk!  (Thanks to a little Photoshop magic...)  Life is good in the dollhouse!

Summer Garden

I have been wanting to make a summer vegetable garden for the dollhouse for some time.  I don't know why I get inspired and crank out several projects at once after weeks of doing nothing.  Tutorial as follows:

Get a scrap piece of wood or cardboard.  I used a 4 inch by 4 inch square that was unused from a previous dollhouse assembly.  It had a tab on it that I cut off and sanded.  Cardboard would probably be just as good.

This is my wood drawer!

I had this wooden fence that I bought with a bunch of other stuff from a garage sale. I knew I only wanted it on two sides so I hot glued it on with some little balsa wood posts in between.

I bought a couple of these packs of small aquarium plants to use for the foliage.  

So I pulled the branches off and cut some in half.  The long ones will be tomato plants and the short ones will be peppers. 

This plant looks perfect for a stalk of corn.  I glued a little raffia to the top.

 Next, I made the veggies from Sculpey clay and baked it in the oven.

Hot glue the vegetables to the leaves.  They are really starting to come together!

Here are the finished corn stalks put into place with clay just to see how they look.

Next, hot glue all the plants into place.  Corn in the back, then tomatoes, then bell peppers and hot peppers in front.  I was going to make some cabbages or something, but these turned out to be the easiest to make.

Paint on some white glue and sprinkle some dried used coffee grounds for the dirt.

Looks really cool!

 I was going to make a scarecrow, but it didn't work out this time.  The dolls need a rake, a shovel and maybe some garden hats or aprons.  More projects to come!

Shout Outs/Disclaimer

I just added some of my favorite dollhouse links.  These folks are the movers and shakers--the heavy hitters of the online miniature world in my opinion.  I'm sure they would notice tons of things I have directly copied from them!  I am really not all that creative.  I've just used the hard work and great ideas of many others!  Thanks to you all for your inspiration!

Springtime in the Dollhouse landscape

The dollies are busy gardening.  The wisteria, daffodils and irises are in full bloom.  I made the flowers, the tools, wheelbarrow (you'll probably recognize the side pieces that came from an unused spiral staircase from a kit dollhouse), watering can, bag of potting soil, and garden gloves.  I love posing the dolls doing different activities for the seasons.  

Laundry Room in a Detergent Box

I decided to try this project after seeing Chris P.'s on her website Chrispy Critters.  It is a gift for a friend of mine who just loves my dollhouses.   I pretty much copied a lot of what Chris did on hers except I used Arm and Hammer detergent.  I even had the same Michael's hutch that I bashed for the cabinets!  My friend loves blue so I gave it a blue tile floor, painted the cabinets blue, and used the blue check fabric on the ironing board.   The hardest part was the inside of the washer and dryer which are printies from Jim's Dollhouse Printables website.  I made the mop, bucket, ironing board, and the hanging lamp from stuff I had on hand. The other shelf was a trim piece off of another Michael's hutch. I hope she likes it!

Rapunzel, You're Driving Me Crazy!

Here is the progress on Rapunzel's tower.  I finished the interior.  Added shutters and a vinyl "wood" floor for the bedroom and also made a sweet little bed for her.  Finished the "stone" floor in the downstairs, but I am at a loss as to what to put in there.  A huge door?  A mammoth fireplace?  A cabinet with herbs?  A table?  Everything I've tried looks wrong.  I've never been stuck on a project like this before!