Beth's Room Additions

Hi! Beth is excited to show you some new items she added to her bedroom...

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"Hi! Welcome to my bedroom! I'm going to show you a few things that I got, and some other stuff."

 

"First, I moved one of my shelves to be right above my bed."

 

"I put my new coat hook where it used to be."

 

"I also got a new bed stand that has shelves. I put a necklace on the top shelf, and some of my Adventures in Odyssey Albums on the lower shelf."

 

"I got this awesome poster that says "Keep Calm and Listen to Adventures in Odyssey."

 

"I don't have matching bed sheets yet, but I got this cozy blue fleece blanket."

 

"Finally, underneath my bed I have a crate for storage. I plan to get a few more so I have plenty of places to put things."

 

"It stows nicely under my bed."

 

"Lastly, I got some new Adventures in Odyssey albums!"

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I have been gathering/making things for the doll rooms. I had some Home Depot kits for the crate and bed stand. They are supposed to be pencil holders, but I switched it up a little to make them suitable for Beth's room! Her room colors will be based on the painting that is on her wall.

Thanks for reading!



Brooke and Maggie's New Bunk Bed

Today I'm going to walk you through how I made Maggie and Brooke's new bunk bed!

 

 

I used hot glue and two pieces of foam board from the Dollar Store, plus a little bit of a third one. I also needed an Xacto knife, scissors, and a ruler.

 

I made a line down the middle of the foam board, so I can cut two pieces each 10x21 inches. This pair of pieces will make one bed, so you will need to do this twice to make a total of four pieces!



 

Glue two pieces to each other, to make it really sturdy.  Do this with the other pair as well.

 

For the legs of the bunk bed, I wanted to make sure it would be sturdy, so I cut 12 pieces about 1.5 inches by 16 inches. I put them in groups of three and glued them together, to make four really sturdy legs.

 

To attach the legs to the beds, I cut a little chunk out of the corners of the bed.

 

As you can see, I cut about an inch.

 

This is the foam board I had left over, which I decided to use for headboards.

 

To make headboards, I used a plate to trace a curve on one side. The arrow is so I would remember which side is up before I drew the curve :)

 

Headboards!

 

I glued it all together, and painted their initials on the headboard.

 

And now for pictures of the finished bunk!

 

And Brooke is here for a size comparison:

 

I made a mattress for Brooke's bed. I used purple swirly cotton, and filled it with polyester fiber fill. I got it at Wal-Mart for $3.50. I'll be using it for the pillows too.

 

 

For a blanket, she has some pink fleece.

 

Now I need to make Maggie a mattress, and some pillows :) I hope to find some green fabric for Maggie's bed, to match her initial on the headboard.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post!



Beth's Bed



Beth's bed was pretty simple to make. I wanted to have under the bed storage, so I didn't make it like a box. The bed measures about 20" by 10" and about 5" high. I was able to make it from one piece of foam board from the Dollar Store. I cut two of each piece and hot glued them together to make the bed more sturdy. I may eventually add a simple headboard.

 

The bed length gives a little bit of room on every side, as you can see below. Since Beth's room is kind of on the smaller size, a compact bed was essential.

 

Here you can see the doubled foam board.

 

I made a simple mattress/cushion using an old sheet. A cut a rectangle and sewed the edges close. The inside is actually folded up tulle. I had extra that I wasn't using, so I put it in there.

 

The bed still needs blankets and pillows, which I am excited to start on. Next I want to make a bunk bed of foam board for the other two girls. I think it will work...

 

Thanks for reading!



Making a Doll Fireplace

With cold winter days approaching, I was inspired to create an American Girl Doll sized fireplace! I had been thinking about doing it for some time, and am super happy I finally got around to it.

I took progress pictures of how I constructed that may help you if you decide to make a fireplace for your dolls. I apologize for any poor quality photos, I usually do crafts at night time :)

 



For the basic structure of the fireplace, I used a Christmas lights box that measures 8 1/2" by almost 9 1/2". I turned it sideways, so the longer side of the box would be the bottom of the fireplace.

 



I then cut out a section of the front for the opening where the "fire" would be. The completed opening measured about 5" by 6 1/2".

 

For the inside of the fireplace, I printed out a brick pattern on some paper. The brick is a little small for American Girl Doll scale, but that's okay to me. A link to the brick template can be found in the description box of the video by Deena and Beena here. I printed four of these sheets, but only needed to use three.

 

I used scissors to cut the paper so that it would fit on the inside of the box, then used a glue stick to attach the paper to the cardboard of the box. Here it is so far!

 

 

The black part is craft foam cut to the right size. I attached it with a glue stick. One could also use black construction paper, but I didn't have any on hand.

 

 

I used my X-acto knife to cut pieces of craft foam board to cover the design of the Christmas lights box. I covered the front and both sides.

 

 

I wanted to add a little decoration to the front of the fireplace, but I didn't want it to be overwhelming. I took some white Sculpey and rolled it out so it was flat and even. I have a small box made of stone with horses and interesting designs carved into it (picture above). I took this box and decided to use the triangle design. I impressed the box into the clay. When I removed the box, the clay showed the same triangle design indented into it. The first couple times I attempted this, the clay stuck to the box, making a rough looking design. I fixed this by putting a small piece of plastic wrap over the clay. After that, I was able to remove the box, peel away the plastic wrap, and I had a nice design.

 

 

I cut the clay designs to the shape I needed before baking for fifteen minutes.

 

 

For the wood of the fire, I found some small branches of a lilac tree. I cut them to smaller pieces, in order to fit into the fireplace. To make them look burnt, I used soft charcoal and hard charcoal, which is typically used for drawings, to color the sticks darker. I smoothed it out with my fingers and a tortillion. If you would like to read more about charcoal drawing/tortillions/charcoal, see my previous post here. 

 

 

I cut the foam board for the mantelpiece a slight bit larger than the actual size, so it would over hang a bit.

 

Final pictures!!

 

 

It's got a basic look and design, but I plan on decorating it with stockings and Christmas trinkets.

 



 

I glued the clay design to the foam board with some Tacky Glue. I had never used Tacky Glue before. The clay seems to be held quite well into place.

 

 

 

For size comparison I have Maggie in her winter pajamas!

 

 

I think Maggie is wondering if Santa will be able to get through it :)

 

Hope you enjoyed!

New Shoe Shelf

This week I made a new shoe shelf to store all my doll shoes!  My last one, which you can see pictures of here, was getting cramped with the new pairs I have acquired, so I thought it was time to expand.

Each shelf is about 3.5" deep, and 13" wide.  The whole thing measures about 20" tall.  It is made of foam board, hot glue, scrapbooking paper and Mod Podge.  I put Mod Podge on the shelves to make them more durable, for instance if after a photo shoot the shoes have dirt or water on them :)

 

About 4 pairs of shoes can fit on one shelf (depending on the width of the shoes).  In total it can hold about 28 pairs.  I put the shelves at an angle so that they could be close together, to maximize space, while still being able to see the shoes.

 

 

The sides have hooks and clips for storing accessories.

 

I put holders for the glasses on the other side, as well as some hooks for my doll's necklaces.