Travel Doll House

I have to get something off my chest! I did not come up with this idea! I'm not even really going to give any kind of tutorial here... But I will link you to the genius whom I chose to imitate for this masterpiece.

Southern Disposition

She had this brilliant idea to use 3 Ring Binders to make a doll house that can be stored on a shelf when not in use.  I used her tutorial for the kitchen chairs and loosely adapted her bed and living room furniture tutorials as well.

All four rooms of the Travel Dollhouse I made!

I know, friends and family, you are wondering, "Why in heaven's name would Joy endeavor to make a travel dollhouse!?!? Surely not for her 8 year old BOY!!!"

My answer is, "Of course not!" It's for a dear family friend's little 7-year-old Barbie lovin' daughter!"

So here is a room by room breakdown of what I did:



The Living Room



In each room I created a "curtain" to hang on the three ring binder rings to conceal them. I also only made focal furniture, anything else I created by putting pictures on the walls of the room. Like end table, lamps and the fireplace. I found a template for a picture frame and used those along with a family photo that I stole uh, borrowed, off of my friend's facebook. The family photos on the wall made her daughter squeal with glee (literally! She squealed!!) The only place I deviated from the tutorial is that I made an ottoman instead of a coffee table and I hand stiched the furniture instead of using fabric glue or a hot glue gun (mainly because I couldn't find my hot glue gun!)



The Bedroom



The bed was just a piece of foam matress pad that I cut into a rectangle I sewed a cover for the foam and a comforter. The "two" pillows are really just one, that I sewed a line down the middle of, to make it look like two. The bed sits on a black cardboard box. Google Images is the source for the furniture on the walls.

Once again I used a family photo of the little girl and Tinkerbell from a recent Disney trip.



The Kitchen



 Thanks to Ikea's website and Sears.com this doll has some stellar appliances in the kitchen! The kitchen table is a thread spool and a CD (and a magical little thing called krazy glue!)



The Bathroom



The bathroom provides everything Barbie needs to look her best! Sink, Bathtub and mirror... No toilet... she'll have to take care of that need somewhere else! The sink is a little prep-bowl from Tuesday Morning and an awesome gravy boat (once again from Tuesday Morning - on clearance) makes a prett good bathtub.

Throughout the house there are several impressionistic paintings on the walls. I got those from Dollhouse Decorating who got them from www.benjaminartdesign.com

So, there you have it! This was a really fun project, however it was time consuming... and truthfully... I'm thankful I have a boy!