How to put a small bit of wallpaper in your dollhouse...

In an earlier post I told how I put full walls of wall paper in a wooden doll house.  This post will tell how I do smaller bits of wallpaper... for example, a painted top and wallpapered bottom.  This method also works for installing borders.  Remember things look better in "thirds" rather than "halves".  (for example, paint 2/3 of the wall and wallpaper 1/3... or wallpaper 2/3 and paint 1/3...)

1. Measure and cut  your wallpaper
2. Always have your wallpaper go continuously around a corner... don't have it stop at a corner or a dark "gap" will show when you're all done.  To make this easier, crease/fold the wallpaper piece where the corner will end up.
3. Use an old magazine and lay a piece(s) of your wallpaper upside down on it.
4. Smear tacky glue all over the back of it, paying special attention to the edges.
5. Quickly go wash and dry your hands, or keep a wet rag handy to wipe the glue off your fingers before pressing the wallpaper into place.
6. Turn the magazine page, and you have another fresh surface for gluing the next piece!

How to make a quick dollhouse picture frame using a tissue box pattern...

If you have ever seen this pattern on a box of tissues, it works great for some quick doll house picture frames!  Just trim out a square and cut a picture to fit in the center, glue, and you're done!

How to make your own dollhouse mantel clock...

Making your own doll house mantle clock is quick and easy...

1. Find a piece of trim that has a profile you like.



2. Cut off a small chunk about 1/2 inch deep.

3. Do an image search to find the type of clock face you want and print it.  I took this picture myself, so you are free to use it (personal use only, no resale).

4. Paint or stain your clock and let dry.

5. Glue on the clock face.

6.  You can stop here, or for a more playable dollhouse mantel clock, spray it with clear acrylic sealer.



For instructions on how to make a grandfather clock for your dollhouse, please see our earlier post.  

How to make your own doll house floor lamp

Making your own dollhouse floor lamp is quick and easy:

1. Cut a small diameter rod to the height you want your lamp to be.

2. Cut 2 small disks from a large wooden dowel or rod

3. Punch a hole in the center of each of these disks the same diameter as your small rod.  (A drill press works best, but you can do it however works for you.)

4. Insert the long narrow dowel into the holes, secure in place with glue

5. Paint it!

6. Glue a small bit of ribbon trim around one end.

7. Add any embellishments to "dress up" your light.

That's it!  Have fun!  

How to make your own dollhouse pie

Making your own doll house pies is a lot easier than you might think.  You need a bottle cap, some craft foam and a small hole punch (or tiny beads or used air soft rifle pellets), glue and water, a scrap of thin brown paper.  
Here are step by step instructions with pictures:


1. Take an old bottle cap (you can also buy them at a craft store for a few cents), fill it with tiny beads or small punches of craft foam to see how much filling you need:

2. Dump the loose pie filling into a small container, add glue and stir.

3.  Dump the pie filling into the bottle cap(s) and wait for it to dry.  Here's a before and after picture of the wet / dry pie filling:

4. Next, make the crust... turn a pie upside down on thin brown paper and trace around it.  Cut out the circle.

5.  Cut the brown paper circle into thin strips.

6. Mix a little water and glue together - make it fairly runny, like the consistency of milk.  Put the strips in the glue mixture and stir them around, being sure they get coated on all sides.

7. Lay the strips across the top of the pies in a criss-cross lattice pattern.  (Note:  I use a toothpick or end of a paint brush to help get the strips in place.  Otherwise they start sticking to both hands and you end up really frustrated.)

8.  Wait for the pies to "bake" (dry!) and you're done!  

How to make your own dollhouse daybed!

You can create your own doll house day bed by following the directions in our no-sew doll house sofa post.  Just use a larger block for the base.  For back shape ideas you can look at pictures of real day beds.  Here are pictures of a couple I did with different kinds of fun feet!

How to protect your work surface...

Newspaper, cardboard, wax paper... all work well for protecting your work surface, but the thing I like best is cling wrap (saran wrap).  Our table has a heavy plastic cover on it, so the cling wrap sticks to it and stays nicely in place.  Just overlap several lengths of it, depending on how big of a project you're painting.  Clean up is easy too... just roll it off and the table is clean underneath.  Here's a picture... the paint is on the cling wrap, not the table cover!

How to make your own chunky wooden dollhouse people...

If you would like to make a nice, realistic looking doll house doll or family, look at this post in Casey's Minis.  However, if your goal is just to make some playable people for children, these homemade wooden dolls have always been the most popular when we have kids visiting.  Maybe it's the fact that they're heavy and don't tip over, or maybe it's the fact they make a nice "clunk clunk" as they march around the house... whatever it is, quirky though they be, they have always been the people of choice for playing "dollhouse"!  


* Start with one of these:

* If you do not want arms, skip this step and the next step, but if you do, drill a hole through the body.
* Take some yarn the color you want the arms to be and braid it together with some pipe cleaner... thread it through the hole and you've got moveable, poseable arms.  (I doubled the ends of the pipe cleaner over so that there wouldn't be a sharp metal point in their "hands".)  Tie a piece of string tightly around the end of the arm to keep it from unraveling.  
* Take small fabric scraps and glue around the figure.  I used a black permanent marker to draw a "gap" on the man and boy's bottom half to make it look more like pants.
* Paint or draw a face on the head.
* Glue yarn on the head for hair.  If you want a girl with braids or pony tail, cover the entire head with yarn, then make braids separately and glue them on.  

How to put carpet in your dollhouse...

Laying carpet in your doll house is probably one of the easiest, quickest parts of decorating... and rewarding, because it changes the look and feel of the house so quickly!  The steps are so simple I'm not even sure they need written down, but here they are, along with one tip for laying carpet in a tiny room where there's not much space for your hands to get in...

Step1:  Select your carpet

Step 2:  Measure your room

Step 3:  Cut your carpet to size (and test for a correct fit)

Step 4:  Smear glue on the floor - especially the edges, paying special attention to the front edge because it will get the most wear.  You don't need much glue in the center of the floor, just a bit here and there.  Make sure all the glue is smeared flat, otherwise with some fabrics the glue will wick clear through and create a clear "wet" looking spot on the top of the carpet.

Step 5:  Lay the carpet and smooth it out!  Hint 1:  Use an old (clean) chopstick to gently push down the corners and edges in the hard to reach back areas.  Hint 2:  If you are laying carpet in a room where both of your hands do not easily fit, roll the carpet up first (see picture), align the front edge of the carpet with the front edge of the room, then use one hand to unroll the carpet back into the rest of the room.  

How to put wallpaper in your dollhouse

Here is a step by step guide to putting wallpaper in your doll house.  Our dollhouses are straight and easy to put wallpaper in.  If you are making an intricate dollhouse from a kit, it is much easier to do as much painting and wallpapering as possible before assembling it and then touch up afterwards.  


Step 1:  Print or buy your wallpaper!  


Step 2:  Measure the height and width of the wall(s)

Step 3:  Cut the wallpaper to size

Step 4:  Fold down one edge of your wallpaper, insert it in the house with the folded edge in a corner, smooth out and crease opposite corner.  (The reason for this is that your house will look much better if you "wrap" your wallpaper around the corner instead of having the pieces meet in the corner.  When the pieces meet in the corner, it forms a slight "gap" that doesn't look natural.)

Step 5:  Doodle some glue around the wall, paying special attention to corners and openings as these are the most important parts to have securely glued.  I have found with the medium weight paper I use for wallpaper that you do need a thin layer of glue covering the entire wall.  Otherwise bubbles in the paper appear.  Some people prefer cardstock wallpaper and only a little glue on the edges.  It's your choice.  Keep in mind how you will hang pictures... since I usually use Velcro so that the pictures are moveable, the wallpaper needs to be securely fastened to the wall.  This is messy, so don't be afraid to get messy!  Just smear two or three or four fingers around in the glue!  

Step 6:  I like to keep a damp rag nearby to wipe off gluey fingers.  You do NOT want to smooth out your wallpaper with wet or gluey fingers, so make sure they're dry before going on to the next step.

Step 7:  Place wallpaper on the glue... start with one corner and smooth it out towards the other corner.  Press firmly up and down the corners to get a good crease.  Rub gently all over the entire wall to ensure a smooth bond.

Step 8:  If you are decorating a house with holes for lights drilled in the back, poke through them with a dowel or pencil.  Usually there is enough glue around the holes to keep the poked in part glued in place.

Step 9:  To make a space for a door or window, place your measured piece of wallpaper in the house, hold your hand flat on one side (or use a book) and on the other side, trace the outline with a pencil.

Step 10:  Cut out the opening and repeat above steps to glue the dollshouse wallpaper, again paying special attention to the edges... they are what will receive the most wear in a played with doll house.  I usually lay one finger flat and smear the glue towards and slightly over the edge.

 

Repeat as many times as necessary.  That's it!  You're done :) 

I created a separate post for installing partial walls of wallpaper.  

How to change the color tones of free wallpaper files...

Say you find the "perfect" wallpaper for your dollhouse... but... it's pink with orange polka-dots and you can't stand pink with orange polka-dots!  Using Adobe Photoshop (or Adobe Photoshop Elements) you can easily change the doll house wall paper colors... Here's how:
* open the file
* Choose the "Replace Color" command.  (In my version this is found by clicking: Enhance, Adjust Color, Replace Color)
* Click on the color you want to change
* Adjust the 3 slider bars until you get the color and look you desire
* Click "OK" and you're done!  
* You may need to do this multiple times for a file, depending on how many colors you are wishing to change.
Here are three of my earlier files with the above technique applied: