Showing posts with label dollhouse walls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dollhouse walls. Show all posts

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:





Ideas for hanging pictures in your dollhouse

Ideas for WHAT pictures to hang in your doll house:
* Small pictures from magazines
* Sometimes junk advertising mail has small pictures that work well.
* The thumbnail print sheet that come with your photo print order is a great spot to get tiny pictures that are personally yours. Plus they're picture quality and dollhouse sized!
* Calendar covers or backs often have thumbnail pictures that are excellent.
* For personal use you can print pictures from the web (make sure copyrights aren't an issue).
* Sites like Jim's Dollhouse Pages have doll house scale posters and pictures you can print.


Ideas for HOW to hang pictures in your dollhouse:
* Pasting a picture onto craft foam paper works well... choose a color of craft foam that matches the room. If the picture has a frame already printed around it, cut the craft foam even with the edge of the frame. If the picture has no frame around it, you can give any picture a framed / matted look by pasting the picture in the center of a piece of craft foam that is slightly larger than the picture.
* Give your picture a cardboard or thin wood backing
* Paste the picture straight on the wall, depending on the type of glue you use, this can be permanent. Rubber cement can be used, but it damages some surfaces.
* Small pieces of self-adhesive Velcro work well if you think the dollhouse recipient might like to switch pictures around for fun! Make sure you stick the Velcro at the same height throughout your house, then make sure the Velcro on the picture backs is stuck in the center. Then they can be switched around easily.
* There is some gum-like tacky stuff you can buy at the store for hanging posters etc. This can be used in dollhouses, but use it carefully. I have a dollhouse that has had it in it for over 10 years now, and it does leave a bit of a "grease" mark and peels off the paint or paper some. Personally, I don't plan on using it again, but it's an option.


Ideas for WHERE to hang pictures in your dolls house:
* According to an interior designer we know, the general rule of thumb is to hang pictures at eye level. For dollhouse scale, this would mean making sure the center of a picture is approximately 5 inches to 5.5 inches from the floor. Of course you have to take the room into consideration and adjust accordingly - if you have less than an 8 inch ceiling height, you'll want to hang the pictures a bit lower so it looks right.


Here is a living room showing some picture placements. The picture above the sofa is from the back of a calendar, the picture above the inn table is from a magazine's Wells Fargo advertisement, and the picture above the hutch is from Jim's Dollhouse Pages. The pictures are hung using the Velcro method mentioned above.



A quick dollhouse border...

You scrapbookers likely already know about this! But I just discovered the self-adhesive ribbon that craft stores sell in the scrapbooking section... there are all kinds of doll house sized "borders", and better yet, they have adhesive on the back of them, so you just peel and stick! No need to deal with gluey fingers! Here's a picture of a kitchen I just did with an apple border and yellow scrapbooking paper wallpaper...


A tile and wallpaper set for your dollhouse!

Here are a couple of options for doll house larger-sized tile floors, as well as a coordinating diamond wallpaper. It would look nice in either a bathroom, kitchen, or laundry room.


More free printable doll house wallpaper for you - this one is extremely bright colors

One thing that sometimes is fun to do in a dollhouse is decorate a "kid's room" with popular kid themes... this can be difficult because of copyright laws. You can create your own, but not distribute them... that being said, I won't post any like that here, but here's one simple thing you can do... right now Wal-Mart (likely other craft stores too) has a cute Hello Kitty ribbon that is the perfect scale for a doll house. So I designed a coordinating striped wallpaper... you could paper the entire wall and put the border at the top, or paper just 1/3 or 2/3 of the wall, paint the rest, and "join" the two with the ribbon border. Here is a picture of the ribbon so you know which one I'm talking about (the flash distorted the color a bit), as well as the free wallpaper download.


More free printable doll house wallpaper for you!

Here are three variations on the same burgundy and red dollhouse wallpaper...
Click to enlarge, then print (heavier paper works best), and spray with clear acrylic sealer.

Here's the solid wallpaper version:

Here is the "bottom third wallpaper, top 2/3 paint" version:


And here is the "bottom third paint, top 2/3 wallpaper" version:

Free printable bathroom doll house wallpaper and linoleum set for you!

Print your own matching dollhouse wallpaper and linoleum set! For instructions on how to hang the wallpaper, visit this post. For instructions on how to lay the linoleum, visit this post. As always, free for you to use, no resale please. Have fun!


More free printable dollhouse wallpaper!

Here's some more free printable doll house wallpaper for you... follow the instructions in this previous post.  As always, free for you to use, no resale please.  Have fun!  




More free printable doll house wallpaper

Here's some more free printable dollhouse wallpaper for you... follow the instructions in the previous post.  You can also cut the paper right above the border and install it on a painted wall.  As always, free for you to use, no resale please.  Have fun!  


Free printable dollhouse wallpaper!

Here is some free printable doll house wallpaper for you... print it, cut to size, lightly mist with Matte Clear Acrylic Sealer if desired (it creates a more realistic sheen and feel), and glue to your wall!  (With this type of print-your-own dollhouse wallpaper, you should put very small amounts of glue directly on the wall of the dollhouse and then press your printed paper onto it.  Otherwise the paper curls up and is extremely frustrating to work with.)  This wall paper has its border "built in".  I created this using Adobe Photoshop Elements - if you're familiar with the program you can create your own - exactly the color and pattern(s) you need!  Click on this picture to see it larger, then right click and save to your computer.  For personal use only, not for re-sale.

I should add, several years ago my mother taught me to tat... I can't remember which of us tatted this butterfly, but that is what the faint shape is in the top part of the wallpaper!  Thanks mom :)  

Making custom borders for your dollhouse

You can create and print custom borders for your dollhouse using clip art, or by drawing and scanning your own shapes.  Then using either a  picture editing program or a word processing program, copy and paste the shape over and over.  Print, cut, and paste to your dollhouse walls!  If you use an ink jet printer, be sure and let the ink dry before you glue, otherwise the ink will run.  I tried covering the border in this picture with clear laminating paper, but I think it would look better without it.  Before cutting out your border, you could also lightly spray it a couple times with clear acrylic sealer to give it a more realistic look.  




Making borders for your dollhouse using scrapbooking paper

Another great way to make borders for your dollhouse is using scrapbooking paper.  Cut thin strips, measure, and glue!  Here is an example (not actually a small enough print in my opionion, but it was what we had at the time).  



Making borders for your dollhouse using ribbon

Ribbon is a fun way to add borders to your dollhouse.  Solid colors or ones with small prints work best.  Just measure, cut, and glue!  Here are some examples to get you started on your own ideas!  Click on a picture to enlarge it.