New Backgrounds for the Doll House!

Hello Doll Friends!!

Lately we have been doing lots of make-overs in the Doll House! On the dolls, that is. So, I decided our doll rooms needed a bit of updating! The first doll background I made was what one of my very first blog posts here was about! You can find the link here.

So, last summer, I picked up another pattern cutting board from a garage sale for 50 cents. I just tucked it away, knowing I would eventually make a doll background out of it... I just needed the right paper to come along and inspire me. 

Fast forward to about a week ago on one of my Goodwill recon missions. Teehee... Sounds much more serious when I say it like that, eh? What do I stumble across but...

A vintage roll of Contact-Paper with a 1970's girl (think Holly Hobbie want-to-be) motif! *Jumps up and down in excitement!!* It was still in the wrapper!! The only question being 'Will it be enough to cover the whole board?' Because the thing about the pattern boards is that they are pretty huge! Only way to know was to buy it, bring it home and give it a whirl. It only cost $1.99 and so not a huge loss if it didn't work at least monetarily. 

I was the slightest bit worried that, given this Contact Paper was probably 30 years old if it was a day, it might not have the 'sticky' working anymore. Apparently Contact Paper is made of some amazing stuff because it worked like a charm!

So you just put it on much like you would put on wallpaper on a real wall. You just every so carefully adhere it, working out the air pockets as much as possible as you go and trying to keep it very strait on the seams. 

I have this little red handled tool that I've used for years in paper crafting to roll out the air pockets in paper crafts I glue together and it worked like a charm here too. Not sure what the tool was originally made for but I suspect it had something to do with wallpapering, in fact. 

So... Bummer! I have the answer to my question about it being enough. I might ought to have just assumed it'd be to little and just done the top portion like my older background and done a 'wood chair rail' at the bottom. I could have measured it all out and would've known it wasn't going to work... Have I mentioned I am a bit spontaneous though and not the best planner? Gotta be me, I suppose, gotta be me. 

So my plan is, in the portion that didn't covered with the oh-so-groovy paper, I plan to make a 'chair rail' with 'wood grain' Contact Paper soon. I just need to buy some! It'll end up being the most expensive part of the whole project since, otherwise, I only invested $2.50! I really love the way it looks as wall paper and I can also set up the room where the tall bed covers up the place where the wallpaper didn't cover too. I am all about rolling with the punches! So, for now, I am calling it done. 

I'll come update blog when I decide what I am going to do about the portion of the 'wall' with no paper. In the meantime, isn't the wall paper the coolest ever? I covered most of the missing portion of wallpaper with the ginormous triple bunk bed and a shelf. I think it looks nearly perfect just like that but I will do something else to fix it as some point!

In the meantime, Ariel is on the phone with friends, inviting them over to see the newly wallpapered bedroom!

I have been obsessing about that Goodwill, thinking "What if there was another roll there that I missed somehow?!" I doubt there was though... I'll look around closely the next time I am in there though. I even looked for some on eBay but didn't find any. I found some vintage Contact Paper but not in this print. Which is fine because the ones I did find were in the neighborhood of $20-30 a roll!! Um, No.

I've also been wanting to cover the back of one of my presentation boards I use as background supplements when making scenes. I have two black ones that were used as actual presentation boards on a project at church and one side had the stuff they used it for on it. Those boards, the thick foam core ones like these are, cost $15/each at Office Max! So when I learned they were going to throw them out, I asked if I could have them. They said sure! *happy dance* So I've been using the 'blank' sides ever since as 'walls' for my rooms. However they always had that side that had the church's project on it. I always wondered... "What if I covered that up with scrapbook paper?" but didn't have a paper that struck my fancy. Hmmm...

I've also wanted a background that could be used as 'outside' background... Wasn't sure what that looked like in my head but I knew I'd know it when I saw it. Then, last week I was in Tuesday Morning, a local store that sells all manner of items including scrapbook paper, and I saw this packet of paper with bamboo sticks on it. Hmmm... It was a package of 12 pieces of 12x12 paper for $1.50! Would it be enough because they only had the one! I decided to risk it and see. 

It fit perfectly on the presentation board! I love it! I've wanted a background to be able to use to pose the dolls with the horse we have and also the outside toys like the wagon and such...

Doesn't it look like they are outside standing by a bamboo wall? Say yes. Teehee.

Of course I had to have fun posing them in all sorts of different poses! 

That's it for now Doll Friends! Hope you've been inspired to make a doll background of your own! It really helps feed the imagination when you're playing if you have actual 'walls' that are the right size for your dolls. My first background was one of the first doll projects I made and I've been having fun with doll stuff ever since... 

See you next time!

XXOO