Rootbeer Mug Keychain For Leanne Doll!!

Hi Doll Friends!

I have a life long sister friend named Leanne who knows about my little blog here... She was out shopping on the webs-of-the-world-wide one day and happened across a doll sized beer rootbeer mug. On an sweet and endearing impluse she sent it to me for the Doll House Village. Of course I have a doppelganger doll of Leanne and real Leanne loves beer rootbeer. When it arrived I couldn't have been more tickled. The way to my heart is via doll related gifts, just ask my husband! Teehee. However, Leanne had done same thing I've done more than once and not realized the 'scale' of the beer rootbeer. It was actually made for 1:12 scaled doll houses and American Girl Doll sized items are 1:3 scaled. So... A tiny bit small. No matter to me! I was determined to use it in some way for Leanne Doll! *puzzling I was* then *lightbulb!* I decided to make it into a keychain for Leanne Doll's keys!! Where to find doll sized keys though? Then one day at the craft store I found a little box of keys that were perfectly sized!! I wish I'd have taken a photo and somehow I've misplaced the packaging. What can I say, found the keys like a month ago but had put the beer rootbeer in a 'safe place' and it took me that much time to find it again. Teehee. So it was a super safe place! Anyway, but they were very much like these here. Then I needed another key ring or some way to make them all hook together...? Then last week, I found this 'Queen' charm that is actually made, I think, for a charm bracelet. To me though, it screamed 'key ring for a doll'! Specifically for my sweet Leanne Doll! It lit the fire under me to search more in earnest for the beer rootbeer. Then, low and behold, I found it in the last box I looked in! (Side note: why do people say that? Of course you don't keep looking once you find it right? So I have been saying it with 'irony' for years but irony doesn't really come across in print does it? I digress...) 

And it came together perfectly!! See the little heart shaped loop Leanne Doll is holding the keys with? Well, it was actually one of the keys but when I was trying to put it on Leanne Doll's hand I pushed a bit too hard apparently and the bottom of the key broke off. Duh. However, it went on her finger! Then I looked at it and it looked kind of like it was meant to be that way...? In anycase, I left it as it was so Leanne Doll would have a great way to carry her keys. 

Aren't they cute?! 

Better run!

XXOO

Heather

🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

Splash splash splash

(Inside greeting between me and Leanne)

DIY Bath Towels, Hand Towels and Wash Cloths for American Girl Dolls

Hi Doll Friends!

I made doll bathtowels, hand towels and wash cloths this morning out of a hand towel. When I got my washing machine for the doll house, I thought it'd be cute to fold some towels on top like the dolls are folding their laundry on top. In the past, I have used pretty kitchen towels as beach towels. Sadly when I folded them on top of the washer, they looked sort of silly... So I had the idea that I'd cut them down to make more 'bath towel' sized towels. But how to keep them from unraveling? Then I remembered a trick my Grandma used when her bathtowels would start to fray on the edges. She's make them into washcloths. How would she do that? She'd mark out the right sizes on the towels and zip around the shapes with her zig-zag setting on her sewing machine. Hmmmm...

So I decided to give it a try... I'd found some pretty kitchen towels on clearance at the end of summer for like 75cents that I bought as beach towels for the dolls... So I decided to give it a try. 

I marked out what I thought would make good mesaurements for the bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths with a ruler and a sharpie. 

You can see the two "bathtowels" here at the end. I was so curious to see if they'd be the right size that I cut them out immediately. 

And fold them up in the same way I fold my own real bathtowels. Because I am a geek like that. Haha.

I should've waited to cut them out until all of the seams were done because having that rough edge where I cut off the bath towels was kind of a pain. I'll know when I make my next set! 

So as you can see, I zig-zagged around the lines. You can also see I messed up once when I was making the lines in the hand towels. Rats. 

I also accidentally made one of the wash cloths a bit smaller too... So I will put that smaller one in the cleaning kit. The measurements for the wash cloths are 2inches by 2inches, the hand towels are 2inches by 5inches. I think next time I'll make them 3x5 instead... But I think they are cute enough.

They were so small they didn't want to stay folded. So I folded them and them pressed them, folded, with an iron and they stayed much better. So here they all are, folded on top of the washing machine. I plan to make at least one more set in an alternate patterned towel because it'd be so much cuter to have a couple of different patterened towels. So, if you're wanting linens for your Dolly Bathroom, they are no further away than a hand towel and the zig-zag stitch on your handy sewing machine! If you make some, I'd love to see pictures!!

Better run!
XXOO
Heather

Updated Doll House Floor DIY

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

Doll House floors... I've made them before. My first Doll House floor was made out of some leftover sticky tiles that were left in my prior house's bathroom remodel. I didn't think, at the time, to look for something more suitable than the cardboard box I used as a base. It worked well enough though for the time. It ended up getting ruined by getting wet when we moved a year and a half or so ago and so I made a newer one. The newer one was an improvement over the first but but still had it's flaws... 

So recently, as you know if you're a regular reader of this blog, I have been working on Heartland Doll House, a portable Doll House to be used in my upcoming Heartland Doll Tea Parties. Naturally my doll house needed a floor, or rather four floors since there are four rooms in the doll house.

This time I decided I should try and make them a bit more substantial than before since they would be 'traveling' around. So I went to Lowe's to look for a board the right size... I found these boards that are 24x24inches and they are, in my opinion, perfect!! They were about $5.50 each. I got thefloor tiles on Amazon.com for $9.00 and there were enough to make five 'floors' (I wanted an extra for a vet clinic). So, all five floors cost me about $37 plus tax. Not bad! 

Here is the tag on the wood board. To make a floor all you do is unpeel the backing off the tiles and carefully stick them into place. Four of them will fit. There is a TINY amount of overlap (maybe an 1/8th of an inch?) on one side but not enough to make a difference. 

Here are three of the floors stacked against the wall. I think they look so cool! So, making a doll floor for your doll house needn't be too expensive! Let me know if you make one! I'd love to see photos.

Better run!

Till Next Time!
XXOO
Heather

An Evening Of Chess At The Doll House! Also, Doll Plants DIY Ideas!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

Happy Tuesday! I don't know about your neck of the woods but in mine today is the last day of school! Hallelujah! We made it through another year. Looking forward what will hopefully be a laid back and restful Summer this year! I'll pray you have the same!

There have been so many things I've wanted to tell you about in Doll House happenings that I am sort of doing a multiple purpose post here. Recently I discovered Be Chic Forever YouTube channel and she has so many clever ideas! I just adore her Doll House and her sense of style. It's a bit different than my own, she is very 'minimalist' in her decorating scheme and I am more 'hodgepodge collector', but that's half the fun of making a Doll House is that you get to decorate it to reflect your own tastes. 

One of the crafts she showed how to make was doll sized planters and vases and I absolutely adored the way hers looked! Having 'plants' in her doll house made it look so much more 'real' that I knew I'd have to give it a go and try and 'make' a few of my own! So... In the photos in this post, you'll see what came of my attempts. 

Here is a vase of flowers I put together... The vase, naturally, was thrifted somewhere along the line... The picture of the bird and the two ducks are recent (like in the last week) thrifty finds! The picture of the duck is a OOAK Art Card! Isn't it pretty? It was only 50cents with the frame included! The ducks were 25c each, not a bad deal for $1.00. I think the ducks look like they were made to go with the vase, don't you? See that very faded photo of the girl in the heart frame? That was me when I was younger, on one of my first Military ID cards as a young Army wife. The other side has a photo of my husband from same place... Or maybe these were from when we were teens as AF Brats? I don't recall for sure. But I've had that frame since I was like 19 and a newly wed. So, as you can see, I've always loved miniature things!

This Tea Set was also a thrity find. I thought it was kind of funny that it was 'pre-priced' $2 from whereever it was originally purchased and then Goodwill marked it $1.99. No matter to me though, I thought it was certainly worth $1.99... Cos goodness knows I need more doll dishes. Right? Teehee.

Here it is in the box in case you like it and want to try and search for one yourself.

I love that it says you can use it with food! How funny.

Now, if you take a look at the top of the beautiful glass front bookcase you'll see a couple of 'potted plants'. The planters are wooden napkin rings I got at the Thrift Store!! (see photo on this link) I simply glued a circle tags I already had on hand that were the correct circumference to the bottom of them so they'd hold plants. There was a small hole in the tag but it wasn't like I was using any dirt. I used the leaves off of some flowers that I used to put in a vase for all three of them. The taller of the planters (on the clock) I simply glued two of the napkin rings together to make a taller one. I love how they came out and I have another batch of napkin rings I got at same time that I plan to make more 'planters' out of. How fun!

The adorable chess set that Josh and Frank are playing with? Also a thrifty find, it's meant to be a travel sized game for 'real people' but it makes a perfect doll sized chess set! I love it!

Frann is pulling out a few extra cups now that Spectrum and Oliver have arrived! 

I am going to have to let the rest of the 'story in photos' tell the story because Blogger ate up all my writing time this morning by taking half an hour to upload this post... Bummer.

I made this bouquet and so of course Josh Doll had to present the very first doll bouquet I ever made to Heather Doll. Right?

"I better get these into some water!"

"Thanks Josh!" 💓

I took a lot of these with a YouTube Video in mind... So once I get that to upload, I'll come back and post a linky in case you want to see it!

These are kind of funny photos but I wanted to show you the flowers on top of the hutch and the pink flowers in the vase below... Another couple I put together. I can see this might get addictive, this flower and plant thing because they are so cute and pretty easy to put together. Coupled with my apparent talent at finding little vases and vessels, I think I'll have more in the future. Haha.

Better run!

XXOO
Heather

Inexpensive DIY Doll Hurricane Lamp For 18 Inch Dolls!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!! 

I hope this finds you staying safe and warm in your cozy home on this mid-January day! They are forecasting ice storms here in the middle of the country and so we've done the grocery run and today after Church I am sure we are likely going to get iced in for a few days. As I say that I am breaking the 'rule' about not anticipating a 'snow day' from school but I think the entire area kind of is already expecting school to be called off tomorrow. It's days like that where the blessing of being able to work from home as I need to is a super blessing!! Rambling here and not even about doll related stuff... What's the weather like where you are? I guess I forget that I get a few international readers too and that someone reading this could very well be in a very warm place! If that's you, enjoy a beam of warm sunshine for me today!! 

Many Saturday's end up being eaten up with errands and such but yesterday ended up being a lazy day at the house and I had lots of time to work on doll projects. I changed rooms around for first time in months and that was fun. I left up the kitchen because I have quite a few 'food related' posts coming up but pulled down the 'living room' side of it and finally set up a 'bedroom' scene again. I've wanted to for months but I only have room in my doll space to set up two or maybe three rooms at a time so I have to pick and choose though. Maybe someday I'll have a doll space big enough to set them all up and leave them as they are? Ah, a girl can dream. Haha.

Speaking of dreaming... Yesterday I was sorting through my doll stuff, re-organizing things and whatnot. I pulled out some of the items I got on my Black Friday shopping spree with Frann Doll and had them all sitting together. I originally purchased this little salt & pepper set on a little silver tray at a thrift store that day and mostly bought it because of the little silver tray. It was a set though (marked like 30cents) and, being as the salt & pepper were doll sized and I thought they'd make good 'vases' I bought them. I also bought the little battery operated votives they sell at The Dollar Tree that day.

So, as I glanced up at both of them while I was working a 'lightbulb went off" in my head and I thought "I wonder if they'd work as a hurricane lamp??" So I opened the package of votives, turned one on and upended one of the salt & peppers on it. So. Stinking. Cute! Maybe it's just me but I think they look pretty much just like little hurricane lanterns!! They even work!! So for less than $2, I got two cute little operational hurricane lanterns for the Doll House. Fun!!

I didn't glue them on or anything because as an adult collector who just uses it all as props in photography sessions, I know they won't get knocked over (too often... I knock stuff over all the time in setting up scenes.... LOL!) and broken by rough play. So, depending on how you're going to use them, you might use a dab of clear craft or hot glue in a couple of dots around the base of the glass if you want it to be hooked together. 

Now I realize that half of the 'ingredients' to this craft were sourced at an obscure thrift store but I tend to see small bottles and salt & pepper sets at thrift stores pretty often and I think the idea would work with most any small bottle or salt & pepper set. So keep your eyes open for small bottles in your Thrifting adventures! I think it'd be kind of fun to have a few differently shaped ones sitting around the doll house. I thought it was fun that I came up with the idea just ahead of our upcoming ice storm too. Just in time!! If the power goes out in the Doll House, they'll have lamps to see by! 

Well, that's it for now Doll Friends! I have a few blog posts I want to finish this morning so stay tuned!!

Till Next Time!

XXOO
Heather