GRANDMA BOB ORIGINALS
The Tennesy
Christmas Doll house memories made with fun diy details!
10/8/20256 min read
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Prime Barbie Real estate here...
In honor of my dear mom, who loved all things blue, I wanted to veer away from Barbie pink and create a blue kitchen set. I found a tutorial from Poppy Seed Mini on how to take the kitchen apart, lightly sand it, spray paint it and put it back together. I was THRILLED!. The hardest part, is taking it apart without breaking it. But it CAN be done. I know because I did it to three kitchens.
If you look close, you can see I missed a spot on the microwave. Whoops!
Grandpa made me a kickin' island out of scrap wood. I wish it has been just a tad higher, but it's fine. Details again that make it fun are the little towels I made and hung up. There is a KLEENEX box by the dish drainer with real tissues inside! I printed out cookbooks and had them in the island.
I bought my cookbook printables on Etsy from "LittleMaggieShop."
This shelf was made by glueing two boxes from the Dollar store together and adding pieces of scrap wood for shelves. On the top I made the paper towel holder with a tiny spool and a dowel rod stuck on top. Then I just rolled some tissue and slid it on.
The printables for these amazingly realistic baking products came from an Etsy Store called Dainty House Digitals. I'm sure you know that Barbie doll items are on a 1:6 scale. When I first started this, I didn't pay attention and I originally bought 1:12 scale printables, which are for those Miniature Doll Houses that are not for Barbie. Way too small. I went back and purchased the correct ones and had a lot of fun printing them out, folding them up and stuffing them with cotton balls so they look "full". The pasta jar is just a small craft organizer jar with cut up strips of pasta colored paper.
On the very top shelf there is a Barbie toaster that came with the kitchen. It actually could pop up the toast bread.
On the very, very bottom behind the plant, were a couple little jars that had real sugar and oatmeal.
I could have put the items IN the cupboards of the kitchen but then no one would see them and where's the fun in that???
Reminds me of my college days....
Now I love this part. I had teeny tiny Christmas cards strung up on the wall! Is that cute or what? The chair was from JoAnn's which is now out of business. I made the blanket and pillows to throw over it. And I had some kitchen cleaning items in the corner. No table in this house though. Just not enough room.
You have your pick of walls if you go over here to My Froggy's printables.
I bought the window frame from Hobby Lobby in their doll house section. I just printed out a snow scene to glue behind it. That top that looks like a valance is just a paper covered piece of cardboard. The waste basket which looks EXACTLY like the one I have at work, was made from a toilet paper roll wrapped in silver cardstock. Then I cut part of a grocery bag and made it into the garbage bag. I painted a black strip around the bottom and top. It's been so long I can't remember WHERE I got the details for this. If I find it, I'll post a link to it.
This is an awesome Barbie Laundry room. It even worked! It made sounds, lights turned on, washer rotated, it was so cool! And it came with all that laundry stuff you see.
This awesome looking "linen closet" was made from a wooden box meant to hold a bottle of wine as a fancy gift box. It was on a clearance aisle and I grabbed it for $6. I added the wood shelves. Rolled up baby wash cloths for towels. made the little bottles from glue sticks and beads. The toilet paper was from MY FROGGY STUFF. The shaving cream came from those mini brands balls. The toilet was from the dollar store.
I had so much fun with this. That shower is part of the laundry room set. I got the tub at the Dollar store. That fancy little table is actually a light that also came from the Dollar store. (Get this - I applied to be an affiliate with the Dollar store and THEY TURNED ME DOWN!) I could post so many links to their stuff - what were they thinking? That sign on the wall, was also from the $ store. I hung a little hook on the wall and put the towel wrap on it. Those little bottles are made from jewelry parts glued together. The next time Hobby Lobby puts some of their jewelry parts on the clearance aisle, see what your mind can come up with to make for a doll house. It will cost you near to nothing.
Ahhh a nice bubble bath is just what Barbie needed. So I "tried" to make the "bubbles" by making glue drops on a piece of clear plastic from a package. Did not come out quite the way I envisioned. The tray across the tub was a large popsicle stick with the rounded ends cut off. I made a teeny tiny loofa with the pink ribbon. Printed out a good book, made a little bar of soap on a soap dish. Look in the background there -- the toilet roll holders! Made from little dowels and beads and toothpicks. Details make it great. I'm just sayin'.
The story was, that Mom was taking a soak in the tub and dad was watching the baby, but like most dads, he was also on his computer (cough cough) and hiding out in the laundry room. The wrapping paper and gift bag in the background came from MY FROGGY STUFF. (Go to her printables and look under Holiday Stuff). We saw up above that Auntie was in the kitchen baking cookies for Santa. Let's see what is going on in the living room....
Big sister was in front of the fireplace, where the stockings are hung, but she looks like she sees something... maybe waving hello to somebody?
The bookshelf in the back is full of reading material. There's even a Christmas story book on the top shelf called Elves. Remember, I'll talk about the books in a future post. They are very easy to make.
Grandpa made that amazing fireplace out of styrofoam. He carved it. And then he painted it. I wish I had detailed instructions. He doesn't even remember exactly how it did it. (This was during Covid when everybody was a zombie.
Here, on the other side of the room, is a tree I found at Hobby Lobby. There are a couple of gift bags in front of it. A printed bookshelf is against the wall where I put the coffee stir sticks to give it some depth.
The light is on. Those ceiling lights are so great. I did a craft fair in Utah a couple years ago and all of these houses were on display and for sale. I had the lights on all 3 days and they lasted til about an hour before closing time on the 3rd day. It is easy to change out the batteries. It just unscrews.
HO HO HO!! Look who stopped by early! No wonder little sister is pointing. Santa looks pooped out already and the evening isn't over. Maybe he smells the cookies in the kitchen and is waiting for them?
You can't see the couch he is on, but it will be in a later post. The chair is hand made also.
I'm just getting started with this blog and have oodles of things I want to cover. Just be patient if you can, and by all means, message me and let me know what things you would like explained more clearly. I will do my best.