Simple Doll House/Action Figure House

In 3rd and 4th grade it seemed like every time we read a book we had to make a diorama, and when i say "had to" i mean it was one of the many choices of ways to tell our class about the book but i ALWAYS chose dioramas. Fast forward to middle school, cutting out of magazines, reading Martha Stewart and Better Homes and Gardens when i should be reading Teen Bop, cutting and pasting my dream room, house, beach house, european home, tree fort, what have you. Fast forward to high school, designing, decorating, and painting sets for school plays and dances. Fast forward to my 27-year-old self now, mom of 2 small boys. No. They don't want to make doll houses with me. What's a mom-of-no-girl to do? i saw something like this in a magazine a while ago, i think i had to buy the base part and decorate it myself but i thought "i can do that!" now to get my boys in on it so that i'm not a crazy lady making child crafts for my own pleasure. i told my oldest, "even Super Man and Mega Mind sit on couches, have a fridge, and sleep in a room." i asked Ezra if he wanted to pick out art, furniture and make a real manly house and he was kinda stoked. i was REALLY stoked. yeah, he probably would have rather played outside in the dirt and wrestle me to the ground, but we ended up having a good time together. and ezra got to put whatever he wanted in his dream house and room, no matter that it came from anthropologie and pottery barn catalogs. bazillion dollar knit cukoo clocks in your room? you got it. dream on son, dream on.

OK here we go

You'll need this stuff:

• scrapbook or construction paper (anything you like, it will be wallpaper)
• scissors
• tape
• glue stick
• mod podge type thing (optional, a coat of this will keep edges from peeling or from just being straight up ripped off. my original didn't have mod podge. it's taken a beating.)
• paintbrush or sponge brush for the mod podge
• magazines and catalogs
• a cereal box or diaper box, anything cardboard that you can cut into 2 equal size rectangles that are about twice as long as they are tall
• extras: stickers, trading cards, anything 2D and cool-lookin

WARNING WARNING If you have young impatient kids, read ahead and figure out which steps you want to get done before they arrive on the crafting scene...

1. Cut your cardboard into 2 equal size rectangles
2. At the midpoint (find it by folding in half just enough to get what you need to know) cut out a teeny tiny thin strip to almost halfway up. i'm lazy and always eyeball it, you can measure if you're Type A. Repeat step 2 on other piece of cardboard

3. Try to fit them together, you'll get it wrong the first time, but it'll show you how much more you need to cut. like this... (and now that you see i skipped ahead pic-wise and cut my doors out too. you can cut as many or as few doors as you want)

4. Now for the rest of the mid-point cut, cut one snip-of-the-scissors in each (this makes a tighter fit in the center, whereas the small strip leaves wiggle room)

5. Once you've got it all perfect/good enough, tape the "walls" together at the top and bottom

6. Now slap a good ol' fashion tape roll smack dab in the center a wall of choice, place a piece of "wall paper" onto the wall. there will be overhang. trace on the back side of the paper where you should cut off the excess. i didn't feel like doing that, so i held it up to the window and cuts it as i saws it, like so...

(this paper also happened to be big enough to cover both walls of a room at once, whoo hoo)

7. Wallpaper each room.

8. Peruse magazines and catalogs for room decor and furniture, cut 'em out and stick em on. don't forget art for the walls, windows, pets, anything that floats you boat.

9. paint it all with mod podge or something similar and let it all dry! Done!

we made this one a bit more feminine for variety, and ezra made all of the decisions in the flower walled room, he thought a girl would like everything he picked. i hope he has offended no one with his clear sense of stereotyping :p it was cute to hear him think out loud about these things. "girls like dolls....and flowers....and horsies...."

I made a special room out of a small box with my 3 y.o. niece, but sadly, took no pictures. We used letter stickers to spell her name on the wall, cut out a rug, and she'll use her well stocked dollhouse furniture to further accessorize.

OTHER IDEAS:

Make "sets" for favorite stories to act out

• under the sea (mermaids, fish)
• a forest with a cottage (robin hood / little red riding hood / narnia / and any folk tale ever told)
• a castle (princess...need i say more?)
• a race car garage with all the needed tools and shelving (car mag and home depot ad for that one)

Have fun and if you make something, send me a pic and i'll post it!