Cardboard Dollhouse

A lot of serious sewing/drafting going on on this blog lately, so I thought I'd swing way over to the other extreme of my manic creative spectrum for a little break. When I make cardboard things, sometimes I have a plan first and then scout around for cardboard to make it with. Sometimes I see a cardboard box that screams out to me the new toy it is destined to become. This week, I found a cardboard box lying around the house that was the perfect size and shape for a dollhouse.

My usual modus operandi is to stash such boxes in storage closets until I feel up to working on it - usually after 10 pm when the kids are in bed. And in the dead of winter when there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. This time, though, I made the fatal mistake of voicing aloud my plan to turn it into a dollhouse. Fatal because the kids were within earshot.

Immediately I was besieged by pleas and bargains to Make It Now. "But I have a dress to cut out! In beautiful embroidered linen!" I moaned pitifully to nobody in particular (who would sympathize, I mean).

So we spent the afternoon on the deck making our dollhouse.

Here's the front:

Here's the back:
Here's a view of the attic (side-less, in spite of
protests from the kids, for easy access).

And here's a view of the other side, with a little
elastic band going over a paper fastener
that the kids can undo
to open out the dollhouse to fill with furniture and people.
Emily was very concerned that we remembered the staircase.
Because the last time we made a dollhouse, it had no
staircase and Emily was perturbed that we had to
make the residents fly from one floor to the other.

A happy Playmobil family moved in right away.

And in the last 10 minutes or so before it was completed,
Jenna and Kate got out all their markers, uncapped them,
and stood poised and ready to decorate.
Had to fend them off just to take some photos, before
I handed the dollhouse over to them.

Emily said, "we need to take our trees out
and plant them beside the house."

So we did.

And the wind blew the three blue robin's eggs
out of the nest in one of the trees

which devastated Kate, so she dashed in to rescue them.

I still haven't cut out that linen dress, but we spent all day outside in 75 degree weather today in spite of crafting, so I call that a midsummer success.