Barbie Girl moves in

For the past few weeks I have been working on a version of a doll house.  My initial inspiration came from this great doll house  and then I went from there.  I purchased the book case, ok, I purchased two of them.  Barbie has a lot of friends and I am all about enough room for the guests. Three rooms was too limiting. :)   Anyways, I originally thought this would be a fun surprise for my daughters birthday.  Well, I'm not that patient.  Then I thought I'd have it ready for Spring Break.  Yea right.  Still working on it.

There comes a point with creativity that you have to determine quality vs. use.  Now when my Mom and Dad made us a doll house, we got both.  My mom even hemmed the edges of the bedding and it all looked great.  For me, I'm working more for use.  I have a young daughter.  I've seen what happens to peoples doll houses after they have spent eons decorating it for Better Homes and Gardens and once the girls actually play with it,  that vision is quickly destroyed.  So I am making beds, sofas, and a few decor pieces.  I am papering the walls and adding carpet.  But I am using Fabric Tack for most of the "sewing".  I am using scraps of material left over from other projects and old shirts that my little girl stained and would have thrown away.  I expect furniture to be rearranged and placed in rooms that don't match.  But it is for her, not me.  Thats what its for.  P.s.  My daughter says that Barbie is moving to Utah.  I asked her where she is moving from.  California.  Really.  LOL.

Yackety Yack.  Enough of that.  Here are some pics.  Hope they help get your creative juices flowing.

Before

Do you see how they were even holding a Dr's office along side my Cricuts!  Inexcusable.;)

So I bought 2 of these

Don't throw away the packing foam that these come with.  A good number of my furniture pieces were made from those.  Including the bunk beds.

During

 Shoe boxes.  Perfect bed size for Barbie. Note: these aren't shoe boxes from adult shoes, kids shoes are best.

 Mini craft sticks for windows and picture frames.

Packing foam and party favor glasses for tables.

After

This is the view of it in my craft closet.  It got a little cramped but it kept her from seeing the work in progress.  (she didn't know what I was doing).

Barbie's BFF Teresa's room.  ( Ken probably feels left out)

Vinyl cutout on the wall.  I also saved images from Barbie boxes when my daughter got a new doll.  I used these as photos on the walls.  Scrapbook paper for the floor.

 Skipper's, Stacey's and Chelsie's bedroom.   The item in the floor is a sleeping bag for Chelsie's little friend.  I had a really cute shirt of hers that my little girl had snipped a hole in using scissors.  I saved it and found it worked perfectly for this project.  For the bunk beds, I did use the packing foam, covered them with material from old t-shirts (pink little girl ones, that had stains and weren't wearable).

 Skipper is a bit more sporty and my daughter said her favorite color is blue, thus the blue part of the house.  I glued little mirrors from the craft store above the "vanity".

The bottom floor is the bathroom and I was going to make it part laundry room but I realized that Barbie (at my house) has babies all the time so I figured she could use the other half for a babies room.  She uses furniture from Loving Family Doll House for her baby needs.  I did add a few "movie posters"to the bathroom but that is about it.  Need a sink.

Then we come to her favorite room.  Barbie's!  Note:  she had a lot of furniture before this project.  Birthdays and yardsales:) I didn't buy any new.

 Scrapbook paper to wallpaper the room.  Modge podge is great.  I also used the fast drying tacky glue for most of my adhesive needs.  Worked great, we shall see how it holds up in the long run.  Pillows and fabric were put together with Fabric Tack.  I filled the pillows with cotton balls.  I did sew the comforters but that is it.

 Took a few stickers out of my daughters coloring book that worked for great photos.  I matted them and hung them up.  That is were I got the movie posters for the bathroom.

Can't forget my Barbie rug.  So random ;)

 Then we have the formal living room.  I struggled with the walls in this one.  To bare.  But I didn't have anything just right.  Maybe I'll spruce it up later when the right paper comes along.  Yes, I did super glue a broken Barbie lamp to the ceiling.

 The sofa was made with a box and one of the foam pieces.  I potted a sprig of a glittery fern to bling up the corner.  It sounds like she's going to use it for a Christmas tree:)

 My Sister in Law wanted a touch of her (and I knew my mom and sister would love too) in the house so she donated a bit of animal print.  The chair, again was foam with brown material and animal print to spice things up.

 A canvas button was used for making the clock and a sticker from my scrap collection filled it out.

 Again, cutouts from Barbie boxes make great family pictures.

Every house has a picture wall right?

 And we leave off with the Kitchen.  She likes to use two kitchen sets here.  I guess Barbie and Theresa like their work spaces.  I papered half the wall and cut out butterflies with green  vinyl.  They were fun.  The Art Philosophy Cartridge had beautiful images to choose from.

I used table cloth material for the floor.  I didn't super glue down any flooring in case she wants to move things around later on. I just tacked them in place.

 Here you have it all set up and ready to play. I added all of her "stuff".  You know the stuff that just clutters a perfectly styled room:)  The area in the middle is a large floor tile.  It is what she used to play on before my tables became Barbie central.  It makes for a nice family room.  She has the plastic sofas and TV with a table for holding snacks.  I covered one of the rooftops with paper that looked like sand and one that looks like grass.  This is their pool/picnic area.  Apparently the other rooftop is going to be the model "runway".  The wheels are turning, what could I do for that...

Well, there you have it.  Now that it is done I am not sure what to do.  I am sort of wondering the house feeling quite lost.  Guess I better go work on the weeds in my yard.  Enjoy.  Feel free to post any questions. T.T.F.N.  Barbie out!