New Craft Project

Greetings dolly friends!

I apologize for my long absence. It's been a very busy time here at our household. But things seem to be slowing down before I gear up for a very busy next week! But in the meantime there is a project I've been wanting to work on. 

As you can see from the title of the post, I started a craft project. This is the one that I've mentioned a couple of times but just never got the wild hair to give it a go. 

When my dad came over last time he gave me this little box. 

Super cute and super vintage! There is a name printed on the clasp (Worscter, I think?) so it's hard to tell who made it. It has been sitting in my garage for a while as it had 'old' smell. 

On the inside it was covered with paper and had some marker on it. White with red swirleys and dirty. Also has a hanger at the top of the box for your clothes.

So, we are going to recover this with some awesome scrapbook paper!

The first step was to get it in the sink and give it a good scrub. Also to remove all the paper. I knew there was cardboard underneath so my goal was to not saturate the cardboard but to make sure it was nice and clean. Also that marker stain bled and to avoid that getting on any barbie clothes, we definitely had to get that off of there. 

The paper was not hard to remove and did come off in big chunks mostly but in one place I got a little overzealous and ripped the cardboard off exposing the wood underneath, oops!

I had to let it sit in the garage for a few days as the 'old' smell returned and to make sure that the cardboard was good and dry. 

And....since my dad was over here this past weekend I decided that the help would be much appreciated. So I started on it. 

First would be to cover the wood that I ripped the cardboard off of. Simple paperboard would do the trick. So using a very generous amount of tacky glue I got to work cutting the paperboard to glue on. 

The sides of the box was a little strange as there was a lip. To make things easier, I just extended the cardboard down to the bottom of the box to make for clean lines. 

Finally after cutting and gluing, we got it finished. And I do have to say that having the extra hands was nice!

Naturally when I got to this point the kiddos woke up from their nap so I had to pause but my dad went to work by cutting apart a paper bag to make a template for the paper on the inside. The idea was to make the entire inside one solid piece of paper but my paper wasn't big enough. Otherwise that would have been fabulous. But I was able to use the template to measure how big the inside was as well as the top and bottom. So it all worked out!

The paper I have chosen is in this pack of papers I got at Michael's called "Palm Springs."

I mean, doesn't this just scream "50's era wallpaper?"

I am not finished with it yet but this is the general idea.

The piece of paper at the top is stuck under the lip and i'm waiting for the glue to dry. Just to give it a clean edge. 

What do you think? Probably not going to use it but it might make a nice backdrop for some dolls!

I was also playing around one day and was looking at my newest Hairdorable and my Kelly dolls. 

Since Hairdorables are 'surprise' dolls (which are all the rage now!) there is a chance you could get doubles. And since I have about 15 Kelly's with no clothes.....

They don't quite fit a Kelly doll. It's just a little tight in the back. But it's not terrible. With the velcro in the back it wouldn't be that hard to extend it so it fit around her a little better. 

The shoes aren't bad either but her legs are a little thick for these ones. 

But the Hairdorable has an adorable little swimsuit underneath. Would be so easy to make a sarong for her and stick her in the pool! (If I had one....)
 

Well that's all for today! And I do have the MOTHER LODE of dolly goodness to show you all. Just got to take the mountains of photos and get them up here! I can't wait to share with you. 

Until next time!