Crooked Cottage

I spent the better part of August working on this little cottage for the tiny bead dolls.  Amazing how insistent a tiny doll can be!

I love using cardboard, partly because my woodcrafting skills are nill, and partly because there is so much of it around for free.  And, making dollhouses keeps it out of the landfill.

This wee house was made from one cardboard box, with a couple of strips of cardboard glued to the side to make a ledge for the second floor.

There is always an incredible mess when I start playing with cardboard and glue and paper and paint.  This is laid out on the floor, and you can see the basic doll house shape already done.  I painted the entire thing with gesso, then used scrapbook papers to paper the inside walls, and sponge painted a fern green to the outside walls.  The floors are carpeted with felt, and the roof is shingled with old dollhouse shingles I've had for decades.

You can see the sponge painting on the sides; striving for a look of moss on stucco, and the shingles glued to the roof.  I tried to glue long twigs to finish the raw edges of the house, but the glue wouldn't hold.  In desperation, I looked around for another way to fasten the twigs to the house, and found some waxed linen used for macrame jewelry that I could tie the twigs to the raw edges.  I used a pinvise to drill tiny holes in the cardboard and threaded the cord through these and around the twigs.  If you look at the picture below, you can see what I mean (better than my trying to describe it).

A bit crooked, but sweet.  And quite a mess!

Tiny furniture for our tiny house; chairs and a bench from wooden blocks and twigs; table from spools and wood cut-out; quilt on a bed from spools, twigs, and a piece of cardboard.

Something to hang on the walls!

Living room, furnished.

Bedroom furnished.

A bit cozy, but we're happy.  And so is the owl in the attic!

And looking a bit spooky with some camera manipulation.

I just grabbed and box and started playing.  Bet you have plenty of boxes to play with as well.  The wood bits are easy to find at the craft store, and the twigs came from our own tree trimmings ( a brush pile is a wonderful thing).  It is great fun to make something from nothing!

Cardboard Construction

About once a year I get bitten by the cardboard box bug...hate to throw them away!  It is inspiring to look around and see how many different things can be made with cardboard boxes.

With the advent of multi-colored duck tape, the construction ends up being tidier, easier, and pretty good looking.  Of course, you don't want to sit on your construction...or leave it in the rain... or throw it at your annoying sibling.  But if you play carefully, you can have a dizzying array of doll houses for pennies, and a bit of your time.

This two room cottage for Mini Hitty was made with boxes we get our vitamins in.  Since they come monthly, I have an impressive stash of boxes; probably enough to make a village!

In addition to the boxes, I used scrap book papers and colored duck tape, both from Michaels.  Modge Podge for glue, and a couple of old paint brushes to apply the glue with.

I papered the ceilings first, then the walls and finally the floors.  I also papered the outside, then taped the first floor to the second floor with white duck tape.  

I used the duck tape to cover all the raw edges of the cardboard.  If the tape was too wide, I laid it on my cutting mat and sliced it with my boxcutter the width I wanted it.

To support a craft stick fence on the balcony, I used lengths of basswood glued to the edge of the balcony, for the fence to then be glued to.

One of the box flaps was left attached to the upstairs, to form the front of the roof.  I used a bit of cereal box cardboard to make a rafter to support the top of the roof:

 you can see it here on the roof of the barn; and this is what the finished roof looks like:

The living room furniture is made of a cardboard frame, then covered with a crocheted slipcover.   Instructions for making the chair and sofa are here:

Crochet and cardboard furniture

The coffee table is a wood plaque with four small wood spools for legs.  I glued a piece of lace to the top of the table, then glued ric-rac around the edge (this was the hardest part of the entire construction!  the ric-rac would not stay put!)

The bed is made from four clothespegs glued to a cardboard frame the size of the mattress.  To make the mattress frame stronger, cut two pieces of cardboard and glue them together, then glue on the clothespegs at the four corners of the bed.  One side of the peg is sawed off, so the frame fits onto the stub of the sawed off peg.  The bed is dressed with stash lace for skirting, and Warm&Natural cotton batting for the mattress and pillow.  The coverlet is knit.

I added a peg rack made from a craft stick, with tiny wood spools as the pegs, covered with colored mini buttons.  Mini Hitty can hang her clothing here.

The LLama's needed a home of their own, so with one box and some red duck tape they now have a barn:

Two box flaps were cut down to half size and used for the barn doors.  Another box flap was left in place and trimmed to look like the gable front of the barn roof.  I used a separate piece of cardboard to make the back side of the barn and roof; cut the top to the same shape as the front gable of the roof, then glue this piece of cardboard to the back of the barn box.

Instead of scoring the cardboard for the roof, I used the edge of my work table to crease it, then glued it to a cereal cardboard rafter.

Try to keep things simple and let the boxes do most of the work :-)

Enjoy!

From shoebox to roombox

I love shoeboxes; I save them all!  Though I haven't actually done anything with them (same with those round oatmeal containers).  So it seemed  time to do something with one of them :-)

Trying one on for size, it looked like a good fit for a tiny cloth doll.  Jane Noelle is six inches tall, and fits very nicely inside a shoebox for a pair of walking shoes.  And it looks like a Celestial Seasonings tea box will make a nice wardrobe.

All of the printed papers were scavenged from the internet and printed on card stock on my printer.  The picture on the wall is a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) that was reduced to fit a 2"x3" wooden plaque.

The outside of the box is papered as well as the inside; using a mix of paintings that I liked for the outside.  Jane has a couple of comfy upholstered chairs that were very easy to make: there is a picture tutorial on flickr here.

The rug is a crocheted doily, and her knitting needles are a pair of toothpicks.  She's making a garter stitch scarf :-)

The quilt in the hoop and the thread caddy are both Gail Wilson kits I made a long time ago, and little wood findings make up the tables.

Jane has a small wardrobe made from vintage hankies.  The sundress at the upper left and the nightgown at the lower right are made essentially the same way.  Two squares are sewn up the side seam, leaving the upper 1 1/4 " unsewn.  Hem the unsewn part back, then fold over 3/8" at the top edge on both side to create a casing.  Thread a piece of ribbon (silk ribbon works best) through the casing and gather up the neck edge.  Her arms fit through the opening left on both sides.

I cut the nightgown on the corner for the front, as this hankie had such a pretty edgeing on one corner.  For the sundress, make four rows of gathering stitches 1/8" apart below the casing on both the front and the back and pull up to gather the bodice (this is called shirring).  The neck edge is gathered up with the ribbon same as the nightgown.

Upper right are simple smallclothes made from a linen hankie, and lower left is a pinafore cut from a pretty corner portion of another hankie.  All of these vintage, slightly flawed hankies came from LinsAntiques on Etsy.

I'm sure your tiny dolls would love a home of their own!

Happy Stitching :-)

What a clothespeg can do

My growing family of Clothespeg dolls needed a place to live, and some furniture!  The room box is a wine crate that I purchased from this Etsy seller:

The Crate People

The crate was advertised as 13" x 11" by 8" deep.  It actually measured 7" deep, but still works fine.   They have a tremendous selection of crates.  The one I bought is actually nicely finished inside; not rough at all.  It could be painted or stained, or simply sealed with varnish (not a bad idea).

But of course, a roombox needs furniture, and all of the furniture in this box was made with clothespegs and wooden plaques.  If you cannot find plaques the right size, balsa or basswood sheets are very easy to cut and readily available at your local craft store.

The Bed:

The bed was made with a single plaque 6 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide; four flat clothespegs, and  four popsicle sticks.

Cut one leg off of each flat clothespeg, and make sure the distance from the head of the peg to the point you cut off is the same distance on each peg, and nice and flat.  The plaque will rest on this 'ledge' , and the remaining leg of the peg will be the posters for a nice, four poster bed.

Use the popsicle sticks to make the headboard (three sticks cut to size) and the footboard (one stick cut to size).  Glue the plaque to the clothespegs, let dry, then glue the popsicle sticks to the head posters and the foot posters.  After all is dry, stain or paint your bed, then antique it if you like with antiquing medium, or make a very light wash with burnt umber paint and a lot of water (thank you for this tip, Jenny!)

The mattress is a piece of Warm&Natural cotton batting, folded in thirds and sewn together on the back side, then quilted with French knots.

The Table:

The table is made with the same size plaque as was used for the bed, two spring clip clothespins, and four popsicle sticks.

Separate the spring clips so you have four table legs.  For a Hitty size table (good for dolls 5 to 6 1/2 inches tall) cut 1/2 inch off of the slender end of the table legs; make sure your four legs are the same length.  This also makes gluing the legs to the table supports more stable.

Cut two of the popsicle sticks so the are about 1/4" from each short edge of the table top (about 2" long), and glue two legs to each of these.  After these assemblies are dry, glue them to the short ends of the table top, then glue the long popsicle stick to the table leg and the bottom of the table on either side.  Let this sit upside down until dry.

Paint or stain your table, then antique or not.

The Chairs:

Each chair is made with four flat clothespegs, one 2" by 3" plaque, cut in half (one plaque will make two chair seats), and one popsicle stick.

Cut both legs off of two of the clothespegs for the front legs, and one leg off of the other two pegs for the back legs and the back vertical supports.  Cut the plaque in half so that you have two seats that are 2" x 1/1/2 ";  glue the front legs to the bottom of the chair seat.  Let this dry a bit, then glue the plaque into the back legs, letting the 'ledge' created when you cut off one leg hold the back of the seat.

Let this dry, then cut one popsicle stick to make two slats for the back of the chair and glue in place to the back of the vertical supports.   This chair could be made into a bench with a longer seat; it could also have an upholstered seat by putting a bit of batting on the seat then pulling fabric around this and gluing to the underside of the chair seat.

Paint or stain as desired, and antique or not.  You now have a full suite of furniture for your doll.

Occasional tables can be made with wood bobbins and wood scraps; a pegboard could be made with a popsicle stick and a 3/16" dowel rod.   Cut the dowel into 3/8" lengths and glue into holes drilled in the popsicle stick.

The wall quilt and the bed quilts are from some Gail Wilson projects I did several years ago.  The tea set on the table is a set of charms from Michael's, but I had to borrow a tea pot :-)  The rug was made by a dear friend several years ago, and the jug, basin, and chamber pot are bits of pottery I had about.

I plan to add a peg rack for hanging clothes, and maybe a tiny cross stitch sampler.  But for now, Ruby PegHitty and Daisy PegHitty are quite happy to take tea :-)

A couple of other Peg's found a place to explore in my fairy garden...

Ivy Peg (in the ivy dress), and Lily Peg, with the bunny, spending time in the fairy garden;  I hope you enjoy the day as much as they are :-)

The Finished Christmas Cabin

The Crochet Christmas Cabin is complete!  This project has pretty much consumed me for the last three or four weeks.  I have had so much fun thinking up and making all the details, and I am really pleased with the results.

This is a play-able doll house, as long as you are gentle with it (remember, the walls are cardboard).  Five inch dolls are perfectly at home here, we even managed to get two beds in the sleeping loft, with room left over for a tiny chest :-)

Some of the patterns, like the stockings, wreaths, and beds, are my own designs.  The Christmas Tree is from The NeedleCraft Shoppe entitled 'Snow Folks.'   The chairs are from an Annie's Attic Fashion Doll furniture series.  Both patterns I have had for ages.  The chairs were crocheted with fingering weight yarn, instead of worsted, and a size 1 steel hook instead of a G hook.

The coverlets on the beds are blocks from '200 Crochet Blocks,' by Jan Eaton.  I worked them in fingering weight yarn and a size F hook to give a bit more drape.

The gifts under the tree are Hitty Printables, just click on this link to take you there.

And the ornaments on the tree are glass beads threaded on a head pin.  The pin is turned down at the top to create a hook, then hooked onto the tree 'branches.'

Decorated Christmas tree and packages

Stockings hung by the chimney with care

A cozy place to sleep!

Winifred fits very snuggly here :-)

Now I better get busy and finish my Christmas list!

Teacup Cottage

I love dollhouses; bet you'd never guess :-)

This little dollhouse for the Teacup Spirits is made from a Michael's CD cubbie.  I had this collecting dust in my sewing room for a couple of years, just waiting for the right inspiration to do something with it.  After making a few Teacup Spirits, I realized it was the perfect abode for them, and their friends :-)

I painted the house with a coat of Gesso, to give a nice surface to paint on.  Then used primary colors for the outside, and white for the inside.  For wallpaper, I used scrapbook papers.  The only problem here was deciding what papers to use, and not end up buying everything in sight!

I papered the back wall only (make it easy on yourself), by cutting a pattern for the wall, then cutting out the paper to the pattern.  I glued the paper to the back wall by watering down glue to the consistency of cream, then painting it on the entire wall.

The windows (both inside and out) are trimmed with narrow ric-rac around the curved edge, and some woven braid along the bottom.

Soft rugs are felt.  I planned to embroider a design on each rug, but got impatient.  The design is penciled on the bottom side of the rug, if I change my mind :-)

Full of dolls and furniture!  The furniture is made from one of my all time favorite things to play with...wood findings from the craft and hobby store.  The bed is made from four tiny clothespin pegs (courtesy of Joyce!) and craft sticks.  The clothespin pegs make the four posters, and the craft sticks the side rails, head and footboard, and stringers.

The parlour furniture is SO simple!  Two 1 1/4 inch wood blocks are the base of the chair; the back is made of craft sticks cut to size.  The chairs are painted and embellished with lace and felt cushions.

The table is a wood disk glued to a wood flowerpot; painted and trimmed with ric-rac.

You can see how simple the chairs are, and the bed was not at all hard to make either.  The mattress is a length of Warm&Natural batting folded three or four times to make it nice and soft.  A crochet comforter is in order, I think.


It isn't too early to be thinking about Christmas, and this little dollhouse would make a delightful Christmas gift for a lucky girl.  You could make a Christmas cottage, a Gingerbread cottage, a seaside cottage, a Tudor cottage.  The possibilities are limitless; let your imagination fly :-)

Caution! Cute Attack!

A quick post to share with you a couple of really fun books.  "The Cute Book" and "The Cuter Book" are full of tiny, easy, delightful felt cuties :-)  I made three in a snap; each one probably took two hours from cutting out to finishing.   These would be great projects for children, all the sewing is done by hand.  The kitty on the left I turned into a pin to wear (just sewed a safety pin to the back).  Teddy and Bunny are toys for the Pocket Pixies.

You can see Finch snuggled up in bed with Bunny and Bear ( and a sleepy kitty!).


I own "The Cute Book," and borrowed "The Cuter Book" from the library.  If I were buying just one, I'd pick "The Cuter Book," because, well, it was just cuter :-)

 A peak into the Cardboard Cottage.  Little by little more things are being added to improve the cozy-ness for its occupants.

A pretty portrait on the wall, and a wool rug for the floor.  I used simple applique shapes from the book "101 Appliqué Blocks" for the rug.

Well, not such a short post after all.  More felt goodness to follow!

Furniture for Wren's Nest

Wren's Nest now has furniture!  Most of it was made with cardboard, foam, and fabric.   None of it costly, nor requiring power tools.  If you don't mind getting your hands sticky with glue, this may be the dollhouse project for you :-)

Bedroom with bed and nightstand

Kitchen table and chairs, mostly from craft sticks, spools, and wood plaques

Cozy living room with overstuffed chairs and footstool

A picture tutorial for making this furniture is available on my flickr site, and here at Cardboard Cottage Furniture.  Just a few little touches to finish this up, an embroidered felt rug for the living room, a cross stitch sampler to hang on the wall, popsicle peg racks for the kitchen and bedroom.  My Pocket Pixies are happy with their home, and so am I :-)