Suppertime

This post first appeared on the Handmade by Suzanne blog here. 

The second I saw the house-shaped diecut paper in the October Afternoon Modern Homemaker Collection I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. It seemed so obvious to me - make a dollhouse!! The real question was........ "how?"

So with a bit of planning I managed to pull this all together and made it sturdy enough that my girls can play with it.

I used a sturdy chipboard as my base - it's thicker than cardboard, but I can still cut it with about three swipes through of my cutter. In fact, it's the chipboard sheets that Suzanne includes with your papers when she ships them so they don't get bent! I always save them because I know they'll come in handy for something :-)

See that gorgeous letter box? It's from the new arrivals by Dusty Attic. They make some beautiful chipbaord pieces, and this one was perfect for this project. All I did was cover it with some white Ranger Distress Crackle Paint.

The smoke from the chimney was my daughter's idea. She questioned why I didn't include any in the first place. Silly me! I used some doily ribbon by Basic Grey because it's plastic and will stand the test of time. At least longer than cotton wool which is the more obvious choice :-)

I've had these hinges in my collection for the longest time. I bought them on clearance at Spotlight thinking I'd use them for a mini-album or something. But they were perfect for this project. Hinges on this side, and a simple tie around a couple of large brads on the other side so my kids can easily open and close the "door".

And this is what they see on the inside. A cosy four-room cottage :-)

I made three removable "dolls" for the dollhouse. The boy and girl, and this cute little snoozing puppy dog. They're made from the stickers which I stuck onto some thinner cardstock and then cut out and varnished.

I wanted to do the mum as well obviously, but she was a bit too big to fit inside her own house!

I left little tabs of cardboard on the bottom of each figure, and cut a few slits into the floor in each room of the house so the little boy and girl and puppy can go exploring and visit each other :-)

I'm also contemplating adding some wall art or rugs and other 'decorations' - what do you think?

Here's my very willing model showing you how those figures are removable and re-positional. And how much space there is for other visitors too!

So there you go. Scrapbooking supplies to make a non-scrapbook project. And I can tell you that this project has already received a whole lotta love in our household. So I would call that 'Mission Accomplished"!!

PS. Most of the other papers you see here are from the Modern Homemaker collection too. And despite making this, I've still got heaps of 'scraps' left over for a few more traditional pages too.