DIY Doll Clubhouse

Do you have dolls? Are they bored? This clubhouse is the perfect fix! In the end, it's probably not going to look exactly like mine, but your dolls are going to have just as much fun in it!

Tip: If you don't have an American Girl Doll but you want one, I recommend going on Craigslist. That's how I got Julie (first photo, blonde one on the far right) for $30! Here is the link for the Craigslist website: Craigslist. Once a year, Costco has a special holiday sale of American Girl Kits with a doll, an extra set of clothing, a book, and some accessories. Here's the link to the costco website: Costco. Another way to get them cheaper is at Girl AGain. Girl AGain sells American Girl Dolls for half the original price, and they also sell doll clothes, furniture, accessories, and AG books! They take donations as well. Much of the money they make is sent to charity to help people struggling with autism. Here is the link for the Girl AGain website: GirlAGain. And, of course, you can always shop for a doll at American Girl. The AG store has some pretty great sales during the holidays. Here is the link to their website: American Girl.

This doll clubhouse doesn't just fit American Girl Dolls. Any dolls or figurines will work. Just use your imagination!

I'm not a professional crafter, writer, or photographer. I am just a ten-year-old girl that had a lot of fun making this project. I still think that I did a good job though, and I hope that you will like this project. Enjoy!

• two reasonably small throw pillows
• a soft bath mat.
• a wire dish rack (optional)
• a small black box
• clear tape
• scissors
• a round placemat (optional)
• a marker cap
• miniature fake flowers
• a ruler
• binders, magazine racks, box lids, etc.
• scarves or cloth pieces (optional)
• paper
• markers
• stickers
• mini posters or photos (optional)
• tinsel, ribbon or garlands of any kind (also optional)
• nontoxic air dry clay
• craft foam
• toothpicks

Put your bath mat on the floor of the area you'll be working on (preferably against a wall), for a nice fluffy rug. Then, put your two throw pillows next to each other against the wall and on top of the rug, so it looks like a long plush bench.

Now we are going to create the side walls. I used an art supply case on one side, but i don't think that a lot of people have that, so you can use whatever you have available to you. Use tape to connect two box lids, magazine racks, or small portfolios together to create a sort of tall, narrow wall. You can find all sorts of flat surfaces to make the walls with though, like cardboard.

Take one of the throw pillows, and set it aside. Then take the wire dish rack, and set it on it's side, so that the legs are pointing towards you. Make sure that it's standing up vertically, or else this won't work. Put it on top of the rug in the spot where the pillow was. Then put the pillow back where it was. There should be two legs under the pillow, and two legs about a foot above the top of it. For the cloth of the canopy, drape a scarf over the legs and the wall.

This is probably my favorite step. Take your cloth pieces and scarves, and fold some to hang over the walls, spread some on the pillows, or bunch some up for bean bag chairs. If you have mini pillows or AG accessories, now is the time to use them. You can make books for them out of folded paper, and put them in a container, for a school supply box. Tip: If you used a magazine rack for part of a wall, you can store stuff in there like the fur coat and hat you see here in mine.

For the lounge room, just add more portfolios and magazine racks to the side of the main room for the walls. If you chose to use one, put the placemat down in the TV area for a rug. For the flower vase on top of the TV, take the fake flowers and put their stems in the marker cap. It should look like a vase.

For the TV, grab your black box, paper, and markers. Take a piece of paper and a black marker and draw a thick five-and-a-half by three inch rectangle. Inside the rectangle, use your markers to draw a scene for the TV screen. Cut it out. If you want a more realistic, clean look though, then you can cut a photo to the suggested size. Tape the TV screen to the top of the box horizontally. If you want, you can take another piece of paper and draw some buttons and controls to cut out for the bottom of the TV. Put the vase on top of the TV.

Take all of your photos, posters, and stickers, and use tape to put them on the back wall. If you like, you can decorate with ribbon, garland, or tinsel, like I did!

It's time to make some snacks! Non-toxic air-dry clay and craft foam treats, anyway.

For the sandwich, take some orange or brown clay. Flatten it out with your palm, and then use the side of your ruler cut the clay to create a square of "bread." For the cheese, make a ball out of yellow clay, and use your thumb to flatten it out. Put the "cheese" on one of the squares. For lettuce, flatten out some green clay, and pinch it around the edges. Put it on top of the yellow clay piece, and then put your other square on top of that.

For the bread and butter, take some orange clay and roll it into a ball. Roll it a little more on just one side, so in becomes more like an oval. Take a ruler and use the side to make five tiny slits on the top. For butter, take a tiny piece of yellow clay and shape it into a flat square. Then take an even smaller piece of green clay, and make it into a flat oval, for a leaf of parsley. Put that on top of the yellow piece, and then put the yellow piece on the "bread."

For the taco, take some orange clay and roll it into a ball. Flatten it out with your palm and fold it loosely to look like a taco shell. For the lettuce, make a ball of green clay. Pinch the entire sphere, all over, to make a ball of lettuce. Put that in the "shell." Then, take some yellow clay and roll it out into a long sort of string. Crumple it up loosely, and put it on top of the "taco."

For the kebabs, cut different colored pieces of craft foam into shapes. Stick a toothpick through the craft foam pieces and even out the spacing of the foam. Repeat as many times as you want to make more kebabs.

Finally, for the salad, take some green craft foam and cut it into a bunch of squares and rectangles. Put them in a dip bowl. For carrots, take a plastic orange toothpick and cut it into small pieces. If you want more carrots, cut up more. For the tomato slices, take red craft foam and cut it into small triangles. Sprinkle those on the "salad."

Notice: This is not real food. Do not try to eat it. This is for doll or figure play only.

I hope you like my project! Have fun!