minime Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 When my kids were about 8 & 9 we made cardboard dollhouses. We used refridgerator boxes for the house, fabric ironed on for the wallpaper and felt for the carpet. The furniture was all made out of Domino pizza boxes. We even made people from pipe cleaners with wooden beads for heads. The kids had a ball painting and deciding what furniture I was to make next for them. I wish now that I had taken pictures. They played with those houses for a long time before passing them on to younger cousins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 I have been drafting plans for a Craftsman Bungalow and I want to make it up in cardboard before actually buying & cutting wood. I wish you had pictures, especially the bead & pipecleaner dolls, which I have seen very nice versions, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minime Posted October 30, 2006 Author Share Posted October 30, 2006 Havanaholly, I just found my pile of miniature directions and pictures from years ago. If you would like the directions for the pipe cleaner and beads dolls I could scan them for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 the directions for the pipe cleaner and beads dolls I don't really reed them, as there are directions in Venus & Martin Dodges dh DIY book, but thank you ever so much for the sweet offer. I would like to see pictures of how yours turned out, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemlady Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Fond memories one of my first dollhouses was a fold up one for a Barbie doll my mother gave me it was a 1 floor house that folded in to a carring box that measured 10x36 also had fuinture , great fun had it forever even my girls played with it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gggrinch6 Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Neat! I thought I was the only person who built a dollhouse out of cardboard. Wow! what a small world!I Dont have pictures of it it anymore I gave it away. I built it with the plans from the dollhouse kit that my dad gave me one year for Christmas. It was alot of fun!I still however have the original dollhouse I turned it into a gingerbrad house. I plan to take pictures very soon.I would like to see pictures if you still have them on your cardboard doll house.Congrads on your creative project. They say great minds think alike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tams Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 First dollhouse I ever had was when I was two, I think. My Mum-Mum made it for me out of cardboard. It was a simple enough pattern and I don't think she bothered with decorating it at all. I have a picture online somewhere of her building it and it 's one of my dearest memories. Tams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuttiwebgal Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 If you would like the directions for the pipe cleaner and beads dolls I could scan them for you. if it is not to much trouble I would like the directions please! thanks soo very much! nutti :thumb: :yes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms. Mini Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 that reminds of me when I was a little girl. I would use shoe boxes and turn them into dollhouses! i would put it on its site and make the bottom of the box the front of the house. i would cut windows and a door out. decorate it and use the lid as the roof! those were so much fun, my mom actually still has one of them ones i made her for mothers day -Jenny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I did that after my mom decided I was too old to play with my Keystone dh & "put it away". I made dolls & furniture out of paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamie Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Long,long ago when I was a kid there was little boxes of cereal that came in a pack that where little houses that you could play with after you eat the cereal , What fun :yikes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms. Mini Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I did that after my mom decided I was too old to play with my Keystone dh & "put it away". I made dolls & furniture out of paper. No one is ever to old to play with dollhouses in my book! :yikes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 No one is ever to old to play with dollhouses in my book! :yikes: Couldn't agree with you more!!!! I think at times they must have been envying us our dollshouses when they needed to put them away instead of letting us keep them out. Mine was handed over to a younger cousin, which had a lot of fun with it, but boy did I shed some serious tears over that one... Hugs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 Long,long ago when I was a kid there was little boxes of cereal that came in a pack that where little houses that you could play with I remember those! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuppa-Tea Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 My first dollhouse was also a cardboard box!!!! My dad took one and reinforced it... he's an engineer. It was actually about as big as a McKinley - with seven rooms. There was the main square, then a triangle on top, and an addition. We played and played with that, and made all kinds of things... a washtub and a washboard out of a sytrofoam cup and toothpicks (respectively), for example. I made clothespin dolls - there were two parents, two girls and a maid. My family bought us all kinds of things for it... the dollhouse stuff was a lot more expensive back then. I have all the furniture and dolls and accessories, but the house is in my mom's attic. I particularly loved the drop-leaf kitchen table, the mirrored hutch and the two canopy beds that could be taken apart and used without the canopy. Oh and the teeny tiny turned walnut candle holders and goblets that my grandparents bought somewhere! if it is not to much trouble I would like the directions please! thanks soo very much! nutti :welcome: ;) Me too! I want to do something like that for my 1/2" scale house. I have some beads and pipe cleaners, I'm just not sure how to go about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minime Posted November 23, 2006 Author Share Posted November 23, 2006 Just pm me with an email address and I will send them to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 Or you could do a tutorial, Pam, my attempt at a full-sculpt doll in 1:24 was a disaster!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minime Posted November 28, 2006 Author Share Posted November 28, 2006 I don't think I could do a tutorial. It was about 12 years ago that I made them and they didn't look all that good to me. The kids loved them though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 My first dollhouses were actually little grass huts with twig furniture.We had a big field near my house.When the grass got cut there were large mounds of straw and grass left behind for weeks.I would spend hours building these wonderful little villages with pebbles for paths to each hut..My mom would make me wool dollies and I would have families in about ten of the huts.I made several rooms in each hut and little beds for the dollies.We also made cardboard houses big enough for us to stand up in.We called them -our girl's only clubhouses.Life was sure simpler in the fifties and you made your own fun.Who would have thought that fourty years later I would be doing miniatures again.It is too true-once you have the mini bug it stays with you for life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Oh, Carrie, I did that, too, in the late '40s in S FL. I found some old discarded metal soldiers & cowboys & Indians and had a ball with them. Indoors my grandmother let me have the empty kitchen matchboxes and individual cereal packets and I made little villages out of them, embellishing them with architectural additions made from paper (paste always seemed in short supply, my mother taught me to make it out of flour & water, but not how to keep the bugs from eating it later!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glen Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Thats where babies house started. One of the girls at work took it home when I'd finished with it so she could play with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 I used to make dollhouses for my Barbie dolls out of Cardboard boxes! I got so good at it that my friends would give me boxes to help them make a Barbie doll box out of it . Those were fun times! I have one friend who still talks about those times when she sees me :thumb: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nmissi Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Oh, you are bringing back memories! Sometimes cardboard boxes made the BEST dollhomes! We sometimes would get these boxes with dividers in- to separate fruit I think. Anyway, it made for three "Stories" of house in one box. I'd get to play with those about three or four days before Mamau would take them away for the trash. But the most fun was always in building and set up, anyway. :thumb: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniDoxLuvr Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 I built my first one out of cardboard too! I was 11 years old and had a book from the library, it was plans for a dollhouse made out of plywood, but I was too young for a saw. My father painted houses for a living so we had plenty of great housepaint and brushes around, and once it was painted and shingled you could not even tell it was cardboard. I did use think balsa wood for trim and that hid all of the corrugated edges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartnsoule Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 It's so wonderful to read all these posts about the cardboard dollhouses. My first dollhouse was cardboard, made my my mom and grandma for Christmas and I loved that house! I posted some photos in my gallery. Please excuse the pants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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