Miniature Tips

Gerry and Maddie love to share creative tips for making dollhouse furniture and accessories from everyday objects.

Room Non-boxes

Here’s a variation on the room boxes Bebe and Maddie make at the workshop in Chapter 12. Instead of using an ordinary wooden room box, try making a scene in a bag or a hat or an object that fits the theme. For Christmas, for example, use a Santa hat; for Fourth of July, a Revolutionary War soldier’s hat; for Thanksgiving, a pilgrim’s hat. Fabric stiffener will keep them firm (or you can make the hats from stiff paper) and you can build a tree-decorating scene, a fireworks display, or a turkey feast, a few inches in from the edge of the hat. Variation: Eat a whole tub of ice cream (!), cut a door on the bottom or tip it on its side, and use it to house a mini–soda fountain. And more!

Luggage Cart and Accessories

Have you made too many suitcases (Chapter 5)? Make a luggage cart to hold them all. Use a piece of sturdy cardboard for the bottom. Cover one side with felt of any color, cutting to size (not folding over). Use buttons for wheels. Bend wire (or paper clips) into shape for the sides of the cart. Don’t forget luggage tags! Make them out of card stock, any shape you like, then glue a favorite theme picture on one side. Punch a hole in one end and use thread or single-ply yarn to tie the tags to the suitcases. For an antique look, add a steamer trunk. The small boxes that come with new jewelry are often just the right shape. Paint to suit.

Wire Power

Many items can be made using (1) wire (2) wire cutters/pliers and (3) a good eye for shapes. Think of things that are mostly wire—grocery carts, baskets, whisks, eyeglasses. Try cutting a piece of wire and bending it into the shape of any of the articles above simply by following the lines of a life-size piece, or a picture of one.

Stickers Again

You say you’ve already combed the sticker aisles for useful items? Now make your own stickers for accessorizing your dollhouse or room box. Cut a picture from a magazine or a photo, scan it, and print on adhesive-backed paper such as the kind you use for printing mailing labels. An example: scan a picture of a heating vent from a catalog or ad; print to size on adhesive paper; cut out; and stick to the wall or floor of your “home.” You can also make dimmer switches and outlets/sockets this way. The look will be smoother, and there will be more substance to the item than if you simply glue the cut-out pictures directly onto to the walls or floors.

Springs Again

The small springs found in ballpoint pens have many uses, as listed in accounts of earlier Gerry and Maddie adventures. Here’s a new one: Cut the springs into segments the size of hair curlers in the scale you’re working in. You can glue them to the head of a doll who’s in your mini-salon, leaving a few scattered around the floor. If your doll is at home, wrap a piece of netting over the “curlers” and have her answer the door in her housedress.

For the Wall

Decorate walls with photos and certificates, the easy way. No more struggling with your printer to get it to reduce the image by 80 percent. You don’t even need to search for just the right “printies.” Simply go through your own collection of photos for snapshots you intend to throw away some day. Maybe you have three or four shots of the same group of people, with almost the same background. Is there something on the wall in a picture that can be useful in a dollhouse or room box? A diploma? A favorite calendar? A portrait? An academic or military award? Cut them out and glue to the dollhouse/room box wall. Done!