"Crafting a Roombox" birthday party for my 8 year old

For my daughter's 8th birthday party, we decided to have a "Crafting a Roombox" event.  I will say that I was VERY nervous about it.

I was still a bit traumatized from her last birthday party where there were twice tears and also some arguments.  One girl had cried because we didn't have enough sparkly dots (I had just put out what we had) when decorating frames, and then there was also tears and arguments during the treasure hunt (whose turn was it read the clue etc.).  When the party ended, my husband said, "well, that went well," as I collapsed into a chair.

But this party went well, and I really enjoyed it.   We invited all the girls of her class (unfortunately, our living room cannot fit the boys as well) and told everyone to bring a shoe box (although we had extras) and their favorite doll/animal.

One of the other mothers also offered to stay to help, which was great.

We bought lots of supplies at Michael's:  3 pads of scrapbook paper; construction paper; plastic plants; green plants; wood; green felt for grass and some other pretty felt colors.

 I also brought out my fabric collection.   And I saved food cartons and egg cartons for 2 months.  Before the party, I cut out couch shapes from the various food cartons that could be used as the base. (I also had FIMO clay in reserve in case.)  And I made little round tables by gluing thread to the round wood tops in advance.

I showed them a prototype cupcake shop:

Nobody wanted to do that.

They all wanted to make a house for their animal.


So  I showed them how to make a couch and pillows with fabric and fabric glue.  And how to cut the plastic flowers and make a pathway out of egg cartons.

Here was my other prototype:

And they all set to work - I really love the scrapbook paper as wallpaper.

Here are some of the finished projects:

This animal looks quite comfy. 

The pillow is still being clamped together here with binder clips.

Bed, couch, table and a garden!

Top view of a beautiful garden.

I love the egg carton chairs. 

A slide down from the top floor

(This one has a pool, a slide and a tunnel in the garden.)

My daughter kept working on hers, so it is now 3 stories high: 

I quite like her deck chairs out of cardboard and felt:

She drew some pictures as art for her bedroom:

And I particularly like her garden:

And one girl thanked me for teaching her how to make all this stuff.  

A dress form

Continuing the sewing theme -- here is a dress form with a partially-completed dress.  (The sewing theme is a bit unintentional as I had been meaning to make the pajamas for over a year (see my New Year's resolutions for 2015), and then the shift dress project looked very easy.)

We just made this project in my mini club, and I actually completed it the same day (which doesn't happen often).

At the previous session, we each glued together the dress form from a Chrysnbon kit. Then we took the dress forms home.  With modge podge, I applied the very thin origami paper.  I had not tried modge podge before, so I thought it would be fun to try.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it when it was finished (before I added the dress).

Then in class, I made the dress from the provided pattern, sewing first the top and then sewing the top to the skirt and then gluing it onto the mannequin.  And then I added the lace trim. 

Here is the dress form in the beginnings of a little sewing room (although I plan to replace the hutch).  

The very colorful thread holder on the wall is from Dragonfly International.  

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Relaxing on the unfinished Malibu Dolls House balcony (new furniture and a new shift dress)

Clearly, the builders are not coming any time soon to finish this balcony!

Another Dolls House Magazine project: the Shift Dress.  

This is from the March 2016 issue. 

  

And furniture from Anatolian Miniature - so beautifully made!  I am so happy with the 2 pieces. 

(with paper flooring quickly added - it does not look too bad)

(before the paper flooring was added for the picture)

I am going to try to make another shift dress that is a little smaller.  I have only online access to the magazine and I can't seem to print out the pages, so I guessed at the size of the pattern.  And it turned out a little too big. 

The grey cat is by Reve. 

The coffee and the cupcake are also projects from the Dolls House Magazine (but for another post). 

Hope you have a great weekend!