Cardboard Super hero house tour :)

Well as I shared a bit ago..(here).. that I made this super hero cardboard house for my little guy. 

I semi- promised I would show you more of it, so here it is. 

Enjoy.

The fun features are the trap door at the top and the workable jail.

I made the jail with a tea box. Also it has a secret passage on the side. :)

The beds are made out of cork board hot glued together and painted and the mattresses from foam and I sewed the bedding. The table is a lid and spool of thread. I have yet to make a few chairs for the 

super heros to rest their weary heroic bones. 

Here is the tea box and a pic to show you how I attached it.

Truth is Isaac loves that I made this for him but it is not on his list of favourite toys. It gets played with on and off. I think it would help if I made a few more pieces of furniture. However it was ALOT of fun to make and he often calls it 'special'. I love my little fellow and all the boyishness that he brings to our home!

Hope this is inspiring to someone. :) Here is the girls carboard dollhouses from years ago, (we still have one in good shape after 4 years!!) and another homemade toy from cardboard that I made for Isaac a few years ago can be found HERE.


In my west corner, Good night.
Becky

DIY Dollhouse play helped soften a heart. (new pics)

I knew I needed to talk to my daughter. She had been angry and venting her anger through out the day.
We had been working through a few things over the past week and today seemed to be a breaking point.

As I was praying and thinking about her, I felt like I knew what I needed to say and was hoping that it would really hit her heart not just be words. My thought was to go into her room where she was playing dollhouse and have her stop and sit on my lap and talk with her. Just before I went to her she came in and wanted her brother to get out of quiet time to play with her, only he didn't want to play and she didn't want to play alone anymore and she again started to become easily frustrated.

I grabbed her by the hand and off we went to play dollhouse. As we played polly pockets I was able to share with her and I know she heard me and we were able to laugh and talk about truth in not such a heavy context. Her heart softened as we moved the polly pockets dolls from room to room being silly and pretending.

I don't always have these moments of knowing that I met my kiddos need in a way that hit their hearts but today I did. I met her where she was at and not in the heat of the moment. I took time and it gave her the time she needed and me the ability to respond in love and not just trying to fix a problem.

It makes me want to listen more carefully to the Lords leading with kids, not be in such a hurry to fix them up. It is NOT about changing their behaviour or making the hurt go away it is about leading them to the Truth and their need to relay on Jesus for every thing.

~My sweet daughter has a need we all have. We want to be loved and accepted and feel significant. However the truth is no one not even our immediate family members can totally satisfy that need. Even at 7 years old I want my daughter to know that Jesus says she matters to him that she is valuable to Him  and throughout life that is the truth she will need.

Below are some pics of our updated Scrapwood DIY Dollhouse.

We updated the dollhouse from this post and this post to what it is now some time ago. The kids are constantly moving furniture around and a few of the rooms I didn't take pics of.  I finished this refurb of the dollhouse months ago...but hey I am posting them now. :)

This little treehouse addition to the side of the dollhouse was given by our friends to Lydia for her b-day. It is super cool and a polly pocket toy so fits our situation perfectly.  

I love this room. :) How do you like that Turkish carpet. That is a remnant of a 100 year of Turkish carpet. :) This dollhouse has culture. 

We still would like to add color to the doors and pictures on the walls. Maybe next year. :) 

Again that is what makes a doll house so great, always changing and gives the 

girls fresh excitement for it as each little change happens. 

This beginning of a mural has been in the workings now for a several months. I just haven't been able to get to it and honestly I was running out of my little bottles of acrylic paint but a team from the States just came and brought me a few new colors that have inspired me....

(Here is the original post of the table I painted that you see in the pic)

Hope you enjoyed this post of honesty and the simple DIY dollhouse pics.
Grateful today that my children are still young and there is time to live life so close together.

In my little west corner,
Becky

Loft party (dollhouse update)

This is no ordinary dreary,dark storage loft...nope nope nope ~

Our newly renovated loft is now a place for the

Polly Pockets to party! (cost for supplies $0)

Popcorn anyone. :)

Here are a few pics of our new loft. :) 
The ribbon mobile/ ribbon chandelier was the funnest item to make.
The girls helped me with this room quite a bit. 
The rug is an old t-shirt that Autty and me cut slits in. :)
The cushion seats are made from cork, fabric and stuffing.

Yes I went a little overboard and made a little quilted cushion.  I was just sitting there watching a movie so I thought I would put my hands to work.  Plus my girls LOVED it. Truth is the girls are just that girly, everytime I add a little piece here or there they come a running and squealing and the two of them sit and chat about it and of course start playing with the dollhouse all over again.
It is fun.

This room was my favorite to create and decorate.  I loved splashing all that color around. :)
 I think the floor needs a little extra pop but that will have to come another day/month/year. :) 

My two goofs. :)

One last peak at our loft...3 rooms down,(living room & kitchen link) only 4 more to go! I think I will take a break for a bit. :)

I hope this brings you a little inspiration to 'use what you have'.  Much care to each of you. Thank you for your comments and following along. 

FYI for those of you following along:
I have a fun announcement, I will be doing my first followers give away and yes because I tend to do things a little differnt, so my giveaway will be a tad unique.

I will be giving items away to 'Celebrate Turkish Creativity'.  The items are made by people here that I know, it will be my way of supporting them and my way of giving to all you too.  I want you to take a piece of Turkey with you as you follow along. I will be announcing the giveaway and details next week. :)  (I personally would like to keep it all for myself. :))

~Good night from Turkey and my little west corner of it.  Becky

Please don't forget to check out the fun giveaway! (click here)


Linking up to: Night Owl Crafting /Hoo's got Talent, Sew Much ado

DIY scrap wood dollhouse renovations



Scroll down for before and after pics!

Last Christmas ( yes, I know I have a story for everything) we decided to have a ‘homemade Christmas’.  We didn’t buy presents for the kids and wanted to try and 'use what we had' around the house and we made their gifts ourselves.  I have posted about the quilted pillows and the race car track but I just have not gotten around to the scrap wood dollhouse we made for our two little girls.  We had made the fun cardboard dollhouses (that are still around) and wanted to give their Polly’s their own permanent residence. 

We wanted to ‘use what we had’ and truth is there is no DIY Stores here so we used the scrap wood we had from an old dresser.  As you will see constructing the DIY dollhouse in an apartment can be rather messy for my kitchen. J

The following is our collection of scrap wood.

And here is what we did with it....

We barely finished the dollhouse for Christmas morning in time and I had NO time to decorate it so we gave it as is:

However the girls were delighted and have played with it faithfully on and off over the year despite it’s lack of decor.

Well renovations have begun on our Scrap wood dollhouse and inspiration has been my friend.

Here are a few before and after pics. I have completed the kitchen and living room and am working on the loft/party room.

I hope you enjoy!

Here is the kitchen. My favorite piece is the little bottel caps with a piece of fabric in the middle. :)

I made my own little shelf with cardboard and hot glued it together and then hot glued it to the wall.  I would still like to paint the little tea table and dinning room table but I am not sure what color?? White, any thoughts?

The dinning room was alot of fun!  The wall paper is fabric pieces ~ I love the patchwork look and the girls think it is great.  I used the cornstarch mixture from this post to paste it to the wall.  I am sure I will do this again on one of the other rooms.
My girls favorite piece in the living room is the little tack hooks I made.  :)
(I made the littte ottomon on the left out of cardboard and fabric with some stuffing. The coffee table is made out of 3 ribbon spools. )

I have this thing about homemade dollhouses. They have a way of growing with your girl and everytime they get a new piece of furniture or a new teapot their love for their dollhouse starts all over again.  Also when the kids get to help, paint, decorate and create it gives them so much ownership to their wonderful creation that provides HOURS of fun and imagination and helps keep the little girl in my little girls. :) Plus doing it together keeps me close to them. :)

~Becky

DIY cardboard dollhouse

Blogging the oldies #3 ~ Polly Pocket DIYcardboard dollhouse.

These boxes were from Ikea. (there is an Ikea in Istanbul!!) I think they had ceiling lights in them. I saved them for some time and then inspiration hit.  I painted and prepared the doll houses with some wall paint we had from the past and then gave them to the girls and we worked on decorating the outside and the inside together.

We made these houses and furniture in April of 2009 and they have lasted for over a good year and a half and my girls have played with them ALOT.  For Christmas this year we made a wood doll house from scrap wood ~ a more permanent home for their Polly pockets. ;)

Here are the beds. I let the girls pick out the fabric they liked and I sewed it around the sponge to make a cozy bed and then cut out a piece that matched for the blanket.  I wish I would have taken more pics of the furniture pieces. 

                      Here is a video of the finished product and a little tour of the Polly pocket homes.

The furniture is simple - tea boxes, egg carton for lights, match boxes, cut out pictures from magazines etc. The kitchen floor is scrapbook paper cut in squares and then glued in.

I have a few more 'blogging the oldies' about Polly pockets that I want to post.  I really like Polly pockets.  They are small and easy to store, innocent and they are affordable here and they last.  My desire is to keep the 'little' in my little girls and some of the toys out there go against that goal, however I think Pollies work for us.

I looked up different sites online when I was making our doll-houses and so I hope this gives someone else some fun inspiration.~

Ok enough about that~