~Building It For Barbie~
Oct 20 '01
The Bottom Line I'm cheap, frugal, pennypinching.. and I cannot justify spending lots of money on a toy.. but this is one that didn't cost me anything and is worth a million!
I'm sure if you have daughters you've seen the Barbie dollhouses they sell for them. Some are simple one story boxes that open up for play. They average around $20 dollars each. Then they have the more extravagant ones that are three stories tall, working elevator, and decorated background. Those babies run near the $100 dollar mark.
I had one of those three story deluxe Barbie skyscrapers when I was growing up...and I loved it dearly. But there is simply no way I can part with $100 dollars for a toy. Mine was a gift from my grandparents. Ok.. back to my tightwadness, I just can't see spending that much, but I'm not knocking the parents that do. If you can afford it, I think thats wonderful! But for those of you that are frugal like me... let me tell you what I did.
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This isn't something I came up with on my own, but the idea behind it was so neat, that I wanted to share. In the November 2001 issue of Family Fun Magazine, someone had converted a set of stackable shelves into a Barbie dollhouse.
I liked that idea and had an extra set that was just collecting dust under the bed. Well, not anymore! Let me tell you how I did it.
What You'll Need
~Superglue (I recommend crazyglue) ;)
~Old sheet, newspaper, or tarp to work on
~Set of white (or anycolor) stackable shelves. The kind with the removeable legs and are made of plastic. You can buy the small square kind or the long rectangular ones.
~Cardboard (either one washing machine box or three or four medium size boxes)
~Magazines, wallpaper books, carpet samples or discards (optional)
~Clear Contact paper
~Loads of imagination
~Excited Kids
How To Assemble The Shelves
~Put the tarp, sheet, or newspaper down. Don't want to glue your project to the floor.
~Put the bottom shelf on the floor. Then glue the legs on the bottom, inserting each one as you do it.
~When you have all four legs glued in, go around the edges of where they connect to the shelf. This is just double sealing and makes it stronger.
~Just keep repeating the process until you get to the top layer. Use the glue where ever you feel a weak point might be.
What To Do With The Rest Of The Stuff
~If you have a washer or refrigerator size box, just cut it to fit the back of the shelves. But if you have smaller boxes...flatten them and take measurements to fit around the outline of each shelf.
~Use the wallpaper book or magazines to find backgrounds for your Barbies rooms. This is where the kids come in handy. Construction paper works well also. Decorate those walls any way you see fit.
~If you want to use the carpet, just glue it in place.
~When your done decorating the walls, you can do the backside too if you want a completely finished look that can be shown on either side. But either way when your completely finished...laminate the cardboard using the contact paper.
Total Cost Of Materials If You Had To Buy Everything
~Shelves--at Target or Walmart they average about $15 dollars at the most.
~Contact Paper--I picked mine up at Family Dollar and it was a dollar a roll. I bought two.
~Superglue--1.97
~Everything else.. just freebies.
Grand Total~~UNDER $20.00!
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Thats It!
Can you believe how totally simple that can be...but still you know your going to get alot of milage out of it. I never would have thought about this idea if it wouldn't have been for the magazine Family Fun!
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Thanks For Reading!
Authors note: The website is a great place to visit if you haven't been there before. The URL is: http://www.familyfun.com Enjoy!
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crazyglue
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Member: Kathie
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