Doll Craft : How to Make a Fireplace

The other night I whipped up some doll stockings using some felt that I had and after I had them created I began to wonder where it was that I would hang them for my daughter’s dolls at Christmas time. I didn’t really want to pound nails into the wall for just these stockings that would be up for just a short time during the holidays…and so began my quest to create a fireplace for my daughter’s dolls!

You will first need to find a shoe box that is the size that you want for your doll. I created one based on the size of the American Girl dolls’ 18 inch size. I chose some patterned paper that I had on hand (you could also print some patterns found on the internet if you don’t have scrapbook or patterned paper on hand) and I did a search for “fireplace” and found an image that I liked, saved it and printed it off as well. I had some balsam wood scraps left over from a previous project and incorporated those into my fireplace for the border and for the sides as well as the top of my fireplace. I originally found these wood pieces at my local hardware store, there were different widths and sizes in a mixed bag for around $5. I used some long stick pins (for my hardware to hang the stockings from) and needed some adhesive (hot glue gun or glue dots work great) and something to cut your scrap wood with (I was able to use a small hand saw for the trim pieces and actual scissors for the thin sheets used on the side). I’m not including dimensions for this project since everyone’s will be different based on the size of box that you use and how big your fireplace image will be.

I first cut my patterned paper to the size that I wanted it, leaving a bit of a border around the top and two sides since I like the tiled look of my box and wanted some of it to show. I adhered my paper to my box and then added my image of the fireplace as well. Once I had my fireplace image glued on I was able to see what sizes I needed my trim to be and then cut them to size and adhered them as well. You can see that I adhered the thinner sheets of scrap wood to the sides and a thicker piece of the wood onto the top of my fireplace and the strips of wood were my border around the actual printed fireplace image and the patterned paper…

Once everything was glued down the way that I wanted I had to figure out how to hang my stockings…long stick pins were perfect! I added 5 and they ended up being just the ticket to hang some mini garland and the stockings…here is a close-up of the push pin. I am a scrapbooker so had some fancier decorative ones, but any kind would work!

Here is a close-up of the decorated fireplace…I’m still working on how to decorate the mantle. I was thinking some mini paper poinsettias perhaps? Along with some photos of the dolls in mini frames.

Here is Julie enjoying the fireplace…

And Emily getting all excited thinking about the season that is ahead…