Ages ago, I came across these (unbuilt, unfinished) dollhouses at IKEA, and I have been saving them up for this week, when I knew we'd need a project - a long project, to keep us busy. Building these bad boys was a whole project unto themselves, but the designing and decorating has been going on for a whole week. Part of me is even playing with the idea of offering a weeklong dollhouse art camp next summer, but that's a long way off. I do think it'd be awesome though.
The first part of our "trial dollhouse camp" was the actual building of the dollhouses, which was way harder than I thought it would be - and I have built a lot of IKEA furniture over the years.
It took about an hour, but all three (there's always one outlier kid who'd rather throw a ball than do anything crafty - if he's cool, I'm cool) houses were built and ready to go.
Before breaking out the paint and scrapbook paper, scissors, glue, cardboard and stickers though, we took a design break - I feel like it's important to have a loose plan before starting projects like this, even if the actual design winds up completely changing before the project is done. Also, my girls never get tired of pretending to be Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper (the nine-year-old now braids her hair like Jo does), some sketching time was in order.
The other works just as hard painting their homes, and really, who wouldn't want to live in a teal colored house with a black roof - awesome color combo. It made me want to redo the siding on my house.
Tomorrow: the interiors.
:)
jen
*Nine Days: These are the nine days (literally) that precede Tisha B'Av when, customarily, we do not swim, take long trips, listen to music, get haircuts, shop, or eat meat . Some of these things also apply to the three weeks before Tisha B'av, known (crazily enough) as the Three Weeks, but there are somewhat stricter customs that apply during the Nine Days. A good explanation of this whole time period can be found here.