I have had an old Canterbury Greenleaf dollhouse for ages now and got as far as assembling it before quitting on it. It still sits, naked, because I can't make up my mind as to how to decorate it. A witch's residence? Christmas cottage? A little shop? Who knows! But this month I received the Matchbox Cabinet kit from Alpha Stamps which includes a dollhouse sized cabinet with a door, shelf, and tons of bottles and jars to decorate and store inside. It is adorable! It would also work well as a bookshelf.
My cabinet decided it wanted to be old, well-used, and suitable for maybe an aging farmhouse. It was glued together, gessoed, then painted with beige paint. Finally, it was covered with white glue and a coating of white acrylic paint, creating the aged effect. The center of the door was cut out and "chicken wire" was added. More on that in a sec.
Inside the cupboard is every sort of pantry item you could think of. Even a condiment bottle and cocoa container! Having a few different collage sheets of labels made it really easy to fill the shelves. In about an hour, I had a handful of items after gluing on labels and occasionally painting a lid. There are two jars, one with peach halves and one with pickles, that were made from polymer clay, an even tinier jar, resin, and a scrap of fabric. There was still room to cram in a spice rack (thanks, Leslie!) and a few baby food jars worked perfectly as the spice containers. I love those jars. The lid comes off and you can fill it with (a tiny amount of) whatever you wish! I built a little rack from balsa wood and made concave sections to hold the jars at an angle by wrapping sandpaper around a thin dowel and sanding the wood. So simple.
The chicken wire is actually a piece of tulle netting that was colored with a silver Sharpie. The holes in the chicken wire were accidentally made with a heat gun, but I liked the look and left it.
So maybe I will turn that naked dollhouse into a rustic charmer and stick Aunt Tess's cupboard in the kitchen.
A list of everything used can be found HERE, including those teensy baby food jars.
In addition to the Matchbox Cabinet, Alpha Stamps also added several sizes of mini cigar boxes. I left the door off the matchbox sized one and built a wishing well scene inside it. The well is made from basswood strips and cardboard, and the rest is sticks and clump foliage. The stars were an afterthought- the space was in need of something- so I glued three short sections of invisible thread between two folded strips of paper (one on each end) then glued the paper inside the well. Added the stars and then it was finished.
HERE are the supplies used for the wishing well. Just add sticks.
Happy crafting!
