Cardboard furniture for dolls

Well.. This post is almost a year late. Mostly because I had to move last Autumn/Winter time, so I had to throw away my cardboard crafting projects. It kinda made me super unmotivated to do any crafting. Spring has given me more motivation and energy to find my inspiration again.

This time I will do a small post about how I make furniture props for my photos from cardboard. I watch lot of Youtube videos be it doll related or someone doing seasonal decorations for their house. Usually they give great tips that I can modify to use in my doll projects. Cardboard is a great material, because it is easy to modify, cheap, light weight and by combining different pieces you can pretty much build anything for dolls. Last summer I did a sofa for my dolls from cardboard materials. Of course it is not as durable as wood, but I think it provides a great alternative to people who don't have woodwork tools.

I am not a pro and I just do BJD stuff for my own pleasure, so this is not suppose to be tutorial. Just my own little project I want to share. I start by measuring and drawing the pieces I need on a cardboard. After that I cut everything and end up with a huge pile of mess.

I start my little fireplace puzzle = tape and tape some more. Hot glue is also a great helper at this stage. The fireplace structure is not pretty on the back, but it doesn't have to be since it's a fireplace. I could cut a cardboard and close it, but I feel too lazy to do that. 

After that I take crafting glue, water, big brushes and newspaper. I cover the whole structure with paper mache. Using gloves is a great idea, because glue gets on hands and newspaper ink comes off very easily. Additionally, I hot glue some decor to the structure. Decor can be anything from fimo or paper mache to stickers, random trickets, wood pieces or air drying clay. 

After everything has dried I will paint the structure with indoor furniture paint. I am not super happy with the front opening part, because it came out uneven. I will add some darker paint to create a bit of "shadows" and do a front cover thing at some point (to the part where wood is supposed to be placed) and a decor piece to the center (probably from air drying clay), but the base for the fireplace is now done. 

Other than finishing my fireplace project, I would love to make a bookshelf during summer, but we will see if I have time for that. At least I am planning to do some books and more "old letters" (paper I dip on black tea, burn and paint, maybe I will do a post about that sometime during summer) for my dolls, because they are great small props. 

Thank you for wandering all the way here! I hope you have a wonderful week! :)