DIY American Girl Doll Gabriella's Drum Pad

How To Make American Girl Doll Gabriela's Drum Pad

     How cute is the new Girl of the Year American Girl Doll, Gabriela.  I wanted to make an easy craft to start her world in our doll house so I decided on making her drum pad.

First, I used black cardboard and cut 2 pieces and then glued them together to get a certain thickness.  I also filed the edges to even them out and colored the edges with black magic marker.

I then cut our the circles of the pad using foam.  I didn't have all the colors of foam handy so I used some white then colored them in with magic marker.  Of course,  any foam color can be used.

Then glue your circles to the base of the drum and seal with Mod Podge or an acrylic clear sealer.

Top drum is American Girl and the bottom drum is the DIY.

For the drumsticks I used a wooden skewer, cut to 4-1/2" (you can also use a wooden dowel) and filed the ends to be able to slip on a white  bead and secure it with hot glue.  I also painted the sticks a light yellow and applied a sealer.  If you don't have beads you can use clay to model the tips of the drum sticks.

Now Gabriella is ready to drum some beats.

Here is the template for the drum pads to use if you wish to make this craft.

Watch the DIY video on YouTube 

American Girl Melody in Motown

 Melody Visits the Recording Studio

     In anticipation of Melody's arrival I couldn't wait to start a room for her so I took to the challenge using mostly items I already had.  

         In this overview photo I used scrapbook paper for floors and walls with some colored construction paper for pops of color.  The sound booth is a box that I cut up to leave an opening for entry and a cut out on the side and used a piece of plastic packaging for the see through window.  For lighting I used the Locker LED Lights, peel and stick.  They are at least 8 ft. long and are battery operated.

     The wall art if a print from Google images trimmed in washi tape, the wall lamp is from Dollar Tree and the little side table are wood boxes from the Target Dollar Spot.  Accessories in the table is a newspaper, records and on top some chips and a Hires root beer for snacking.  The red wood chair was a thrift store find.

   The recording console is a box covered with contact paper and the wall reel to reel controls is a Google image.

     In the tall wood shelf, found at TJ Maxx, are music books, maracas, a harmonica, a Charles Chips tin, and an image of a stack of tapes in boxes.   On the wall next to the piano is an instrument holder and the conga drums is an image.  The microphones happened to be gifted to me and it worked out just perfect for the dolls.

     On the far right wall I have a makeshift piano, which the keyboard I acquired from a toy, and place on a wooden box.  The wall clock is an image glued onto a tambourine found at a thrift store.  I have some 1960 goodies (Bazooka gum and some Good & Plenty candy in a dish.  The guitar is AG and the music stand is a DIY made from a My Froggy Stuff tutorial.  The photo strip on the wall is from Hobby Lobby and I inserted Google images relating to Motown.   The portable cassette deck next to the piano is a box with an image and a tiny straw as a handle.

     All in all I had lots of fun putting this room together as I am partial to the 1960's era and again using creativity with decor I've had and repurposed throughout my years in crafting for American Girl Dolls.  I hope you enjoy this room and hopefully I can inspire you to make your own.  

     

     

     

                                                 Have fun AG crafting!

DIY American Girl Doll Treadmill

DIY Doll Treadmill

Supplies I used:  cardboard, craft foam,  washi tape, duct tape, rollers from Dollar Tree and printables.

Measurements: Platform: 11” L x 5” W       Front poles:  11” H x 1” W

I cut out notches in the 2 front corners so that I would have more space to glue for durability.

For the handlebars you can be creative.  At first I was looking for a hard headband or anything that I could bend, then I found these curlers I had purchased last year.  I united 2 of them for the length.

I cut my 2 square front side bars and covered them with silver tape.

I then glued on my black craft foam to the top.

Then glued on the side front poles.

I covered my handlebars with black duct tape.

Printed out my printable and glued it onto craft foam so that it would bend and I could glue it on.

Then glued it on.

Added some washi tape and some Proform printables.

Ready to work out!!!

My DIY Lea Clark's Rainforest House

This is a short tutorial on how I put together Lea’s rain forest hut.  I took pictures along the way and I get so involved and get to a point that I forget to take pictures of some of the steps.  Here it goes….Supplies: (3) ½” foam board, bamboo poles, scrapbook paper, hot glue gun, E6000 glue, for roof I used placemats, I trimmed with a natural fiber trim, wood dowels, round and 1 square one.

I first cut my boards, I could not use up the total space that original AG house had so I cut my back wall at 20” wide x 26” high, floor 20” wide x 19” deep.  Short side walls 8” wide x 26” high.  Again, these measurements are for the space that I have allotted. 

I marked my holes for the front bamboo poles and carefully poked tiny holes so that I could punch the poles through.  I cut my bamboo poles to 29” which would allow a couple of inches below the floor as the AG one is.

I then put my scrapbook flooring down.

I placed some hose washers up from the bottom onto the bamboo poles to keep the foam board from slipping.

I finished putting on the scrapbook paper to the back and side walls.  I used double face tape.

I cut 3 extra pieces of bamboo for extra feet for the flooring, 2 for each back corner and one for the front middle.

I then glued my side walls onto the back wall and onto the floor.  You can also see that I punched 2 round holes on the top corners of the back wall which will take the bamboo poles which are part of the roof.

I now have glued on the rest of the roof which are the 2 pieces of bamboo going from front to back and the one if front going side to side.

Just a note here, that before I glued on the 2 side poles on the top sides I put my curtains on first then glued.

I now have to assemble the roof.  First a piece of bamboo going from the front middle to the back middle.  Then I cut 4 small pieces of bamboo to go from the middle roof pole to the side top poles of the house.  The darker pole pictured is the one that runs in the middle from front to back.

Here are 2 of the 4 side roof poles.

I then tied some jute onto the corner joints. (optional)

Here is trim that I used (just happened upon to some natural fiber trim) and some placemats for the roof.

After I glued on the trim, I glued on the placemats.

So here is the house so far…..

So now onto the front railing which I cut some thinner bamboo that I had and painted to match the other and also the loft bed for which I cut some dowels and painted them a beige color then put on some wood stain which is what I had on hand.  I used crayon to color in some bamboo lines on the dowels.  That idea I got from a fellow member here, Jacqueline Santiago and I thank her for that.  I think the pictures are self explanatory.

   

I cut 2 pieces of a square dowel to use for the support of the bed.  I inserted 2 screws and measured so that they wouldn’t protrude outside of the walls and inserted them also with a dab of glue into each side wall.  (I won’t be moving my bed down)

For the actual bed I used another piece of the foam board and glued on the side railing.

Another view of installed bed.

Here is completed hut up to this point.  Now I need to add accessories.  Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.