Minnie Mouse Barbie Binder House

I am a huge fan of, not so much Barbie, but her house. I always wanted a Barbie house as a kid and never got one. There were four girls, and it would have been a well-used item. So being that I have only one daughter, she has a Barbie house extraordinaire made from an old armoire. I did some research via Pinterest to find inspiration as to how to send a doll house through the mail for a gift and I found this link for Binder Houses: http://southerndisposition.blogspot.com/2011/12/diy-three-ring-binder-barbie-dollhouse.html

I made multiple houses and loved them so much that I am keeping them to enter into the fair. I am posting pictures of the Minnie Mouse version that I made for my daughter's sister from another mister, her best friend from across the street.

I used the white binders with plastic pockets on the front and back so I could have four walls. I made a bedroom, a bathroom and a Gallery wall that can be any room at all.

To find the images on the internet, just go to the "images" tab and look up "white toilet" or "pink fridge," etc. Find images that face forward. If they are turned to the left or right, they look strange. It is sometimes hard to find images facing forward because they look better at an angle to photographers.

I made a bed with reversible blanket, so it can be changed and give two looks. I like to make the pillows two-sided sometimes too. I made a Minnie Mouse rug, but the edges all curled up and it looks silly. Oh well, I tried.

In the original Southern Dispositon blog, she made plain white curtains for her daughter's four binders. I studied Fashion Design in college, seriously considered doing Interior Design and I am a Custom Picture Framer, so I like to really jazz things up.

The curtain is the very best part, in my opinion! It really sets the theme for the whole project.

This is the other side of the blanket. I used upholstery foam cut to 9" by 12" with a thin piece of wood on the bottom and stapled cloth over it. I covered the bottom with felt to hide my staples. When I made the blanket, I cut a square out of the corners the same depth of the bed (about 2") and made tailored corners. I sewed the pillows and my 9 year old daughter stuffed them. We now have decided that 7" by 12" is probably a better size because it still fits two Barbies but doesn't take up so much room.

This is the front and back of the binder. These binders are currently $1.79 at Target. I love being able to do the four walls! The recipient's name could go down the spine to really personalize it.

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So here is my confession, I can't use Modge Podge. That stuff hates me! I tried using it for these binders and everything got wrinkly and ghetto looking.

For this binder, I took 12" x 12" plastic scrap booking sleeves and taped them around the card stock to protect the paper and then I attached to whole page to the binder with double stick scrap booking tape (Recollections brand $2.99 at Michael's). The pages could also be laminated which would cost about $3.00 a page at an office supply store.

I have made other binders in all different themes and will post them as time allows. I wand to figure out how to use this idea for boys since I have five of them. I will have to ponder that.