The Castle Project

Our girls have these little 3.5 inch Disney Princess dolls--lots of them.  Our youngest daughter especially loves them.  She also loves doll houses. They sell castles, which are sort of like doll houses, to go with the little princess dolls but the castles are plastic and pink and are inadequate for housing all of the little dolls.  I felt our girls and the dolls needed something more but I wasn't sure what.

Then my sister-in-law and nieces gave our girls build-a-bear gift certificates for Christmas.  The build-a-bear workshop sends the bears home in these  boxes decorated like gingerbread cottages.  Hmm.  Inspiration.  I thought maybe I could make something cute out of them.  One day.

Then one day came.  The massive accumulation of Girl Scout cookie cases and shoe boxes were more than I could ignore any longer.  I pulled out my box cutter, masking tape and imagination and started putting together the shell of a castle.  I'd started with the idea that there'd be three wings, two wings primarily for bedrooms and one for shared spaces like ballrooms, dining rooms, stables and kitchens.  Then, it sort of grew.  I'd planned to just do one blog about it but the project got huge and it's still in progress.  So I'm breaking up the story into rooms and sections, with links to details about each of them.

I'm sharing this, not so much as a "how to" but more to encourage parents, aunts, uncles, who want to do something fun, unique and creative for their beloved munchkins, to do it.  Skills are only developed by doing, so don't worry if you've never done something before.  This entire project (which is still a work in progress) has been done on whim and guess and trial & error and passion for fun over a need for perfection (if I fed my perfectionist tendencies too much on this project, it would never get done).

The Castle Project Chapter 1 or In the beginning, there were these build-a-bear boxes

The Castle Project Chapter 2: The Ballroom

The Castle Project Chapter 3: Shrek's room, the Library and the Kitchen
The Castle Project Chapter 4: Tiana and Naveen's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 5: Cinderella and Charming's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 6: Rapunzel and Eugene's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 7: Belle's and Beast's Rooms

The Castle Project Chapter 8: Elinor's, Merida's and the Lads' Rooms

The Castle Project Chapter 9: Jasmine's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 10: the Dining Room and Sitting Room

The Castle Project Chapter 11:  the Turkish Bath

The Castle Project Chapter 12:  Snow White's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 13:  the Atrium

The Castle Project Chapter 14:  the Theatre

The Castle Project Chapter 15:  the Refreshment Lounge

The Castle Project Chapter 16:  the Grotto

The Castle Project Chapter 17:  James', Amber's and Sofia's Rooms
The Castle Project Chapter 18:  Kristoff's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 19:  Anna's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 20:  Aurora and Philip's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 21:  Miranda and Roland's Room
The Castle Project Chapter 22:  Elsa's Room

The Castle Project Chapter 23:  Ariel and Eric's Room
The Castle Project Chapter 24:  Spa Shower and Dressing Room
The Castle Project Chapter 25:  the Closets
The Castle Project Chapter 26:  Mulan's Room
The Castle Project Chapter 27:  Triton's Room
The Castle Project Chapter 28:  the Church
The Castle Project Chapter 29:  the Education Centre
The Castle Project Chapter 30:  Aladdin's Room
The Castle Project Chapter 31:  Li Shang's Room
The Castle Project Chapter 32:  Snow's Prince's Room
The Castle Project Chapter 33:  Hans' Room
The Castle Project Chapter 34:  the Exterior