DIY Cardboard Christmas Fireplace for Dolls
Create a cardboard fireplace for dolls to celebrate this holiday season! This cute craft is sure to bring a smile to someone’s face!
Hello Crafty Friends! Yesterday I shared a tutorial with you on how to make felt Christmas stockings for dolls. Today I’m back with a tutorial for the fireplace! This was a fun DIY that has held up well. I made it last year for my daughter and her dolls and a year later it is still a holiday favorite.
The fireplace is made from a tall, thin cardboard box and scraps of chipboard or cardboard. Scrapbook paper with a white brick pattern and wood grain pattern bring the whole thing to life! The best parts? This fireplace has spots for all of the stockings and a place for a picture that can changed out depending on the season! :)
I made this fireplace for my daughter’s Wellie Wisher dolls which are 14.5″ tall. The fireplace itself measures 18″ tall and is a nice size for them. In this tutorial I’ll show you how I made the fireplace and also give you the dimensions for the pieces I used. Depending on the size box you start out with, and the size of the dolls you are crafting this for, your dimensions may be different.
While I did not create this fireplace with a specific scale in mind, you definitely could if that is important to you. Follow the steps in the tutorial but adjust the measurements. I just whipped this up one afternoon to surprise my daughter and eye-balled things. As my first cardboard doll creation, I’m excited with how it turned out – especially since it I used items I had on hand!
How to Make a Doll Fireplace out of Cardboard
Supplies Needed
- Tall, thin cardboard box. The one I used measured 18″ x 7.75″ x 3.25″
- Chipboard, tagboard or thin cardboard
- Brick scrapbook paper – I used Recollections 12″ x 12″ white brick paper
- Wood grain scrapbook paper
- White printer paper
- Push pins
- Artificial evergreen garland ties
- 1/4″ Thin Red ribbon
- Adhesive – I used hot glue, clear tape and double-sided 1/4″ Scor-Tape
- Scissors
- Ruler and pencil
- Printed picture of a fire. Mine measures 6.75″ wide and 4.25″ tall.
The Plan
Below is a diagram showing the pieces that make up the fireplace. There are five pieces that form the fire surround and mantle shelf that are added to the front of the tall box. Everything sits on a rectangular piece of cardboard.
Since the size of your box and the height of your dolls may be different than mine, this diagram is helpful to follow because it just shows the pieces you will need without dimensions.
This next diagram shows the exact dimensions I cut my pieces to fit my box which measured 18″ x 7.75″ 3.25″. My mantle shelf is about 8.25″ high.
How to Make the Doll Fireplace
Step One: Cover the fireplace.
Start by covering the top of your box with white paper using a piece of white printer paper and tape.
Next, cover the top of the box with the brick scrapbook paper. I chose to use white brick but I have also seen red brick paper that would be pretty.
Step Two: Create the fireplace surround and mantle.
Score a piece of chipboard or tagboard to create the front of the fireplace and mantle shelf. For my fireplace I cut a piece of chipboard that measured 9.25″ wide by 8.5″ tall. I scored it 1″ and 1.5″ from the top to create the shelf. After scoring, fold along the scored lines.
Cut the piece for the top of the shelf. This piece should be cut from strong chipboard or tagboard. It will wrap around the tall box and stick out in front creating the mantle shelf. It will be the same width as the piece you just scored.
Cover the front of the fireplace with white brick paper, leaving the shelf part uncovered.
Use tape and hot glue to assemble the fireplace surround and mantle shelf. This takes four pieces to form. The pieces do not overlap, so I primarily used tape to hold them together.
Once it is together, cover the sides below the shelf with more white brick paper and then cover the shelf with wood grain paper. I used my 1/4″ Scor-Tape, a double-sided tape, to adhere the paper so it would be smooth. Try to line up the bricks as you are overlapping paper.
Step Three: Attach the fireplace surround and mantle shelf to the box.
You should now have a tall box covered in brick paper and a fireplace surround and shelf covered with brick and wood-grain paper. Adhere the two pieces together using hot glue. You can start by glueing the tall box to a piece of chipboard and then adding the second piece.
There will be a hollow area between the front of the fireplace box and the fireplace surround. You could fill this in with cardboard or stuffing to make the fireplace even stronger. I chose not to, but if I were to do this again I would probably fill it in since it would prevent the front of the fireplace from being pushed in. If this is for kids and they tend to play rough, don’t skip this step!
Cover the two openings on the back of the fireplace with one large piece of chipboard that covers the bottom half of the fireplace. You can see in the picture below I did not have enough white brick paper to cover the back of my fireplace so I used plain white printing paper.
Step Four: Decorate the mantle!
Adhere the picture of a fire to the front of the fireplace and add pushpins to the top of the shelf to hold stockings. If your child is too young to have pushpins, consider something different like gluing bits of paper straw or something that is safe for their age to the shelf.
I created a festive evergreen garland using two evergreen ties. I twisted them together and bent them to fit the mantle shelf. To add a bit of color, I wrapped red ribbon around it and glued three bows in place. You could glue this to your mantle or leave it loose as I did. My daughter changed the mantle throughout the year so it was nice being able to remove the garland.
To decorate the front of your mantle, add a large picture frame hung by a push pin. I made this picture frame using two square pieces of chipboard that measured 5.25″ x 5.25″.
Cut the center out of the top piece of chipboard and glue the two squares together just around the bottom three edges. The top is left open so a picture can slide in and change for different seasons! Cover the borders of the frame with wood-grain paper and it will look like a real wooden frame! Use yarn or Baker’s twine to make a hanging loop so it can hang on the pushpin. Again, I made this so it could be removed and give my daughter more play opportunities.
The Christmas tree currently in our frame is from an old cut-up Christmas card.
Below is a side view of the fireplace. It is a bit wonky along the back edge where the pieces of chipboard are joining but overall it is quite sturdy. My daughter has played with this a lot over the last year and it has held together well. The tape and glue are doing their jobs!
The fireplace is finished and so much fun to set up for the holidays. We created a little holiday scene with the fireplace, stockings, a small Christmas tree I found on Amazon and a felt rug! My daughter’s dolls are ready for the holidays :)
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! It is not something I usually share here on the blog but if you are looking to make a doll fireplace this is a cost-effective way to go about it. I had everything on hand but even if I had to purchase supplies this was still an inexpensive craft. The trickiest part will be finding the perfect box to use as a base!
Don’t forget to check out the tutorial for doll stockings to complete the project!
