Dollhouse Treehouse

I've been so busy creating this last week. Don't know what's gotten into me. Sometimes you just find a creative groove I suppose. I constantly fall off and jump on that wagon. There's gonna be a few tutorials this week! So first I'll introduce the most hideous kids toy treehouse you've ever seen.


I've wanted a toy like this for ages. But alas I have never purchased anything via the net (I'm like Archaic no?) and haven't seen anything like it in the shops I frequent (ha ha ha) When a neighbour had his huge tree cut down (like a towering tree  a metre from his front door)  we stole his wood. (It's ok he wanted us to) I went through the big wood pile looking for pieces with a fork. So armed with a few I got the saw out.

Oh my aching arms. I only had to do about 5 cuts but boy did I work up a sweat. Talk about out of shape. When the world ends and electricity is off and our labour saving devices are gone, I'll have to curl up in a ball and die.


As soon as I got all the pieces ready I realised something... oh oh
- I HAVE LIKE NO BUILDING SKILLS..... small problem.


Then I realised I didn't have any strong wood glue or the right type of nails. Hammering into curved branches is like impossible. (with the huge nails I had anyway) The Mr was away, so I couldn't use his expertise. I was failing pretty bad, but the girls were adamant it was going to work out. Somehow I ended up surrounding the branches with big nails. These kept the branches upright. We then wrapped string around the nails and it kept everything tight and snug.

Nail around the branches into the base. I used four nails on each to keep them standing.

These were big fat nails - All I had in the shed.

Here's a kinda close up of the string keeping it all in place. And our homemade 'ladder'

Once we had secured all the pieces onto a flat bigger piece, it was ready for the toys. We then made platforms out of paddlepop sticks, a swing, hammock, and even added a loo on one branch. The girls also made a tarzan swinging rope for it.

The 'treehouse' has been shown to all the neighbourhood kids. Several kids stole their own wood to make treehouses too. But they all love ours (cause its better) I've got a few more pieces to make another one. Another Tree Apartment coming up. Just getting up the courage to 'cut wood' again. :S

It has been played with constantly since we made it. I've had people up at the crack of dawn begging me to 'open the front door' so they can play with the tree house (it's out on the front varandah) I'm pretty proud of it and the fact it has no glue keeping it together - though we shall have to see how long it lasts.


 and best of all - It was Free!


hopefully this will appease their weekly asking for a real treehouse. I'm not THAT good.