Dolls adore funky apartment living because it means they get to go visiting all their friends, watch what other people are doing and generally pretend they live a funky fabulous "Big City" life...!
You'll need a grown up with a strong pair of scissors or a scapel blade for this one...boxes that are rigid enough to make into an apartment block don't cut that easily!
You Will Need:
1. Three or four sturdy oblonge boxes that are exactly the same
2. Extra flexible cardboard to make landings and stairs.
3. Paint that will stick to laminated (that's the shiny surface on most cardboard packaging) cardboard
4. Glue and glitter glue
5. Things to decorate the funky flats - we used plasticine to make alot of the sofas, furniture and pets, and material on the floor for rugs and at the windows for curtains, but use whatever you have to hand
How to Make the Funky Flats
1. Cut out the doorways and windows from ach of the boxes. Make sure the doorways are all on the same side of each of the boxes.
2. If you want to, paint the inside of the flats, and decorate them with cut out oval rugs (from fabric or paper) and curtians (stick these up either side of the windows using glue). Wait for the paint and glue to dry.
3. While you are waiting, cut rectangles from the extra card so that they are as long as the flats are deep, front to back, and at least 20cm wide. These will be your landings so the dolls can walk in and out of their front doors. You will need one landing for the ground floor, plus one for every other floor. If you are really clevor, cut out a rectangular hole at the end of each landing to make a stairwell for the dolls to come up and down through, but this isn't necessary if you don't want to.
4. Glue one landing on the side of each of the 'flats', making sure thay are all on the side of their doorways so they all line up, one above each other, when you stack the 'flats' together.
5. Stick the tops and bottoms of the flats together so they are stacked up, with the landings all lined up above each other. Wait for the glue to dry and garden.
6. Take the extra cardboard and cut into strips about 2-3 cm wide and 25 cms long. You will need one for every flight of stairs, and you will need to make one flight of stairs between each landing.
7. Fold the strips of cardboard in to concertinas to make the staircases (get a grown up to help you if you're not sure how to do this), so each step is the same depth. Stick the bottom part of each flight of stairs to the bottom landing, and the top of each flight of stairs to the landing above.
8. Wait for the glue to dry and paint the outside of the funky flats - you can make them as wacky and extraordinary as you choose!
9. Make or find furniture and pets to fill the funky flats, and then let your dolls start living and playing!