Do we love American Girl? Yes! Do we love dance? Absolutely! Am I shelling out $65 for an American Girl ballet barre? Um, not so much…
So, I was thrilled when I came across a Pinterest pin that led me to this amazing tutorial: http://www.livelifecreateart.blogspot.com/2012/12/doll-craft-creating-dance-studio-wbarre.html
Thank God for everyone who keeps the ideas flowing, so that no one loses their house over American Girl prices!!
I showed Cam and we were ready to get cracking.
First stop Jo-Ann Fabrics. Our local Jo-Ann’s is amazing. They accept as many different Jo-Ann coupons, plus competitor coupons as you want to use, as long as they have different barcodes.
They’ll even take them off your smart phone! So, for:
(2) Foamboard $2.99
1 pack of tieback hooks $2.79
1 wood dowel (3/8 inch x 36 inch) .99
Scrapbook glue set $6.99
Scrapbook paper (generally about .50 a sheet)
And random Clearance embellishments
After numerous 40-50% coupons and clearance prices, we spent less than $15



The first thing I did was to cut one foamboard in half, lengthwise. The boards we found were 20 x 30, so I marked little lines across one board, lengthwise at 10 inches wide (to make sure that I would keep a straight cut)
We used 2.5 of the pieces of scrapbook paper to make the top wallpaper. Make sure to use scrapbook or photo safe glue! You can see that it’s not as straight as it could be, but we’ll be decorating to cover it.
Next, I put that aside and pulled out the dowel. You do not have to varnish the dowel, but because I happen to have some handy and I wanted it a bit more shiny, I decided to clear coat. So…I painted down to about 2 inches that I could hold onto while it dried. Then I spent 30 minutes, waving it around and watching Dallas Cowboys: Making the Team, because, hey, why not? It’s amusing…



I deliberately left it wider than the strip of board so that I could fold it over to 1. Make it more secure, and 2. Cover the visible cut edge of the board.



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