July 22, 2013

Rock climbing wall for American Girl Doll

Overall dimensions: size 2' x 3'
 
See my other free Rock Climbing tutorials


What you need

  • 1/4" sheet of plywood or similar (2' x 3')
  • 1/4" sheet of insulating foam (optional)
  • roll of paper towel (I use the one with the smaller pieces)
  • 1 pint of Elmer's glue
  • water
  • acrylic paints in the color of your rock (for granite I used grey, white and black)
  • matte acrylic sealer
  • primer (I used a spray can of primer)
  • 5 colors of FIMO or Sculpey
  • hot glue gun

This project takes a few days because of drying times in between !

How to make the rock climbing wall

1.  Mix 2 cups of Elmer's glue with 1 cup water (or whatever quantity you want)

2. Tear off a whole bunch of paper towels

3. If you want you can cut shapes from foam to create overhangs and other big forms.
    Glue to board.

4. Dip a paper towel in glue mixture and make thoroughly wet then form a ball and wring out.
    Put ball on board.

5. Repeat putting ball shaped paper towels on board until you have the conture you want

6. Cover whole board with 2 layers of paper towels
    (I went in different direction on second layer, not shown in picture)

7. Let dry 24h (or until dry)

8. Put 2 more layers of paper towel on board and let dry again 24h

9. Put 2 more layers of paper towel on board and let dry again for a couple of days.
    You should now have 6 layers

10. After everything is completely dry (I let mine dry for a week) you can prime it.
    If you don't like the seams of the paper towel, you could hide them with drywall spackeling
    before you prime (let spackeling dry before priming)
    Make sure you don't use acrylic paints as primer, they will soften your glue again.
    Let dry.

11. Paint wall with acrylic paint in your base color, mine was a lighter grey.
      Let dry.

12. Take a sponge or crumpled up paper towel and paint spots in your other colors
      Make it look like rock, then let it dry.

13.  Seal with acrylic sealer.


How to make the grips

1. Take Sculpey or FIMO and form different shaped grips.
    For the bigger grips I used 1/4 pack for the smaller ones I used 1/8 of a pack.

2. Bake according to manufacturer's directions

3. Glue grips with hot glue gun to wall.

If you want, you can have the wall free standing by adding a triangular plywood piece on a hinge on the back.

You are done !!!


See my other free Rock Climbing tutorials

22 comments:

  1. WOW! You are amazing!!!!!Thanks for the awesome tutorial!!
    I can't wait to get a blog!You would be the first person I would follow!!!!

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  2. i wish i could have that! my doll is very sporty

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  3. that is so awesome! I wish I could make one for my doll!

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  4. Pancakes in a doughnut

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  5. This is awesome. I posted it on Springfield Dolls Facebook with a link to your page. We are having a HUGE clearance sale for 18 inch doll clothes: http://store.springfielddolls.com/clearance-items.html

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  6. hey this is awesome!! I am gonna cut some corners though! LOL

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  7. hi i like chicken pie pie pie pie pie

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  8. this is amazing how are you so talented?

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  9. Roughly how big are the grips?

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    1. The bigger ones are about 1 3/4" x 1", that's with a 1/4 pack of FIMO or Sculpey

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  10. This must take forever!! What a accomplishment!! You are so patient for it to dry then wait for the fun! All I could say is wow..... Such a big wait! Good luck to the people thats making it!! What a long wait....
    ----CHARKONATOR----

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  11. This is a good idea to use for my dolls. They could use this when we are at physical education when we play school.

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  12. I'll be skipping a couple layers :) This is such a cool idea, I bet it would be easy with paper maché if you have that kind of stuff.

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  13. We enjoyed doing this project thanks for the tips! We found spray paint that looked like rock which saved a few steps.

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  14. Ahh! I love it! I love it! I love it! So cute! I am obsessed with my AG doll. I have always wanted to rock climb! It's so adorable! #AGClimber

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  16. why would a doll need a rock climbing wall am I the only one questioning

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  17. I cant wait to make this for my granddaughters, they have a few of these kind of dolls. Thank you . Totally inspiring.

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