DIY Tenney’s Stage

Are you ready for a DIY Tenney Grant Stage?  I can’t wait to share this amazing “how to” post with you.  And what’s even better is that this post comes from a wonderful guest blogger, Pearl!  Pearl is the fourteen year old daughter of Michelle of the Lemon Bay Doll Company, https://lemonbaydoll.com/ .  Take it away Pearl….

“From the moment I first saw Tenney and heard about her story, I knew she and her instruments would be part of our collection. Like Tenney, I also play the guitar (and the mandolin like Tenney’s brother, Mason.) I started planning the stage I wanted to make for her as soon as I saw the AG stage and got a sense of Tenney’s color palate. Once Tenney arrived at our house, I started assembling the stage with materials I found at Hobby Lobby, Walmart and the Dollar Store. When the stage was complete, my mom ended up using it as the backdrop for some of her Tenney-inspired, Lemon Bay Doll items. I was very humbled when Brandy asked if I would share how I made the stage with her and her readers. Without further ado, here’s how you too can make an easy DYI stage inspired by Tenney Grant!”

The supplies you will need:
1.  Two prints of 12” x 12” scrapbook paper, approx. 6 pages of each pattern. This will give you more than you need but since I sometimes make mistakes, I like to have a few extra pieces on hand. I found both of these prints at Hobby Lobby.  Brandy was also able to find this paper at JoAnn’s.
−For the top half of the backdrop, I chose a small grey brick print.  This print is called “Brick wall.”  And is a product of PaperPizazz.com.
−For the bottom half of the backdrop, I used a print with clusters of roses on distressed turquoise wood slats.  This print is made by American Crafts.
2.  One 36” x 48” x 3/16” foamboard trifold. I cut mine down to a height of 24”. We make a lot of backgrounds for our dolls with the trifolds because they are easy to fold up and store and ours are all 24” high. If you want, you could leave your trifold 36” high but you will need additional scrapbook paper to cover those extra inches.
3.  One yard of stretch velvet or other fabric for curtains The pieces I used were leftover scraps my mom had on hand from a stage Lemon Bay Doll built as a custom order. Amazon has stretch velvet in lots of colors for about $7.00 yard such as this one here: https://www.amazon.com/Stretch-Velvet-Knit-Fabric-Yard/dp/B0078UBSJ2/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1491760188&sr=8-10&keywords=stretch+velvet
4.  2 wood platforms I found these in Walmart’s craft section sold as “wall décor”. These pieces are 12” x 12” x 2” and fit perfectly in the trifold center section. They did have larger pieces as well that could be used to make a bigger stage area if desired.  Brandy also found these at JoAnn’s; at JoAnn’s they have them in a brown and grey color.  The links for the platforms that can be found at JoAnn’s is here: http://www.joann.com/jillibean-soup-mix-the-media-wooden-plank-plaque/14678452.html#q=jillibean&start=13 and at Walmart here: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jillibean-Mix-Media-12-x-12-3D-Pallet/52625157
5.  Flower stencil, stencil brush and stencil paint that coordinates with your scrapbook paper. Again, I found these items at Walmart. They have a really nice line of stencils and stencil chalk paint by Waverly. The chalk paint colors were perfect for the scrapbook paper I had chosen – muted and pastel.
6.  Chalkboard plaque.  I found this one at the Dollar Store but have seen them in just about every craft store. Mine measures 8” x 6”.
7.  Basic crafting tools: Scissors, Rulers, Glue Sticks, and Tape.

How to assemble the stage:
1.   Cut 12” off across the top of the trifold making the open trifold measure 24” high by 48” wide.
2.  Cover the foamboard with scrapbook paper. Modeling mine after the AG stage for Tenney, I put the wood slat paper on the bottom half and the brick print on top. I used glue sticks because the paper won’t ripple like it will with wet glue.

3.   I really liked how the AG stage looked as if it had a stencil on the brick. I thought it would be fun to use roses because they are such a central image in Tenney’s collection. For decoration on the two side walls I used a flower stencil with a turquoise chalk paint complementing the scrapbook paper on the bottom half of the background. It helped to brighten up the grey brick too!

4.  Center the chalkboard in the middle of the brick. I used hot glue to attach the chalkboard but you want to be sure the scrapbook paper is well adhered to the backing board first. I thought this could be used to announce the performers.

5.  For the curtains I used two pieces of stretch velvet 30” x 18”. The velvet rolls on itself so I didn’t bother hemming it and it drapes beautifully so I chose to do this the easy way and simply lay the two pieces over top edge of the stage at the joints where the trifold bends. I let it billow a bit at the bottom and let the remainder just hang over the back. This makes it easy to fold up the stage for storage.

6.  You can’t have a stage without a platform! With a stroke of good luck, we stumbled across these 12” x 12” wall décor wooden platforms. They work perfectly! All I had to do to get them ready was detach the strings used to hanging them on the wall. I set them in front of the backdrop and voilà! A stage floor!

I hope you have as fun a time crafting your stage as I did with mine. And may your dolls have a grand time preforming!

Stay tuned this coming week to see how Brandy put a spin on my design and created her Tenney Stage.  She has admission tickets and stage poster printables for you too!

***Doll dresses and guitar/banjo bags can be found at https://lemonbaydoll.com/