Tenney’s Stage: DIY Amplifier

I’ve got another DIY American Girl Tenney Grant post for you today.  I’m continuing with Tenney’s Stage.  Today I will share with you how we created out DIY Amplifier.  This amp was very easy and quick to make.  Craft list includes: wood box, paint and brush, cardstock paper, paper punches, pony beads, felt, scissors, and hot glue.  I’ll also show how we created a cord for our amp; this is an optional step if desired.  To see my other DIY Tenney Grant Stage posts see here: http://brandyshappyhome.com/the-doll-room/tenneys-stage/ .

Here is the American Girl Inspiration!  You can only get this amp if you purchase Tenney’s stage.  We really wish it could have been purchased separately.

I purchased a wood box from Michaels.  This box measured 2-7/8 x 3-1/4 x 5-1/4 inches.  With coupon this box cost me .70¢ .  The box was sanded with a fine grade sandpaper and painted with Americana acrylic paint in the color cocoa.

If desired, prior to painting, you can drill a hole in side to accommodate a cord.  I used an old pair of headphones that no longer worked.  This was for show only.  It does look super cute!

I found the perfect patterned paper for the speaker cover; a red denim colored and patterned paper at Michaels.  Cut to size and glue to front of box.

These are the pony beads I used.  I love that they come in a variety pack.  These are the colors I mostly use for doll crafts.

For the control panel I used a piece of 3 inch wide silver cardstock paper. This was glued with a glue-stick to the front of the amp.  I then used an 5/16″ oval Fiskars hand punch and punched red ovals for the dial backgrounds.  This oval punch is no longer available on the Fiskars site; I have seen some on Ebay.  You can also use oval punches that are used to craft leather goods.  Not pictured…I used a 1/4″ circle hand punch and punched black circles.  The black circles are directly under the dark gray pony beads.  Steps: Glue down red ovals with glue stick, glue down black circles with glue stick (these will slightly overlap the ovals), then hot-glue pony beads in place.

If you don’t want to use the pony beads as the control knobs, I have a control panel printable for you.  You can find your printable here: Tenney’s Amp Control Panel Printable

I used brown and dark tan felt to make the handle.  I cut each color 4-3/4 inch long by 3/4 inch wide.  I hot-glued these pieces together and then hot-glued the ends to the box.  I used two pieces to create thickness for stability.  I used two colors to mimic leather; often the underside of a leather strap is a slightly lighter shade.  I used silver cardstock paper to create two strap brackets  (1-1/4 inch by 1/2 inch) and hot-glued them in place on each end.

I hot-glued four black pony beads for feet.

I could have removed the hinges and lock and glued the box shut permanently.  We decided to leave the box hinged and just painted over the metal; this way if we want to put a small speaker inside we can really play music from this amp.  You could add rose stickers to the sides if desired.  My daughters did not want to put stickers on the amp; they wanted it neutral in case the amp was used for another character.

From the picture below you can see the amp is perfectly sized to the doll and stage.

You can download American Girl’s Tenney Music here: http://play.americangirl.com/play/tenney/

Craft on!