Hi guys! Today we are coming at you with our doll caboodle hack!

When we first saw Courtney’s caboodle, I was almost convinced that we had to have it. It is so cute! But then I saw the price tag. $50???!!! I know that prices here in Canada are higher than the US prices, but come on! That was just obnoxious, so we set out to try to make one of our own.

Now I knew that we could probably fashion a pretty cute caboodle out of cardboard, or maybe craft foam, but we really wanted something that would look authentic. That’s why this post is a hack, and not a DIY.

We decided that the best thing to use would be a pill box since they come in pretty small sizes, and they have little compartments in them. We looked online, and sure enough we found something that could work in size. The only problem was that the colours weren’t very appealing.

So cute, so small, kinda ugly. Lol!

Still, I was determined, so we bought the little pill case and we squealed in delight when it arrived. It was nearly the perfect size. It was a tiny bit shorter than I would have liked but that didn’t matter so much to me, and the Little Miss didn’t even notice, so it was not a $50 dealbreaker. The only thing was the colour. What to do, what to do.

We could have gone the spray paint route and in hindsight, if we had any spray paint then that’s what we would have done. I was a bit worried about using paint, even spray paint as we’ve had issues with it adhering well to plastic.
Plastic primer and plastic spray paint would probably be the very best, but who am I kidding? I’m not that fancy, and I didn’t want to have to go buy the stuff, turning our $10 DIY into a $50 one in the end anyway.
We decided to use nail polish to colour the caboodle instead.

This actually turned out super cute!! First, and I have to insist on this very firmly:

PARENTAL SUPERVISION REQUIRED.

A few other things I should mention, if you have ever painted anything with nail polish be sure that you have enough of the colour you are using. Nothing worse than getting halfway through a project and having your colour run out. Secondly, nail polish SMELLS! I mean, it reeks BAD. I painted this outside on my deck and left it out there to dry. Third, nail polish gets EVERYWHERE. Put down newspaper. Put down a whole stack of newspapers. Wear a Hazmat suit. Lol. Also, have non acetone polish remover and Q tips and cotton swabs nearby to tackle spills and smears. Fourth, thin layers of nail polish dry very quickly, so it is actually easier to pour it on and then gently smooth it out with the brush. Fifth, work quickly, and try not to mess with the nail polish too much once it’s on there. Like I said, it dries fast, so pour it on, smooth it out, and then just leave it alone. Don’t go near it, don’t be tempted to fix anything on it. Just don’t do it! You will smudge the bejeezus out of it. Trust me. You can do touch ups later when it is fully dry. Finally, let it dry overnight. If you don’t touch it, it will dry to a nice glossy sheen.

Here you can see where I also painted the rim and the latch of the case.

I didn’t paint the bottom of the case as it was already green like Courtney’s. It wasn’t the exact shade but it was good enough for us.

This was after one coat. I did some touch ups after this as it had some smeared edges. A second coat of nail polish took care of the rough edges.

Tada!!

Here’s Maryellen and Kit hanging out on a Saturday listening to cassettes and records in Maryellen’s room circa 1980’s.

Cool record player, M!

Girls just wanna have fun!

Okay, I really need to clarify something for those who were not born in the 80’s like I was. As much as I love Caboodle and Care Bears etc. I am not, never have been, never will be a fan of 80’s clothes. Everyone is always so nostalgic about that time, but I feel like I really need to say something because when Courtney came out, her clothing line brought back many memories, most not good. Honestly, I think it triggered my PTSD from that time.

People! We were not wearing that fashion because it was fashionable! We were wearing it because it was literally all we had! Shirts too big because they were hand me downs from other siblings or our parents, non matching socks in random weird looking shoes, mom jeans. These were not fashion statements! This was our basic survival instinct to not go naked in the world!
Or at least that was my experience. Getting our hands on clothes, any clothes was the objective, didn’t matter what it looked like or if it even matched. DIY’ing those clothes if we had to, so much so that an entire generation thought that we wanted to look that way! I remember taking apart my older brother’s jeans and sewing flares in them so they would fit me and look like girl’s pants!

Breathe.
Okay, now I have to clarify one other thing. We were not poor growing up. We had everything we needed, a lot of what we wanted. We had a nice big house and a pool. There just weren’t very many clothing options to be had. We had KMart or Sears. That was pretty much it. Nothing like it is now where you can buy pretty much anything online. No, we had two options, Kmart (aka the most generic clothing ever aka white tshirt, jeans) or Sears (aka old lady clothing). We did what we had to do, we worked with and made the most of what we had. Was it cool? Nope, not at all. Was it fashion? If you call the homeless, dumpster diving look fashion, then maybe. I look at my daughter’s clothing options now and think wow! Everything is so pretty!

So that said, it’s probably pretty obvious that we won’t be sewing any 80’s fashion for our dolls, I just can’t do that to them, and buying items from Courtney’s wardrobe will not be in our future either. With perhaps one exception. Those Care Bear pj’s. Am I right? ❤️
Anyway, rant over. Sorry, not sorry,

(This is why Maryellen is wearing a swimsuit top and coverup as clothes. Barely any other options, back then.)

I haven’t decided how to stick the caboodle logo on our caboodle yet, but we will be adding it on there. Maybe on the top right hand side. I’m either thinking of painting it on or printing it on a sticker sheet. Any other ideas are appreciated!

I made a hair pick for the dolls from a dollar store Princess crown that we had lying around.

I snapped off the crown part and then glued it back on to the pick with hot glue.

Okay I should go but I hope you enjoyed our caboodle hack! Sorry about the rant halfway through.
Also, I have finally caved, and I am learning to use the new WordPress blog platform on my phone, and it’s actually not that bad. I had to work out a few things, but I wrote them down, so I will remember them for next post. I actually think this will make my blogging easier, and with time I will get better at it at which point they will probably change it all again. Lol. Ugh. But what I’ve come to realize with technology is that it’s important not to get left behind, and if the people at WordPress think it will be more convenient to blog this way, they are probably right, because what do I know? Some things I truly am loving about this new platform, so I am going to stick with it.

That’s all from us for now! Have an amazing week, keep it crafty and stay tuned as we will be back soon!

Leave a comment below!
❤️❤️❤️

*Note: For anyone just starting to learn the new WordPress Block Editor platform, here is a helpful YouTube video. She’s showing you on the computer where I’m blogging from my phone so it’s a little different but she was still helpful to me. https://youtu.be/JjfrzGeB5_g

*Also important to note that Classic Editor for WordPress will be shut down entirely and no longer available in 2022