DIY an AG doll outdoor grill...

Details of our AG doll outdoor grill made using a salt box. Left, the temperature gauge is a compass.
Center, the vent for smoke is from a recycled spice bottle. Right, the grill's rack is made from
wooden skewers.

 

        This 18" doll sized, toy grill is made using a recycled Morton salt box that is then mounted on top of a box-like cabinet. Crafters may alternatively use a Quaker Oat Can or a bread crumb box as grills such as the one designed here often come in a variety of sizes in real life. Hold the paper can next to your doll to determine if it is a size you wish to work with.
       I would consider this craft to be an advanced for a child in 5th or 6th grade, so generally speaking I recommend it for teens or an adult to make for a younger child. However, there are a few ten or eleven year olds who can accomplish crafts like this one.
      The drying time between steps will take several days depending upon the humidity in the air, as well. If you have a dehumidifier in your home, it is best to keep this project drying near it. Some crafters may become frustrated with the amount of time it will take to complete the following steps.
       The 'cuteness' of the craft also depends upon the inclusion of several hard to find items such as the plastic compass, but it really does make this craft adorable and it worth it's making!

 

The finished outdoor grill for AG dolls.

Supply List:

• one clean Morton salt box
  
• tiny gravel (dollar store)
• wooden skewers
• Exacto knife (adult use only!)
• extra cardboard
• grey scrapbook paper
• black paper
• acrylic paints: black, grey, red, orange and yellow
• white school glue
• masking tape
• metallic tape
• wooden block
• Mod Podge
• small plastic compass 
• plastic inner lid of a spice bottle
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• square dowel rod cut to long handle size
• black Velcro patches
  

 Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Clean the Morton Salt box, remove the label(s).
2. Cut the box exactly in half including one long side only and the two shorter ends. Leave one of the longer sides intact so that the tubular box may be folded back and opened as though it has one very long "hinge." (see photos below)
3. Cover all the sides both inside and out with masking tape to strengthen the structure.
4. Cut a long narrow counter to extent around one corner of the box grill.
5. Mount this cardboard counter to the upper edge of the opening.
6. I glued on an additional cardboard 'lip' that tucks down inside an opening in the counter. You can see this step clearly in the first group of photos below. It is an optional step that may be eliminated by younger people.
7. Cover the interior of the salt box with black paper and Mod Podge. Let dry.
8. Fill in the space for the faux 'coal' with ample amount of white glue for the miniature gravel to soak in. You can do this in layers or all at once depending on your comfort level. It takes several days for this step to dry.
9. At this point, you can see that I have used white school glue to paste in the skewers around the inside perimeter of the grill, the longest skewers first and then the shorter ones. I have done this on purpose to keep the grill from warping while I add paint to the gravel. 
10. Paint all of the gravel black to begin with. Let dry.
11. Then using a dry brush dab on the redist color, then orange, then yellow and then lastly dab on the pale grey. It might help you greatly to observe hot coals at different stages during a grill prep for this part of the craft. Let the paint dry.
12. Now you may continue to build the grill rack using identically cut cross skewers and white school glue. Although you may be tempted at this point to use hot glue for this process, do not use it! Hot glue will make this too messy and you want to show off this rack properly in this end. Take the time to use this school glue instead. Let the rack dry before painting it carefully with a tiny brush.
13. Paint the rack black.
14. Now you may join the salt box construction with a box that has a slightly shorter length. See the photos below to get an idea about what size you will need. I give the exact measurements under the photos below. But, you do not need to use the same size that I have here.
15. You will need to cut a half arc into the top of the box cabinet for the salt box constructed grill to rest inside. Use both white glue and masking tape to adhere the edges together inside this arc cut-away.
16. Glue in a shelf piece of barely equal length and width of the original box. Hold this in place with glue and masking tape to dry.
    
17. To make doors that open and shut for this grill's cabinet, which is optional, you will need to cut a long narrow piece of cardboard to paste into the top inside edge of the length of the inside cabinet. This sounds confusing but will be self-evident to you as you work. Use tape and white glue to reinforce it and then cut a vertical cross piece the same width to attach at the top and bottom of the inside of the cabinet. (see photos below) Keep in place with tape and glue.
18.  Now cut two identical size pieces of cardboard to be the cabinets. 
19. Tape these to opposite sides of the opening in your box. The tape will act as the hinges for these cabinet doors and will be made into stronger connections as you add more glue and paper in your decoupage finishing. 
20. At this point I glued the wooden block on the bottom side of my grill to make it taller. However, you may not need to do so, if you have acquired a taller box than mine for the project. I felt my project needed this addition to raise the grill to the proportional height of my 18" doll. I finished it's surface by covering it with metal tape.
    
21. Once all of these preliminary steps have been done, I proceeded to cover my grill with black paper and Mod Podge, excluding the counter top.
22. I used a grey paper to decoupage the counter.
23. After the decoupage dries you may choose to cover the surface of the grill with black paint and then seal it again with Mod Podge. The necessity of this step is determined by the quality of your grill's surface. I prefer my surfaces to be seamless and so I usually will paint a solid colored surface and add another coat of Mod Podge.
24. Now you may heat up the hot glue gun in order to add the following details...
25. Hot glue on a cut square dowel rods to both the hood of the grill and it's cabinet doors. These handles are usually long and strong on real-life grills. I finished this handle with silver metal tape. (see photo for placement)
26. Remove the inner cap of a spice bottle; it has holes and is usually transparent.
27. Cover it with metal tape and hot glue it to the upper side of the barrel vaulted lid. (see photo) This will mimic the place where smoke is allowed to escape from a real grill during the cooking process.
    
28. Hot glue a plastic compass to the center of the grill barrel lid just above the handle. This is meant to mimic a temperature gauge/thermometer on a real grill. 
29. Finally, hot glue a Velcro patch to the inside of the cabinet doors on the vertical cross bar. You will need to cut the fuzzy part of this attching patch into two separate halves to glue to each cabinet door. But these meet in the middle of the cross bar connecting into one Velcro strip. Now your cabinet doors may be firmly shut.
    

Left,  framing in the grill's rack for cooking the pretend food. Right, the mini gravel will be
painted to look like lighted coals.

Left, look inside the cabinets. Center, side view of the barrel shaped grill.
 Right, the hood is bent open to reveal an open grill.

Left, the cabinets are closed. Center, see counter before it is decoupaged with silver paper.
Right, the coals are painted prior to the glueing of the rack.