{"Backyard Art Studio"} Getting Started

This is a 1:12 scale project, that I'm actually working on for the miniatures.com "creatin' contest".  The kit is called "Backyard Bungalow" and as soon as I saw it I thought art studio! I'm super excited about making some little mini art for the interior of the art studio, but first I'm getting started with the structure. 

I still haven't decided exactly how I want to finish the outside of the structure, but I've got a good idea how I want to inside to look.  My first project was the flooring.  I wanted a reclaimed wood/barn wood look for the flooring.  I decided to use extra wide craft sticks stained and aged for the flooring.

cutting the curved ends off of the craft sticks to make planks

the planks dry fitted and cut to fit.  Once I had this done I numbered them on the back so I could put them back together the same way.

dry fitted/laid out after I finished staining and aging. I stained each piece individually and without paying attention to what number the planks were so I was pretty happy with how evenly distributed the various tones ended up being 

and with two of the walls taped in place to get a better idea

It's kind of late right now so I'm not going to take the time tonight, but I will post how I did the floors.  I'm thinking I'm going to to a shiny finish over them, but I'm not 100% sure yet... I think I may try it on a few planks first and see how it looks..... if I've only done a few I can always gently sand it back to matte if I need to.  I haven't glued the floors down yet, I'm letting them dry for at least 24 hours first since the process I used to stain them involves getting them pretty wet so I want to make sure they are COMPLETELY dry before glueing them down or finishing them so that I don't have shrinkage issues.

The walls will be white like you see in the pictures, and I'm going to put skylights in the roof/ceiling.  I was planning on painting the ceiling white as well, but now I'm kinda thinking about painting it a high gloss black or dark charcoal gray.  There won't be a whole lot of ceiling because of the skylights and I think it could look cool, we'll see.....  I'm also on the lookout for the perfect light fixture{s} for this build and I found a couple options that I think I like for it, and they are actually battery operated rather than wired, which I think will work better for this project.

For the outside finishes I'm pretty sure I want a "slate" roof, and I'm pretty sure I want to do a flagstone style floor for the porch/covered patio/whatever you would call it, but I'm not sure whether I want the building to be brick (and if so red brick or white washed brick), or "wood" siding (and if so what color) or maybe almost completely covered with vines/ivy..... but I can do exterior finishes easier after it's assembled than I can interior so I'm not as worried about that at this point

I plan on doing a bunch of tiny art pieces for inside the studio as well, but I'm going to get the interior finishes done and the structure assembled before I really get to work on furniture and accessories.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!

I've always loved dollhouses and really anything miniature, and have recently gotten really into crafting dollhouses and miniatures in several different scales. (I'm especially into the smaller scales because 1: they take up so much less space to store the finished projects and 2: Um hello! does it get any cuter then teeny tiny houses that fit in the palm of your hand?!).  I've been chronicling my projects pretty regularly in pictures on Facebook for my friends and family, but decided I really wanted to start a blog to document my projects.  Now I have to admit I am HORRIBLE at keeping up with my blogs (if you don't believe me check out my other blogs and you'll see lol), but I'm hoping that since this one is just following my adventures in Mini-land, maybe there's a chance. haha.

I have several projects planned for this year.........
- In 1/12 scale I am currently working on a "Backyard Art Studio" dollhouse (which I just started so my first few posts on here will most likely be about this one).

-I am also planning on getting started on a 1/12 scale dollhouse housed in an old tall lingerie dresser. I'm calling that one my "Dresser Town House" (at least for now). I don't necessarily plan on actually finishing this one this year since it will be a bigger project and I have to figure out things I've never done before for it (like electricity), but who knows once I get that stuff figured out it may roll along a lot quicker than I'm expecting

-in 1/48 scale I'm going to be doing a bakery/bake shop housed in a CD case (like the type a stack of blank CDs comes in...) decorated to look like a cake itself.  I'm really looking forward to this one.  It's partially to use up some leftover product that I thought I was going to use and didn't when I did my 1/48 scale North Pole Tea Room, housed in a paper mache teapot, but I'm really excited about making all sorts of little (tiny) cakes and treats.

- also in 1/48 scale I'm doing an attic roombox. This one is also coming into being partly because of the tea room..... in this case rather than using unused accessories, I'm planning it to make use of some tables and chairs I broke, but still wanted to find a way to use. I'm even thinking of making a tiny old dollhouse to put in the attic

- for fall I want to do a real quick Fall Fairy house in a faux pumpkin (probably in either 1/48 or 1/24 scale... I need to measure that the inside of the pumpkin to figure that out. This should be a quick inexpensive project.  I also have a Haunted Dollhouse in 1/24 sccale that I started a few years ago and didn't get finished at the time that I'd like to finish up

- and then IF I have time come the end of the year (or between other projects) I want to do Santa and Mrs. Claus's house at the north pole either in 1/24 or 1/48 scale... not sure yet.  But I'm not sure whether I'll get to this one or not

I don't know whether I will actually be able to get all of that done this year.... especially since I have so many other projects and hobbies I'll need to work on throughout the year, but those are the plans anyway :)

So I hope you will enjoy following along as I work on them, and I'll try to post some tutorials/ step-by-steps for some of the stuff I make myself for these projects!