Another new project (hehe)

Yes! two posts in one day! lol I thought about just tacking this on at the end of the other post but decided it probably deserved it's own.  as well as getting the cardstock at hobby Lobby yesterday I also used some of the gift card my sister gave me for my birthday and got something else I saw there a while ago and have been wanting ......

The furniture that's in it isn't from Hobby Lobby though.... just the structure..... it's supposed to be a terrarium I think, but I saw it and thought with the solid glass top and back that it would be PREFECT for a dollhouse sun room.  And it just so happens that I'd been wanting to do one of those anyway.  I already have a "wicker" bed and desk from when I was a kid, but then I found this table and bookcase at a Goodwill store sometime last year, and wanted to do a room box with them.  So...... even though I have a tone of other projects going on right now...... lol.   I'm not necessarily planning on putting a lot of effort into this one at the moment though.... I'll keep my eye out for neat pieces for it (especially if I find them at places like Goodwill), but at least until I get the Backyard Art Studio and Flutterby Bakery done (and maybe even the Attic), it will probably just sit on a shelf..... but still I'm excited about it ;)

{Attic Roombox} outside (almost) finished

I swear that something is conspiring against me ever getting any housework done.  I had a whole day free again yesterday, in which I planned to run a couple errands in the morning, then get the 2 folding tables that are in the living room right now (still up from Easter..... yep, you read that right) cleared off and out of here and maybe even get enough of our back room (which is meant to be an extra living room/family room/office/library/guest room room, but is currently a storage room) cleared out enough to get the bookcase I got the other day for it in there and get a bunch of stuff put away on it. (Said bookcase is also currently in the living room, or rather the door from the hallway to the living room..... It would really be nice to get my living room back to just a living room lol). But, my sinuses apparently didn't want to go for that plan because they were killing me yesterday (from allergies I'm sure) and making me feel all droopy and tired and even making my face kind of hurt, especailly if I moved around too much, so by the time I ran a couple errands (Hobby Lobby, And That!, and Wegmans) I was like, bleh, I don't feel like I can do anything else today. So of course there's still 2 tables and a bookcase in my living room that don't belong..... I did at least get some other stiff a little picked up, but really not enough to speak of.

But, since I didn't feel like doing anything but sit around yesterday afternoon, I decided to go ahead and finish the outside of the Attic roombox and that way it's just ready to put stuff in as I break stuff or come up with extra pieces lol.  Also one of the things I had gone to Hobby Lobby for that morning was gray cardstock to make the "slate" shingles for the roof from.  And again I forgot to take in progress pictures (I blame my allergies making me groggy lol), but it was pretty straight forward.... I had finished up the chimney the night before, so all I had to do was the roofing and dormers.  I cut the shingles from dark gray cardstock and glued them on, then trimmed the excess off at the corners and around the window openings.  Then I used a stencilling brush with a slightly lighter gray paint (I swirled the brush on a paper towel first until there was hardly any paint left on it) and swirled that randomly over the whole surface to give it some texture and depth of color.  The little dormers are cut from Balsa and glued on and painted white and the top (flat) part of the roof I painted with black paint and then painted over with the gray I used on the shingles.  I still have to do roofs and the actual windows for the dormers and maybe flashing on the corners of the roof and around the chimney, but right now I have a little test strip of some thin copper tape sitting with salt and vinegar on it to try verdigris-ing it to possibly use for all that stuff (well not the windows, but the dormer roofs and flashings)  If it works out well I'll do a little tutorial on it when I do the rest of it.  But without further adieu here's some pictures of it at this point......

{Attic Roombox} a tiny little test project

I was babysitting today, but while the little one was napping I decided to try making a trial "cardboard" box for the Attic since I'll need several, both closed boxes and open boxes with stuff peeking out. I actually made two boxes using different techniques, but the first one was probably a little big for this project so I didn't end up taking a picture of that one. But I did take a quick pic of the second one

.... {Igore the mess in the background... as I said babysitting lol}

Keeping with the theme of using leftovers for this project I made this box out of the rest of the piece of craft paper that I cut the shingles for the North Pole Tea Room from.

I'll post more pictures and some in progress pics or maybe a little tutorial or template for it when I make more

{Attic Roombox} An Itty Bitty dollhouse and using up some leftovers...

Okay........ So.......... once again I should have been getting some housework done today, but as I started clearing off the table I had in the living room with everything I had been working on, on Flutterby Bakery and the beginnings of the Attic Roombox, I just couldn't help myself, and rather than continuing my straightening up I started working on a piece for the Attic. An itty bitty {aprox.} 1:576 scale dollhouse.  This was one of the items I really wanted to make to put in the Attic along with all my broken and surplus lovelies.  But also I was a little unsure, because it is really small.  I didn't really do a whole lot of planning on this.... I had a general idea of how wide I wanted to make the house and it's style and then just kind of eyeballed everything from there.

I started with the basic structure... which went a lot smoother than I expected it to with having the bay on the front and all. LOL

I also put a floor dividing the two stories inside the house. At this point it was mainly just to square up and strengthen the walls, but I'm considering going ahead and putting another floor in to separate the 2 story and attic and a couple walls and paint and/or wallpaper the rooms, but I'll only do all that if I put it in the Attic positioned so that you can see the back of it either through one of the windows or reflected in a mirror or something.

Next came a base/floor for the house and wrap around porch.  Before I could attach the wrap around piece to make the ceiling of the first floor porch and floor of the second floor balcony I needed to paint the house.  In keeping with the goal of having this project use materials I already have, I decided to paint it the yellow that I'm using on the doors of the Backyard Art Studio.

At this point I really got into it and kind of forgot to take in progress pictures, but I painted windows on the bay and doors and windows on the flat part of the house front and glued on the wrap around piece for the top portion of the porch/balcony

Then came time to do the roof (which again I forgot to take pics of until it was completed) I opted for a mansard roof, with the bay having it's own turret roof.  I made roofs out of little scraps of Bristol paper I had laying around.  The main roof went pretty quickly and easily, the turret roof was a little bit more tricky, mainly because of how tiny the pieces were, but it could have been worse, I'm sure. Haha.  Once I had it all glued together and glued onto the house I painted it gray to mimic slate.

It's really starting to look like a dollhouse! to finish it off I put some posts in the corners of the porch and made a railing for the second story balcony.  Now let me tell you.... this balcony railing was tiny.  And I really almost didn't even try to make a railing for it, but it actually ended up being easier to do than I expected.  I just cut it from the came scrap of Bristol that I used for the roof using a craft knife.

And then glued it on around the edge, and Voila! the dollhouse is finished. (at least until I decide whether or not to do anything with the inside)

I have to say, I'm quite proud of myself for this one!

And then because there was still a little time left of the day before I had to go pick my husband up from work, and I knew the day was a bust for housework, I went ahead and got started on the chimney for the Attic, using up leftover bricks from when I made the steps for the Teapot Tea Room.

I got the part for inside the Attic done....

And got started on the part on the outside of the structure.

So, maybe tomorrow I'll actually get some housework done...............

{Backyard Art Studio} first piece of artwork

This past week was kind of a busy one and by the time Saturday rolled around, between all the rain and pollen and everything I wasn't sick per say, but I wasn't feeling the greatest either and so even though I had a ton of housework to do, I sat down with my pastels and drawing board to do a little art instead.  I was originally planning on working on a piece that I'd been wanting to do for a week or two now for real life.  It is a scene I saw one night heading home (or somewhere anyway) from my parent's house, looking from driving over one bridge down the Rappahannock River towards the railroad bridge at sunset.  The sky had a peachy/pinky glow and the river was reflecting it back and the bridge and trees along the shoreline were almost completely dark in silhouette.  I would have liked to have gotten a photo of it to work from, but like I said... driving across the bridge.... couldn't really just stop in the middle of the road.

Once I was finished with the real life one though I thought it might make a good piece of dollhouse art as well.  For the miniature version I did 1"x1" so it's much larger piece in dollhouse world than in real life (the original is 2.5"x2.5"), but I wasn't about to try to get it that small in 1:12 scale lol!  I was debating whether I wanted this to be a finished piece of art in the Studio or have it be a WIP, but I had a little white frame that worked nicely with it so I went ahead and made it a finished piece.

I actually really like how it looks in its little itty bitty chunky frame.  I don't want to do too many that are too much alike/framed the same for the Backyard Art Studio but I do have some more frames in different shapes in this teeny size, so I'm thinking about doing a whole series of teeny tiny art just for somewhere in my real life house (although I may do one or two of them for the Town House Dollhouse in a Dresser).  I'm sure I have some little corner or area of wall somewhere that a grouped collection of tinsy art would look good in my house.  If I do them I'll post pictures of them on the blog even though they won't be strictly speaking dollhouse related (but they will be dollhouse sized and miniature..... lol)

{Attic Roombox}

Well, I really hadn’t intended to get started on this one yet…. I really don’t want to have to many projects going on at once, and I already have the Backyard Art Studio, and Flutterby Bakery going in full swing and started doing a few things for Mermaid Cove Cottage, but………  Somehow I managed to injure my ankle in my sleep last Sunday night (yes you read that correctly – in my sleep, how I managed that I have no idea) and since I spent all of the week before that getting ready for my birthday and birthday party on Saturday I didn’t get anything I needed for the next steps for either the Art Studio or the Bakery, and my collection of extra or broken pieces for the attic is growing, so while I was sitting around all day last Monday trying to stay off my ankle as much as possible I decided to go ahead and get the structure for the Attic roombox started.  The structure itself is actually a really simple project for me because I had a 1:48 scale wooden dollhouse construction kit (the kind that you pop the pieces out of pre-cut plywood and put them together) that also had a mansard roof, so I traced the inside of where I had removed the pieces for the roof of that house to make another set of pieces to make into the roombox.  (except instead of the silly little tabs and holes that the original one had to hold it all together I’m just gluing it.)

     My goal for this particular project is that everything that goes in it be either broken pieces, extras, or pieces that I got and then decided not to use, from other projects, or things that are 100% handmade, in other words, I don’t want to buy anything specifically for this project.   And it may be a project that is ongoing so that I can continue to add broken and extra pieces to it as I finish other projects. (until I completely run out of room in it anyway, and then maybe I’ll start another one)  I do have a couple ideas for things that should be in the attic though that I will make specifically for it, but I am determined that I will make them, not buy anything lol.

Although….. if I do happen to see something that I just love, and can’t think that I would use for any other project I might put it in this one.  And/or if I happen across any vintage pieces…. I have a shadowbox/display frame that’s divided into 10 sections and that’s where I’ve been doing little vignettes with the vintage 1:48 and 1:24 pieces I’ve gotten up to this point (oh and vintage 1:144), but that will eventually fill up or if I end up with just one solitary item it might go in the attic…… other than those possibilities, I am not buying anything for it…………. ;) 

I forgot to really take any in process pictures of it's construction, but here's some pictures of it so far.  The inside is basically done, and ready to start decorating, but the outside still needs dormer windows and shingles. Hoping to get those done soon, and then I can start putting stuff in it. (well assuming I can find the broken furniture for it... lol... I went looking for them after I made the structure and can't find them anywhere, but I know I saw them not too long ago, I'm just not sure what I did with them because they weren't where I thought they were......)