A Year Of Doors: Backlog: one down, four to go

Okay folks, I got one of the doors done! Which I just realized really shouldn't be considered one of the backlogged doors because it is the April door, which since it's still April, this was when I was supposed to be working on it anyway.... but hey, that's still one door done.  Its' not actually completely done, as you'll see in the pictures, the edges are still rough/unfinished because it is not yet getting installed into it's little compartment in the tray or shadow box or whatever you want to call it (my instinct is to call it a tray, but I think Michael's, which is where it comes from, calls it a shadow box) because I'm not 100% sure on the finish/color for the shadowbox, so I can't really put it in permanently until that is finished being painted.  I did a coat of spray paint in almost the same color as the bare wood yesterday, because I already had the spray paint and I want a neutral color, but I don't think I want white (because I don't want it to look like it is part of the walls of the house on any of them with white facades) and I don't think I want gray (not sure it will really look right with all the house fronts/doors). So I think I'll be sticking with this, but I didn't have quite enough to give it as good of coverage as it should have, and I might also look at spray paint real quick at Walmart next time I go out to get groceries and either get another can of this color or see if there's anything else I might like better.  So in the meantime the facade and decorative pieces and everything are just sitting in their cubby for pictures, so ignore the rough edges and where stuff doesn't meet up completely flush and such, that will all be taken care of during its final installation.  I actually spent a lot longer on this door than I meant to, partly because I kept getting sidetracked from working on it and partly because, even though I had my original sketch, I did end up having a few decisions to make beyond that and any time I have to make decisions about something that I will have to commit to it takes me a while. Lol.

First, here's the original planning sketch again to remind you what the plans looked like:

This is of course the colored version.  At this point I didn't have any siding or anything drawn in, and actually I guess hadn't completely figured out even what the siding would be since I just have a "?", but I'm pretty sure from the get go I was picturing it with the white clapboard siding even if it wasn't "official" yet

 Now that you have that in mind again here are the pictures I took as I was working on it (didn't really take a lot of in-progress pics of a lot of it, but for most of it I don't think that really matters haha):

The first thing I worked on for this door scene was the carrot wreath for the front door.  I used teeny tiny dried baby's breath buds (they're on the regular baby's breath, they are just so tiny you have to really look for them, and there's not tons of them usually) for the tulips the wreath is made from

If I were making a real life wreath I would be wiring the stem of the tulips together to make the carrot shape, but for the miniature one I cut out a piece of paper in the size and shape I needed to use as a base to glue the flowers onto.

I glued them all on first and then painted them to look like orange tulips

I added ferns to the top and a tiny bow to finish the wreath off (although I do still need to probably go back and touch up the paint a bit because I messed it up a little working on the top and the bow.  This is also the only picture I have I think of the door before I painted it, so if that is of interest to you this is your chance to take a good look

the next thing I worked on was making the tiny giant Easter eggs for the topiary. I made them from oven bake clay, and this is them sitting in the urn (which you may recognize from several other projects and is actually a jewelry bead from Hobby Lobby). This is after they came out of the oven but before I did anything else with the topiary

I had made the eggs for the topiary pretty much right before bed one night intending to do the flowers and stuff for it the next day, but then I actually did the door and facade the next day during the day instead.  Again I didn't really get in-progress shots of this part of the project, but the "clapboard" is strips of card stock that I cut, and the wall itself is foam core board to give the window in the door and the sidelights some depth.  The "glass" for the door and the sidelights is just really thin plastic sheets.  Obviously the door was painted and I glued the wreath to the door

I went back to working on the topiary that evening and added flowers around its base and between the eggs (the flowers are more of the dried baby's breath buds and some other really tiny dried flowers I had that I had gotten when I made my florists shop, and I just painted some of them pink and some of them yellow, and left some white... which is kind of hard to tell in this picture, but it was night and the lighting isn't great in my craft room at night for pictures...)

Now this is the first picture I took thinking I was all done (remember the edges will get finished during the final installation haha), except for the door mat, because I couldn't find the sandpaper I bought to use as door mat material. (I ended up remembering that I offered my husband some of it and he had it with his stuff).  But after looking at it I felt like it needed something more, so I started thinking about what else I could put in the scene that wouldn't be too similar to stuff I have planned for other doors, and that would enhance not detract from what was already going on (for example I didn't really want more flowers or plants or something because I thought they would overpower the carrot wreath and topiary)

Then I remembered that I had some tiny bunny figurines.  At first I thought it was too big even to be a large statue, but I knew I wouldn't want it that color and I've got about 5 of them so I decided to paint it and see if that made it better or worse.  This is also the only picture I have right now of it before being painted.

After painting it I loved it, but then I wasn't sure if I really liked it on the other side of the door or......

If I liked it on the same side as the topiary.  I really was leaning towards the same side but then I was back to the other side looking to bare.  So again after spending probably way too much time going over possibilities I decided to try some oversized house numbers next to the door instead of regular sized ones over the door like I had been planning to do.

And I really like it this way.  The numbers are extra small number stickers that I had that I stuck on thin balsa and then cut out and spray painted matte black.  The numbers are the last 2 digits of the year and then the month.... which is what all the houses will be, but now that I'm looking at it I think I might switch the places of the year and the month so it doesn't look so much like a year itself. lol So it might end up being 0420 instead of 2004. Nothing's glued down yet, so I can change it up a little it need be...