{Hello!: A Year Of Doors} May.... Part 1

After finishing February, I had planned to go ahead and do January's door and be technically caught up for this year before starting on May's door (which I still also should have had December done by now, but as long as it gets done before December this year I'm not overly worried about rushing to get it done... maybe I'll do it in July as a little Christmas in July project) , but I was really excited for my design for May and I had (I thought) everything I needed for it and I need a light blue cardstock for January, which I'm not paying over 6 times as much for shipping as the actual price of the sheet itself to order it, so I'll be waiting until either I have something else that I want/need to order from Hobby Lobby or until I can actually go to the store and get it.  So, May's door it was this past week, however, I did not actually have everything I needed to completely finish it, so I'm currently waiting for some materials I ordered to get here and in the meantime (especially since they're not supposed to get here until the end of this week) I thought I'd post the progress on the door up to this point.  It's basically just the landscaping/ground that I haven't done yet, so it is mostly done.

So first of all here's my planning sketch for this month so you can see what the initial plans were:

I don't have a colored version of this month's sketch, because I never got it copied to have a copy to color, and it feels like it's kind of pointless at this point since I'm already well past the planning stage (Although I still might just as kind of a keepsake with the project, because as I have the previous sketches right now I have both the original sketch and the colored version displayed in page protectors facing each other in the folder I am using for the project so... I'll probably want all the months to have both and the months after this I will probably do a colored version of their sketches too before I start working to better plan out my colors and such, so I'll probably end up doing a colored version of this own too, it'll just be after the fact lol)

And here we go from start to almost finish:

The two main accessories/decorations I had planned for this door were a pair of wellies/rainboots with flowers in them and a watering can with flowers as the "'wreath" on the door. (I ended up adding another element once I got working on it, but we'll get to the in a minute).  This is a picture of the 3D printed wellies before I painted them.  I got them from Stewart Dollhouse Creations and they are sooooo cute!

Close up of the unpainted watering can. Also 3D printed, also from Stewart Dollhouse Creations.

The watering can painted.  I painted the main color with spray paint and the flower/sun/ whatever with regular craft paint (the watering can itself has an embossed flower on it, but after attempting to paint it, I'm not sure if it looks more like a flower or a sun, I suppose it would look more like a flower if I painted a center on it, which I might at some point, but that's just how it is for now)

And the wellies painted.  The main color on these is also spray paint and the white polka dots is gloss finish craft paint, I used to smallest end of my ball stylus to dot on the white

Starting to work on the florals in the watering can.  The idea is that the flowers for this month would have a wildflower feel to them, but the watering can did get a slightly more structured look and also a nice big garden flower (Rose? peony? you decide...lol)

Finished floral arrangement in the watering can (with my finger both for scale and so you can see the flowers better with something behind them)

Seeing how it looks laying on the door.  Also I guess this is the first picture of the door, so let me talk about that for a minute.  This is the first of the doors that I didn't make myself. (Wait, actually no it's not, April's door was a Grandt Line door that I've had laying around for a while from something I, for whatever reason, didn't end up using it for.... but the others I made myself lol) I purchased it from BJ Miniatures (along with several other doors that I will be using for January, June, and July at least, but possibly for one or more of the fall months too, but I haven't decided yet exactly what door styles I want for them.  I fell in love with this door when I saw it, I love the arched top and the diamond paned window.  It's just so cute and cottage-y and I knew it would be perfect for this scene.  I painted the door and the trim and the window (which should start showing up in pictures pretty soon here...) a soft green, kind of a mossy green, with a hint of a bit of pastel green about it.  I ended up having to mix the color myself since I couldn't find a green that was exactly what I wanted (at least not without being able to actually go into craft stores lol).

At some point between starting work on this month's door and finishing the watering can florals I came across a picture on Pinterest of house numbers painted on flower pots and thought that would be perfect for the house numbers for this scene.  I made the flower pots from craft paper cardstock and painted them with terra cotta craft paint, then hand lettered (numbered?) the numbers. 

I decided that the house number flowers pots should be sitting on a bench under the window/next to the door.  I made the bench myself, sort of based off of a bench tutorial I saw on the miniatures blog Cinderella Moments.  That was for a 1:12 scale bench so of course I had to adjust the measurements, and I also did a couple other things slightly different because of how I was using it.  I "stained" it with a brown marker then aged it a bit with a very light layer of white dry brushed on and a little light sanding. 

Checking too see how the bench and flower pots will look under the window..... everything is just laying there in this pictures..... hence the pots leaning at weird angles lol.  The window is a plastic window that I'm not even sure where or when I got it...

I also, kind of between working on other elements, made a little mail slot for the door out of some adhesive backed copper I have (also I think I've mentioned this and/or you may have noticed that, except for the April door which had a door knob molded onto it, none of the doors have door knobs or handles at this point.  That should be remedied soon, I've ordered some in 2 different styles, so I'm hoping they will work to put on the doors.  I had waited to do anything because I knew I had ordered 1:48 scale door handles for the North Pole Tea Room, but was having trouble finding them or something similar to order, but finally found some to get..... which *whew* because I also wasn't coming up with any good ideas for making doorknobs and handles that would look really good)

The florals done in the first rainboot.  I actually did this first one, and then kinda got distracted with other things before I got the second one done (I know, shocker right?)

You probably can't actually see it too well in this picture, but I was checking out how the window treatment I had planned actually looked behind the window (I folded plain printer paper to look (kind of) like Roman Shades or really wide blinds, or something similar (I was going for roman shades, but since it's paper and doesn't really have any drape to it I'm not sure it doesn't look more like blinds lol)

Field stone printed paper glued on the background, "glass" and window treatments installed on/in both the window and the door, and the flower pots glued to the bench and "planted" with some... well something green.... moss, low growing plants. whatever you want to think of it as....

Close up detail of the window treatment for the window

and closeup view of these adorable lace curtains I put behind the door, because with the watering can on the door and everything you really don't see them that well, especially in pictures, from the front side.  These are also from Stewart Dollhouse Creations.  They are actually one of the things I got in a mystery grab bag I ordered around Christmas time.

Finally got the flowers in the other one...

And this is me just holding the back wall in place sitting behind the wellies and bench to get a good idea of what it all looks like together

Closer look at the details.  As I said this is as far as I've been able to get at this point until I get what I ordered for doing the landscaping, but to give an idea (and I think this is listed on my planing sketch as well) I'm planning on having a gravel path with stepping stones going up to the door and maybe gravel area in front of the house as well with maybe a little bit of grass or plantings or some sort in a small area on each side of the path.  That could potentially change somewhat as I go to actually do it.  Also not sure if this one will have a doormat, even though that was an element I was planning for them all to have, because of the type of path going up to the door, but I'll figure that out after the path is made.

Since it doesn't look like I'll have my materials to completely finish this until the end of the week I don't think I really have anything miniature wise that I want to work on this week.... I did get a few kits for my birthday for stuff for the bookstore, which I do really need to get back to work on, but, I think I want to wait to start working on that again for when I can just leave it out and work pretty much exclusively on that for at least a few weeks before having another door to work on (which once the base for May gets done I'm basically caught up until whenever in June I decide to do June's door, except for January, but at this point I don't know when I'll be getting the cardstock to use for that one). I have the door itself for January painted so I might go ahead and make the wreath and other accessories and everything for January this week so that when I do get the cardstock to make the siding from all I have left to do at that point is basically just to put it all together..... IDK we'll see. ;)

Oh! and if you were looking for the "Hello" in this one and didn't find it, don't worry it will have a hello, I just forgot to put that particular item in any of these pictures..... so it will be in the finished pictures when I post the second part of the making of this scene!