I had wanted to work on this door over the 4th of July weekend since it is a 4th of July theme, but I forgot to order the kit for the bench until a couple days before I wanted to work on it, so I was a little later getting it done than I had wanted but I did work on it some over the holiday weekend and really got most of it done then (or at least most of what was originally planned for it).
So to start with, as usual here's my planning sketch. This month I do have both the uncolored and colored version. I ended up adding several things beyond the original plan once I got all of that together, but you'll see that as I go through the making of the door scene, and I went with a different style bench than what I sketched up, but you will see that further down as well.
The very first thing I did for this door was to spray paint the french doors gloss dark blue, most of the doors I end up making the wreath before doing anything else, but for this one I wanted to make sure of how the wreath, or actually, wreaths, were looking with the door color as well as the size on the doors. Next came making the wreaths themselves. Because this is a french door entrance I needed 2 matching wreaths, and the original plan for them was for them to be entirely pleated paper medallions. After getting 2 of each color made though I, 1. really didn't want to make any more because they were a royal pain in my patooty, and 2. Didn't think I really had enough space to do the rest of the wreath with the same sized medallions and make it look right and there was no way I was going to be able to make them smaller. So, I ended up (after quite a few attempts at various bows and other ways of filling the rest of the space) doing some tissue paper sprays and rose buds, and actually I really like how that turned out.
Next up was the wood firecracker decorations for beside the door that were part of the original plan. I actually ended up painting these twice because I didn't like the way I painted them originally and then while trying to figure out a new design came across ones similar to this that I had pinned on my regular Summer board on Pinterest (rather than my board for inspiration for the doors) and decided to do them this way instead (granted I then painted Snap and Pop on the opposite ones from what they were supposed to be on, but oh well lol).
Pillows for the bench were another big part of the decor, and I debated on waiting to get the bench kit in and put together before making the pillows, to make sure they were a good size, but I realized that as long as the bench was scaled properly (which I knew it would be),e as long as I made standard sized pillows it should be fine (and it was). I made a square pillow and a rectangular pillow, and painted the designs on both by hand using acrylic craft paints. The square on I stuffed with a tiny bit of fiber fill and then glued the edges around it flat to make a border, but for the rectangular I found a leftover piece of batting and decided to try using that, which ended up being MUCH easier and will most likely be how I will be doing quarter scale pillows in the future lol.
Next, and to finish off the planned accessories/decorations, was the doormat. This time instead of using the sandpaper I had been using I decided to try using a piece of the thin cork I had used in The Librarian and The Bookworm Used Books. I wasn't sure the details of painting the fireworks was going to show up/work properly on the sandpaper, plus the cork is adhesive backed! I did lightly paint it a slightly lighter color to look more like sisal, but over all I really like how it looks on the cork so I'm sure I'll use it for at least some of the doormats for the rest of the year as well.... it was a 12x12 sheet of it so I've got plenty still to use.....
So with all the decorations done (so I thought) I moved on to doing the stucco for the siding. I used spackling that I got at Dollar Tree and I had a lot of trouble getting to to be smooth and stick to the foam core at first (which I wasn't expecting to have an issue with, because it's not the first time I've spread something... spackling, icing, caulk... out smooth on surface, so it was really frustrating me), so I decided maybe the house would just have textured stucco instead of smooth. Well that didn't really work either very well, but then I actually stirred the spackling like you are supposed to (but had thought I could get away with not doing because it seemed fine) and *magically* it cooperated much better for me. Shocking I know. Once I finally got that acceptable I got the "glass" on the back of the door and checked the fit of the door with the door frame on my opening. I also chose a background to be visible through the door, and then painted the door frame and glued the door and frame on to the wall and the wreaths to the door. I made a patio by printing out a brick pattern, gluing it to a piece of foam core board with the paper surface removed and scoring/embossing along the mortar lines of the bricks.
The bench kit came a few days later and I put it together as soon as I had the chance. And the bench itself is so stinking cute! It was a nice dark wood color but I did debate painting it either the color of the door or a gray, but, I also did really like how it looked in the dark wood color, but didn't quite like it with the rest of the scene. I also felt it needed something on the wall above it though after seeing everything together so I decided to wait until I figured that out and see how it looked before deciding whether or what to paint the bench. I toyed with a couple ideas for what to use as wall decoration, I thought about string lights, but didn't quite like that idea, I thought about bunting or red,white,and blue garlands, but I didn't want it to compete too much with the decorations on and around the door itself, so I decided to head to Hobby Lobby and see if there was anything in the scrapbooking or jewelry departments that could look like some sort of metal outdoor wall hanging. I was thinking maybe not something that was necessarily 4th of July themed, but would be what they have up all the time and then maybe just add a little 4th of July touch to it. I ended up buying some 3D formed plastic flowers and some 3D stars and I loved the flowers as outdoor wall hangings, but I didn't end up loving them for this scene, and decided I liked just the stars (I had also tried a mix of the flowers and stars, which again I loved but not for this). I definitely did not want them their original bright gold color so first I tried painting them a dry brushed white, so they wouldn't compete with the door decor, but that didn't seem quite enough so I dry brushed red and 2 different shades of blue on 3 of them, which was what I ended up being satisfied with. Also by the time I got all that in place I decided I didn't really need to paint the bench after all, so it stayed the dark wood color.
Which only left the house number and porch lights, if I was going to have porch lights. The house numbers I ended up using metal stamps taped together to press the number into a scrap of balsa wood and then I painted it so that the embossed numbers were a dark blue similar to the door and the surface a lighter blue and I placed that above the door. The lanterns I apparently didn't take any pictures of the making of, but I cut them out of black cardstock and scored and folded them to shape and then for the inside I glued a small clear bead onto a head pin, cut that to the correct length and just hot glued it into the inside of the top of the lantern/light. I'm actually really happy with how that part turned out. They could be a little more squared up/less wonky, but I was fine with them as is rather than have to redo them. Haha.
So that's the scene done. Or probably done, I am considering if I want to cut a course or two of the brick off the back of the base so it sits further back and there's a tiny strip of grass in the front, but I haven't decided if I'm going to do that or not and I wanted to go ahead and get it posted since it's been a little while since I posted on here. It might actually be a good thing that I was still debating that though because I was thinking that now I can just go ahead and install the doors into their openings when I'm done with them because the color and finish of the display pieces is set now, but what I wasn't thinking about was that I haven't put the hangers on the back of this one yet, since this is the first door in the second tray (? I'm still not quite sure what to call them lol). If I hadn't been waiting to glue it in until I had decided about the grass I might have glued it in before I realized I needed to put the hangers on the back first and then I would have had a problem..... Which I need to go get more hangers (Which I could have gotten when I was at Hobby Lobby getting the wall decor, but oh well) before I can put them on the back so this one will only be temporarily sitting in place for a little while, just like the first 6.
My next post will most likely be The Librarian and The Bookworm Used Books finished (unless I do a quick post about making the (non working) chandelier I have in it first, but probably not...). I'm really, really close to being done. The only thing I have left (that I know of at the moment anyway) is just to make all the rest of the books for the wall of bookcase on the second floor...... which I have been putting off because I'm not looking forward to doing them, but also I am looking forward to doing them because it's that last thing to do so I'm excited to have it done. So, I plan on getting going on that at least by the end of the week and if I really buckle down and work devotedly on it I fee like the bookstore could be done by the end of the weekend or early next week (I make no promises though...). Then I actually think that rather than start right in on the ice cream shop I'm going to have a week or two of "Christmas Crafting in July", and do the December door that I was supposed to have done last December, and hopefully get started making Christmas presents. Which of course I won't be able to post about the Christmas presents, but I will of course post the December door when it gets done.
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