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About this blog

Community Members go head to head against the seasoned Team Builders in a miniature show down!

Entries in this blog

Windows and Door

I had a slow start on the Orchid. It is kinda hard to get the groove going when you have major heat and then a major thunderstorm going on.... All of the trim is Steamed Milk color. The door panel is Aegean Blue. I am going to use this color as a accent trim color. I have all of the windows done. I stain glassed the top portions in Old world and Ruby Red. I have gotten the rest of the windows done als

heidiiiii

heidiiiii

Flooring part 2

I still haven't gotten any pencils and I gave up with the crayon after one stone heh - so I've been cutting the stones as I go - freehand. The drawn stones I did in the beginning definitely look better and more random than the freehand ones I'm doing but I'm not too unhappy with the flooring. Changing blades often REALLY helps - Tracy wasn't kidding! That's the best tip I've heard for doing this kind of flooring. Of course being somewhat cheap - I hated the idea of changing blades but then I dec

hydroped

hydroped

Day Four - August 4th, 2006

Ray wired the house today with electrical tape wire. He didn't like using the tiny brads, so he got some tiny brass screws and used them instead. He would follow the tape wire and check the connections and they work fine. Ray has to go in to work tonight, and so the installation of the light fixtures will have to wait until his next days off - that'll be next Tuesday. I'm dying to get going on my exterior, but Ray would rather I wait un

Missymew

Missymew

Flooring - try number 1

You may be wondering why I titled this Flooring - try number 1.. well I've never done this kind of floor before so if it doesn't work out I'll be writing up a try number 2 heh :lol: I decided to go with a smoother stone floor than I've done before - previously I've used paperclay under stone print scrapbook paper and I was really happy with how it turned out but for this I wanted a smoother less bumpy floor and one that looked more like stone. So I went with vinyl floor tile, only I couldn't f

hydroped

hydroped

Day 5

Whew, what a blast! I just spent the last hour and a half paperclaying and stuccoing one side of my house. It took a while to get the paperclay just right . . . I started over four times! Then I went ahead and applied the stucco. What fun! It's just like icing a cake! And even better . . . I don't have to caulk because the stucco filled in all the gaps!! Woo Hoo! I hope you can see it in the photo . . . it will probably show up better once I paint it. Well, t

MiniMadWoman

MiniMadWoman

Third Day - August 3, 2006

As many of you know my dad (80 years of age) took a bad fall several weeks ago and suffered a head injury. He's still unable to drive (might not be able to drive again), so today I took my mum and dad out to run some errands. I won't be able to work on the house today, because Ray and I also need to run a few errands of our own. The Bear family wasn't very pleased that their house is just sitting there with no workers on site.

Missymew

Missymew

2nd Day - August 2, 2006

I was excited to get started on my project this morning. I even got out of bed before Ray and put the coffee on. This never usually happens at our house, Ray is usually the first one up and makes the coffee. Today we put another coat of off-white paint on all of the trims. We then used a straight-edge razor to cut the window areas out of the wallpaper. When wallpapering, we always let the wallpaper dry complet

Missymew

Missymew

First Day - August 1, 2006

Today I began my first-ever build from scratch house kit. Up to now I've just decorated, renovated, landscaped, and built roomboxes and mini-garden scenes. When I first looked at all of the sheets I'm only able to recognize where some of these giant "puzzle" pieces will fit. Ray shows me how he dry fits the construction (puzzle) pieces using the sitemap. This really helps as I can more easily identify where things fit together. 

Missymew

Missymew

Shopping Day!

Well, I took the day off today and went to buy supplies at HL. I bought some paperclay and a bunch of minis at 1/2 off! Thanks, Tracy, for the coupon!! I was disappointed though, they didn't have the Paper Perfect that you used. :lol: Then I went to Michael's and found a little lamb (Mary's) and a tabby cat. I bought some stuff called 'Americana Stuccos' that I'm going to use on the outside of the house. Wish me luck!! Well, off I go to paperclay

MiniMadWoman

MiniMadWoman

UPS came today

The UPS man came today! I went out the back door to go water the veggie garden and I heard the familiar sound of a Big Brown Truck leaving.... I rushed around the yard (navigating the dog droppings) and came up on the front porch..Nothing! :lol: Going inside.. I saw Nat putting the box on the diningroom table.. Isnt she pretty? Of course she came at the worst time. It is hotter than Satan`s backside. Going to sit down in

heidiiiii

heidiiiii

The walls are up

I used some scapbook paper and sealed it with mod podge. I measured carefully and everything seems to have lined up. Next I glued the walls and floors in. I dicovered that the stairs did not fit like I hoped and they ended at the front wall. How is anybody supposed to use them? I will have to come up with something creative for that. I went to put the windows in and dicovered that my window sheet was printed very off center and I won't be able to use it. So i used som

Shakyshaky

Shakyshaky

MiniMadWoman's Orchid

Day 2 Deciding after the fact that I wanted the floors to be in a checkerboard pattern, I had to remove the Mother Goose wallpaper we originally mod-podged onto the floors. That was a bit of work! Finally with that removed and a heavy handed sandpapering, I was able to mod-podge on the checkerboard flooring I found on a website, and printed onto legal size sheets of paper. It turned out pretty nice all things considered! I was also able to get all the

MiniMadWoman

MiniMadWoman

The Green Leaf

I have decided to name the flower shop The Green Leaf. I am going to use new tricks and tips I have learned from other members on this house. So it will be called the Green Leaf in honor of everyone here. :lol: I used the inside of the windows to make a waiscoating. I used two pieces of floor tile to make the floor. I think it has a very earthy look. I had thought of cutting tiles in it but am not sure yet. I used Nutti's tissue technique to

Shakyshaky

Shakyshaky

Moving Slowly

Well the last couple of days I don't think I've gotten much done. And I'm a bit worried the rest of the week may end up like this but I've got some things to check on this Friday - Thinking ahead I've decided to take a trip to the local rock show and see what they have in the way of glass for the windows. I normally don't like using real glass but I'm thinking for this house - if I can find something that looks like hand rolled glass with small enough air bubbles to simulate old window panes,

hydroped

hydroped

Shakyshaky

[ I sure hope this works. Well opened the box tonight. I love it when a house knows what it wants. :lol: This one wants to be a very pretty flower shop. I started on the trim and the second floor floor. I seperated the pieces into steps. I glanced at the directions. I am more of a picture person and I usually look at the directions only if I have a question about something. ( I don't recommend this for everybody)

Shakyshaky

Shakyshaky

More paperclay

I've gotten more paperclay done. A question I've heard fairly often (and have asked myself) is how much paperclay does it take to cover a house. That always makes me think of the tootsie roll tootsie pops - how many licks does it take to get to the center lol :lol: I'm beginning to think houses are the same way. At this point I've used most of 2 large packages of paperclay. These are the 1lb packages. This sounds like a lot just to do the front of a small house but then you have to consi

hydroped

hydroped

the Bending Jig - Making timbers for the interior

Once I had the pattern for the entry way done I realized I wasn't at all happy with the interior. The Orchid has a great floor plan but now that I'd decided what I was doing with the front the problem was the inside and the outside no longer matched.. what was I going to make of this house after all.. the outside looks like a medieval chappel or a family crypt but the inside looks like a house hmm. So I did what any one would do in my case - pulled out the second floor and decided to pull the

hydroped

hydroped

Paperclaying the Entry

So last night I started with the paperclay. I rolled it out about 1/8" thick using and old kitchen pastry roller. I found that unless I turn the paper clay often it sticks pretty badly to the counter top so I give it a roll one direction, pick up and turn the clay then roll again and repeat. That seemed to work the best for me. I rolled it out to about 1/8" thick and using a ruler cut one straight edge on the clay to line up with the bottom of the wall to be covered. The first

hydroped

hydroped

The Front Entry construction

I decided not only did I want the entry taller but it also needed windows. I transfered the paper pattern I used previously onto foam core and cut the sections out. I used the same window pattern I used on the front of the house to the side of the entries - slight error in my calculations though and forgot to leave room for a center beam between the two arches. I think I can manage an easy fix for this though as I go along. Now that I had side windows on the entry the front was looking bla

hydroped

hydroped

David's Orchid day 2

After letting the Orchid sit over night I got down to deciding what to do with it. A few ideas struck me right away. It would make that great Haunted house I've been promising to make myself - then again I've had Castles on the brain lately so I thought Aha! A small tower.. after checking out the concrete forms I have (too big) and the Oatmeal box (too small) I decided not to do a tower and try something simpler .. well that's what I told myself at the time... I decided to go with something l

hydroped

hydroped

David's Orchid day 1

I did a lot of planning and thinking about this house. My first inclination was to build it exactly as it shows on the box and just change the colors a bit - It's a beautiful little house but then my mind started wandering and I have been promising myself a witches house.. on the other hand I've really had castles on my mind a lot and how cool would it be to add a small tower to this :lol: So first thing's first - I opened the box and gave the direction a quick glance, punched out the main pa

hydroped

hydroped

MiniMadWoman's Orchid

I'm so excited to be part of the community build on this house!! Let the fun begin!! Woo Hoo!! I received my Orchid on Saturday (July 23rd). I love opening a new box to the smell of fresh wood! Day 1 On Sunday Brian and I started "the build". While he read the instructions (he's that kind of guy) and took apart pieces, I started gluing the windows onto the frames and began painting the trim. . . which meant I had to decide what colors to paint the house. I

MiniMadWoman

MiniMadWoman

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