Well I should've read Otterine's egg-carton brick tutorial http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php/cutting-egg-carton-bricks-plus a little more closely to deal with those posts; she just cuts her bricks a little longer to wrap around the sides to give the illusion of a solid brick. I kept all my bricks the same dimensions, 3/16" x 11/16", based on historic brick dimensions that I found via a google search (and yes, all the corners are slightly snipped off):
This meant that I had to offset,
I am having such fun working on this house! It's a bit organic, the process so far, in that I think of things I want to build and then I build them. And then I revise/undo them when it turns out that it doesn't fit.
So I was googling for guidance on porch lattices, and came across this fellow: http://www.oldhouseguy.com/porch-skirting/. I don't know how much is orthodoxy and how much is his opinion, but his views on aesthetics made sense to me, so I decided to go with it. He wrote
After cutting down the dormer a bit, finalizing the window placement, and cutting out the windows and doors:
Trying to figure out where the upstairs divider should be:
I think it will be this one, because it makes sense for me for the (smaller) powder room to be over the kitchen.
I seem to take a long time with windows in general. I don't know what it is, but I find myself fussing over window trim and detail more, it seems, than any other feature. These win
I made very careful cuts for the bed tutorial (http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20to%20make%20a%201%20inch%20scale%20shabby%20chic%20bed) and this one turned out better (more square) than the last bed build I made:
After the spray paint dries on the frame, I'll glue in the box spring. I'll leave the mattress loose on it though.
The finished table, from Kris' dining table tut http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/search/label/Dining%20table:
I u
I say "asymptote" because one could just fiddle and mess with detailing on a house forever. But I am coming to a close here, I promise. Not in the least because of my two new projects that I want to get on to:
Laurel bashed to resemble old family house, for a family member (made the first cuts-- whee!):
and San Fran build, for another family member:
I finished up the wiring underneath the yellow Willowcrest:
Lo and behold, all the lights worked when
I'll use these photos to help me see what areas need touchups-- whoops, I see quite a few already.
I have the base plywood marked out to be sawed down; I need to remember to finish out the wiring underneath the house before gluing the house to the base!
I think that after I affix the house to the base, I will dry-brush some gray and black on the "stones" around the bottom of the house (it's actually a textured paper); I don't think that tan color complements the
Found a nice little green print in my fabric stash for the kitchen:
And a pale yellow for the bedroom:
Found a use for a print that I've had for years, and never found a place for!
The little fan is my own design idea. I'm sure I got the idea from somewhere, but couldn't tell you where.
I conserved the parlor fabric carefully, and made two chairs (http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/search/label/Make%20and%20upholster%20a%201%20inch%20scale%20chair )
But first, some little things that my mother gave me for Christmas:
Aren't they neat! My favorites are the turkey and goose and little green glass bird on the upper left, and the jug with a cork in it near the front. I wonder where she found them!
Here's my solution to gaps on the mansard roof!
They are strips cut from a cracker box; Dada's blog http://dadasdollhouse.wordpress.com gave me the idea to use thin cardboard strips (they use cereal boxes!) and
Well, for a bit there I had thought that I had a chance to finish up the Willowcrest in time to ship it for Christmas, so I worked away furiously, wishing that I had Gina (MoreMinis http://moreminis.blogspot.com/) to help me! I got pretty far, but not far enough:
The porch pieces gluing:
This is one of the (many) reasons that it takes me so long; you can see the spackled edge to the left and the unspackled edge to the right:
Isn't this a great pape
Well the longer I wait to make a blog post, the more there is to put in it! Here goes--
I had long admired the ripple afghans that Mary (woodland_miniatures) makes, so when she reappeared on the forum, I jumped on the chance to acquire one:
Isn't it lovely! It is shown here for staging purposes only; it did not get shipped to my little nephew as part of the cabin.
But here is what did get shipped:
As you can
I know, I know-- get back on that Willowcrest! Don't worry, it's getting there.
Made some little chairs from Kris' chair tut http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/search/label/Make%20and%20upholster%20a%201%20inch%20scale%20chair, except I made them lower by one layer of foamboard, so had to do a little fitting on the fly:
Kept them the same width though, because the Calico Critters may be short but they're pretty wide!
Made my own kitchen table and bench set out
Just had to show this-- caught my eye in one of the Christmas aisles at Michael's, "cork ribbon":
I thought "interesting floor material" :idea: and got a couple rolls to try. Upon closer inspection, it's mounted on a polyester, so wasn't too sure how well it would glue down.
It's actually quite thin and flexible, and seemed to glue down very nicely-- it's soft to the touch, with some "give" so that the edges can be pushed up against each other very effectively.
So the gables are affixed, as well as the bottom trim for the house. Ready to start siding.
Inbetween the Willowcrest, a "quick" project for one of my little nephews, who apparently is quite jealous of all his sisters getting a house but nothing for him! I've only got 'til November, when his birthday comes along. This has to be a very manly house; no lace or fine Victorian trim here. So I got a Corona Concepts Shadybrook cabin off Amazon, a very simple kit; it's made of 1/4
Well there has been a bit of work here, getting the 1st floor staircase ready to install:
Here the assembled staircase is drying while I have it in place where it will sit in the house, to try to keep it square.
But before I can install the staircase for good, a number of things have to happen in this little foyer, because once all the walls go up, there is no getting in there; this time around, I have installed the front door first off so that I don't have all t
Finished up the piano bench, bashing Kris' occasional table tut http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20to%20make%20an%20occasional%20table%20from%20mat%20board.:
I put some basswood braces on the underside of the 2nd level to keep it from bending. Not my best cushion work but it'll do.
And now for something a bit different: I have gotten a commission of sorts, to build a Willowcrest for a family member's granddaughter. I am looking throug
Well I needed some sort of roof-ridge caps to cover up those nasty gaps, so I cut something fancy out of thin cardboard (sandpaper packets), with thin strips glued on top for some visual interest:
Much better. I was making curtains for all the rooms, and ended up making a two-tone curtain for the parlor which did not quite look right with the upholstered chairs, so of course I had to make new upholstered chairs!
I am in the middle of making a bench for the piano, becau
I decided to make the dormers out of posterboard, to help keep the weight down:
Then I was working on the trim for the 2nd staircase, had the bright idea of checking the lights and lo and behold, both 2nd floor lights weren't working! Turns out that whilst brandishing my exacto blade around that corner to make room for new trim pieces, I had accidentally cut both wires where they emerged from the 2nd floor staircase to run along the wall to enter into the top of the 1st floor stair
A few more pics of the re-hauled Buttercup, now with its owner (I didn't really end up doing much of anything to the exterior):
I am thinking of digging out the second Buttercup kit, just to have something on hand for situations like this!
Back to the Laurel: Made a porch swing from those kits that my mother sent me:
Here I am installing 1/16" basswood planks for the porch floor; decided to use a staggered design at the corner
I put two tones on the porch posts, raw umber and Mint Julep Green, and glued the roof pieces in place; I figured that there was no way that the roofs would stay nicely on the posts, so I drilled through the roofs into the posts and glued in toothpicks.
I wanted some hanging baskets, but everything for sale was way more than I wanted to pay, so I made some from stained cardstock using Kris' tutorial for round baskets http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/2010/10/gumball-machin
Went down to Joann's the other weekend and found a bunch of goodies, including some upholstery fabrics (= carpet!) on the sale rack:
That enabled me to carpet the bedroom and finish out the floor trim. Even though I was trying to be careful ahead of time about the doors getting too tight, the bedroom door is a bit tight over the carpet . But I think it'll do...
Worked on the understair closet in the kitchen; used pin hinges on an old scrap for a door (that had a couple
I did make more matboard moulding from Kris' tutorial (it's in her kitchen cabinets tut http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/2012/01/part-six-kitchen-cabinets-made-from-mat.html) for all the ceilings; it takes extra work with the matboard cutting and the gessoing but it's easier to cut and alot cheaper than wood moulding! I found a plastic bowl in a stash of odds and ends that my mother collected for me and turned it into the kitchen ceiling light fixture.
I guess I got a bit carr
I made some of Kris' chairs http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/ for the parlor:
Had just enough taupe "piping" (natural cotton braiding cord, by Clubhouse Crafts; found by the beading at Joann's)!
Made the shabby chic bed from Kris' tutorial, and her occasional table too:
I wasn't paying attention and used cardstock instead of regular paper for the bed's "decorative turnings" so they are a bit bulky but that's OK. That table did take a bit of elbow grease, with
Did a dry fit of the walls and floors, and realized that I needed to sand down all the doors or else they wouldn't open once I got flooring treatments installed. I had neglected to do this for the Tennyson and it wasn't pretty...
Glad I remembered to do that! Once I got the walls and floors glued together, I worked on the staircases, trying to keep them square by staging them in the house throughout assembly:
The 1st floor ceiling is a bit higher t
The kit doesn't have risers for the staircases, so I cut some out of 3/16 basswood; I should've used dremel or something other than shop scissors (the boards split a bit ) but I figure that between the stairs facing the front and paint and stair-runners, it won't stick out. I wanted to stain the treads and paint the rest, so I just taped in the treads while I glued in the risers. I dry-fit the staircases in the house to try to keep 'em square while drying (you can also see my support spacers in
