Extremely New

[XansGirl]

I've never built a dollhouse before but I owned one as a child.

I was going to make one out of plastic canvas after christmas but then my brother bought me the Buttercup house.

I absolutely love it and I'm very excited to get started on it

I am just not sure where to start. I want to paint it and I have the tools to paint it but i'd also like to do some wall papering or flooring but i'm not sure how to prepare the wood to paint. Any hints tips or instructions anyone can provide me with?

Thank you in advance.

[eglefther]

First thing like the instructions say...DON'T PANIC!!!! That is the best advice.

Second, even though the instructions say to use a hot glue gun...DON'T. Get a good wood glue like Elmer's or Aleen's Tacky glue I've heard is good too.

Third, I only started in July myself so don't really have a lot of experience but read through the forum and check out the gazette blog...they just started that this month and it has a great getting started article. Go to the top of the page and do a search for Gazette Blog and it will come up.

Four, post five times and you can upload pictures to your album and show us your progress...checking out other's albums and blogs is a great way for inspiration as well.

Lastly, welcome to the forum it is a great community of friendly and generous people.

[havanaholly]

Take a deep breath and pop over to the Newcomer's forum to introduce yourself, a lot of members are more used to meeting & welcoming new members there. I will also welcome you to the little family here, Elenae (that's a pretty name) and I think you'll have a lot of fun with the Buttercup. I built four or so of them early on.

not sure where to start. I want to paint it and I have the tools to paint it but i'd also like to do some wall papering or flooring but i'm not sure how to prepare the wood to paint.

Whether you paint or paper your little house you will want to seal the wood. I know that the instructions recommend using shellac (unless Ben has finally written updated instructions for the Buttercup kit), but I have issues with anyone using denatured alcohol or anything containing it, around skin and other body parts; like the hot glue (which isn't the same formulation as when those instructions were originally written 25-35+ years ago), there are better sealer products you can use. Unless you want to stain (like floors), I find that primer works really well to seal the wood. You'll want to sand the walls as smooth as you can, and if there are any irregularities you can finish with a thin coat of gesso or spackling compound and sand it smmoth when it dries.

There are several ways to "do" flooring, too.

Do share pictures and feel free to ask all the questions you need to. Don't be afraid to exxperiment. Right off the bat, there are several ways to make interior door and window trim.

[jeninky]

Welcome to the forum!!

[lmgervais]

Whether you paint or paper your little house you will want to seal the wood. I know that the instructions recommend using shellac (unless Ben has finally written updated instructions for the Buttercup kit), but I have issues with anyone using denatured alcohol or anything containing it, around skin and other body parts; like the hot glue (which isn't the same formulation as when those instructions were originally written 25-35+ years ago), there are better sealer products you can use. Unless you want to stain (like floors), I find that primer works really well to seal the wood.

If I understand correctly, does this mean that I can toss out the instructions about shellac and wood alcohol and just go straight to primer and paint? It would be a lot easier and sounds a lot safer.

[Wolfie]

Hello, Welcome and Congratulations on your first dollhouse!

[havanaholly]

just go straight to primer and paint?

This is by no means hard & fast, and I never recommend tossing anything, because you will discover that whatever it was, you will need precisely that item within the first 24 hours after it has gone to the dump. That said, my first suggestion, if you haven't done so, it to pick yourself up a roll of 1"-2" wide masking tape and "dryfit" your house (build the shell without any glue, use the tape to hold it together) and spend a day or more getting acquainted, and it will talk to you & begin to tell you what it wants & how it wants to look, and that's when you make notes about what to stain and what to prime (stain won't go on over paint/ primer/ glue) and how to finish the floors.

You aren't in a speed contest, there are no deadlines, this is a HOBBY (unless you're a professional who makes a living - HA! - building dhs or making minis).

[Minis On The Edge]

Welcome to the neighborhood Here are new updated directions that you can download:

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/i...showtopic=13966

[ilovecats]

Hello and welcome! Congrats on the Buttercup! I love that house, it's so adorable and I found it to be an easy build. What i do is (while each piece is still in the die cut sheet) i take a pencil and write the # of the sheet and what the piece is ...for example if the schematic shows a certain piece as "front gable left" that is what i write on the corresponding piece...that way once you pop the pieces out of the diecut sheet it's so much easier to identify it! For small pieces like trim pieces I write the sheet number on the pieces with pencil, pop the pieces out of the diecut sheet then put them in a zip top bag and label on the bag what house the pieces are from and what sheet number or numbers i got the pieces from.

After I pop the pieces out, i sand the edges of each piece to clean them up a bit and remove any splinters. Then I build my house with Titebond II wood glue (my favorite.....less runny than other wood glues and it grabs, bonds and dries fairly quickly. I has a good glue bond when it's dry. I use pieces of masking tape to hold the pieces firmly together as it dries. I rarely prime before i wallpaper or paint. There are positives and negatives to doing that tho and it's up to the individual on whether to prime or not. I never use the treatments listed on the instructions. I definately never use hot glue. I've never tried Aleene's white glue but i know other members of the forum use it and like it. If you stain any pieces, like stairway pieces for example, stain them before you glue them together otherwise if you get glue on any exposed piece of wood, the stain won't "take" in those spots. The buttercup doesn't have a staircase of course, but just for future reference for other houses that you may build.

Have fun! It's not as intimidating as it may seem at first. It's so cool to take flat pieces of wood, join them together to make a structure. I rarely read instructions as it really confuses me, i use pictures to guide me. There is lots of eye candy on this forum and in the gallery, so if it helps, look up pictures before you get started!

[XansGirl]

So for my flooring I can just use a dark wood stain instead of priming it and get the same "wood floor" effect?

Also.. The kit came with sandpaper.. do i need to get a finer grain of sandpaper?

Third. What sort of primer would I use?

Thank you all for your warm welcomes I'm really looking forward to cataloging my adventure in this.... Although I still want to do my plastic canvas dollhouse.. this is a wonderful place to start

Thank you as well for the updated directions.. that does help..

So it's generally recommended to tape it together to see what it looks like and what it wants before I dive in with the painting?

Also I noticed that the dollhouse doesn't come with the shingles... Do I have to get those separately?

[havanaholly]

...for my flooring I can just use a dark wood stain instead of priming it and get the same "wood floor" effect?

Before I stain my floors, if I want to make them wood floors, I have described in several places how I scribe the "floorboards" before I stain.

Also.. The kit came with sandpaper.. do i need to get a finer grain of sandpaper?

I take the piece of sandpaper that comes with the kit and staple it to my sanding block. If I (rarely) require a finer grade I use an emery board.

Third. What sort of primer would I use?

I use cheap white flat interior latex.

tape it together to see what it looks like and what it wants before I dive in with the painting?

It works for me.

Also I noticed that the dollhouse doesn't come with the shingles... Do I have to get those separately?

I shingled my first two Buttercups with sandpaper shingles, 60-80 grit makes a nice scale shingle. I also use corrugated cardboard to make "tin" roofs.

[XansGirl]

How do you make sandpaper shingles?

[Gayle]

If you get the chance, check out the gallery. Type in Buttercup and it will give you 5 pages of pictures to drool over.

There isn't much I can add to what has already been said other that to remember, it's your house and have fun with it. Your level of expertise will improve as you continue to build so don't judge your work by someone else's. As long as you're happy with the results, it will be fine. If you get frustrated, walk away and do something else, then come back to your little or big house. We all have those times when nothing seems to go right, go get a cup of your favorite beverage, take a short break and then start again. While you're away, whatever is wrong will sort of take care of itself.

Welcome to the forum.

[XansGirl]

Thank you gayle

I did check that out before and some of the houses are absolutely beautiful.

By chance, would I be able to get some standard wallpaper at lowes that I could use in the house?

I haven't been able to find "dollhouse wallpaper" on the internet and I'm swinging by lowes tomorrow so I figured I'd give it a look-see... any tips in that aspect? Would I use standard wallpaper glue or would I have to use a craft glue?

[Gayle]

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/i...i&img=32098

This is a link to debra's wallpaper or at least one of the ones she's made available for us. There are several places to purchase wallpaper, miniatures.com, dejouxminiatures.com and dollhouseminiatures.com are the first ones to come to mind but there are many more. The wallpaper at Lowe's is out of scale for dollhouses. The paste can be used with success. You have to work the bubbles out of dollhouse paper too as you would with regular paper. You do have to be careful not to tear it though.

[havanaholly]

How do you make sandpaper shingles?

I measured a shingle in the hardware store and cut my sandpaper into strips 1?12 the lenght of the shingle; then I went back and cut3/4 of the way up in 1?12 the width measurement intervals. When I glued them onto the roof I staggered the rows by cutting the end shingle in half vertically.

"dollhouse wallpaper" on the internet and I'm swinging by lowes tomorrow so I figured I'd give it a look-see... any tips in that aspect? Would I use standard wallpaper glue or would I have to use a craft glue?

Take a look at Debra's Gallery, where she is posting all sorts of mini wallpaper printies. Use the "Search" feature to find posts with links to internet sites.

Judging scale from RL sized items becomes easier with experience. I occasionally find suitably small print RL wallpaper (in thrift stores; Habitat for Humanity stores have all sorts of potential for useful stuff), I have also used giftwrap with a suitably small print, dh wallpaper and small-patterned scrapbook paper. Some of our members have found fabric with suitably small patterns.

I use premixed wallpaper paste from the hardware store to hang my dh wallpaper

[Val]

Welcome to the forum. I love the Buttercup it is so versitloe. We have made many. You can view them on our Web Site can't wait to see waht you do with yours.

Val and Rita

[XansGirl]

Your dollhouses are very pretty Val <_<

I can't wait to get started on mine.. I just don't have -any- clue how i'm going to decorate it :xmas_tree:

[Sherry]

Another suggestion, if you have a scanner. For instance, I bought some gorgeous gift wrap that is reproductions of Victorian papers. Birds, flowers, all that stuff in vivid colors. If I wanted, I could scan this into my computer and resize it to 1/12 scale-you can do this with almost any design you find, but it's a great way to use a real wallpaper that you like-or giftwrap, scrapbook paper, etc.

Scrapbook paper is another source for wallpaper-I've used denim prints, stripes, and now a stone wash look blue for my new master bedroom. Or use a solid on the bottom that has a matching print for the top half of the wall. A lot of them even have matching stickers you could use for a border!

[XansGirl]

oh! That would be fantastic! I do work at Michael's Art and craft store.... anyone mention employee discount? XD *cheer*

[Gayle]

It may sound strange but it seems to work. When your Buttercup is in dry fit, listen to what it tells you it wants to be. After that, decorating will be a breeze. Let you inner child out to play and you won't be disappointed with the results.

[XansGirl]

I wanted to do that today since we did our gift opening last night but we didn't have any masking tape so I have to wait til tomorrow but lucky for me I work on saturday so If I'm able to find out what my dollhouse wants to be I can pick out supplies tomorrow at work! theres a sale!

[Sherry]

SALE???? On What? <_<

[XansGirl]

Yarn, i think some beading items

They have a huge add going out .. 70% off a lot of their holiday items plus a 50% off coupon :yes:

[chesterfieldzoo]

Sounds like fun.