harmonbooks Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Hi, everyone! I am located in Nova Scotia. I have been interested in miniatures for thirty odd years, and started a dollhouse many years ago that never got completed. A couple of years ago I found a dollhouse at Value Village for thirty bucks, already assembled, but needing a serious amount of TLC. Last spring, with the pandemic, I decided to tackle it. It turned out to be an Arthur. I live in a condo building, and other residents were fascinated with the progress, and said it should be put in our lobby for Christmas...which gave me a timeline! When I get five posts, I will put up pictures, but I am now attempting to kit bash a Willowcrest that I bought ten or fifteen years ago second hand off Kijiji that was already assembled. It will hopefully become a San Francisco Painted Lady! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mid-life madness Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Welcome Paula I can't wait to see your houses. Try not to get too frustrated with making an album etc, it is a real pain in the butt! Once you are successful you will not have any problems. Just ask, and we will help you figure it out. Carrie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Welcome to the little family, Paula. PM Emily/ fov to remove your duplicate albums. Did you mark your album "public"? because Ididn't see any pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harmonbooks Posted January 28, 2021 Author Share Posted January 28, 2021 I finally sorted out the photos, got them uploaded, mostly...seems to be missing a couple that must have been oversized. And I deleted the other empty ones. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 I would love to know how many of the things in your Arthur you made. I gather you made your dinnerware from printies. It's all awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harmonbooks Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 I made a fair bit of it...the food, the packaging, the bedding, shower, the artwork, books and magazines, placemats, Xmas cards and garland, all the flooring, sofa. Pretty much anything paper, I can find images for and manipulate in Word. The pressed tin ceiling is a drawer liner painted gold from Dollarama, I did the shower stall. The dish shelves are just coffee stir sticks, the other kitchen shelves are dollar store wood garden trellis, I figured it would be cheaper than hobby store wood. And the thatch roof is actually a bathroom towel! The fridge is two dollar store wood trinket boxes put together. The dishes are all actual images of real plates. I get the highest resolution images I can find that are taken straight on, so no angle, and put them in a word document sized to proper size, printed at the highest quality, and cut out either two or three layers( one paper, two cardstock), glued together. Then I use an embossing tool and a washer to get the ridge of the plate, then three coats of clear nail polish. It's weird, because some things, I don't think twice about doing myself, but other things that I probably could do, I am quite timid to undertake. Having access to the internet makes things a bit easier to tackle, but I have no one close that I can hash out with, so it's a bit more difficult. I really want to put lighting in my Willowcrest, but the whole electrical thing is quite intimidating. I have read loads, and ordered the stuff from the internet that I think I need. Learn as I go! The Willowcrest is leaps and bounds because I am cutting holes in walls and all sorts of foolishness, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 I make almost everything I put into my houses. Do you know about Kris' site: http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/ ? I don't bother to electrify because it doesn't do anything for me when I play with my houses, and the one house I built for someone, they didn't want it, either. With furniture I started with kits and worked into upholstering and tufted upholstery. I wound up with a fair few 1:12 dollhouse furniture DIY books. I really went berserk when I built my Fairfields, the furniture sets I'd bought for it were 'way too small, even thought they sere supposed to be 1:24, so I ended up scaling the projects in my books down 50% and ng my own. The old wide polyester neckties make lovely upholstery, BTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harmonbooks Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 I have an unbelievable amount of books, both dollhouse and just decorating related. I had decided my Willowcrest would be a Painted Lady, and about a month later I found a book about making your own Painted Lady at Value Village...I couldn't believe the serendipity! I also have an awesome book about Victorian gas lighting...love my books! I HAVE been on Kris's site. so many great tutorials. I also really like Bentley House Miniatures on Youtube, Ara is great! Along with the Painted Lady, I want to do a scratch build of the Willow Tea Room in Glasgow, and there is an incredible chandelier to recreate, and I think lighting will be important for the detail in that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 I agree about lighting in recreations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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