The $1 Million #Dollhouse, Kind Of #miniatures

 The roof is attached Yay! It's actually looking pretty good. (Oh, and wait 'till you see the very pretty wood decoration I just found at Goodwill and painted. Better than just using the usual Victorian-style arch on the top!) 

And then we realized something...

Oh, no! Who the heck really wants to glue hundreds of these tiny 1/2" high shingles on one-by-one??? What a lousy *&^#### project! Sure, wood looks nice, but... Big but!

Well... looked around and don't know why I didn't realize there also are strips of the asphalt roofing in half scale size. Yes! So more $$$$. ha! Hey, my "small" contribution to the economy, right? So we bought these:

So, waiting on that.

Working on it being the $1 million house. ha! Not quite, but.... it seems every time we turn around, there's something else to buy. It adds up. And no, I'm not keeping track though I do have some receipts saved. 

Guess that's why people do the self-contained Chinese-made house kits. You get everything though the quality isn't always there and the scale can sometimes be off.  I have several of those, too. I bought a small one recently from Hobby Lobby just to make some of the items for the girl's bedroom and maybe the deck if they fit right... Or they can be used in the playroom. Either way... 

With most projects, it starts out with some things and then you need more. It started with lights, needed more. Then it was kits. Oh, there are never enough kits! (Coming today. I'm looking forward to doing that kitchen, though I'm also dreading it once I see all those pieces!)

I also have other furniture kits saved,  probably using some once I see if they fit or not. After this.... is there an after? Yes! Do I start on the sea captain and mermaid house, or do the Haunted House? I have two house kits set aside and  I've been saving-saving-saving things for both.... I have some different decorating ideas for both of those! Hmmm, decisions, decisions.  Stay tuned! And thanks again, for stopping by!

April Showers & Spring Flowers! #dollhouse #miniatures

 A quick update as I was pretty happy about the latest mini-make.

Thought I'd add a fun little spooky touch to the deck on the Half Scale Victorian House. As I mentioned in the previous post on the latest updates, the deck will have the "wrought iron" fencing around it with  some flower boxes. 

I wanted to do something different, so these are larger than the smaller window boxes to fit on or in front of the fences. The boxes are cut from 7/16" wide channel molding for 1" scale railings. I cut a small piece of wood to close in the gap on the ends, painted, and then filled it with Model Magic clay with moss glued on top. 

The "flowers" are actually tiny clear plastic flower beads I've been saving. Simply dab the end of florist wire into Tacky glue and then yellow paint to form the center. Once dry, dot glue underneath the blob and slide on bead. Put more glue underneath and slide on a 1/8" green circle. Press up to bottom of bead for better hold. I thought they turned out real cute!

 I decided the box needed some kind of decoration so I came across this package of teensy Halloween-shaped brads. Broke off the ends and the moon shape works perfect! I'll have to make other boxes so I can use the tiny bat, pumpkin and other designs when I do another Haunted House!

More to come! Trim being finished and the roof will be going on soon. Then the hard part - cutting a roof and *&^! shingling. Don't like that part! 

Thanks for stopping by again! 

Half Scale #Dollhouse: Next Challenge #miniatures

 Moving right along on the Half Scale Dollhouse. Getting more lights installed.

 

Speaking of lights, we ordered several standing lights. First time I ordered these and I have to say I'm impressed. The lights are well made; nice colors on the beads on the pole, bright bulb and the shade even screws on and off! It has those plug-in pin bulbs so you can replace the bulb. (Good luck on that as it's so-tiny.) But the lamp is even nicer looking than the photo. I'll add some lace to the shades on a couple for some variety.

Also ordered some furniture kits from Sdk Miniatures. (Yes, yes, it turns into the $1 million dollhouse. haa! (HINT: Never add everything up or keep a running total. Trust me on this. ha!) 

I've ordered furniture and flower kits there before so I know how they are - nicely made and go together well.

Next: The Kitchen -Kind Of

While I had a manufactured kitchen kit and a couple other loose kits, I still didn't have a good idea what to do in the kitchen.  (I do have this full set and the modern stove magnet, too, shown here on Emily's blog.) The kitchen sets the tone of the house, so decorators and real estate ads tell you... I also have those HS magnets - a black Victorian stove and an older '30s-ish white stove, as well a metal Tootsie Toy monitor-top fridge, but... this is a newer house and the people really like their conveniences. So... what to do? 

Then I saw someone's modern kitchen on FB and thought, that would be different. For me. My other kitchen in my HS Country House is kind of vintage-looking. Another small kitchen I made (and since took that cabinet-type house apart) is also older looking. 

Well, I bit the bullet. I almost decided to build it myself, but considering how much I like measuring (Not!!!), I decided to buy a kitchen kit. I like kits and the price is always better than the finished product plus you can customize it how you want. So, other kitchen pieces I have will go to the planned Raggedy Ann house and whatever else I come up with. 

I'm not a big fan of modern contemporary stuff but this really is a nice kitchen kit (photo below) at Sdk Miniatures. So I ordered it.  Obviously I can customize it how I want, so I'll have to think on design and colors. Wish me luck. haa! I'll probably do a follow-along blog to share the pain and any tips I come up with. Stay tuned!

Half Scale #Dollhouse Update 2 #miniatures

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been making some great progress on the Half Scale House.

Getting quite a few things done. It's amazing as this house sat for oh, some 20 years, I think. Being home with the pandemic and over winter, it seemed like a good project to work on to give us something to do. So it's amazing now to actually see all the rooms wallpapered! It wouldn't be as far, of course, without hubby as the contractor. He does the electric, construction and papering, though I have helped with the soldering.

There's still some trimming, small fixes and touch-ups to do, (so please ignore little paint blotches, etc.) but it's come a long way! I wasn't too thrilled at first, I admit, as the house seemed so plain. But it's the different little changes that I think are making it pretty cool! 

Top photo: This was a big change. That was at first one big room on the end, with the octagon shape going to be a tower that connected to the bedroom. Ho hum. Thought about it and decided I really wanted a rooftop deck.  So... the room was split with the brick wall on the outside and the print tile floor. I have to cover the sides of the light posts yet (taken from one of those Christmas village sets). There also will be the plastic wrought iron fences along the top edge with flower window boxes.

I decided it really needed some decoration so I painted a decorative wood strip to go under the top wood trim. Here's the window boxes installed so far, too! I like color as you can tell. Ha! There will be dark green and gold decorative pieces above the windows, with mustard yellow edging along the seam lines. The other front windows will have the sage green shutters. Yes, a lot of these are last minute decisions, but that seems to be the way this house is going! 😊

The other side of the deck will be a small girl's bedroom. I like the look of the brick walls. There'll also be a wood floor in here. The two side walls will have this scrapbook paper, as I like the vintage look and the slightly larger pattern.  I also have to add a fake door on the left wall to "connect" the craft room on the left side. I think it goes well with the bed I'd dressed previously.

Other rooms: again ignore any little mistakes as they're still in progress and I haven't done all the touch-up's yet.

Left side attic room on second floor above the main bedroom. It will have a wood floor and ceiling, with silver industrial-looking lights hanging down. There's a brick wall there next to the right side wood floor. See craft room below.

Crafts/art and sitting room on right side next to the attic. The wall will continue the wallpaper on this side, with brick on the attic side and a centered door.  There also is a fake door on the right wall between the sconces (girl's bedroom on other side with deck.) The circle window has full spokes on the outside. That's mustard yellow. I have to add some kind of stone pattern around the window on that top outside section.

Other additions:

Decided I didn't like the plain first floor hall so I'm adding some vintage tropical wall panels for color. The "stained" picture is for the attic. I'll add the small tropical art in the craft room, too, I think. Waiting on some floor lamps, too. (Yes, more lights, ha!) Realized the hall is dark so will add a light behind the stairs with a bookcase.

Made an Easter basket and a small vintage flower basket from vintage Hallmark basket patterns. It's hard to tell here but the green basket has that shredded yellow basket filling in it. 

I think I forgot to share these small animal and insect charms I found at Hobby Lobby. They'll go on the den/office walls. 

That's it for the moment. More to come! Thanks again for stopping by!

Plants! #dollhouse #miniatures

It's Spring so time to get some things planted! 

 Made great progress on the Half Scale House. The rooms are all lit and we decided to split the end room on the second floor by the tower. It'll now have  a small girl's bedroom and a rooftop deck on the other side! Yes, that door will be locked so the girl doesn't sneak out to look at the stars at night! ha!

 I like that the bedroom will have a brick wall and I found some interesting vintage-look wallpaper with pink flowers for the two walls. The design is a bit larger, but sometimes I think that works. It goes well with the bed set I had dressed earlier. More photos coming! 

In the meantime, I thought I'd share what I decided to do in the window boxes. I painted them a mustard yellow and decided the shutters will stay a dark sage green. Have to decide on the color for the decorative pieces above the windows yet.

The planter boxes are tiny but I wanted some big flowers to add interest. If you haven't looked, I found these plastic plants for fish tanks at Meier. They'll make nice small bushes outside, too. I painted the daisy-like flowers and added black flocking in the center. The boxes also have moss on the bottom and I added some tiny impatiens flower punches for more color. I'll paint some of the other bushes, too, to take away the plastic look.

Spring makes me want to make dollhouse plants, too, so I'll  be making lots of plants for the house inside, too. Plus I have to dig out plants I got from past swaps in the Half Scale Group. I'll share photos of those soon, too. 

Big Fan of Those Fans! #dollhouse #miniatures

 

Can I say again how much I love those wood fans from China? So many uses!

Previously, I made some decorative wood boxes around the windows in the Half Scale dollhouse, and it's the second time I've used them around stairs. I love how they look.

Ta-Da! Next...

I'm super thrilled that I figured out the room divider for the back of the dollhouse room! This is a pretty different design, I know, but I realized the hall had to extend around the room so I could add a door to get to the attic as I didn't want more stairs. (That'll be on the plain wall on the left, which will be covered with the matching black/white scrapbook paper.) But so far, it's turning out pretty well! (It isn't glued in yet and I had to sand the edge so it wasn't cleaned up here.)

I used the heavier wood ends of the fan on both sides for stability. For the center top, I cut the pieces from the fan blades and alternated them because of the angles. I trimmed some of the edges to make them straighter and reversed the smaller pieces so they'd fit. They're glued into pieces of channel wood. I used a different stain this time to give a little contrast. 

And yes, there will also be a large gold picture frame on that glaring blank wall in the hall beyond the railing. We'll add a hanging light also.

So far, so good! It's nice when an idea you have turns out - and I'm glad it worked so I didn't wreck the side pieces! Last time, I cut up a lot of blade pieces to get it the boxes how I wanted, but that was expected for a first try. 

Soon: Decorating And...

Getting closer to the best part of building - the decorating. Soon! But there's  a lot of trimming and finishing to do yet. (And then the porch to build outside, and window boxes, etc. etc. I'm using the fans on the porch railing, too!) Once I finish the wall, then the lights can be installed and the  third floor/ceiling can be put in. There is a beautiful (expensive!) chandelier for that bedroom. A one-time splurge though I just bought some more hanging lights again. That's why you don't keep track of costs in a dollhouse. ha!

More building, too! The third floor will have a wood attic above the bedroom, (I used a wooden placemat in this book box for the walls and want to see if it'll  work here as I don't want to cut individual pieces. I used pieces of a wood Chinese calendar in the other HS house attic (bedroom area below), but I don't have any more of those.)  I love having a place to put all the extra stuff and "junk"!); I may add a part bath enclosure here as well, just a part open door showing a sink or something.

 The other two attic rooms in the current house will be a combined craft area and sitting room/baby's room while the mother works upstairs. (Since I have a nursery set to use! Unless I repaint the crib and add it in the master bedroom and use a cradle upstairs. Either way. I don't want it to seem like the Flowers in the Attic books with the kids locked away in the attic. ha!) 

 A girl's room will be in the tower room at the end, which needs false doors on the wall to "connect" it since we didn't put door openings in. Some things just weren't planned at the beginning of working out this house and were changed later. Lessons learned! 😀 

Stay tuned for more! And, thanks again, for stopping by!

Replicating Real Life #Dollhouse #Miniatures

 

The fun of collecting and creating in miniature size is having a realistic replica of something from real life.

 That's evident by the interest in all the miniature toys that are suddenly popular like the Mini Brands food items and the Wacky Packages items - small scale replicas of real life food products and parody products. I admit both these are "cute," though they are more Barbie size (1:6 scale) than dollhouse scale (1" =1').

Most of us creating in miniature like adding those real-life touches, no matter the size. In my case, I enjoy working in 1:24 scale (half scale or 1/2" = 1'). Yeah, it's small, but I like that you can get the realism without it being so small you have trouble seeing it. (Folding things can make you feel like you're all thumbs, though!)  I made the shelf above a while ago for a kitchen. The shelf is 4" long. The printable (printie) food boxes range in size from under 1/2" to just over 1/2" wide and 1/2" high or so.

This post actually started with a couple of items I got in last year's annual swap from the Half Scale group. I got a kick out of the paint cans a couple people sent and wanted to figure out how to make more. Hard to get a real good photo as these are only just over 1/2" high. (Emily Morganti made the can on the right using part of an LED Christmas bulb for the cap, she said. Check out her blog - she has some great half scale dollhouses and ideas!)

I was pretty happy with how mine came out using a dowel rod, thread and a slice cut from the end of a wood paint brush to make the cap. I shrunk down the label in my Word program. (They look a little beat-up in the photo since the camera picks up every-single-mark. ha! But on a shelf, they look pretty good.

 I also just found some tiny beads with straight sides that might work for other color and clear plastic caps. They're called Perler Beads and used to hook onto pegs almost like Legos. The pegs are part of shapes like butterflies, etc. 

We'll see if they work for my purposes. The beads are about 1/4" high, similar in size to the clear cap on the first can photo though that one has slightly angled and rounded sides. I'll  try and make some to see how they turn out. You need more than a few cans on a shelf, right? And once you start making something, I admit, you get kind of hooked on having multiples. ha!  I wanted to see what size a 1" scale can would be also, though I'll likely need a larger dowel and a bigger bead. But that's another day. 

I've been making some other things as well for the latest Half Scale dollhouse so stay tuned! 

Thanks again for stopping by!

Half Scale #Dollhouse Decorations: #miniatures

 Latest work on the Half Scale Victorian House. 

Read All About It! ha!

I'm waiting on an order of lights to get here  (well, I used some in the previous HS Country House; also see attic interior) so had to get more! Hint: if you're new to miniatures, it's like a real house - always things to do or more things to buy - or re-buy! ha!)

So... in the meantime I've been working on a few decorative items. I wanted to do some different things in this house. I usually use scrapbook paper for the walls. In the upstairs office I decided on a travel theme, so I used this paper. I loved the colors and also used it to line the wall bookcase. It's pretty neat looking in full size. 

(As a reminder for myself, Emily Morganti, who builds/decorates some great HS houses, has this same bookcase in her house's living room. Check out her HS sofa instructions here.)

For fun, I painted some of these silver charms to use as decorative objects on the shelves.

And... of course, I have a bunch of books made already (which I can't find at the moment), but I don't mind making more! (see top photo.) These are nice, vintage-style books. I sprayed them first with matte acrylic sealer, then sealed with a couple coats of matte Mod Podge. Then I traced the designs with a stylus on a mouse pad to accentuate the outlines. I frame the books around picture frame mat board, cut to fit, and paint the edges with Tulip Metallic Gold fabric paint.

I was pretty pleased how this geranium came out! It's not made the usual way. I don't have an actual geranium leaf punch so I used a different, much larger shaped leaf and cut out sections, but it worked out well. It's set in a larger printed bead as I wanted to use the planters outside the double doors in the second floor hall. I'll share some tips on the flower in a coming post. Yes, half scale plants are usually very tiny so I wanted these just a bit bigger than that. 

Something else I forgot to share last time: got the window boxes made! I was making them slightly larger at first but this will work fine. Made them out of wood after all. Once I started, it wasn't so bad! Luckily, I had some channel wood which saved me from making all four sides. I only had to add the end pieces!

And... the other pieces below are wood snowflakes cut in half. I'll paint them and put them above the windows for some decorative elements. There 's two styles since one set goes on the tower and one on the front windows. 

I'm trying to figure out the color scheme as the windows are brown with the vintage white inner trim on a yellow house. I'm thinking fuchsia for the window boxes and a Wedgewood green for the shutters. I plan on adding other contrasting wood trim and decorative pieces to tie it all together. I don't want it to be too plain (as it is now!) (Not sure what color to paint these pieces. Suggestions?)

Until next time... thanks for visiting!

Fanning The Latest #Miniature Project...

 Okay, you can groan at my bad pun. Couldn't resist. haa!

But.... you all know those pretty, and very useful, Chinese-made wood fans?

Yup,  we all have some. In fact, I found a bunch a while ago at a garage sale or something (waaaay back in pre-Covid days!) and had to buy them. I didn't have a plan for what I'd do with eight of them, but hey, they were .10 cents a piece. You don't pass that up!! (Click photos for full size.)

But.... as every dollhouse hoarder knows, they'll come in handy... someday. And they did!!

As I shared previously, I've been steadily working on the Half Scale Victorian House. The floors are in on the second floor and working on putting in some trim before the ceiling goes in. I was doing the bedroom, which will have a kind of flowery romantic feel with Victorian-style furniture. 

I used a slightly contrasting fabric for the curtains that had an old-fashioned look. I love-love-love the lace I found for the inner curtains, too! Then I got an idea that had to be done even if I didn't want to do all that measuring, cutting and trimming - fretwork box frames for the windows!

Of course I ended up cutting a lot of pieces to fit right and then replace those that pieces got broke as these are pretty delicate. 

The pieces have to be reversed to meet up since they are angled. I glued the trim on top the cut fan pieces. Then.... of course! - I found they weren't wide or deep enough so I had to glue on extra channel pieces to the sides and back to make them fit. But I'm happy with the results!

The bedroom, it turns out, had to be shortened so I could add a small hall at the back which will have a door leading to the attic. I don't want to build more, but I have an idea to enclose the open part of the bedroom by making some screening with more of the fan wood. (See end of wall below.) I don't want to enclose it totally so I can actually get my hand in there to decorate!

That hall connects to the center room, which has an open space at the end enclosed by a gold fence. There'll be a hanging light in the open space. I think this was scrapbook paper, not exactly half scale, but I like how it looks. I want to put planters with red flowers by the double doors. 

It's hard to see in this photo, but I like that it has a kind of hotel lobby feel to it! I also used the wood fan pieces for the railing around the stair opening. 

Besides figuring out the room screen, I'm also planning on using the fan pieces on the front porch railing. I really don't want to deal with those tiny individual spindles and I think this provides a better look. So, on to the next parts. There's a lot of trim to finish, too, and fix any little mistakes that might've been missed.  Stay tuned for more!

Tiny is In! #Miniature toys

 I'm Baaaaak!

TINY 

IS IN.

Okay, I've been busy. The record store is finished; photos will be coming soon. I just have this paint spot on one wall that I've been trying to fix and match... You know how it is, the glaring goof that will bug you forever....

The Half Scale Victorian House is still in progress. Making good progress, I'd say. Had to make a couple other design adjustments, things we didn't notice when we started the house oh, 15+ or so, years ago. But the bedroom is being papered; had to add a hall with a fake door I'm working on to go to the attic since I didn't want to add other stairs. A couple things to do before the second floor ceiling goes in. Have to do curtains first as it's super hard to reach in this house as stuff is tiny! More photos and updates will be coming... Just had an idea that somehow I want to add a rooftop deck. haa!

Speaking of tiny...  Did ya Know? Tiny is in.

There are all kinds of tiny - mini food brands and packaging out now - the LOL brand, Mini Brands, Toy Mini Brands and the funny Wacky Packages in mini package form, to name a few. Remember the stickers from (ahem) decades ago? I may have to get one pack just for fun...

The Mini Brands foods are cute, but they're more Barbie (1/6th scale) size... But I've been  seeing and hearing about the Toy Mini Brands and I've looked - Walmart is always out; Meier was out. Every time I looked no one had them. I've only seen the Crayon box sample on display and saw a mini boxed Dora doll photo... Then someone said Target has them.

Success! I finally found quite a few at Target!  And I have to say - they are cute!!! I don't need another project, but small, quick ones are always good. So... I have a small empty display box that I'll have to set up as a toy store! I'm thrilled that I only got one double toy in the three balls I bought, no big deal since they can go on a shelf together. But looking at the chart, I'd say I got the best ones. There's a tiny shopping cart that would be a nice addition, though.

The neat thing is that while printie doll boxes are nice, these have actual figures in them! They come 5 to a ball - here's what I got. I may get another at some point, but I'm happy with the ones I got so far. (Click photos to see full size.)

That's the way it is... something always prompts another project. haaa!  But I've enjoyed filling small display boxes like the Raggedy room (see photos here) and the small Halloween display I did ---  Update: (I  knew I had a photo up, see A to Z Blogging: T and U post for the Halloween box pic.).

 While a small display box can be just as much work sometimes, it is quicker than a full size roombox. I've also been looking at my cigar box sitting there waiting to be finished. I have about everything sitting in there for the planned men's shop, just have to wallpaper and work on it! 

Stay tuned for more details!