New Year, New - Old - HS Dollhouse Project 2

 It's a New Year, meaning a new project, right?

Well, yes, and no.

 (click photos for full size.) We pulled out the half scale house that's sat for oh.... maybe 10 years I think? And once we got past the initial arguments (I'm design/decor, he's building and finishing), then maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to keep at this and get it done. You know how it is doing renovations, etc. on a house... it's the same as real life, only smaller. haa!

This is my third larger and full size half scale house besides the country house and the yellow playhouse. (I also have three smaller HS houses: a Tudor one with bakery; a house turned garage, and two for Halloween, plus a one-room house turned garage.) Forgot, there's the small Tudor herbal house, too (see county fair post)...  (First Tudor, also see bakery pix.)

This house is handmade, adapted from part of a smaller house kit and added on to. I don't remember all we did though the tower is handmade.  It does have some flaws, but? I decided to keep at it. I have soooo much furniture and accessories, plus decorative items from years of half scale swaps stored away, that it'll be nice to have somewhere to put a lot a lot of it. 

As this was back when half scale lights were really hard to find, we bought some very expensive handmade lights for this,  along with a few I found in later years. I'll show those once the second floor ceiling/floor is in. 

Just to show color schemes: kitchen, hall, dining room. 

Below: tower curtains. The tower will have a statue, small bench and lots of plants.

It doesn't look like much yet but some new lights were added (not shown), curtains finished, trim moldings put in,  and it was painted outside - again. Third time. I had a greener yellow paint by Martha Stewart, which got lumpy, so I had to get another paint, which was slightly lighter. But it'll look ok once I add the sage green shutters and some windowboxes, (which I dread making sooo many - there are about 18 windows. But boxes will be on the front only.) plus some decorative trims and moldings. Have to figure what colors to add yet. 

We also put a new floor in the hall for the third time. (Three times seems to be the charm on this house.) I had a wood floor and didn't like it so it was pulled up. The tile laid down bumpy so we had to redo the tile sheet pasted to a piece of cardboard. That was glued down around the edges only, just in case. It does look better with a tile floor. I don't look forward to doing the staircase railing and spindles. So tiny!

I know, not much to see yet, but hopefully there will be soon. I'll show the handmade fireplace, too, once we light it up.  Stay tuned for more!

Happy #Halloween in Half Scale!

Finished the outside of my Half Scale Halloween Cottage. I wanted to do this one more colorful on the outside like the Halloween Porch. The front is a pebbled paper. The sides are corrugated card painted purple. 

The inside is done, but I haven't finished all the furnishings so I put them aside for now.   (see the beginning and the inside here. This was before the window trim was added.) 

I have been thinking about doing a really spooky, run-down house. I have a half scale Greenleaf kit that's been sitting around a while unfinished, so we'll see. It won't leave my mind. ha!

Click photos for full size.

The fence is from Lemax Spooky Town. Definitely improved it by doing some aging with black and brown paints. I made brick walls at the sides using the Lemax cobblestone glued over wood. I aged that, too, and added some sand-painted, aged wood strips on the top. I still want to add some moss and vines.

See Pennywise the clown in the back? He and the boy trick-or-treater are from an IT figurine set.

The peak decoration is actually a plastic piece I painted. I tried something different for the window by putting scrapbook paper in as I wanted it to look like you're looking outside when you're in the house. The view is dark trees.

The other set had the boy with the balloon but this set had the girl which I wanted (not shown she'll be inside), so I added my own balloon.

Love the costumed dogs. Also from Lemax, as is the dead grass mat. (Which sheds a lot, I learned.) I'm going to add some of the loose grass to the dog bases so they blend in more.

I love all the tombstones. I keep adding more to the collection. I have other small ones but they're in front of the Half Scale Country House right now. (Some general pix here. Wow, I can't believe I'd started that house in 2014. Where does time go?)

I'll add more inside stuff later. And maybe, maybe I'll start working on the run-down house. (I'll bet I need more tombstones!)

Happy Halloween! 

A to Z Blog Challenge - H is for Half scale Dollhouse

* Today is Letter H of the daily A to Z Blog Challenge *

H is for... 

Half Scale Miniature House 

I enjoy making dollhouses in half scale (1/2" = 1 ft.) since they take up much less room but are not that small to work on (usually). 

The Half Scale Country House, for instance, is only 14 3/4" high, 20" long and 10 1/4" deep at the base. The house itself is just under 7 3/4 " deep.

This is the first full dollhouse I've done in a while, so it's been fun planning and decorating it. I collected many of the accessories from the annual swap in the Half Scale Yahoo group.

Here's a few photos of the third floor attic which includes a craft area and a bedroom/game area for the grandkids when they visit.

Of course the kids left the bear laying on the bed.  I've since taken the dress down and put up a picture and added a toy plane on the table by the beds. The two center matching chairs are erasers from Michael's that I covered with fabric. 

   *  See more minis, profiles, photos and how to projects  - 
  In Miniature Style II - print, ebook, PDF

A to Z Blog Challenge - D is for Dollhouse

* Today is day 4  - Letter D - of the daily A to Z Blog Challenge * 

Back to the Half Scale Country House I've been working on.


D is for... 

Dollhouse!   

I've been working on my dollhouse, what I call the Half Scale Country House, for a while now. It's nearly done! Here's a few of the latest photos I've shared of the outside. I'll share more interior photos on upcoming days.

The house was colonial style but I didn't want all those windows, so I closed the sides and took out the center window. The front is paper clay. The sides are individual wood strips. I hand-painted the clay and wood with acrylic paint.

(I've also removed the flower bed and am making a better one seasonal flowers that sets in the space.)  The "vases" by the front door are actually ceramic electric caps from inside a 1960s stove we finally got rid of.  The color might look off in some photos but the blue shutters and trim are actually turquoise.

I used painted scalloped plastic brick sheet for the flat roof (not shown). It also is used on the shed and will be on a partial-roof potting shed (not finished yet). Yes, the shed roof opens. There's a bathroom and storage. I have to make a wringer washer yet.

   * More minis, profiles, photos and how to projects  - 
  In Miniature Style II 

Fairfield & Other Dollhouse Attics

The unfinished Fairfield attic before.

 Today's topic: Attics!

Feeling a little lost as I finally added what I intended for now to the Fairfield and covered it up. But I will be showing you the rooms you didn't see yet, so stay tuned for upcoming posts.

(Click photos for full size; see other posts in archives in left column or tab on top. * See last post: Fairfield Plants, Additions & Hall and the annual Half Scale Swap. Bonus: Check Emily's blog tutorial to make a beaded curtain.)

For now, thought I'd share something I seem to be hooked on. No matter the house, lately every one has to have an attic. ha! It's fun to have an area to store things and have another room you can use for any purpose. So here's a look back at some different attics I've finished:

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In the first half-scale house I did, the Country Dollhouse, I used the attic as one large room with extra beds (made from those inexpensive wood punch-out furniture kits) and a craft area. The room was painted "wood" paneling made from strips. (*See all photos of house on website.)

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In my fairly recent large Victorian house, I decided to add an actual small attic space for storage. I like how the brick paper looks with the wood. (See video of house on my website. Scroll past blog section at top.)

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The haunted Van Buren house also has a full attic space on the third floor. I really like how the brick looks here. (I always use the textured brick paper from Starboc2 on Etsy, who's from Greece.)    * See other photos on top page tab: My Dollhouses.)

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For fun, here's how the Fairfield attic space started. At this point I wasn't sure how it would turn out!

Now it has both an attic sitting room and a tiny bathroom next to a storage-attic space, the best of both worlds! I normally don't add bathrooms but this house had enough room to add two, one on the second floor and I squeezed one in the attic space.

Sitting room and bathroom:

Attic space:

After putting some things in, I decided to add an extra bed in there, too. Why not have somewhere a guest or one of the boy's friends could sleep? The bed was a simple make using end pieces also from the cheapie punch-out wood furniture kit plus a piece of matboard and foam for the mattress. I love the tie-die-type fabric. I was lucky to find a whole bag of different colors and prints at Goodwill a while back.

I added the Western art above the bed, which is from the recent half-scale swap. Also put other art and a teensy barometer (also a previous swap item) on the wall. Though the vintage metal camera isn't half scale, once I found it in the stash I wanted to use it. Thought it too cute not to add in next to the vintage radio. I have one of those folding cameras in real life, and they're fairly large.

That's it for the moment! Thanks again for visiting. 

* Next: A to Z Letter B -link live day of post. Come back soon for more photos!

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!

Update-Half Scale Dollhouse and Kits

I've been remiss on doing updates lately, though I have been posting pix on my Facebook page. Come friend me if you're on there! Or check out other minis on my website.

So... a little update on a few things I've made lately for the Half Scale Country House.  I guess maybe I haven't shared this house here yet. I'd bought it half-finished, it sat for a while and slowly the idea formed. I painted the interior dark paneling ivory and recently made a staircase for it. Here are a few other things I've been making also. It's going to be a country house for a little old lady, so kind of lived in and comfortable, nothing fancy.

I filled in windows and centered the top two as I wanted wall space. It's going be stucco and stone outside.

I'm adding on a pantry/shed/bathroom. This is the front wall.

Side wall of shed/pantry/bath.

Old-fashioned sink kit -Kit from Petite Properties.  UK (Love their kits made of hard card like mat board. I have several to make for this kitchen. I have to figure out an old monitor-style fridge since no one has a kit with an opening door.

And hutch I made. 

Birthday & Advent Calendar Miniatures

The "birthday" cake shop

Had some pre-birthday fun with good friend Gigi. This year was a first as we also decided to make each other a miniatures-filled advent calendar. What a fun idea!

First I have to share the so-cute little scene (above) that she made for me from a kit. These are so cute (and she has more patience than me in working in this size.) The little scene is 4.5" high.

She also gave me two of these really cool Tudor-inspired wood benches she made from a kit (country benches kit, The Daisy House), and I made another two. They will go in a Tudor-flavored loft house I'll be working on soon. I have a great batch of Tudor-Medieval style food I got years ago in swaps that I've been saving to eventually do this kind of project. It's one of the very few 1" scale projects I'll be doing.

The adorable Raggedy Ann box is part of the Advent Calendar we are exchanging with each other for the first time this year. Fun thinking what to make and what to fill it with! 

The box is actually a trunk she made from a Dragonfly Intl. kit. I have admired the kit, but never got around to buying one. Sooo cute! And while 1" scale, I'm still going to put it in the half-scale Raggedy Ann house (to be finished at some point.) The photo shows it up lighter, but here's the inside: So cute and so detailed!

My photos are not too great, but I admit I'm too lazy to do the right set-up for the lighting. ha! Bear with me!

We opened the calendar days 1-4 since our get together was on Day 4. The funny thing was she had mixed up the dated boxes, something I didn't expect when I opened it! For some reason, I thought they'd be in order! So I had to re-shuffle my dated boxes around for her  too. ha!

She also gave me these teensy paper Halloween houses for the fireplace mantel and these really cute Halloween decorated plate shelves.

We'll be opening individual days on our own and then are getting together again two times before Christmas. It's always fun as it forces me to get some things done. ha!

This week I worked on a small kit I found at Goodwill of all places (Hobby Lobby Delightful Den kit). 

The bookcase, which I have to repaint, is about 3.5" high. I remade what was an odd-sized loveseat to turn it into a smaller chunky chair. I loved this print I found and thought it came out pretty well. I'm hoping both fit in the Lavender cottage or another house. I usually end up bashing these kits and taking out pieces to use in other projects instead of building the actual room.

Another holiday-themed project I'm working on is a half-scale Christmas house. I found one of these smaller plastic kid's toy houses and for $1.99 I couldn't pass it up! It'll work out well as a Christmas house since I didn't have a half-scale scene set up. So we'll see how far I get on it. I'm repainting it now and doing some wallpapering. I'll show the progress soon. 

That's it for the moment! Stay tuned for more Christmas miniatures and projects! Thanks again for visiting!