Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Frog's Cottage Custom Dollhouse

Today I started to carve on all those little bricks.
I tried to get some crooked ones going.  I do these with the ready mix concrete. The key to carving out the concrete is waiting a little bit for the concrete to get set up before you try to put your shapes in. If the concrete is too wet it will move around too much. If it's too dry it will make cracks.
I still have plenty of bricks to put on. Then I have to paint each little brick. I love using this concrete. It makes the houses very strong for shipping, yet it's not heavy.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Frog's Cottage Custom Dollhouse

I put the fireplace wall in place and painted the exposed bricks. I also painted the floors dark brown. I haven't put a finish on the floor.
The little green door is also in place. I made it all beat up. The bottom is a little eaten by moisture or mice??
I added some green mold here and there.
Tomorrow I'm moving on to the outside!
My sister made me a cupcake to keep me going on this build. YUMMY!!! Thanks Pinkie!





Sunday, August 28, 2011

Frog's Cottage Custom Dollhouse

Today,  it was still interior work.

The fireplace interior got painted and all dirtied up!
Then I plastered the wall. Like frosting a cake!
I painted the walls a butter color.
Here you can see the difference in color with the yet to be painted fireplace wall.
I started aging Frog's cottage interior walls. I had to imagine what this little house looked like inside and I picture moldy walls! So after collecting and pinning moldy walls to Pinterest(I'm sure a few people were thinking"what in the world?) I started adding a brown and black thin mixture to the walls spreading it with my finger(seems to work the best).
It is really hard to capture the aging with my camera! I will add green mold tomorrow.
I painted the window trim. All the wood work will be dark in this house.
The exposed bricks still need to be painted.
I did add the huge mantle shelf.
I'm almost ready to set that fireplace wall in place.                                                                                         

   

Saturday, August 27, 2011

The New Dollhouse: Frog's Cottage

Time for a new dollhouse. I'm naming this one Frog's Cottage. And it will be another fairytale style house.No frog's involved though!
This is my inspiration. I found this on the web I think it's on Frog Island or something like that. Hence my chosen name. I love the atmosphere here. My dollhouse will not be a replica. But I do want to capture the essence of this place. The bricks are amazing. I love the roof  too. But I might mix it with a thatched roof.
Here's the start of this house. I used the Buttercup kit. I took the front entry wall and moved it back to get a front porch. I'm also taking out windows and changing the round windows to squares.
This is the fireplace. It is a walk-in fireplace. I thought that would be fitting for an old storybook cottage!
Here you can see just how big this fireplace will be in the house.
I already plastered the 3 walls and placed the window sashes.
Now that I made the stones around the fireplace I can paint it and glue the wall in place.


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Cinderella's Fairytale Thatch Roof Cottage Custom Dollhouse

I finished Cinderella's Cottage, another custom dollhouse.
This time I didn't use the loose coconut fibers, I used the pot lining coconut fiber mat.  It was much cleaner to work with!
The cream wall is plaster. I aged it with a thinned down black and brown mix of paint.
The turret is fake and just for show. I will need a bigger tube form if I want to make real windows or doors in the turret. It is covered with concrete to give a real rock texture. I painted the fake windows black so they look like they are real.
There are plenty of pumpkins for Cinderella.
And yes there's plenty of moss too. You all know how much I love using moss. LOL!
Here is one side. I put shutters and fake timber. This timber is just the plaster carved as planks of lumber. I also added a little birdhouse I had made a long time ago for another project. It's just made with left over bits of dollhouse.


And the other side.
This is not a working chandelier. It's just to look pretty.
The bed is big, but that's how my own bed is. So I figured it would work in this dollhouse too.






The attic floor is gray. The ceiling is white washed. All the curtains are pink lace.
The exposed slat wall with the plaster oozing between the slats.

I think this is a great little hideout for Cinderella!

Sold and going home to Cheryl. Thanks Cheryl!