Friday, July 26, 2019

Lost in a Fairytale Part 6 Finished Dollhouse

Lost in a Fairytale Dollhouse is finished and furnished.
 Can you imagine walking through a forest an finding this cottage at the end of a path. 
 The exterior is covered by concrete and plaster with pine shingles. 



 The aging is done with brown ink pads. You can use the ink pads themselves directly on the house or you can use paintbrushes. 
 You can find the links for the greenery,  flowers, concrete, plaster etc... on my resources page above.
 I worked with miniatures.com and one of the items I got from them was this trim piece.  It's a little extra detail that really adds so much character to this part of the wall.  Here is where you can get this trim: https://www.miniatures.com/Bellflower-Moulding--P26984.aspx
 This cute door also came from miniatures.com.  Here's the link for it: https://www.miniatures.com/Crossbuck-Dutch-Door-P17508.aspx


 The straw roof is coconut liners you use in hanging plant baskets. It's easy to cut and much less messy than coconut fibers.

 I think this door really gives so much charm to the entry. It's straight out of a storybook. 
 The fantastic corbel brackets on either side of the door came from miniatures.com.  Here's the link for those: https://www.miniatures.com/Pair-of-Acanthus-Leaf-Corbel-Brackets-P27837.aspx Painting them brown gave them a totally different look.  It made the doorway look very cozy and complete. 
 Here's the pot from the previous post's tutorial  The little pots are from miniatures.comhttps://www.miniatures.com/Seven-Assorted-Fancy-Planters-P25036.aspx



 The interior is furnished. I made a lot of the furniture from scratch.
 I decided to do the kitchen's ceiling a little different. I used hot glue on cardboard to make this tin ceiling.
 This house has larger floor boards. I think it looks more rustic. These are the jumbo Popsicle sticks.
 On the kitchen wall those horizontal boards are birch siding. 


 The white beadboard is ridged cardboard from the scrapbook area of your local craft store.

 I use hairspray to hold my curtains in the exact way I want them.  It holds the pleats and folds and also makes the curtains hang properly like they would in real life.
 You can see the twirly spiral stairs.  They are painted brown.  And also the chair from my tutorial here: http://www.cinderellamoments.com/2019/07/lost-in-fairytale-part-4-chair-tutorial.html
This chair was a gift from miniatures.com and you can buy it here: https://www.miniatures.com/Oak-Ladderback-Chair-P18053.aspx
 I also have a tutorial for this little bench here: http://www.cinderellamoments.com/2016/06/dollhouse-miniature-primitive-bench.html
 I make the houses out of air dry clay.  The rug is canvas painted with acrylic paints.


I hope you had a good time following the series of building this cottage.  If you would like more info on building a house like this my PDF will help. You can find it here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/150474399/pdf-building-a-fairytale-cottage or here https://www.blurb.com/b/4283424-building-a-fairytale-cottage-dollhouse
Happy creating!
hugs,


Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Lost in a Fairytale Part 5 Garden Pots

Garden pots are a great way to bring instant realness to a dollhouse. It's one of those little details that looks so delightful!
You can get a great variety of pots online.  There are real Terracotta pots or plastic.
I was gifted some plastic ones by Miniatures.com
They contacted me wanting to be part of a build. And generously gifted me with a few pieces I needed for this project.
I love these Seven Assorted Fancy Planters. You can find them here: https://www.miniatures.com/Seven-Assorted-Fancy-Planters-P25036.aspx
First, there are 7 of them plus a saucer. They are the right color to start with and the detail is adorable.
To give them an aged look with character these are the things you'll need: Acrylic paints(red,brown,yellow,white) and brown stamp ink.
 Mix red and brown and yellow paint to get more of that Terracotta color.  I mix the paints on the pot not in a separate dish. This way I can get more of a brown shading in areas of shadows and lighter colors in areas of highlight.  Let dry.
 My favorite look for a pot is that powdery mildew. All I use is white paint to achieve this.  You want to load some white paint onto a dry brush and lightly drag the brush around the pot until you have the amount desired. Let dry.
Now the character part. You guessed it. It's my favorite and easiest method with a brown ink pad.  If you want to get into tiny areas use a brush. 
 For the next step, you will want to have everything ready.  You need your hot glue gun and hot glue, coffee grounds(new), and your greenery. These are called Green Baby's Breath Garland from Hobby Lobby: https://www.hobbylobby.com/Floral-Wedding/Bushes-Garlands/Garlands/Green-Baby's-Breath-Garland/p/8668 I cut them up into little dollhouse size pieces.
 All at once you are going to fill up the pot to the top with hot glue, flip your top over into the coffee grounds pressing it in a bit to make sure the coffee grounds are stuck on all the hot glue. Flip it back over and make sure you don't have any spots missing coffee.  And stick in your little "branches".  You do have a couple of minutes to do this. Since there is so much hot glue in the pot it takes a while to cool and solidify.
 To add a little more cuteness I brushed a little white glue at the bottom and dipped that into the coffee grounds.  Now you have some dirt stuck to the bottom of your pot!
You can add flowers if you want.  I made these roses out of tissue paper.  At the top you can see I glued the roses onto the ends of the branches. But you can also glue moss on top of the pot or just glue your flowers directly on the dried hot glue in the pot.
Quick and painless right?  Have fun creating!



Friday, July 19, 2019

Lost in a Fairytale Part 4 Chair Tutorial

Kitchen chairs are pieces of furniture I usually purchase.  But that doesn't mean you can't add character and make them totally your own.
For this project I partnered with Miniatures.com
I chose these chairs on the website. They are spindle back chairs which have a perfectly fairytale look about them! Here's the link: https://www.miniatures.com/Unfinished-Spindle-Back-Chair-P26587.aspx
They are a good base- well made and sturdy.
First, I painted the chairs with a gray(pick your favorite color) acrylic.
 Next, I age the chairs. I use 3 different brown ink pads from the stamping section of the store. These are from Hobby Lobby.

 To get into the tight spots I use a hard bristle brush. This one is well used as you can see!
Don't do your aging evenly. You want some spots with more ink than others. 
For the cushions, I'm starting with a piece of craft foam sheet.  A piece of thick cardboard will work too. I made it just a tad smaller than the chair seat.
 
 I cut the fabric pieces 1/4" bigger than the foam. And I cut diagonal slits at each corner. To make sure my slits are not too deeply cut,  I placed the foam on the fabric and marked a line with a pencil from the outer corner of the fabric to the corner of the foam.
 I glued down 2 of the sides.
 Next, cut off the extra fabric. I did 2 of the little triangle over hanging fabric here. Next I cut the other 2.
 Now glue down the other 2 sides. For these I'm folding those overhangs under and gluing everything in place.

Hot glue onto chair seat.
 Let's make it pretty!  I am using lace/crochet trim. This one is from the ribbon section of Hobby Lobby's fabric department.  I glue it to the sides of the cushion. I use a combination of glues. For the corners I used hot glue and for the rest craft glue.
 As my pretty ties, I use embroidery floss.  If your ends don't hang properly just coat them with a little glue.  You can even glue them to the chair's leg if they are really unruly.

 I painted a rose on each chair back.  I use acrylics: red, pink, white, green. Don't let any color dry between each step. Start with a red center and swoosh some pink into it. Not covering the red but pulling some into the pink for sure. Then I accent with white and add green leaves. And I don't clean my brush between steps either.


I hope you found this tutorial easy and helpful. Happy creating!
hugs,