#danielle does crafts

[dani-ellie03]

Hi so I have become obsessed with the Make It Mini blind balls. I love teeny tiny things and I love making teeny tiny things and these teeny tiny things are just so precious!

[dani-ellie03]

I made a Christmas house, because of course I needed to.

It was my first time doing a tab and slot house. Tab and slot was a little harder, if only because the wood is thinner than the MDF houses I'd done previously and as such, some of the parts warped a little from the paint. Nothing too egregious, but I did have to shove some of the pieces together to make them fit.

I did not have the patience or inclination to find/purchase 1:24 siding so I tried to camouflage the tabs as much as I could. As you can see, some tabs were easier to camouflage than others.

I'm still not sure which was more fiddly: gluing the fake lights on the eaves or wrapping the wee ribbon around the wee Christmas trees to pose as garland. The stars on the trees are, no word of a lie, stickers I found at Walmart. The ornaments are those little plastic bits that are meant to go on the smaller ceramic Christmas trees for the light to shine through, just with the posts snipped off.

I'm actually impressed with myself that I got it done before Christmas! I didn't really start it until just before Thanksgiving.

[dani-ellie03]

Miniatures, Take 3!

I made myself a new Halloween decoration. I used the 1:24 scale Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage from Real Good Toys and glued it onto an 11"x14" canvas. I purchased the accessories from Target (headstones and black cat) and Factory Direct Craft (pumpkins, bats, broom, rocking chair, and piano). I also used oh so much brown paint, haha.

Notes:

The flooring is made from wooden coffee stirrers cut into strips.

The baseboards are popsicle sticks.

The wallpaper is scrapbook paper with a wash of brown watercolor to age it and give it water spots.

The curtain rods are toothpicks with beads glued on the ends, painted gold. The curtains are scraps of lace cut to size with a wash of gray watercolor to dirty them.

I also dry-brushed brown acrylic onto the rocking chair and piano to age them. I used the same technique on the pumpkins, mostly to dull them because they were originally really bright.

The fence is made from popsicle sticks cut in half and wooden coffee stirrers.

The lichen on the roof is reindeer moss from Dollar Tree. The dead grass is Spanish moss from dollar tree. The stone walkway is made from garden stones found at -- you guessed it -- Dollar Tree and painted various colors because they were originally all white.

[dani-ellie03]

Dollhouse shenanigans:

With the completion of the porch, the house is done! I can’t promise I won’t keep fiddling with it but for the most part, it’s done.

The knitting basket is made from poster board covered with burlap ribbon, the yarn is ribbon glued into skein-like shapes, and the knitting needles are the pointy end of toothpicks with a bead glued onto them. It’s not quite to scale but hey, I’m new at this, haha. Also, getting the porch swing both level and at the correct height was omgsofrustrating. But it looks nice now, so that’s all that matters. :)

I had a blast with this project! I am giving the dollhouse kit all the credit for how easily the structure itself came together. I had literally no idea what I was doing and I still was able to build the house and have it come out not crooked and looking lovely. The instructions were clear and the materials were cut to fit together perfectly. I’m very glad I spent the extra money at the outset to get this kit instead of the other brand I had my eye on.

I have a couple more miniatures projects in the works because I had so much fun with this one, haha. Not another full 1:12 scale house, though, because I don’t at all have the room to display another one. A 1:12 room box, though, and a couple of 1:24 holiday houses (exterior only because 1:24 is hard to work with for me).

[dani-ellie03]

Dollhouse shenanigans:

We have a playroom! I may eventually get some wall decor but I’ve got six other rooms to furnish first, haha.

Also, of course the dollhouse needed a dollhouse. Because we approve of dollhouse inception here.

[dani-ellie03]

Dollhouse shenanigans, days 15 & 16:

It was literally negative degrees (Fahrenheit) here today (legit, my low was -11 and my high was a balmy 15), so I did not leave my apartment. Not once. And so, I got a lot done on the house.

I added the porch trim, gingerbread, rails, and posts and omg was that harder than I thought it was going to be. I used omgsomuch tape  because there were a lot of wee tiny areas that had to be glued together and, y’know, couldn’t move a millimeter.

While I had the house on the floor, Gracie decided she was going to move in.

I also put in the interior walls and shingled the porch roof. I was kinda dreading the shingles but I actually found it kind of relaxing. We’ll see how much I still like it after shingling the rest of the house. ;)

[dani-ellie03]

Dollhouse shenanigans, day 11: I attached the gable and put together my first bit of furniture: a bookshelf for the playroom! (Does it surprise anyone that my first purchase is a bookcase and wee tiny books?!) I got everything for the bookshelf from Michaels. The bookcase itself was unfinished but I painted it white, I bought two packs of the unmarked mini books, and the three fairy tale books came in their own pack.

[dani-ellie03]

Dollhouse shenanigans, days 17 through 19: with the addition of the wee little doorknob on the front door, exterior construction is done!

I do still want to get some stripwood to trim the raw edges on the rear of the house (I don’t have a steady enough hand to just paint them) but per the manufacturer, I should get the baseboards and crown moldings in first.

And also, the doorknobs came with itty bitty little keys and I honestly cannot take how tiny and adorable they are. I mean, look at them! The dime is for scale.

I’m pretty proud of this, not gonna lie. Not bad for not knowing what the hello I was doing. :)