Paperclay progress

Hi Friends!

I have been fairly busy lately. I managed to buy a pack of paperclay, but then it took me over a month to find time to do anything with it!

I used the clay on the modern house. After I carefully rolled, applied glue, carved little bricks and all that on the side wall, I was hopeful.

So I let the clay dry and looked at the result. I was very unhappy. It shrank a lot more than when I used it on the log cabin.  I had cut it long and left room for expected shrinkage. Still, it shrank too much and left huge, awkward gaps in the brick pattern. The gaps were not just along the edges, but also in the center of rows.

I know my original idea was that the modern building was partially an old converted brick building with a new small addition on the side. The brick pattern does look wavy and old, but it might be too irregular for me. The gaps along the base are definitely no good.  I'm going to have to make some changes before I do the big front wall.

Setbacks. They happen.

Once the brickwork is good enough, I can paint and grout it. I was planning on making it a dark red dirty brick. The thought of having a some kind of faded logo painted onto the brick even has some appeal.

I also realized that I've talked about my idea sketches without actually posting them! Well, I'm fixing that now.  Here are my sketches. The blue squares are blue Post-It notes I cut out. I drew different window pane patterns on each square to test out what pattern looked the best.

In the next photo, I don't have a kitchen window. I added that later after I started to work on the house.

Hopefully, I'll be able to patch up the wonky clay and get back into business quickly. Between doctor appointments, special events with the kids, and just regular daily life, I've been lucky to find one hour on the weekends to do something fun. By the way, we're expecting another baby, a girl, in August! So my energy has been drained by supporting new life.  Moms, you know what I mean!

Anyhow, I'll try to keep up on the blog, but I can't promise it. I'll be back when I'm not sleeping. Hopefully it won't be another month before I can manage to post again.

Bye for now.

Dolls are coming

Hi again my Friends!

I'm excited about something new. I have never really gotten into dolls for the dollhouses before. Ages ago, around 1997, I ordered a kit doll from Dana Burton of MiniatureArt. I was able to request the doll pre-painted and wigged, so that was great. Then never finished it. I sort of got hung up on what I wanted her to wear, so she's been incomplete and naked since.

BUT, I'm ready to give dolls a try. No kidding!

I got the naked doll out and I'm getting some really good ideas for her. I bought some tan yarn to do her body wrap over the wire armature. Then when I get some time in the coming week, I'm going to sit down and work on her. We'll have to wait and see what suits her style.

Just two days ago, I ordered a wonderful new kit, for a steampunk/Edwardian lady, also from Dana Burton of MiniatureArt. She's called Phaelon and you have to see her. Click this link to look.

I'll definitely share some more pictures when she comes in and I work on her.

See you again very soon :)

Mini Mod Takes Shape

Hi Friends!

I actually got something done on this house yesterday!!! The kids were wrapped up playing video games, so I took over the kitchen floor. The table is currently covered in Haley's Lego creations, and there would have been fits if I touched them. She's been on a kick remodeling her Lego Friends houses into one mega-house.

As for my new and improved modernized house, I made some great progress. Inside, I had glued up the gray stripe wallpaper a few weeks ago. I got around to trimming the excess out of the window openings.

As you might remember, I had sketched the exterior of the house. I began painting to follow that sketch. The undersides of both roof pieces have bright white for the portion inside the house and Valspar English Tea Party (deep dingy brown) for the exterior.

The smaller bedroom wing is now the same deep dingy brown on the exterior walls. And, amazingly, it coordinates with the espresso damask wallpaper. How I managed to match them with never even holding them together is honestly a miracle. I do plan on adding some trim on the long wall to look like modular panels and cedar-stained planks to the brown portion of the front. Since I didn't electrify this house, I will need to buy some battery-operated LED lamps. The bedroom is going to be very dark and dramatic.

Over by the new front door, I painted the upper part one coat of bright white as a base layer. Then, to simulate stucco, I added crumpled white tissue paper with decoupage glue. Eventually I will add some paint to dirty up the stucco. I used my teeny tiny embroidery scissors to cut off the excess tissue.

My next step will be to cover the remaining exterior walls with paper clay sculpted to look like brick. I will need to order a bunch of window and door-making strip wood.  It turns out that all the factory openings are not standard size. I will have to make them all myself.  That's OK. I didn't want standard-looking doors and windows anyway!

One more thing, for Christmas, I had asked Dear Hubby to get me an ELF compact corner kitchen. He didn't have a chance to order it for me, but gave me to OK to order it myself. I ordered the kit version along with a European-style stainless fridge kit. I got the black and gray ebony wood effect (which is now no longer available) for the cabinets and black and silver granite counter-top. I can't wait to put it together! It's going to look so slick and amazing!