I have been dragging my feet writing about this project. Not to mention the slow pace with which I am progressing with it. I'm getting there, but slowly. very sloooooooly.
I purchsed the Creatology and/or ArtMind puzzle dollhouse kit at Michaels. There aren't too many mentions of this kit anywhere, one on Flickr and a few other blogs, but not much content for a pretty common kit. I have now taken it upon myself to work my way through it and describe how I wanted to burn it to the ground at times.
This will be a gift for a special little lady, so I had to make it safe for wee ones, therefore some of the finishing might seem excessive, but I need it to be smack, bang and stain proof!
The Kit
The kit is roughly 1:24 scale, give or take. It's inexpensive, but solid plywood. You just need to pop it out of the scored sheets. I primed it all first while in its sheet form for ease. Then I extracted pieces as I needed them.It fits together with wood tabs. "Fits" is a bit of a loose term once you prime and add a base nothing bends and jams together anymore. Get the craft knife and sandpaper ready to get those tabs and slots to work together!
I ended up papering and laquring all the walls before I assembled it. This was much, much easier then doing it with walls up and glued in place. Its a small house! I also lay the floors too before assembly. This ensured the floors were well pressed and the floors flat. I just made sure to trace the footprint of the walls on the floors before I started gluing to leave room for the walls to slot in.
 |
| Photo: Amazon.com |
The Floor
Given the 1:24 scale, I knew popsicle sticks would be too large. For $1 at the dollar store, I bought a mammoth bag of coffee stir sticks. Extra long, so you need fewer....except half are warped and weird, so you almost need a bag to make the floors work.The wood was then cut in various lengths and stained grey. You might recall my grey wood floors from some of my mini scenes earlier this year.
I glued the floors down using LePaige No More Nails. I love this stuff because it dries rock solid, but it has a low moisture content so you don't get warping. But NOTHING will ever pop off ever again. I used a book to press it down as I lay and glued boards.
The Window and Door Trim
The kits instructions suggests putting the door and trim on the exterior of the house. But I want things to look nice on both sides! I used the window trim on the inside. For the exterior, I am making stone trim for the windows. As for the door.....not such a fan. I wanted a large opening to let light in. So, I cut the window panes out of the door. But I needed a second door frame for the exterior too, so I cut a mirror image from balsa using a craft knife.
There was no trim supplied for any of the interior doors. That just would not do, so I used a thick cardstock and cut out the need shapes and glued them in place.
I added a panel to the door using cardstock and some flowers from a punch.
All the trim and doors are painted Antique White by DecoArt.
The Wall Finishing
The walls were painted and papered using whatever I had kicking around in the basement. To make the walls kid durable I spray lacquered the walls and papered surfaces. I wanted to scream, however, when tiny dust particles landed on the drying walls and I had to pick them off because it drove me nuts looking at them. And don't even get me started on how the original kitchen wall paper bubbled when I Mod Podge'd it. I re-papered and lacquered and all was well.....after I put away my kindling and matches
Enough With The Glue!
The walls were all glued in place using No More Nails. Word to the wise, be prepared to whittle and curse, because this isn't the best fitting tab walled house out there, so once you glue it, nothing on the second floor or roof really fits like it should. Thankfully, I still have all my university textbooks which are amazing weights. When the tabs were finally whittled to fit, but nothing stayed together, glue and the weight of the books worked!
Stoned
I wanted to make a proper stone porch and walk from egg carton. Then I did the entire process for my room box and realized I was insane for wanting to do that again. Solution? Head to Home Depot and purchase a can of Krylon "Make It Stone." Normally, I hate Krylon, but this product is ok, and I've used it before with success. Side note: if you ever want to redo a minimally used laminate counter top, you can stone it! Lemme know if you're interested.
I had an epic fail with my first attempt. I made tiny tiny strips of tape and tried to make grout lines before I sprayed. FAIL. The texture product in the spray paint is thick and fibrous. When I removed the tape it removed fiber hunks and I had to wipe it all off and spray it solid. Meh. Never going to get that hour of my life back.....
I sealed it with a gloss water based polyurethane for durability.
Cladding
Who doesn't like wood cladding on a house? But, who also likes to make a build more difficult? ME and ME!!! I made it a bit easier. I purchased Bennett brand iron on trim veneer. Using my now trusty "craft" iron (aka the iron I ruined with iron on hemming and can't use on shirts), I ironed on the strips of wood. For the most part it glued down and held. After I stained some loosened and another go with the iron didn't help. So, I glued and pressed and all was well.
I've progressed further along, but I haven't done photos. I thought I had, but looking at my camera it was apparent that "thought" and "did" had not met at the point known as "reality." So, more to come.
Also, I stoned my entire room box exterior. That I actually took pictures of thankfully. I'm trying to push a head a bit with the half scale house before I blog the stone process and tackle the floors. I purchased the veneer sheets for it, which stare at me daily.
