Scrapbooking project

Here are some updated pictures for the scrapbooking room box that I am making for my Mom's birthday. These are tiny pieces of scrapbook paper. These are all of the sticker pages and a tiny ruler. I will use basswood to make the ruler solid.

I took some of the sticker pages and faux laminated them (with clear scotch tape) to make them look like they were still sealed from the store. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but I put tape on both sides and then cut it out leaving enough tape around the sticker sheet to show.

And I wanted some of the sticker pages to look like they had already been opened. The page on the left has been coated with clear nail polish (Sally Hansen again) and you can't see it as well in the picture, but now it's shiny like real stickers are. The one on the right is just the cardstock without any nail polish yet.

And again all of the printies came from http://mishellyszoo.homestead.com/MiniScrapbooking.html

Mini canning jars

This is my first attempt at making a mini. Greenleaf member stillworkin posted a tutorial on how to make mini canning jars and they were the cutest thing ever and she made it look so easy that I thought I would give it a try. According to her directions I bought Sculpey clay, Easy Cast Clear Casting Epoxy, and metallic gold Craft Smart paint from Michael's. I picked up 30 erasers for $1 at Food City and I had the clear nail polish, q-tips, vegetable oil, and diabetic needle at home.

I rolled out the veggies - green beans, carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes (I'm not very good at this part yet). As per the tutorial instructions I microwaved the clay veggies for two minutes and then put them in cold water. While they cooled I cleaned the dust out of the erasers and coated the insides with olive oil.

I mixed the Easy Cast per the directions on the box and used the needle to fill the eraser, alternating the epoxy and clay veggies. Then the instructions showed how to use a hole punch and cardstock paper to make the metal lids. I glued enough holes together until it was as thick as I wanted and then painted them gold.I waited 24 hours as per the directions and then peeled the erasers off. I used pushpins to hold the jars steady while I painted them with clear nail polish (I used Sally Hansen just b/c that's what I already had). The jars came out of the erasers looking fuzzy, but after the polish went on they really started to look clear like glass.

Here's the finished product. Keep in mind these are my first attempt! I think my veggies look kind of globby. The carrots sort of looked like they've been cut into little pieces, but I want the beans to look more like string beans and less like green cubes! Oh well, they do say practice makes perfect.

Idea for Mother's Day...

I don't know how well you'll be able to see the tiny details of this pic. These are new printies that I got from http://mishellyszoo.homestead.com/DIYprojects.html in the section labeled scrapbooking. The top section are mini scrapbook pages that are to scale (real scrapbook paper is 12" x 12" and these minis are 1" x 1"). Then there are sticker pages, pages from a scrapbooking magazine, the covers to two albums, and a ruler. You can see my wheat penny down near the bottom of the page to give you an idea of the size. I printed these out on cardstock paper so they came out really nice. I may try printing the front and back covers of the scrapbooking magazine on a more glossy/photo paper to make them more realistic. The lady who put this site together is really talented! She had pictures of the sticker pages wrapped in plastic (maybe cellophane or something) and they looked exactly like the ones you would buy in the store. She had a photo of a table and cabinet covered in scrapbooking supplies and that is what really inspired me. My Mom loves to scrapbook and I thought if I start now I could make a pretty neat miniature set for Mother's Day or her birthday (depending on how long it takes me). The webpage also had a link to a photo album that she did that had real pictures in it, just sized down small enough to be dollhouse size. She wrote that it was a time consuming project, but I think it would add a perfect touch if I could make an album with actual mini pictures of my family. But for the time being I think I'll start cutting all of these out. Wish me luck!

New minis - liquor bottles

Here is a pic of the mini liquor bottles that my Mom bought for me over the weekend. Sutter Home and Southern Comfort. Can you believe they cost $2.50 each?! That is ridiculous and I'm determined now to learn how to make my own bottles. I already know where to get the mini labels so now I just need different size mini liquor bottles in bulk to make enough for a saloon.

Printies

Okay, this mini has nothing to do with a saloon, but it was so cute that I couldn't pass it up. I love Happy Meals! I want to have a stand up piano inside the saloon so here is sheet music that I found.

And these are some mini saddles that my Aunt Sandy bought for me. I definitely want to have a water trough and a hitching post outside the saloon.

Printies

Now that my blog is up to date with all of my saloon pics I can show you some of the printies (printable paper minis) that I have been working on. Once again my friends at Greenleaf introduced these to me and I think they are going to save me a ton of money in the long run. I've found mini beer bottle labels, food labels, almost everything you can think of. And instead of buying expensive minis from the store I can buy blank bottles or cut pieces of basswood and glue the labels on myself. Here are some practice prints of some of the ones I have tried so far. This is a set of teeny tiny tarot cards. They don't necessarily have anything to do with a saloon, but they were so cute I wanted to try them out. It took forever to cut them out. I definitely want to use a set of cards in the saloon, but I want to try printing out these on photo paper to see how they would look glossy.Confederate money. Some of the bills have both front and back sides, but they haven't been glued together in this picture. This is a mini cigar box and you can't see it in the picture, but there are tiny cigar labels inside. I'm either going to try to print this pattern out on some thicker card stock paper or trace the pattern on to some thin cardboard like a matchbox or something to make it sturdier. I think I could also use round toothpicks to cut cigar length pieces, then paint them brown, and attach the cigar labels. These are tiny cigarette boxes and they are EXTREMELY hard to fold. A friend of mine at work actually got the tiny Marlboro one together. I am going to cut small pieces of cardboard to make them solid and I think that will make them easier to fold and glue together.

All of these printies and the ones on the following post came from: http://s607.photobucket.com/albums/tt157/rwetzell/ or http://www.printmini.com/printables/p1.shtml

All primed and ready to go

Front view of the saloon after priming. Once again the stairs were probably the most difficult part. And a back view after priming. The ceiling areas are also tricky to paint.

Pic of more supplies. I've read about skinny sticks on a lot of Greenleaf posts and I think I can use them to fix the problem areas on the stair case. I'm going to see if the wood slats can be cut and worn to be used as a wooden sidewalk that will run the length of the front of the saloon. I may try the "bug juice" recipe to age the sidewalk as well. I may also be able to use them to correct the gap in the front swinging doors. And the exacto knife I wish I had when I was initially fighting with the stairs.

Painting session

Roof view. I used Colorplace Interior Latex Flat Wall 5040 Light Base.Right side view.

Front view. Stair side view. And now for the inside.

Staining the barrles and wood chest

This is a pic of the first coat of stain drying on the wood chest. I used Minwax Wood Finish Provincial 211.And this is the first coat on the barrels. They ended up looking about as dark as I wanted them to so I stopped there. I have yet to decide if I want to do the bands around the barrels in black or maybe a copper color.

This is a pic of the finished product. I think they look so rustic!

And that will probably be all the pics for tonight. It is 1:20 am and I am very sleepy...

New minis

Now that I've posted all of the pics of the dollhouse build I'll put up some of the other minis that I have bought. These are terracotta pots complete with chips and cracks.

These are pickle barrels that I will use in the saloon.

Wooden birdhouse - I will probably paint this one another color. This is one of the wooden chests that I found at Michael's.

This one was missing the top latch, but I wanted to remove the hardware anyway.

More problems with the stairs

I have more stair problems as you can see. One side is not attached and the top step is a real doosey!I had to cut away part of the bottom stair in order to fix the piece that the railing attaches to. It was the only way to get the rail straight. I have no idea how they made it work on the dollhouse pictured on the box. The orange stuff that you see is the dried glue, but no worries - it's sandable and paintable.

And FINALLY a finished staircase!

Stairway issues

Now the stairs are attached.

And we have a problem because my stairs don't look like the ones in the picture.

So after a break with a cold beverage to release my frustrations I came back to take some pics of the back of the saloon. The actual saloon will be downstairs and the living quarters are upstairs. Upstairs the smaller room will be the bedroom and the larger area will have the kitchen stuff (like the wood stove and icebox, etc.) and other furniture such as table and chairs and maybe a desk.The partition isn't attached yet, but it does sit back far enough to where you could walk around it (if you were 5 inches tall that is)Another front view (upsidedown windows and all)

Doors, windows, and staircase

So while the glue was drying I did a test fitting of the doors and windows. And yes, the upstairs window is upsidedown in this pic. I think this is when I decided to go with windows that will really open and shut anyway. I do understand dollhouse "bashing" a bit more now (thanks to my friends at Greenleaf) and if I had it to do over again I would turn the porch into a balcony with railing all around it and turn the middle window into a doorway. A balcony was actually David's idea btw. Anyone else see what I'm seeing here? Uhm...my swinging saloon door is too short?! I don't want the cowboy's knocking their hats off everytime they come in!

Test fitting of the upstairs side door - and this one fits!!!

And now for gluing all of the stairs and landing together. Btw, stairs are really HARD to put together. Now the landing is taped up while the glue dries and the stairs and railing are waiting to go on. I used Elmer's Probond Wood Glue Professional Strength Interior/Exterior.

Dollhouse Construction

Pic with the front attached.

Another oops (first dollhouse remember). This one you can actually see the nail coming up out of the wood so I'll have to cover that end with putty because the nail refused to come back out.

A view from the back of the saloon and in this one you can see the side upstairs doorway.The saloon now with the base attached.Front porch and posts duct taped until the wood glue dries. It's very hard to hold something level while waiting on wet glue.