Update! - Shingles and Minis + Weekend Trip!

Well I am not sure how much I am going to have a chance to do for the rest of the day. I have to start packing and getting ready to go the mountains with my family! SO... I wanted to show you guys what I've been up to since yesterday.

I finished shingle-ing all the roof!

Here is a closer look at the roof so far. I like the way all of them are slightly different shades, so I will try to keep that aspect of them, but I do want to make them all darker. I will try to apply a dark wash over all of them, so that it takes the color down a few notches.

Also, I couldn't get the shingles to bend without breaking... I even tried to soak them in water overnight and they still splinter. So.... I will do this! I am going to take the trim that was meant for the corners of the house, and trim the roof with them! I figured that since they are a bit too wide for the lower portion of the house, that wouldn't matter on the roof- especially when I add dark paint and moss on it. Haha!

I will trim all of the front corners with this. I am planning on doing something different for all of the back trim.

Another thing I have coming up on my list is the flower boxes! These are what the kit ones look like.

Here is what one would look like under the window.

They are perfectly fine, but not really what I want to go with. I want to make some that are similar to the outside walls of the house. I am making all these things for flowers and plants.... I hope I will be able to find some plant-life that looks right!

Also, here is something I am working on for some new miniatures I want to make. They are just boxes, but I wanted to play around with some scraps of paper to get the size and design I need.

I will continue to make Fall items, but I am also planning on making Christmas items soon! I love Christmas, and with all of the things I want to make, I think I NEED to start soon. :D

Anyways, the box is just a prototype- so expect a better version of it the next time you see it! :)

I mainly wanted to let you guys know what was going on! I am not sure if I will have internet access over the weekend, so I might not get to blog again until Monday. O___O

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to let me know what you think by leaving a comment! I respond to them all, even if it is to just say Thanks!

-xo

Blake

Shingles and Moss! - Part 1

I have been kinda stuck the last day or so. I don't have any more egg cartons for brick-work and I don't have any enough wood strips to do the flooring right now! And I also haven't had a chance to get any wallpaper! Eek!

Well, it takes more than that to stop me! I remembered that my shingles have been drying for a while now, so I started hanging them on the roof last night! I am back at it today and it is a slow-going process...

Here is how she is looking so far! I have the front side of the roof done, and the glue is now drying. I also finished the top... err.... room? I don't know what to call this... Oh well. It will later serve as a storage room, so I will refer to it as the rooftop storage. :D

Here is an image of the front of the roof.

Here is how the whole thing looks so far. I like the variation in colors- it looks old and worn like I like it, but I do think it is a little too light. I think when all of the shingles are up I will go back over them with a couple dark washes. I think the overall look of the house will look better with a darker roof.

I also need to set some shingles aside for the trim- to clean up the corners. I want to bend them like this...

I will also make the ones on the corners rounded, like this. 

And this-

Oh! I picked up this the other day at Hobby Lobby. I liked the shade of green and this will be my moss! I am not sure what else I would use and I didn't see anything else in Hobby Lobby.

There are a few spots on the roof where I can tell the gaps in between the shingles is a little too wide, so I will just cover some of them up with the moss!

Now, as I was searching for patterns of how and where moss would grow, I came across "moss graffiti." Sounds weird, huh? Well it looks AMAZING. Here are some images I found.

Found Here

Source Unknown

Found Here

Found Here

I was thinking... wouldn't this be a nifty idea to incorporate into miniature???? I mean, I think it would look just plain MAGICAL if there was like... moss growing around the foundation of the house, and some on the roof, and then have moss graffiti on the side of the house! :D Don't get me wrong, I don't want to do something where it looks like a swamp monster rubbed up against the side of my house or anything- but something subtle. :) I just though I would share this with you guys! I thought it was very creative and I think it  will suit my house just fine. :3

Now I am back to shingles! I have the two sides of the roof to go, and then I can move on. :D I love the way they look, but GOSH. It takes SO long.

-xo

Blake

P.S. - I just finished one side roof, but I ran out of shingles... so... more staining! 

Late Night / Early Morning Planning

Okay, guys. I did something... Something... pretty drastic!

I...

Cut...

My floor....

in HALF.

Take a look!

>:) I was told it was a brave move, but I HAD to do it! When I was thinking about how I wanted the floor plan laid out I got this idea and then I got butterflies in my stomach. I got the same feeling when I thought about the overhang and that was a good idea, right?!?!?

Well here are my sketches for my rooms. For the living area I was thinking that I would have a really tall room with lots of light. No turning back now! I managed to cut the floor in half last night... after about an hour of cutting.

I want the tall chimney and the wall it is on to be exposed brick. I want the brick to be the tan color in my palette that I showed you guys before. Here it is-

And here is a view from the other side. As you can tell from the first image of this post, the second floor is going to be the study/ library. I want lots of shelves and places to store things in there. I am imagining a fancy chandelier hanging in the living room! Ahhh! So excited!

Here is a closer view of the study. I want to be able to look out of it into the living space. I think it lets more light in and will help with the lack of electricity in this house. I plan on doing a little bit of wiring, but not much.

And here is the kitchen space! As you can see I was trying to imagine what cabinets, a fridge, counters, an island, and a bar would look like. For the beams on both this floor and the one above, I am going to find some that are made like the ones on the front porch. Again, I am trying to bring some of the elements outside into the inside.

And then here is where the stairs will go. It was suggested to me to do a mock up of my other plans and I agreed with the statement that the stairs like I was going to do them would block the windows. So NOW I am going with this! I think it should work a lot better. 

I want to have shelves on all three walls on any exposed walls around the windows. I then want to figure out some way of making a spiral staircase all the way to the top floor.

Speaking of the top floor! Up there I will have the bedroom and bathroom. I have some ideas for all of the rooms in this house, and this post was really to just check back in with myself and see where things are going.

I am really happy with the new changes and I hope you are, too! Now I get to start decorating the inside!

Thanks for stopping by!

-xo

Blake

Overhang and Front Step Complete! + Chimney and Fireplace Planning!

Well today has been very interesting! I was supposed to go to a concert with my friend, but it was canceled... then I was going to do a photo shoot and that didn't work out... so I was happily back to work on my house!

I started off my painting the front step and adding a gloss to it. I noticed that the excess grout mixture was easier to wipe off of the tops of the bricks if they had been sealed beforehand.

Then I added the crackled pattern on to my trellis overhang and also to the top portions of my columns! ( Is "trellis" the right word to call this thing?) I was going to leave it black, but it was a little too heavy looking and that would have defeated the purpose of having it. I think once I add some vines or hanging flowers over it, it will look really nice :) Which reminds me! Anyone have any suggestions for flowers?

Here is what the whole thing looks like put together. I am really happy with it :) I think I am going to go back with some different colored washes over the sides of the house to make the door pop a little more, and also to make the walls look more aged.

The next thing I need to work on for the outside of the house is the trim- I just have to gather up enough egg cartons for it first. It will probably take about the same amount I used for the foundation and porch.

Here are some more views of the overhang. You can also see where I have my house sitting. I need a board to set the whole thing on so that it is easier to move. That would also mean I can do some landscaping! Not much... just a small patch of grass or flowers.

And here is a closeup of the front step! The means I am done with all of the brickwork on the front porch! I am VERY happy with all of the brick-work! I know for sure that when I do another project I will try my hardest to incorporate bricks! Haha!

Oh! I cannot remember if I showed you guys this. This is the door I want to use for the attic. I want this house to feel open and comforting, and... timeless. A place I would want to live the rest of my days! For this door I want to make the large window stained glass! I then want to incorporate a coordinating stained glass pattern for all of the windows throughout the house.

Okay... I had to! I gathered up some of my pumpkins and sat them on the front stair! Ahhh! This is what I have been waiting for!

Yepp... :) I can die happy now. Haha! Well... not just yet. There are other things to work on!

Now to the hard part. Well, the hard part for me. As you can see with my drawing on this next picture, I want to build the chimney on the right side of the house. There will be a fireplace on the bottom floor and then the chimney will work it's way through the other floors. I figure this would be a nice way to tie in the brick element with the inside of the house.

If you look on the left of this image, you will also see some stairs. (Yes, those are stairs. Haha!) I thought that it would work nicely to build the stairs in that awkward part of the house, because it is out of the way and the stairs could spiral up to the attic! On any exposed sides of the stairs, I wanted to install shelves. That would make for great fun! Books, knick-knacks, antiques, art, and whatever else I fancy!

And here is a little color pallet that I made for the living area. I thought the green was a very nice and peaceful color that went along with the tan bricks. (Yes, more bricks!) I was also thinking a dark hardwood with a white decorative ceiling tile.

Your opinions are always welcome and appreciated! Are the stairs and chimney a good idea? It's not that I can't think by myself, just that your opinions matter to me!

Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

-xo

Blake

Front Step and Other Random Parts

Well it may not seem like a lot, but I was working most of the day! After sending off this week's packages I came back home and got to work on my front step!

First, I carved out the spots where the columns will go. I don't want there to be a huge gap below them, so now the columns fit snugly in these!

The dollhouse kit I am using came with this massive wooden block.

Then I started adding the bricks like before.

I wanted there to be a little lip over the edge of the step, so I took the kit shutters...

Here are the parts that come in the kit for the shutters. I am using the larger pieces for the step.

I then trimmed them down to make the lip.

Then it was back to laying the bricks! I had to wrap them over the lip to make it look like whole bricks.

I also made this window things for the top floor... there was two of them , but I don't know what they are called.

Here are some more of the same shutter pieces.

I plan on turning them into my fireplace for the living area.

I then jumped back to the top floor windows and checked to make sure the window frame fit. It did!

Then back to the step. I trimmed all the bricks and I also repeated the herringbone pattern on top of the step, just like the porch. Then I painted it red...

Lighter highlights...

That is all for today! I still need to go back and dull down that red. I also need to grout the step.

Question- does anyone have any advice for my windows? I wanted to make them slide up to open, but I have no idea how to go about doing that.

Oh! And here is my work area. It is my closet. Hahaha! It is a total mess, but always a work in progress.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow to see what else I get done on the house!

-xo

Blake